Convair B-36 Peacemaker, from Atlantis (1950s Revell) kit

[Diamondback]

I thought with the B-36 stats discussion, it might be interesting to bring you guys on a build-along. Clipper, by all means please jump in with your experience and builds too.

First step is assessing what we have to work with. At first I thought the kit was the typical "mixmaster" of its day--back then modelmakers were more concerned about general shape than details. I like to say 80-90% of any successful effort comes in the library before Show Time, so we're going to start there. I'm not going to bother listing the XB-36 with its unique cockpit configuration; details consistent with the model will be in bold. Note that the "452057" tailnumber in the kit is spurious - however, the kit is almost dead on for 492057 while testing the jet engine retrofit. The combination we will notice of early features and added jets suggests to me that the kit is specifically of testbeds 2046 and 2057. Antenna radome position on RB-36 variants vary wildly, consult photos of the specific plane you want to model. Most early models were rebuilt into later ones as the cycled through depot maintenance at San Diego; the last B's ordered were upgraded to D's on the assembly line. The quick way to tell between a bomber and a recon bird is to look at the #1 bomb bay behind the forward sighting blisters: bombers this area is dull magnesium, recons a shiny aluminum pressurized compartment for the cameras and their operators.

For Wings I advise no later than pre-jet B's.

Version	Tail#s	Nose Turret	Astrodome	#1 Bay skin	Bomb Doors	Props	Jets	Sight Blisters	Tail Radome	Notes
YB-36	213571	No	Yes	Magnesium	Individual Slider	Rounded	No	Yes	Single Round	Later to RB-36E, partially extant at Soplata Farm in Ohio
B-36A	492004-492025	No	Yes	Magnesium	Individual slider	Rounded	No	Yes	Single Round	004 destroyed in static test after one flight; all others rebuilt to RB-36E
B-36B	492026-492098	Yes	Yes	Magnesium	Individual slider	Rounded	No	Yes	Single Round	most rebuilt to B/RB-36D, some during construction; check photos of specific target aircraft Arctic red wingtips/tail are Insignia Red, not International Orange
RB-36B	? to ?	Yes	Yes	Aluminum	Individual slider	Rounded	No	Yes	Single Round	most rebuilt to B/RB-36D, some during construction; check photos of specific target aircraft
B-36B jet-assist prototypes	492057 & 492046	Yes	Yes	Magnesium	Individual slider	Rounded	early (remove "skid")	Yes	Single Round	both rebuilt to B/RB-36D; check photos of specific target aircraft 2057 temporarily carried smaller, 4-blade square-tip props late in testing Omit bracing strut and remove pod-bottom skid
B-36D	492095-492098 92647-92668 rb 492026-492034 rb 492036-492074 rb 492076-492078 rb 492080-492087				Paired snap		Yes		"Chiclet"
B-36D "Featherweight II"	??						Yes		"Chiclet"
B-36D "Featherweight III"	492026-492029						Yes	No	"Chiclet"
RB-36D and RB-36E	D: 492088-492094 92686-92702 E: 213571, 492005-492025						Yes		"Chiclet"
RB-36D and RB-36E "Featherweight II"	D: ?? E: 492013-492020 492022-492023 492025								"Chiclet"
RB-36D and RB-36E "Featherweight III"	D: ?? E: 213571, 492005-492012 492021							No	"Chiclet"
B-36F	92669-92675 92677-92683 92685 01064-01082
RB-36F	92703-92721 01098-01102
B-36H	01083-01097 15699-15742 21343-21366								"Bullet Bra"
RB-36H	01103-01110 15743-15756 113717-113741 21367-21392								"Bullet Bra"
B-36J	22210-22226 22812-22827								"Bullet Bra"

I will add details as I doublecheck them with references; I'm only tossing up this incomplete post to get my work saved on the server.

Bomb Bay #1 area:

Note the shiny areas on the forward fuselage of this RB-36. The dull band near the radome is magnesium while the area behind it is aluminum for the pressurized photography lab; on bomber models this area is also magnesium. This is also why almost all B-36s had "No Smoking Within 100'" markings; magnesium is astoundingly light and strong but also HIGHLY flammable; the "Fire" checklist basically went straight to "Hit The Silk" because the plane was going up like the Hindenburg.

"Featherweight" Configurations: Much like Peter Strasser with his "Height-Climber" Super Zeppelins, Curtis LeMay was obsessed with wringing every possible MPH of speed, pound of payload, foot of altitude and mile of range out of his aircraft. While the B-36 was designed to give the crew a somewhat tolerable experience on their three-day flights, LeMay ruthlessly stripped EVERYTHING including crew lavatories and even cabin heat. "Featherweight I" stripped the defensive armament, "F-II" was the stripped crew amenities and "F-III" was the combination of both I and II. Why two configurations in the end? Simple, LeMay still expected fighter problems on some missions so the Featherweight II's kept their guns as a hedge.

Tail Radomes:

Original Single	"Chiclet"	"Bullet Bra"
		As on Monogram 1/72 kit; two "originals" side-by-side

Parasites: An XF-85 Goblin can fit in any of the four bays, while an F-84 FICON can ONLY fit in combined Bays 2-4. The mothership is unable to carry any payload other than the F-84 and a tank of jet fuel to replenish it in FICON. Were Goblin viable, I would load them in Bays 2 and 3 to retain maximum possible ordnance capacity in Bays 1 and 4.

Aircraft Registry

As the possibility of mutliple builds has been raised, it occurs to me to start a registry since I will never build the same tail number twice. The table below will be a registry of which C/N's have already been claimed or are otherwise unavailable, in case this works and I start taking orders from other Aerodrome members akin to Clipper's Zeppelins.

Line #	A/C serial	Model	Unit/date/markings	Built/reserved for
1	42-13571	YB-36 prototype		myself
2	reserved			"LTC N.," college mentor/surrogate dad
3	reserved			Andrea Angiolino @ Ares
4	reserved			Rob DiMeglio @ Ares
5	reserved			(Herr Oberst reservation withdrawn by own request)
6

[Diamondback]

Reference Library (sorted by date)
Johnsen, Frederik E. Thundering Peacemaker. Boomer Books (defunct?), 1978.
^*Jacobsen, Meyers K. B-36 In Action [1st edition]. Squadron Signal, 1980.
^*Wachsmuth, Wayne. Detail & Scale, Vol. 47: B-36 Peacemaker. Kalmbach, 1995.
Jacobsen, Meyers K. Convair B-36: A Comprehensive History of America's "Big Stick." Schiffer, 1998.
" . Convair B-36 Peacemaker: A Photo Chronicle. Schiffer, 1999.
^*Jenkins, Dennis R. Warbird Tech Series, Vol. 24: B-36 Peacemaker. Specialty Press (defunct), 1999.
^*Jenkins, Dennis R. Magnesium Overcast: The Story of the Convair B-36. Specialty Press, 2002.
Rodrigues, Ric. Aircraft Markings of the Strategic Air Command 1946-1953. McFarland, 2006.
^Jenkins, Dennis R. and Don Pyeatt. Cold War Peacemaker: The Story of Cowtown and Convair's B-36. Specialty Press, 2010.
^Doyle, David. Consolidated B-36: A Visual History of the Convair B-36 Peacemaker. Ampersand Group, 2015.
^Baker, Dr. David. Convair B-36 Peacemaker Owner's Workshop Manual. Haynes, 2020.
Campbell, H.J. B-36 Peacemaker: The Big Stick of Strategic Air Command. Electrikbooks, 2021.
^*Davies, Peter E. Combat Aircraft #144: B-36 Peacemaker Units of the Cold War. Osprey, 2022.
^Doyle, David. B-36 Peacemaker In Action [2nd edition]. Squadron Signal, 2023.
^Darling, Kev. Warpaint Series No. 102: Convair B-36 Peacemaker. Guideline, date unknown.
*Physical or digital copy in my personal possession
^Series these books are in, or wrks by these authors, could be considered "gold standard" for references - the detail table above is primarily built from Magnesium Overcast

[Jager]

Well, DB, I see you're going whole hog into this
Karl

[Diamondback]

Well, DB, I see you're going whole hog into this
Karl

Not so much as you'd think--I'm just walking y'all through my research process and how I selected 42-13571 for my target aircraft, the conversion process to make the kit a more accurate model, and how I would have used the assembled data differently had I selected other, more "colorful" targets. As it is, I'm backdating the markings as if 571 got a tow from Doc's DeLorean back to 1945... which mainly consists of whiting out the red in the national insignia and omitting the USAF lettering.

Even though my bird is the B-52 that killed it, gimme a winning Powerball ticket and one of the things I'd love to do would be take the remains of the New Mexico Tech "target" B-36 and combine with the remains of 571 at Soplata Farm to try to get one flying again. 571 is the only one with a private title; part of why City of Ft Worth got moved to Pima was the USAF decided to be a bunch of b--chy little flygirls about the museum wanting to patch her up for ONE ferry flight to a new site at another strip across town.

[Diamondback]

First thing to note is these kits are simple to build but FAR from easy--the tooling shows its age with flash, occasional warping and some REALLY inconvenient sprue gates. Also many of the panel lines have become soft and even barely-visible so you'll want to rescribe them even before you start assembly.

Do note: On XB and YB/A/B models, the #1 and #4 bay doors are a single unit covering the entire bay that slides around the aircraft's left side, while the Bays 2 and 3 doors split in the center and slide up their respective sides to the wing. (Meaning no "split" on the centerline Bays 1/4, but you'll need to scribe a better one in 2/3.) Things are a little hazier on the RB models other than no Bay #1 doors at all, and the GRB's had no #1 and a single combined set of doors for Bays 2-4 to accommodate the RF-84 parasite.

[flash]

... these kits are simple to build but FAR from easy--the tooling shows its age with flash..

Well, shoot, I ain't that old, DB !
Does look like you'll have your hands full though.

[Diamondback]

Special note: After about 1953, SAC aircraft became much less identifiable - LeMay wanted to foster thinking of "anything you see with that blue 'Milky Way' band could shove a nuke down your throat anytime," especially with only a finite number of fully nuclear-ready aircraft in the fleet at an one time until the B-52s arrived.

What this means, is the more colorful markings with fincaps, intakes and the big WWII-style geometric tail symbols are only about 1948-53.