AMT/Monogram B-52 Kit-bash

Concept:

I have always wanted to build a kit of an aircraft undergoing maintenance, provide it with a large amount of detail, and then give others the chance to view it. One major problem with aircraft detailing is that a large amount of it ends up under the aircraft. For the general public to view it requires that the aircraft be displayed in an unusual position or that it be displayed upon a mirror. Although a mirror does provide a view of the aircraft, it does not prove to be ideal as a base for a diorama. As dioramas show action using a mirror provides a very ‘busy' view of the kit and figures involved since multiple reflections are confusing to the eye. The best option is to mask off the shape of the aircraft, paint the mirror an appropriate color, and place the aircraft on the unmasked mirror portion of the base. At this point ground crew and equipment can be placed around the kit as need be with as little visual confusion as possible but yet allowing for the observer to view the detail under the aircraft.

Having built several dioramas of aircraft undergoing maintenance, I decided to go one step further and provide a mirrored base and a larger subject. I had originally chosen to build a Monogram Boeing B-52D kit and to scratch build the weapons bay. Fortunately, AMT chose to produce their B-52 G/H series allowing me to expand to a much easier (one would think) format.

Kit-bashing:

The Monogram kit has several drawbacks. To begin with, it is a D version and not the desired subject, a G version; it has a manned tail gun as well as having incorrect engine pods. Also, the Monogram kit has very little cockpit and weapons bay detail. The AMT G kit has it own shortcomings; among them is the fact that it has the wings positioned as being level. This implies that the aircraft is in flight, and since I wanted to build a diorama of an aircraft on the ground this presents a major problem. As well, it has no bomb racks for underwing stores, no weapons bay, and all movable parts are fixed. It does, however, provide a fairly correct nose, correct tail fin, correct engines and fuel tanks, detailed cockpit, and a more correct fuselage length.

I had decided that if I was going to have a B-52 on the ground it was going to have the correct wing droop. I chose to take the wings from the Monogram kit and add them to the AMT kit. Not only would this provide the correct anhedral for the wings, but it would also provide drooped flaps, extended spoilers, and the correct weapons for a Gulf War mission. Having built each of the kits separately and at different times over the years I knew what would be involved.

I would need the following from the AMT kit:

Fuselage
Landing Gear
Tail
Cockpit
Engines and fuel tanks

I would need the following from the Monogram kit:

Wings
Flaps and spoilers
Gun turret if it is to be moveable
Weapons bay doors
Weapons and pylons

I needed to search for the kits and for detail pictures of the subject aircraft at this point.

Sources:

For references I used nearly everything available. I was able to find a B-52G (Late Version) kit at a model show and swap meet for $20.00 and was then able (two years later) to find a B-52D kit on Ebay for $0.99 plus $6.00 for shipping and handling. The only drawback being that it had already been started aeons ago. Considering that I was going to be hacking it to bits, I felt that this was not a problem. My only requirement now was a mirror of appropriate size. I was able to serendipitously find a mirror discarded on a trash heap that measured wide enough to fit the BUFF at an angle. Basically I got the mirror for free. At the time I had been able to price a square mirror of 32" by 1/8" thickness at $52.00 (US) locally. Finding a mirror in a garbage heap made the project worthwhile.

For major photo references I used personal photos, Squadron books, Detail and Scale, World Air Power Journal, Aviation Week and Space Technology, etc. See the bibliography for more information about this.

The Beginning:

I immediately sized up what I had: The Monogram kit (fig.1)

and the AMT kit (fig. 2).

From these I was able to choose the parts that I would need (fig 3.)

And the parts to be discarded (fig. 4).

Then began initial painting (fig. 5)

of the interior parts and the Zinc Chromate portions of the aircraft. At this time I also painted the cockpit section (fig. 14)

and began to paint the interior portions of the gear wells and weapons bay. I chose to not use the Monogram weapons bay doors as they required parts of the fuselage to be removed, and were in fact incorrect to the diorama scene which I was building. I therefore chose to cut out the weapons bay doors on the AMT kit and set them aside for later. At this time it was also necessary to decide what to do with the wings.

The Wings and Other Major Destruction:

In the AMT kit with the wings horizontal there is a major through-box to support the wings, and also a fairly complicated multiangle jointing surface against the fuselage. The Monogram kit has a simple flush joint. A major problem would be how to accommodate this discrepancy. I chose to chop most of the middle joint from the AMT kit (figs. 6-7)

(Lower wingroot and upper wing root cuts)

and the tips of the interior portion of the Monogram kit's wings (figs. 8-9).

Since the Monogram kit has a flush surface for the wing to bond to and the AMT kit doesn't, it became necessary to provide a structurally sound joining area. Using 1/4" square tubing from Plastruct, I made bracing which jutted out from the fuselage through the wing hole for the wing to lay on (figs. 10-12).

At this point I was able to see just how badly I had mangled the chopping of the fuselage and wing tips (fig. 13).

Also done at this time was filling of the wing tank slots. The G version has much smaller wing fuel tanks than the D version and also has a much narrower pylon attachment point. The Monogram kit has two slots in the underside of the wing for the large tank to fit into. I applied sheet styrene to the interior of the wing and then used Squadron White Putty to fill the slots. Further sanding and filling was required, but the surface was now ready for the AMT tank to be attached in the correct manner. Once the slot is removed from the AMT tank pylon and the pylon sanded to the correct shape after test fitting it was set aside for later.

Fuselage Joining and Gun Turret Assembly:

With the weapons bay doors cut out, a new weapons bay built (FSM article 11/98), the gear bays detailed with wire, tubing, solder, paint, and numerous other items; as well as having the cockpit detailed and built, it was now time to put the fuselage together both side-to-side and front-to-back. It was also the next step in getting the tail gun built. Joining the fuselage was actually quite difficult; I dry fitted each half with the intention of fitting the combined rear fuselage into the combined fore fuselage. With the installed weapons bay I found problems.

I had to cut the ‘male' section of the rear fuselage by nearly 3/4 of the bottom of the male insert in order to fit it into the fore end of the fuselage while allowing the weapons bay to remain in place. It also became very apparent that the templates in the earlier FSM article for weapons bay bulkheads simply couldn't be used. To allow for ANY of the male portion of the fuselage joint to be used the upper portion of the rear bulkhead had to be removed. I trimmed the template at about 3/5's of the way down from the top just slightly above the ceiling of the weapons bay. Doing so allowed enough of the male portion of the rear fuselage to remain for strength and gave enough room above the weapons bay to ‘tilt' the rear fuselage into the forward fuselage portion. This is also a known bad joint for the AMT kit, so be prepared to spend a great deal of time sanding and filling anyway. I added a considerable amount of sprue and super glue to strengthen the fuselage joint at the top and sides of the model's interior. This is necessary as removing the male portion of the fuselage joint seriously weakens an already bad joint even further.

Then I began working on the tail gun; first cutting the turret pieces and fuselage mount out of the Monogram kit and assembling them. This is actually quite straight forward, although you do want to be careful not to take too little of the fuselage above the turret therefore eliminating the upper pivot hole. Using super glue, the Monogram shell halves were temporarily joined to see what kind of discrepancies I would have between the two kits, and boy were there going to be fit problems! Noting the width and height differences between the two aft fuselages I immediately saw that there was going to be filling and sanding (fig. 15, 16).

The Monogram turret was assembled and the AMT turret was cut out from the AMT fuselage. After gluing the monogram turret in the situation looked even worse (fig. 17)!

Using chunks of sprue and Squadron Green Putty I built up a decent fairing in from the oversized Monogram turret to the undersized AMT fuselage. After numerous hours of sanding, filling, sanding, and more filling I reached a decent enough shape (fig. 20, 21)

that I could justify it as being done. This was conceivably the longest part of this kit-bash. I spent nearly two weeks working on this part alone due to the constant need for drying the putty and sanding for shape.

Wing Joining:

As can be seen in Figures 10 through 13 there was extra internal bracing added to the wing joints. It was during the joining of the wings to the fuselage that I found that the 1/4" square plastic tubing that I had used was too long. I had to cut the length down to only 1.5" sticking out of the wing root. With a significant amount of super glue this worked just fine. As there was a considerable gap I used chunks of sprue and slices of .040" styrene to fill the gaps between the wing roots and the fuselage and used gap filling super glue to attach the wings to the fuselage and braces. Significant quantities of Squadron White Putty were used for further gap filling and parts blending. The wings on the Monogram kit have a greater thickness than those of the AMT kit and I ended up using a great deal of putty and plastic strips on the underside of this joint to compensate. Although it isn't very clear, the photos of figures 22 through figure 24 show the port wing joint sanded and the starboard wing left rough.

Engine Pods:

One test fit done very early on showed that the AMT engine pylons were definitely not compatible with the Monogram wings; however, the AMT engine pod/pylon joints were only slightly narrower at the root than the Monogram pylons. With a bit of filling and sanding I could easily use the Monogram engine pylons with the AMT pods and get the correct engine pod shape that was needed for the G version of the B-52. Because it was the wrong shape (not having the extra alternator of the G version) I still wanted to use an open engine pod but would need to figure out a new way of doing it instead of using the Monogram supplied open pod. I took the Monogram engine and test fitted it in one of the AMT pods and was extremely surprised to find that it fit nearly perfectly! I shaved off a slight bit of the forward portion of the engine, approximately 1/16", and cut off a small portion of the exhaust end and it fit perfectly inside the pod. I next cut open the inboard side of the port outer AMT engine pod and set the newly created engine doors aside (fig. 25).

I had seen a photo of a G version where the lower door slid down on rails and hung with the interior portion facing outboard and the upper door simply propped open on a rod. I went with this set up, painting the engine prior to assembly and finishing the pod interior with a darker Zinc Chromate paint. I assembled the rest of the pods and filled and sanded them, rescribing panel lines where necessary.

I also took another Monogram engine out of my spares box to use as the ‘replacement' engine for the diorama. I added the turbine blades from a spare Pratt-Whitney F-100-PW-100 engine from a Revell F-16A kit to the front and assembled it, finishing it with the same colors as the engine inside the pod.

Under Carriage and Weapons Bay:

At this time it was necessary to paint and assemble the undercarriage. Assembly was straight forward although there was a considerable amount of flash on the main gear for my AMT kit. More than I recall from the first one I'd built. It must be iterated that there are so many paint schemes for the interior portions of the B-52 that unless you are displaying a model of a specific aircraft next to a photo of said aircraft, anything goes! Having been to Minot AFB, ND and taken pictures of the cockpit interior, gear bays, and weapons bay less than six months pervious to building the kit, I chose to go with what currently was acceptable. I went with Zinc Chromate yellow/green interiors showing age and wear, with natural metal finish landing gear. With the overall grey exterior one could also go with gloss light aircraft grey interiors (highlighted with Zinc Chromate yellow or green to show wear) and gloss white gear, gloss white weapons bay, Chromate yellow weapons bay, Chromate green flap interiors, Chromate yellow flap interiors, exterior grey flap interiors, or any combination of the above. I went with a base of dark Zinc Chromate green with yellow and metal highlights (fig. 26-29).

All B-52's excepting the D model with the ‘Big Belly Conversion' carry the same internal conventional weapons load of three clips of nine weapons each. Weapon size doesn't matter, they could be anywhere from 250 pounds up to and including 2000 pound bombs. As I was completely out of Mk 117 750 pound bombs after my B-36 project, I went with using 500 pound low drag bombs. As they have the same aerodynamic and ballistic properties as the Mk 117's it is conceivable that they would be loaded together, and in fact I've seen pictures of F models dropping a combined load during Arc Light missions over Vietnam. The clips themselves are quite easy to assemble, using evergreen plastic U shaped stock I simply cut them to the correct length for the width and height of my kit's weapons bay (fig. 30)

and allowed the glue to dry before painting them an overall Dark Green similar to FS 24087 Olive Drab. These things take a heck of a lot of abuse and show wear quite readily. Be sure to add a lot of silver specks to them after painting.

When the aircraft is on the ground and weapons are being loaded the weapons bay doors hinge at a joint that is much higher along the fuselage than when it is in flight dropping the bombs. Thus I was not able to use the Monogram movable weapons bay doors which hinge at the lower joint. I had cut the AMT doors out along the hinge lines and set them aside. Braces were added to the hinges for the front and rear of the doors for the hinge from the upper to lower door, and for the hydraulic actuators for the lower doors to attach to. I also painted the interior of the weapons bay doors to fit the paint scheme of the weapons bay and added plenty of weathering to the interior surfaces and hinge points. After painting was done the doors were set aside for a later time.

Painting:

Frankly, I stink at airbrushing; I've never been good at it, and probably never will be. I use spray cans and get good results for the most part. Unfortunately spray cans don't provide the necessary control needed at times. I spent a good half of a day masking off the kit. At this time I'd like to enlighten everyone of a product which I've found to be of great use: 3M Blue Masking Tape. This stuff is ‘Da Bomb!' I have never in my life used a better masking product than this, it has just the right amount of tack to sit on top of paint and not pull the paint off when it's removed, the adhesive allows it to stick to darn near anything and yet doesn't craze plastic or damage paint, it can be pulled, turned, and stretched into almost every curve or crevice imaginable on a model. All masking done on this kit was with 3M's Blue Masking Tape and the little bit of adhesive left behind on the clear plastic canopy piece was easily removed with Windex! I highly recommend this product to everyone.

I used Testors Model Masters Gunship Grey spray cans for the kit. Anything that could be painted off of the aircraft was; horizontal stabilizers, weapons pylons, engine pods, flaps, gear doors, fuel tanks, etc. to be sprayed before the fuselage. Then anything that could be used to mask the fuselage was held temporarily in place with super glue. The freshly painted kit looks almost scary in its own right even without major parts in place (fig. 31, 32).

Decals and Further Finishing:

There were several problems with the AMT kit which had been disposed of immediately on, most of them being the antennas and ‘pitot tubes' that were part of the kit. I created my own pitot tubes and antennas from sheet styrene and stretched sprue and set them aside at the beginning of the project, as the bombs and bulges on the kit itself were either incorrect or grossly improbably shaped. The bombs were assembled and painted, the 500 pound bombs were attached to the clips and then the clips were installed into the weapons bay. This was very tricky, you really don't want to lose those bombs during installation, but it's nearly impossible to get them in the right place with the clips installed. All major subassemblies were installed at this point: engine pods, horizontal stabilizers, wing racks, landing gear, etc. Also installed at this time were the .50" Cal. machine gun barrels on the turret. These were fashioned from hypodermic needles donated by a friend who uses insulin.

For decals I chose to use one of the aircraft provided in the kit decals with the aircraft represented as having returned recently from depot maintenance including a new paint job with fresh stencils all over (fig 33, 35-37).

It must be stated at this time that yet another choice the modeler must make when building a B-52 is the color of the decals; there are also several options here as well. For a period of time the B-52's could be seen sporting a medium grey set of stencils, light grey set of stencils, or black set of stencils. As long as all decals are the same color and consistent with each other, the modeler has his or her choice of scheme. As there was an overabundance of black decals in my spare parts box and one of the schemes on the AMT decal sheet was black I chose to go with the black stencil set. A significant drawback to the AMT decal sheet is that it does not provide wing stripes and has only the bare minimum of stencils. I also used a spare sheet of the older B-52 decals from Monogram. These had stencils for Fuel tank receptacles, cut away hatches, and numerous other items. Also hijacked was a sheet of low vis. F-15 decal sheets from another AMT kit and from F-16 kits as well, these provided the walkway stencils, and other hydraulic, electrical, and service stencils as well as the armament and ejection seat decals. I used Pactra 1/32" RC model striping for the wing walkway stripes. I've found this to be one of the best ways to accomplish the stripes; the RC striping is very strong, easily cut, won't tear, and the adhesive is impervious to nearly all solvents including RC fuel! I also added national insignia on the fuselage and upper port wing, this is a feature that was found on a few aircraft and was not consistent from squadron to squadron. Some aircraft had them, some didn't, the style found also varying from plane to plane. Added as well at this time were numerous painted details such as nav lights.

At this point the kit itself was completed and the diorama needed to be built for display purposes.

Diorama Base:

The base of the diorama is the mirror out of a sliding glass door for a shower stall. Although too long, I had initially planned to cut it down to size. Unfortunately it was found to be tempered glass which can't be cut at home. I decided to push on with the project anyway since I didn't feel like spending upwards of $50.00 to purchase untempered mirror glass at the correct size. I wanted to display the model but have the underside detail visible, this required an area of mirror with which to view the detail, therefore it was necessary to mask off an aircraft shape and spray paint the rest of the mirror the color of concrete.

Using a roll of thin construction paper obtained at a party supply store I set the model down on top of the paper with a light bulb directly above the model. I traced the shadow of the model (tracing the port outboard engine pod as if the hatches were closed) and using an X-acto No. 11 blade cut the shape out of the paper. Using Liquid paper as glue the paper was attached to the glass. Liquid paper would actually adhere the paper to the glass as well as actually being easy to remove with a razor blade. To represent concrete Testors Model Masters Flat Light Gull Grey in a spray can was chosen. Concrete color varies greatly from location to location depending on the rocks, sand and water used. Some concrete has a green tint, some a blue, some a brown. I've personally found that the gull greys tend to be acceptable. After the paint dried and the mask removed, I did a bit of minor scraping with a razor blade and was provided with a serviceable base for my aircraft model.

The next detail needed was concrete expansion joint lines. I wanted to show the model tilted along the axis of the mirror and tilted the lines to roughly match that. Making perfect squares toward one edge and then different spacing toward the other provided a modicum of visual appeal and made it look more interesting and realistic. Initially a Sharpie brand ultra fine point marker was used, but this resulted in problems. I ended up taking a Marks-A-Lot brand marker and slicing the tip down to make it useful. The vast majority of the lines were done freehand representing the tar used to fill expansion joints which have moved too far, also to represent filled cracks in the concrete slabs. Many people will comment that a flightline created for loaded B-52's wouldn't have cracks in it. I personally have seen a concrete flightline before it was rebuilt, they do crack, badly. I wanted my flightline to be as representative of a true subject as possible, it received a small number of cracks.

The yellow and red lines were painted on the concrete being masked with 3M Blue masking tape, and as I've seen on numerous flightlines around the US the yellow lines were bordered with black strips. The red line represents the edge of the ‘controlled access area' of the flightline.

Recently I've added a clear plastic box as a cover for the entire diorama so that it can be displayed at the Fargo Air Museum and not be destroyed by tiny fingers in the process. It was built specifically to fit theinterior dimensions of the gloss black frame (Yo! Props to Paul Myrold for building one TIGHT frame! Word!). Unfortunately, even though the exterior of the frame was of perfect dimensions, the interior was nearly a quarter inch different from one side to another! Serious thanks go to Custom Plastics of Fargo, ND for the excellent work on the cover!

Ground Crew and Equipment:

Nearly all of the equipment came from Hasegawa Ground Equipment Sets, the exceptions being the engine trolleys and small tractor from the Revell F-16A kit. One trolley was modified to represent a later model of engine trolley not in great use. This has more hydraulics to it and can shift more forward and back than the older version, it is however quite prone to failure and is therefore not in large circulation. The rest of the equipment is painted to represent either mostly internal or mostly external storage, with the darker equipment receiving less sunlight and therefore fading less. The figures all received camoflaged BDU uniforms except for the flight crew heading to the van. Some figures came from the ESCI NATO Pilots and Ground Crew set. The walking pilot figures came from Monogram F-4 Phantom II kits. I made the remove before flight tags from Aluminum foil. This is a very easy project: Using either Tin or Aluminum foil, paint one edge insignia red for about half an inch in, flip it over, do the same to the back side. Using a fresh No. 11 X-acto blade to cut them to the correct width simply go down the length of the sheet of foil for as long as necessary. A small length of foil can provide a huge number of RBF tags. Once they are spread apart use a very fine brush and white paint to squiggle the shape of ‘Remove Before Flight' on either side of each red piece. Cut to the proper length, and Voila'! Fresh RBF tags in bulk.

Conclusion:

This was a project of a lifetime, once finished it will go in my books as something that I've wanted to do since high school but finally got a chance to do when in my thirties. I would have to say that this is definitely a project for an advanced modeler. Particularly with the kit-bashing, it is also the type of project that I would only recommend to someone who is either very lucky at finding the stuff they want cheap or has a very thick wallet. Currently the AMT kit is out of production but retails for around $50.00 when it can be found, the Monogram kit retails for around $35.00, and the amount of kits you would have to buy to satisfy other needs is ridiculous: 2 Revell F-16A's, 4 Hasegawa Ground Equipment/Crew Sets, 4 Hasegawa Weapons sets, not to mention the styrene stock. I've been modeling since I was five and have been acquiring my spares box since I was about 15, I've had some of my weapons sets since they first came out, and most of what I used came from reject bins of some sort. This is not a project for the faint of heart or those without funding.

It was a blast though. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything, even with all of the cursing, the cat hair, and the agony when something broke and was lost for eternity (or until replaced) in my carpet. As stated previously, this was the project of a lifetime. I expect to display this diorama at a local venue permanently in honor of all of the enlisted people that make the United States Air Force able to do its job. Without the mechanics, ground crew, armorers, and drivers that actually get all of the aircraft ready, we would have no reason for even hiring pilots. It's these men and women who are out on the flightline in 100 degree temps in the blazing sun and minus 50 windchills with three inches of snow loading weapons, changing engines, and fueling aircraft at all hours of the day and night that allow the pilots to do their job. Behind these men and women are further troops that make their food, maintain their housing, supply their commissary, write their paychecks, and fill out forms so that they can get from one place to another.

All of these men and women are important to our service and their efforts are often overlooked in the glory of a successful mission. The thirty-second sound bite of war footage showing the laser guided bomb blowing up the tank doesn't mention the weapons tech that spent three hours diagnosing the faults in the seeker head to make it work right, and it doesn't mention the men who yanked an engine out and replaced it in record time one hour before the mission launched. These are the men and women to whom this diorama is dedicated.

References

Personal Photographs encompassing 21 years of air shows and Minot Air Force Base Open Houses.

Aviation Week And Space Technology (12/11/95), pp 46-48 "B-52 H Refurbished for the 21st Century," William B. Scott, McGraw Hill Publishing, New York, New York

Aviation Week And Space Technology (12/11/95), pp 49-50 "Flight Crews Reinvent B-52's Tactical Potential," William B. Scott, McGraw Hill Publishing, New York, New York

Fine Scale Modeler Magazine (11/98), pp 32-35 "Improving AMT/ERTL's B-52G Stratofortress," H. Scott Edwards, Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI

Fine Scale Modeler Magazine (10/02), pp 28-32 "Boeing's B-52 Stratofortress," Paul Boyer, Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI

Fine Scale Modeler Magazine (10/02), pp 34-38 "Refurbishing AMT's B-52H," Paul Boyer, Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI

Fine Scale Modeler Magazine (10/02), pp 40-42 "B-52 Roundup," Paul Boyer, Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI

World Air Power Journal Vol. 27 (Winter 1996), "Boeing B-52H," Robert F. Dorr and Brian C. Rogers, Aerospace/AIRtime Publishing, London, England

B-52 Stratofortress in Action Larry Davis, Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton, Texas, 1992

Walk Around B-52 Stratofortress Lou Drendel, Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton, Texas, 1996

B-52 Stratofortress in Detail & Scale Alwyn T. Lloyd, TAB Books, Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, 1988

The World's Great Attack Aircraft Barnes and Noble Books, New York, New York, 1993

The Encyclopedia of Modern Warplanes Ed. Bill Gunston, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, New York, 1995

The Encyclopedia of 20th Century Air Warfare Ed. Chris Bishop, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, New York, 2001

[INDEX] [STUDENT] [PARENT] [PHILOSOPHY] [PERSONAL] [BIOGRAPHICAL] [RESUME]

All photos Copyright Andy Hill 2004

Mr. A. Hill (mr.hill_southernhs@yahoo.com)

Last Update:January 28, 2006