B-29 canard bomber.

[jcf]

Bigger version of the B-36.

[kitnut617]

...tell us more Kitnut, I'm all ears (and notebook)... 

...not that I have any ambitions whatsoever to try my hand at the Type C... 



Duncan

The cover pic of the BSP book was my inspiration too, which got me looking into the possibility.  As I couldn't find much about the Type C on the internet, I wrote to Tony Buttler and asked some questions about it.  He sent me a three view which I could scale up as needed and I found that the cross section of the fuselage is very close to how the B-52 is, so I had my start.  Looking at the BSP pic I thought the forward fuselage (cockpit to the nose) looked a bit like a Shackleton crossed with a Lincoln, which also happens to be what I used on my Nottingham project (see pic below) and the engine cowlings/nacelles look a little bit like the B-29 ones, only they're oblong not egg shape so a bit of modification there I think.  The contra-props look a bit like the ones off a Boeing XF8B and as I have a couple of the Valom kits of that, I'll try copying them.  Same with the u/c, I've got an AiM (Transport/Historic Wings ?? ) vacuform of the Valiant B.2 so I'll try copying the u/c from it, or see if Neil Gaunt (AiM owner) will sell me some of his metal ones.

[Green Dragon]

Bit of a progress report.
Bunged in a wing spar from Plastruct box section tube, bulkheads are all 40 thou plasticard as are the stiffeners joining the various sections.


Widened mid fuselage.


Reinforced mid fuse. with strips that also follow the curves of the cockpit area. Rear section has strips of 30 thou around the inside of the fuse. to give a larger glueing area.


Painted engines (you can't see anything much when in the nacelles so why did I bother?!  ) rough tape up showing a cut down 1/32nd Phantom centreline tank for the tailcone. Gun aiming blisters in what would have been the cockpit/engineers stations, will add another on the underside. Standard cockpit area will be stuck on the front and faired in with putty.


Possible tail position on inboard engines.


Or middle engines.


Leaning towards the mid engine tails for greater field of fire. Might cut the tailfins down to gunners roof line and stick seperate gunner stations somewhere else, not sure yet.

Paul Harrison

[sequoiaranger]

I like how you expanded the width of the fuselage. That will make it more "whiffy" than just putting the canard on, as if that alone wasn't whiffy enough!

Are you considering attaching the standard B-29 forward fuselage in front of the widened one, or did you just have that for comparison purposes? EITHER ONE would be terrific!

[Taiidantomcat]

Mid wing is my vote but the whole project gets one of these  and then this 

[ChernayaAkula]

Awesome to the max!

[Tophe]

You are getting more and more surprising
(it is difficult to imagine the result)

[oliv30330]

for me : middle position of the tails are good, strongly the suite 

[sotoolslinger]

Effin awesome

[dragon]

I built something similar many years ago.  What I did differently was to reverse the engines into  pushers and gave the aircraft counter rotating pusher propellers.  I did keep it at 4 engines however.  Given your concept, widening the fuselage makes a lot of sense. 

[Brian da Basher]

Those 1/144 B-29s are great whiff-fodder, but using two kits and going for six engined and canards totally take it to the next level! Widening the fuselage behind the 'pit is truly inspired!

Brian da Basher

[proditor]

 

That beats the heck of the Rutan-ized B-24 I was going to make.  Freakin' awesome!

[Ed S]

Looking good.  I think that widening the fuselage is a brilliant twist on the usual WWII canard bomber concept.

Ed

[Swanny]

I really like how you are taking this beyond simply a B-29 with the wings moved around. A truly inspirational build.

[Green Dragon]

Cheers for the compliments everyone, if my head gets any bigger I won't be able to get through the doorway!

The widening idea was from a 1/144th scale techy drawing I did for a model compettition back in the early eighties (never did finish the model though!) for a retro/futuristic style prop bomber with four pusher contra-props with scimitar blades and I wanted it to be able to carry two Grand Slam earthquake bombs side by side in the bomb bay. Started cutting up an Airfix B-29 but gave up when I realised how hard it was to turn the engines into pushers without a hell of a lot of putty!

Got some update piccies. Underside with tail cone/Beaver tail faired in. Started skining the inner wings with 30 thou plasticard, drilled out Engineer and Navigator windows then for some idiotic reason decided to scratch some cockpit detail that probably will be invisible when I button her up! Also engraved the bomb bay doors.


Next top side.


Close up of cockpit seats and bulkhead/doorway. It's currently painted close to interior green.


Close up of under side wing skin before the putty gets slapped on.


Engines are all assembled and painted (and they all spin if you blow on them!).


Paul Harrison