B-36

[jcf]

I gotta admit, the B-36 does look quite wicked... I find myself wondering what it might look like with six Bear Contra-props on the engine mountings...

Possibly not unlike the projected, but never built, B-36C:


Power plants were to be the R-4360 VDT.

There was a proposal to equip the B-36A with four Curtiss-Wright XT35-W-1 or T35-W-3
turboprop engines driving 19' diameter tractor propellers. The engine never came to be.

If the B-60 had made it into production, the production versions would possibly
have been powered by podded contra-prop equipped turboprop engines.

Jon

[kitnut617]

I've always liked the 'C' version Jon, I might build one of mine like that.  Even though this is an enormous aircraft it looks all in proportion, but I had a real problem finding a box to pack the almost completed one I've done for my house move though, ended up having to use a box which a washing machine came in.

[Sauragnmon]

I was actually thinking of keeping the pusher look, but with contraprops...

[rlee61]

The weathering is kept to a minimum because in this scale it can so very easily be overdone.

Sorry for the confusion, even though I like the anti-flash scheme, I think I would like to build a WWII RAF version like yours. Could you tell me the paints you used on your plane?

what are the exact colors?

Tamiya and Gunze acrylics.

I use these almost exclusively.

Pastels for the weathering.

[Sisko]

Oh the exact colours!

I can't remember.

Standard RAF colours from the tamiya range, dark green and brown and the under side is Gunze flat black.

Maybe someone can give the exact numbers?

[PR19_Kit]

Besides I have so many unfinished kits lying around that I really must get them done before I tackle anything else.

Sisko,

That way lies madness.   

One of the major assets of whiffing is a VAST stock of part finished kits, not to mention a monumental stash. Maintaining both of these resources gives you many more opportunities to come up with something wildly exotic, so the last thing you need to do is to finish off all the ones you have in build before starting any more. 

[rickshaw]

I have a question about the gun turrets.  Were they isolated from the gun aiming positions in order to preserve the pressurisation?  Or was it that when the turrets were opened the gun aiming positions became depressurised?  If it was the latter, wouldn't that rather limit their usefulness at high altitude?

Apart from that, very nice models.

[CanisD]

They were isolated. The gun sights were in the forward and aft crew compartments. The forward gun compartments could be accessed from the cabin, at least the top one since it was an escape route and you will almost always see those doors open when they are on the ground and taxiing.

[MAD]

Found this one on a French website

Thank goodness they never had them!!

MAD

[PR19_Kit]

Resurrecting this thread after 4 years............ 

Did anyone ever make an upgrade kit for the Monogram 1/72 B-36 so you could add the gun turrets in the deployed position?

My 'Stick' has always beeen intended to be a GRB-36J with an RF-84K hanging underneath and the Thunderflash has been built for many years now, as has major portions of the 'Stick', but I've noticed that all photos of the RF-84K being launched or recovered show the turret hatches opened but without the guns deployed. I'd like to do the thing reasonably accurately so it looks like some turrets would be essential.

Mind you, in recent years I've been thinking of doing it in a RAF scheme with a Hunter FR10 in the bomb bay....... 

[kitnut617]

Click2Detail does a few mods for it Kit, I don't think turrets was one of them though.

[sandiego89]

Resurrecting this thread after 4 years............  

Did anyone ever make an upgrade kit for the Monogram 1/72 B-36 so you could add the gun turrets in the deployed position?

My 'Stick' has always beeen intended to be a GRB-36J with an RF-84K hanging underneath and the Thunderflash has been built for many years now, as has major portions of the 'Stick', but I've noticed that all photos of the RF-84K being launched or recovered show the turret hatches opened but without the guns deployed. I'd like to do the thing reasonably accurately so it looks like some turrets would be essential.

Mind you, in recent years I've been thinking of doing it in a RAF scheme with a Hunter FR10 in the bomb bay.......  

Kit, skip the turrets, but keep the rear upper turret doors open if you want to show the aircraft in realistic recovery/launch phase. The 10 RB-36D's that were modified to the mother ships were part of the Featherweight III program that removed a good deal of equipment, including all main turrets except the tail turret.  (The Featherweight conversion saved about 15,000 pounds).  The full designation for the mothership was GRB-36D-III, with the III designating the featherweight modifications.  I note you used the GRB-36J designation in your post, so not sure if you want to WHIF a "J" as a mother ship, but the "J" also only had the tail turret, so either way, leave the turrets off, but the turret doors need to be there. I see no reference to a "J" being a mother ship.  So the turret storage bays should be empty (no turrets), making your job easier.  

Now for the gun turret doors.  The aft upper doors should be displayed open if you are showing the RF-86K or a FICON Hunter on the hook with the parasite doors open.  They learned the hard way if the turret doors were not open when the bomb bay opened up, the difference in pressure would blow the rear turret doors off the airplane.  So they would open the rear upper turret doors before opening the bomb bay/FICON bay doors.    

I love the ideas of Hunter on the hook! Go for it.

My main reference for this post is "Magnesium Overcast", by Dennis R. Jenkins, ISBN 1-58077-042-6, pages 177-178 for the GRB version and page 79 for the Featherweight modification, with a chart showing the number of turrets for all versions.  (only the tail turret on the J and the GRB version).
It has some great info on the FICON modifications. Happy to supply more if you need it.  

Dave.  

     

[PR19_Kit]

That makes life a lot easier Dave, thanks. I've got that 'Magnesium Overcast' book myself, as well as a few other books on the B-36 but I couldn't figure out how the 'Featherweight' mods stacked up with the FICON project. Building just the open bays should be easier than adding those complex turrets and ammunition feeds!

Sadly far too many of the published photos of the launches and retrievals during the FICON project show the original nose intake F-84F with the original longer trapeze rather than the production RF-84Ks with the wing root intakes and the anhedral tailplane with the shorter trapeze used in service by the 91st SRS. Somewhere I have the trapeze mostly built, but it may get cannibalised for use on my Convair F4Y-2 Petrel project, see here :-

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,34362.0/highlight,convair+petrel.html

I'm sure you can recognise the antecedants of the Petrel's trapeze in the drawings. 

[sandiego89]

You are welcome, yes it should be easier without the turrets.   I too have a soft spot for parasite fighters and would like to hear more stories on the 91st squadron while in service.  Seems they went away pretty quickly when the U-2 came into service, but there seems to be some hints of penetrating Soviet airspace.  Good luck with this and the Petrel.