1/144 MD B-53 Triad

[Brian da Basher]

In 1968, facing political criticsm about the U.S. deterrent lacking credibility and an aging fleet of B-52 bombers, President Merkin Muffley signed an executive order that led to the Long Range Bomber competition of 1969. Proposals were submitted by Lockheed, Northrop and McDonnell-Douglas. Boeing Aircraft, being hip-deep in bringing the 747 online, did not submit a design. Eventually, Air Force Chief of Staff General "Buck" Turgidson declared the three-engined McDonnell-Douglas proposal the winner and designated the new bomber the B-53 Triad. The new aircraft was powered by three General Electric CF6-100 engines rated at 69,000 lbs. of thrust each. Maximum speed achieved was 669 m.ph. with a cruising speed of 550 m.p.h., a range of 8,000 miles and a service ceiling of 50,000 ft. able to carry a payload of 100,000 lbs. The new bomber entered service in 1970 and was full of electronic countermeasures and carried very heavy defensive armament of two tail-mounted, radar-aimed 20m.m. cannon and two more 20 m.m. cannon mounted in a remote-controlled, ventral turret. There were two .37 m.m. cannon mounted in a dorsal turret and two more .37 m.m. cannon mounted in the nose. The example shown here served with the famous 2nd Bomb Wing, 8th Air Force, based at Barksdale AFB commanded by Major General Jack D. Ripper. This example carried offensive armament of four B69 thermonuclear bombs as well as two cruise missiles, a "Mandrake" standoff missle and a "Dogshark" ram-jet missile. This aircraft, serial AF60001 won the Hart bombing trophy in 1972 under the command of Lt. Col. Kong. The MD B-53 was also able to perform recon duties and served for over 25 years until replaced with the B-1 bomber in the mid-1990s.

1st of 5 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Tophe]

 
Is this a winged missile below the port wingtip? (adding to the charm)...

[Brian da Basher]

Well you folks might've wondered what I've been up to the last couple of weeks. I gave you a teaser last weekend in the First Part of this project. The base for this build was the venerable 1/144 Hobbycraft RB-47. Having built the B-47 bomber version previously, I had an idea what to expect, so this one was ripe for whiffery! I've always really enjoyed the look of trimotor jet airliners like the L-1011 and the DC-10 and I wondered why they never build a trimotor jet bomber? Well, reality has never been a hinderance to my modelling. I used parts of old Sharpie™ markers for the engines, leftover wheels for the internal fan parts and bits of old drop tanks for the exhaust cones. The nose is mostly leftover from an old 1/144 Minicraft C-97 transport and the lower 1/3 is blisterpack material. The top turret is also blisterpack material and the ventral turret and sighting blisters are left over from a 1/144 Minicraft B-29. The "Mandrake" (Sidewinder-like) missile is left over from the 1/72 Hase weapons set included with my Secret Santa kit and the "DogsharK" ramjet missile was scratched from some kind of ECM pod from the same set. The Cruise missiles are spares from a 1/144 Revell B-52 and all the cannon except the ones on the tail are cut from spare landing gear bits.

2nd of 5 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I used Tamiya Light Sea Gray acrylics on the uppers and Testor's Light Gull Gray acrylics on the undersides. I was running short on the Tamiya color and I attempted to thin it with water to stretch it out, leading to what landscape artist Bob Ross calls a "happy accident". The thinned paint did not cover very evenly and had a very faded color, making it look quite weathered and realistic to my eye. The metal parts of the engines were painted in Model Masters Steel acrylics and the cannon were painted in Tamiya Gunmetal acrylics. I searched long and hard for some kind of interesting SAC scheme and decided to do a little variation on the Shamu scheme, all-over SAC gray being very boring for my taste. I think Tamiya Light Sea Gray approximates that SAC gray very well. What do you think?

3rd of 5 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Here's a shot that highlights the underside nicely. You can see the very intimidating underwing load-out and the ventral turret. It's times like this I wish I had the encyclopedic knowledge of modern weapons systems like a lot of you do. Unfortunately, my knowledge is mostly stuck in the Golden Age like a lot of my projects.

4th of 5 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The decals were mostly leftovers from that Revell B-52 kit I mentioned earlier, except I opted to replace those dinky, low-viz U.S. national insignia with more colorful, larger high-viz versions. Do they even still use large, high-viz U.S. insignia? Here's the last pic, a head-on shot that shows off the nose-mounted cannon and the tri-motor configuration.

5th of 5 pics.

Brian da Basher

[John Howling Mouse]

I just love the way Cap'n Canada uses beer bottles/cans for scale checks and you use prescription bottles, Brian!  Yeah, I know: they're a perk from your employment.

Very nice model.  You did a great job with "found objects" and the decals, too.

   

[markm70]

WoW!  That thing is soooooooo ugly , you just gotta love it Nice job    

[Eddie M.]

I love your imagination! Excellent build and a wonderful example of resource use. B)
   Eddie
   

[lancer]

Absolutely amazing Brian. She looks brilliant.

[anthonyp]

Sweeeeet!!

So, would this thing's gear have spats just for the heck of it?

Good job!!