Wow, that would be a neat model with the biggest bomb ever dropped, the RDS-202 which was about 50MT as I remember. It scared the pilot so bad that he never flew again. Keep us posted if you find one!
Max
Yeah !
The scary thing is the miniaturising of those things . Oh well , nobody make any mistakes , Please ? T.B.
Let’s see if we can find some pictures of “The Bomb.”
Max
Wow, A bit of Googling and here it is with picture and dimensions. RDS-202 50MT Nuclear weapon. 26’ long, 6.9’ in dia., 27 metric tons. The Tu-95 (if we find one in 1/72) will have to have bomb bay doors and internal fuel tanks removed.
That’s my report!
Max
So that’s what that beastie looks like. Trumpeter makes a 1/72 scale kit of the Tu-95 bomber; it’s an expensive beast though. I have the Tu-142 variant in 1/72 scale. I do need to try and build that someday.
Speaking of nuclear weapons, I did find the dimensions along with a pictures of the bombs needed for my B-47 posted under the Aircraft header. Looks like I may be back in the Nuke business soon! Yikes!
Max
This is the next scratch build project, a 1/72 B41 nuclear weapon for my B-47 to replace the bogus pair I dreamed up in the original build. I’m going with the single whopper for the 1/72 B-47. The dimensions were 12’ 4" long x 4’ 4" diameter. Weight 10,670 pounds and a yield of 25 Megatons, KER-BOOM! (of course at 1/72 it will have a much lower yield.) It came in silver, green and white which I’m going for.
Reporting,
Max
I believe there is a kit in 1/72 of the Tsar Bomba. Amodel maybe, but not sure.
Speaking of yield, open this up and pretent to destroy the cities of your choice. You pick the location, yield, air or ground burst, and a host of other choices.
http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
I was on 155mm SP artillery in Germany back in the late 80’s. I spent a year on what we called SWAT (Special Weapons Attack Team), and our job was to meet an ammo unit who would come in by CH-47 and deliver us a 155mm M-45 casing containing a W-48 .072 kiloton warhead. If the East Germans were to attack (our AO was the Fulda Gap), then we would take over one of the guns from our parent battery and fire this baby into their ranks. A typical 155 round weighs about 98 pounds. This roundwas over 100 and in it’s shielded carry case was 495 lbs. To train with it we had a matching dummy round and case. Our training room was on the 4th floor so we six-man carried that darn thing up and down twice a day. Never got to handle the live weapon though.
From the Wiki world:
The W48 was an American nuclear artillery shell, capable of being fired from any standard 155 mm (6.1 inch) howitzer, e.g. the M114, M198 or M109. It was manufactured starting in 1963, and all units were retired in 1992.
The W48 was 6.1 inches (155 mm) in diameter and 33.3 inches long. It came in two models, Mod 0 and Mod 1, which are reported to have weighed 118 and 128 pounds respectively. It had an explosive yield equivalent to 72 tons of TNT (0.072 kiloton), which is very small for a nuclear weapon.
Pardon my rambling, just love nukes. [;)]
Chris
Cool stuff Chris! A fascinating subject for sure. In the 1950s a scientist that worked on the Manhatten Project came to our school and gave a lecture on the building of the Atomic bomb. I was in early high school and several of us “science nerds” were chosen to attend the classroom lecture. I was in awe. Everything I wanted to know about atomic bombs was being told to me over a one hour period.
At about the same period my uncle was a B-47 pilot in SAC. When he would come home, I’d drill him for all possible info on the subject and he would tell everything he could about SAC, B-47s and nukes. I was hooked. I even studied Nuclear enginering as a career and began to assemble hours in enginering until I finally realized my mathmatical limitations were insufficient for such a career. Even though that road eventually ended , I was still hooked.
It seems I too am rambling, but I still find the subject fascinating. What a strange weapon, one that is incredibly powerful that in truth that can never be used without changing the history of mankind and not for the better. Scary is the word. Trillions of dollars have been spent on an unusable deterrent. Strange thinking for a civilization.
The USAF Muesum ay Dayton has an amazing array of Nuclear weapons on display that I once could only imagine what they looked like. After building my 1/72 B-36, the next thing on the list was to scratch build the monster weapon that it carried. I also have a 1/72 B-47 that needs to be correctly weaponized that is on my list of things to do.
Thanks for your story Chris, I read every word twice. It is an interesting subject that makes you think, “what were they thinking?”
Max
Wow, really tight fit installing the 25 megaton B-41 Nuclear weapon in the Hasegawa 1/72 B-47. Someone’s scale is off slightly and it wasn’t mine. I had to shorten the bomb slightly to get it to fit. The 2 bomb configuration was something I dreamed up at the time and this more like it should be. Now if I can find my Slim Pickens hat, I’m off for a test flight! LOL!
Max
Ah, here it is, the largest and craziest 50 MT nuclear weapon ever detonated in 1/72 scale! No need to scratch build this one. But wait, $38 + freight? Well it is on sale.
Now to find a Bear! [:)]
Max
Trumpeter…
Ok, just kidding, but it would be a cool project, first I need to get caught up on all my silly other projects! (And build on to the museum, that would be a large model, like 30’’ wingspan.) [*-)]
Max
Update, I did look it up and the Bear is 100 bucks plus freight and the cost of enlarging the museum. Something to think about! Probably on hold for now but I’ll do a little more research on it for fun. [:)]
Yeah, I have a Tu-142 Bear in my stash now. I do need to start it soon.
I’ve been digging through my photo files from the USAF museum and ran across these two somewhat unsettling pictures of Nuclear Madness, I call it. In the first picture I wonder if the small boy understands what he is looking at, a Peacemaker (strange name) missile “Bus” carrying 10 warheads and able to wipe out 10 cities. Scary.
Max
OK, One more weapon for our nuclear arsenal to build, the air to air Nuclear tipped .25 Kt. GAR-11 Nuclear Falcon. I’m 5’ 10" for scale. Make sure you are far enough away before launching!
Max
Anyone nukeified anything lately? Czar bombs? Bears? Don’t forget the F-84G in the '50s with its toss bomb nuke, A really cool 1/48 Kit by Revell that will amaze you and your friends for peanuts!
Just bringing it to the top!
Thermonuclear Max
Courtesy of Max’s Comparitive 1/48 Aircraft Museum. (Really just my office.)
Would like to see Trumpeter or someone come out with a 1/48, 1/32 Aviation nuclear weapons set.
The Testors F-117 kits come with B61 shapes in all the three scales of kits. So that is a cheap source for those. And the Monogram 1/48 B-58 kit has some small nukes as well as the weapon & weapon/fuel pod as ordnance. The 1/48 Revell B-1B kit has a load of SRAMs for a couple of the rotary launchers in the bomb bays. Besides the 1/48 Revellogram F-84E & G kits coming with their nukes, theit 1/48 F-84F also has a single underwing nuke of a similar type.