Boeing B-47 APB Summer 1972

[nönöbär]

Boeing B-47 APB

The Plane:

The B-47 was the first strategic jet bomber of the USAF. It was operational between 1951-1965, some reconnaisance versions were used until 1977.

With the ongoing air war in Vietnam and the introduction of Paveway LGB, additional platforms to deliver those weapons were tested.
One of them was a retired B-47 bomber, which was equipped with additional laser illuminator pods. In July and August 1972, the plane was stationed in Guam and operated in 5 missions over Vietnam. However, it soon got obvious that the B-47 was a suboptimal platform to deliver LGT. Its size made it more vulnerable than smaller fighter bombers and altough the General Electric J47-GE-25 turbojets were optimized, the lack of power did not help in tactical air operations.






The Model:

The model is a pretty simple Revell 1:113 B-47 with less than 20 parts which was sitting in a shelf here for some years.
Additional parts, fuel tanks and sensor pods - are form the spare parts box. Colors are Revel Aqua Color, and most decals are the original ones, plus some additonals from a Matchbox Corsair kit. Some of the decals started to silver out a bit, despite the use of different finshes.

[sandiego89]

Great use of an old kit.  Well done. 

[NARSES2]

Shows what can be done with some of these box scale kits 

[tc2324]

Just proves that size does not matter..... 

Excellent build and finish.