Normally, when anyone sees a B-36 the only guns that anyone can see are four 20 mm cannons, two in the nose, two in the tail. Pretty weak for a bomber that size, right? Right. What most people don’t see are six other turrets in retracable mountings. Each turret contained two 20 mm cannons, bringing the total armament to 16 cannons, the largest armament every carried by any US bomber. Perhaps by any bomber ever.
I thought I’d do something a bit different for my 1/72 B-36 and scratchbuild these turrets in the extended positions. It took me a long time to get my hands on some casting resin so I could do this, though. The result was a B-36 that was 99% finished for almost two years. Well, I finally got some, and I was able to get the front two turrets finished, for your viewing pleasure:
Everything is scratchbuilt, both inside the turret bays and the bays themselves. The guns were very fun to make- the real ones have tiny supports above each barrel, and duplicating these in 1/72 were an exercise in “molecular modelling”. You can see them if you look closely. And I have eight more of these to do…
The turrets seem a bit oversized to me, but I guess for my first attempt they aren’t too bad.
Four more turrets still need to be made, two to fill the rear dorsal bay, and two to fill the ventral bay directly undernieth it. More pics as soon as they are done.
Nice job and I sure learned somthing today. Thanks
The guns on your B-36 do look really nice, but I have to agree with you that they are somewhat too large. When the turrets were retracting, they leaned towards the centerline of the airplane and tranversed nearly 90 degrees to lay flat on their sides. Yours wouldn’t have room to do that. They still look REALLY cool anyway. It certainly does make your model stand out from the rest.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
awesome!
what kit did you use for the peacemaker?
Nice custom work Mike, that stuff isn’t easy. Good job, Love the foil
Jerry
As far a I know there is only one 1/72 kit of the B-36 by Monogram. It has been reissued by Revell recently.
It is an interesting side note that is covered in great detail in the book “Magneseum Overcast” that the guns and namely, thier fire control system never really worked as advertised for the life of the program, the problems were numerous. There are statements in the book that in summation basically say that it was a good thing that the guns were never needed, because they were worthless. The dawning of the jet fighter had made them obsolete. Many B-36’s flew without these heavy, complex and ineffective gun turrets.
The turrets look awesome.
GREAT WORK MAN!! I biult a B-36 in 1987, It had turrets like those on th B-29, steel “ball” style with four guns on each??? I guess several versions were produced.