Trooper111

Da Swo, TheI further I get along, the more I'm leaning to the ALCM pylon .... however... Having been PRP certified and know to well about the no lone zone while the plane has nuclear weapons on board... When this model is done... and if I go alcm's, The nose radome will be up, crew entrance door open. If their was that much maintenance needed back in the day, they would have un-cocked the plane...so a little bit of fictitious work going on here but it's easier and will fit sooooo much better than the Monogram pylons onto the AMT wings.

Dutch Sir, I bought the .050 machine gun barrels from said Brothers mail order in Missouri.. This one package is for a B-17... so afterwards you'll have six left over for another project if you don't drop one or two to the carpet monster. I started with a teeny tiny drill bit and started the holes, the worked my way until the jacket fit snugly...they are not glued in yet though. The same company makes one for the 20mm rotary cannon if you do a pre-bobbitized H model.... Trooper

Thank you for your kind remarks...Its slow progress with life going on between model sessions but I'll get there and that's part of the fun. Not trying to rush thru a model just so one can say "done" and start/complete another just as fast.

One could build AMT's kit straight out of the box and you would have a decent B-52. However, Having first hand contact with them while in the USAF, I can still smell and see them in my brain. I am not trying to "over modify" this buff, just correcting blatant flaws that were overlooked by AMT and others who build it when they were molded back in the day.

Lastly, Blackdog provides nothing about how to attach the lowered flaps to the flap tracks. I made small tabs that will be on the underside and when painted not noticeable from above. The engines are just slid onto their slots for now and will be glued and bondo'd at the appropriate time. That's all for now...More progress as progress happens.

I am still undecided on conventional or nuclear. I will have to decide soon because the monogram pylon will need to have its curvature adjusted to fit onto the AMT wing.

Also got the tail gun turret hollowed out enough to accept the jackets of the .050 cal machine guns that will fit into those jackets next. I'll glue and bondo it on within the next few days. I played around with the length of the barrels sticking out and asked a couple regulars on here approximate length and this was a happy medium.

I filled in the gaps from cutting off the nose radome and fitting the Blackdog resin piece in it's place. It still needs to be blended in with a wash of black where I just painted over the bondo today but I'm sure everything will get some bit of a wash as this plane is not pristine. I also got the EVS turrets Installed after cutting off the "rotating area's" of the FLIR and LLTV.

I added thin sheet plastic to represent the EWO's & Gunners hatch detail that got sanded away while making left and right fuselage fit correctly

Obviously I have glued the fuselage together and got things lined up pretty straight and flush where needed. You can see a bit of the wrinkled skin effect in these pictures. I'm sure once I get a coat of paint on the fuselage and start with the different shading, the wrinkles will show better.

A bit of progress since I last up dated here. I have pretty much completed the cockpit area and as much as I would like to do more, It's all just going to be lost once I put the canopy on it. I have placed it on, and you can see some of the detail I've added but not going to go crazy here.

Wife went to work, kids doing their own thing left me time to put some paint down on this. it'll still get more details such as connector ends, wire bundle clamps and perhaps a few more shades thrown in but most of it will be overshadowed by the raised nose so magnifying glass ready it is not.

I also got the instrument panel to fit decently enough. It'll need the shroud extended up and over it a bit but the AMT "glass" doesn't interfere with it and that is the best part. Don't mind the missing seat... courtesy of fat fingers

I knew I had forgotten a couple pictures. Here is the nose after I cut off the kit nose and initially fit the Blackdog nose... Not too bad. I may add some filler around the outer edge to fair it into the kit edge...dunno yet.

I have a few more pictures that I guess I missed last night in the wee hours but they are of the initial fit of the radar/ECM boxes in front of the cutoff area but behind the radome. Pressing on with more assembly in a bit.