Watch the unboxing video here!
If ever an aircraft deserved the nickname aluminum overcast, it would be Convair’s huge B-36 Peacemaker. With a wingspan exceeding that of almost every other aircraft until the recent An-124, the six-engine behemoth went into service with the U.S Air Force Strategic Air Command in 1948. With B-36 functioning as America’s “big stick” during the early years of the Cold War, its performance was constantly improved with progressive weight-reduction programs, electronic updates, and even the addition of four jets under the wings.
Roden’s new Peacemaker, housed in a box with stunning foil-printed Northern Lights artwork is the early B-36B without the underslung jet pods. Included in the box are optional, parts that point to later versions, including a windscreen for the interesting one-off nuclear reactor NB-36H.
Decals provide two marking options, but it’s referred to as being from the 8th Bomb Group, the overall silver option is from the same 7th Bomb Group as the red-trimmed option. The huge sheet includes the extensive wing walk markings. The medium blue decal paper gives the yellow markings a sickly pea-green appearance. I recommend backing the white and yellow decals with white to prevent underlying colors from bleeding through. Roden correctly provides “silver” backing for the serial numbers on the red-trimmed option but neglected to include it around the national insignia. The underwing serial number should be placed in a natural metal “box,” not as depicted.
Parts count is reasonable given the number of propellers and wheels to deal with. Roden included the remote gun turrets housed behind roll-down doors, but these parts are not illustrated well in the instructions so use your references.
No interior is included — none is really needed as it won’t be visible — so assembly was simple. However, all of the parts required filing and cleanup of mating surfaces.
The wing is split along the fuselage centerline with upper and lower parts for each side. Roden did a good job correcting two of the main flaws with Hobbycraft 1/144 scale B-36, by including open intakes and ensuring the wing mounts flat without anhedral. I used filler to blend the separate intakes with the wing leading edges. The centerline joint requires surgery for a flush connection, and filler to seal a large gap on the upper fuselage. Once I applied my modeling skills, the wing assembly looks great. The propellers — so many propellers — were easy to clean up and assemble, and fit the rear spinner shrouds perfectly.
The fuselage goes together easily after cleanup, although the tail radar housing needed much trimming and filler.
I left off the rather thick canopy with all the tiny windows — so many windows— until I could add weight and check the balance to ensure the model wasn’t a tail sitter.
The turrets all had huge ejector towers underneath that interfered with the fit. I clipped them off and removed the mounting pins on the platforms.
After addressing the long fuselage seams, I glued and clamped the wing halves to each other to ensure they were flat and mounted them to the fuselage. This left small gaps at the corners but worked well to align the wing.
I left the gun bay doors off the model until later, but I did mount the landing gear. One of my kit’s main gear legs was missing axles on one side, so I replaced them with styrene rod. The wheels — so many wheels — have good hub detail; I finished them but left them off for painting.
After adding weight to the nose, I added the clear parts. The fit is marginal. I hand-painted the frames.
Matching color to photos in Volume 13 of International Airpower Review, I painted the tail and wingtips with Testors Model Master RLM 23 red backed with flat white. I left circles of white backing for the 8th Air Force marking on the tail. I masked the red and sprayed Alclad II gray primer. After more masking, I sprayed areas I intended to be polished metal and sprayed Alclad II gloss black primer. An overall coat of Alclad aluminum yielded the varying sheens I wanted.
Referring to photos of other airframes, I added the 7th Bomb Group shield on the nose and the 8th Air Force wings on the tail. The long wing-walk decals were challenging to align, but Roden provided a separate stencil diagram. I had no problems applying the decals.
It takes basic modeling skills to build Roden's mighty B-36 — a little over 22 hours in my case — but the result is a more accurate rendition of the mighty Peacemaker can be accomplished.