Very cool pics! I am always looking for new material.
Ken
The conversion for this unfortunately went south when Aerospace Modeler Magazine did. AMM was planning on releasing accessories to allow modelers to build what was featured in their featured articles. The B-50 was to be one of the very first…again it died with the mag. [:(]
I’m just spitballing ideas here… But could a KB-50 be achieved through the marriage of a KB-29 that apparently exists and some version of a C-97? Might not satisfy the hardcore rivet counters but I am thinking the Engines/wings in the C-97 married to the KB-29 might do the trick.
The B-50 had a 10 foot longer fuselage, a much larger vertical fin, a different end on the front and back of the fuselage. It all depends on how much accuracy you want or are willing to ignore.
Darwin, O.F. [aln]
Is AMM really dead and gone? I was hoping it was only temporary and that they’d be back at it soon. I sure hope so as that was a great magazine, I really enjoyed reading it. Lots of great articles with some inspiring builds.
Issue #5 dealt with converting a 1/144 Academy B-29 into a KB-50 - don’t know if this issue is available anywhere anymore…
-Derek
Paintsniffer,
It is best to start with the Academy B-50D or RB-50G kit. Academy use the same sprues for the fuselage for both kits. There is no difference in the basic fuselage between the B-29 and B-50. The main difference is that the B-50 kit has a new tail unit, bombardier window with less frames, different nose gear, flat belly radome, and new wings, engines and paddle blade cuffed props.
If you already have the B-29 and KC-97L kit, you could swap the wings and engines fairly easily, but the you would still need to scrounge the other B-50 parts. The KC-97 has square tip props, the B-50 has rounded tip props. You would need the J-47 jet pods from the KC-97L kit.
You would need to do the following to make a KB-50J.
-
make the wing tip refueling pods and pylons.
-
make the tail refueling unit fairing.
-
remove and thin down the tail gunners position.
-
add the rendezvous radar radome before the tail.
-
There is a small air scoop on the left side of the fuselage, over the wing. Possibly there to prevent build up of volatile vapors leaking from the bomb bay gas tanks.
Suggestions for making these parts.
-
The refueling pod is tear drop shaped, but you could get away with using the Italeri C-130 wing tanks, suitably shortened. You could use the B-50 wing tank pylons but they should be shorter in length and narrower in height. The pod actually needs to be larger in diameter, so if you want, you might quarter it and put spacers to increase the diameter. Use putty to make the pod more tear drop shaped.
-
The front end of the C-130 wing tank could be used for the tail faring. It need to be a little more pointy.
-
You need to cut out the B-50 kit tail gun position and replace it with a fairing that follows the shape of the rudder. If you use the KC-97L wings and engines, you could use the kit tail unit but need to fair in the bottom portion of the rudder. The KC-97 rudder goes down to the fuselage. The B-50 and B-29 rudder stops at the top of the gunner’s compartment. Note the there is a kink in the fairing on the KB-50J, probably where the top part of the hose unit extends above the fuselage. The forward part of the KC-97 tail unit where it joins the fuselage is a little higher than the B-50 tail unit.
-
The KC-97L has a similar dorsal radar but it is deeper in height. Just use the top part.
-
Bend a piece of tubing and fair it in with putty.
Hope that this is of some use.
Best wishes,
Grant