[1/72 Modelcollect B-52G Early, Linebacker II]

Hi Mike!  This one is going to a friend.  He has maybe 200 diecast planes in his house.  No B-52's however.  He's already cleared out a space to hang this from the ceiling.  I'm keeping in mind where to hang the monofilament line.  At least this kit has a full bomb bay of bombs to show off.

 

[1/72 Modelcollect B-52G Early, Linebacker II]

On 11/4/2025 at 3:19 AM, Martinnfb said:

Buff Master Design use to produce a set of seats, but those are impossible to find these days. 

 

You mean these ones?  Even how grainy enlarging the picture is, I think Carl is right.  Hmmm....

 

[1/72 Modelcollect B-52G Early, Linebacker II]

23 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Those seats look good but I'm wondering if they're correct for a B-52. They look a lot like an Aces II seat which I'm not sure was used on the B-52. 

Don't tell me that Carl!!!     

[1/72 Modelcollect B-52G Early, Linebacker II]

This kit is interesting.  After assembling the 54 pieces to create the 27 bombs, started working on the cockpit.  The seat detail is impressive, for 1/72 scale.  But literally none of this will be visible once the plane is assembled.  I guess that is the case with all of the bombers.  More on that later.

Put the seats together, and there are no placement pins on the seats.  Just have to eyeball it.  Again, the sprue attachment points are on the join surfaces.

The instructions give you an IDEA of where things go, but not much in the way of actual placement detail.  Four square divots are for the seat frame to fit into - not that the instructions show that to you.

But the detail on the side of the seats is pretty impressive, I think.  I'll detail this as much as I can, just because...  Now I need to find some reference photos!!  Honestly, I did try and find 1/72 resin or 3D printed seats and bombs.  Couldn't find any.

[1/72 Modelcollect B-52G Early, Linebacker II]

2 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

First build of this kit that I've come across. 

I think Harv would have loved this kit. 

Oh.  I didn't think about that.  😢

[1/72 Modelcollect B-52G Early, Linebacker II]

Made progress last night on the bombs.  54 pieces but the nice thing is the seam is on the horizontal so when the bombs are loaded, they won't be seen.  Smart!  What is interesting is how the sprue gates attach to each piece.  It is off-set and on the join.  Once I figured out how to cut the piece loose, clean up became much easier and faster.

Sorry for the out of focus picture.  The trick is to cut basically at a shallow angle from the join-side of the part.  It comes away cleanly with minimal clean up needed.  Helpful when you have 54 pieces to do!

And done!  Now to put them together

[1/72 Modelcollect B-52G Early, Linebacker II]

More from the kit.  The instruction booklet is small (measuring a little over 5x8 inches) so the diagrams are, as well.  Here are some sample pages.  I have them all if anyone wants to see them.

[1/72 Modelcollect B-52G Early, Linebacker II]

Having given up on the Italeri kit, am moving over try out the MC kit.  For one thing, the MC kit has a full bomb bay, with bombs, but NOT the ones depicted on the box art.  Go figure...  Also has PE panels for the cockpit, which really makes no sense as there is no way to see that level of detail, through the small windshield and windows of the cockpit.  Also a pretty full interior - again, which will not be seen.  At least the bomb bay detail is pretty good.

Not sure why they bothered with the PE for the cockpit and sidepanels:

LOTS of styrene:

The fuselage pieces but not the nose:

The fuselage is in four pieces; here is the center section with the bomb bay.

The instruction sheet is disappointing.  Will post pictures of that tomorrow, For a box of this size, the instruction booklet is very small, with no paint callouts for anything.  Which also means the decal placement will require some work (and a huge magnifying glass).  Will most likely simply enlarge them and hope the detail is there.

Started on the bombs.  Separated and cleaned up all 54 pieces.  There is a slight trick to separating them cleanly from the sprues.  More on that to come!

 

[1/72 Italeri B-52G, Hound Dog, SOD.....]

Thanks Rob!  I'm looking forward to getting started with the ModelCollect kit soon.

 

[1/72 Italeri B-52G, Hound Dog, SOD.....]

I'm putting this away.  Probably permanently.  The fit of the major parts is just not good enough for me to build this for a friend.  The engine cowling parts would require so much putty and scribing to get them looking decent, coupled with NO bomb load or detail in the bomb bay and I've decided to call it a day on this one.

I've been working on it, putting it aside, coming back to it, putting it aside.  Finally decided it is time to move on.

Good news!  The Modelcollect  B-52G Early Type from Linebacker II came today.  Full bomb bay (be careful what you ask for: 27 bombs!!!) and I MAY, just for the sake of it, add the Hound Dog missiles.  Send good vibes.  This looks like a much better kit, with most of the interior detail going to covered up. but still should be a cool build.  Did I mention 27 bombs?  No paint call-outs whatsoever so will be relying on the Italieri instructions for that.
 

Stay tuned!

[My other hobby........]

On 10/16/2025 at 8:55 PM, KevinM said:

Chris how do you obtain those shades of blue red green all in one pen?Do you stain sheets of wood and glue like laminate?

I see it now acrylic but do you still turn in any way then?

Hi Kevin, sorry for the late response. These are all resin.  The guy who pours the resin blanks gets the colors to mix a certain way and the result is amazing.  Those ones are from a blank he calls Painted Desert and are on his website.  He's frequently out of stock, but if you like something, he will pour some for you.  It is an art to get them to swirl and not really mix.  It is also really hard to visualize what the turned blank looks like from the pictures on his website.  I met him at a pen show nearby and took a chance turning some blanks.  

With a sharp gouge, they turn very smoothly and finish quickly.

[My other hobby........]

One of the things that has kept me away from the bench has been the woodshop.  There is a crafts fair this weekend I have been gearing up for.  Here are some of what I'm selling.  Wood and custom acrylic ballpoints, as well as Rollerball and Fountain pens.  

These are from custom acrylic blanks made for me off of a NASA photo of a sunspot.  I love the colors!  They easily convert from Rollerball to Fountain pens.

Two views of the same three pens.

[1/72 Italeri B-52G, Hound Dog, SOD.....]

On 10/9/2025 at 8:25 AM, DocRob said:

Welcome back Chris, what a monster, but isn´t it LSM ? You´d need to rent another house for a B52 in 1/32 scale.
What AK colors do you refer to. The AK Real Colors I have used thin perfectly with Mr. Leveling Thinner and spray beautifully.

Cheers Rob

On 10/9/2025 at 8:25 PM, belugawhaleman said:

Wow! Even in 1/72 that thing is Huge! Nice work!! How does the kit go together?

Howdy!!

The AK color I used is the AK11346 Forest Green from their AFVI series, the Radome Tan is from their Air series and in all candor, I didn't even realize I was buying those and not Real Colors, when I ordered from SB.  They both say they are 3rd Gen.  But I used their thinner, not MLT.  The result was excellent - flat, sturdy.  Just the spraying sounded like an angry cat spitting.   I'll try using the MLT shortly - thanks for the suggestion!

The kit is going together not fantastically.  The halves for the hound dog missiles did not line up very well.  I'm thinking that enormous fuselage will have the same issue so I am planning on going not quite inch-by-inch with the Tamiya Extra Thin, but probably pretty close.  The dry fitting of the wings shows similar alignment problems.  When I get to them in earnest, I'll post pictures.  Thanks for the reminder.

With my plan to mount this on a poster and frame, the focus is really topside (but I do want the bottom side to look as good as I can get it).

[Soo.... What did you just get???]

On 10/9/2025 at 1:49 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

I have this kit with full boat AM in the stash with the various Pontos, Veteran, deck and other upgrade sets.  If anyone might be interested, send me a PM.  With the upgrades, it's a really stellar kit.  I just don't know where I would put it.

Looking forward to your build Kevin!

I have the exact same problem with the IXC UBoat standing on end in my closet.  I'd love to build it, but then where to put it??  On top of my display case, I guess??

[Soo.... What did you just get???]

On 10/10/2025 at 1:02 PM, belugawhaleman said:

Found this on EBAY.....still sealed in its shrink wrapping...........

 

It's Tamiya's 1/48 scale Dornier Do335A Pfiel (61074).

 

This odd-looking aircraft has always intrigued me. I heard that this is a pretty good kit and I was looking into getting

one. Has anyone on this forum built this kit?

Thanks;

Paul, the Belugawhaleman

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-61074-dornier-do-335a-pfeil--128428

I did build a Tamiya 335 and it was the usual Tamiya kit: goes together well.  This a surprisingly large aircraft.  There is one at Udvar Hazy and you can actually walk underneath it without ducking (not that I'm all that tall, but still!)....

[Soo.... What did you just get???]

On 10/9/2025 at 12:11 PM, denders said:

Chris, walking in the front door, to the right is a room that contains aircraft models. I have to admit that I didn't really check out the rest of the shop. I spent at least half an hour to perhaps an hour walking in circles around the room looking over everything. I finally decided on the F-15E. The sticker on it was ~$140, he gives a club discount if you belong to a local club. I don't belong to any local club, but IPMS membership was good enough for the discount. The price may not be a great deal, but I was going to buy something to support an LHS even if it isn't my LHS. (Nothing even close to it in my area.) I'll probably stop by there again if time permits when I'm on my way past on I81. I've also stopped in Front Line Hobbies in Staunton too. There was a shop in Salem that I visited one time, but they've closed up since.

Seems like a fair price and I agree with you about supporting the "local" LHS!  Let me know when you are headed that way again and I'll see if I can meet you at one of the shops.  

[1/72 Italeri B-52G, Hound Dog, SOD.....]

Thanks Mike!  It is the largest plane I have attempted to build.  I have no idea how I am going to paint this thing actually....

How are things in your part of NOVA?

[Soo.... What did you just get???]

On 9/23/2025 at 11:46 AM, denders said:

We were up to PA for a long weekend (wife's 50th high school reunion). And on the way, we stopped in Steven's City, VA at All Nation Hobby and Model Supply. It's a nice shop, wish there was something similar in my area. They had a bunch of kits from someone's collection including quite a few of Tamiya 1/32 kits. I bought this one, but it was a hard to make choice. It would have been nice to have a 3-5K budget.  But then that would have been more than I had space for in the vehicle. My wife has commented that perhaps I need a larger vehicle for models.

 

They don't appear to have a web site, so you have to stop in. They're open Tuesday thru Saturday, something like 10AM to 6PM. So, if you're passing by on I81 and the time fits, stop and have a look, support a LHS even if it isn't your LHS. It's guaranteed that I'll stop in the next time we're through there.

Dave,  I've been to that shop but years ago.  It is a great find, but you really do need to spend a fair amount of time looking around.  I don't know if they are better organized now, but when they first opened there were kits EVERYWHERE!  Very cool tho...  Glad to see they are still around.  How much was the kit?

[1/72 Italeri B-52G, Hound Dog, SOD.....]

Hi all!  I'm kinda back.  Too much having gone on and going on to get into, so let's jump into this build.  A friend has a huge collection of mostly diecast planes but does not have a B-52.  We are trading this build for a nice Burbon (of which I have so little knowledge to be useless on the subject).  But my friend has over 500 bottles and knows his stuff.

Sorry to be so absent - I'm sure I've missed a lot of what you all have going on. Have missed you all!

Here is the kit, however I will be doing one out of Barksdale AFB in SEA camo:

I debated on the Italeri or the Modelcollect but my friend bought the Italeri kit so here we go.

This thing is MASSIVE.. OMG.  There is literally NO detail in the bomb bays, and the early G's did not have wing pylons for bombs.  Just the nuclear Hound Dog missiles which were never used in Vietnam.  But my friend wants the missiles, so...

The build will be showing 'in-flight' and I'm thinking of printing off an aerial shot of a Vietnam bomb run and having this 'fly' over the picture, attached to a picture/display frame.  More on this later...

Kinda disappointed in the cockpit, but it is 1/72 so it is not as bad as it could be.  However, it turns out I used the wrong IP.  There were 2: One flat panel intended for use with the IP decal, and a panel with the raised gauges, switches, displays, etc.  Yeah, I used that one for the decal with tons of setting solution.  However, in this scale, through the cockpit windows, will anything be seen??

Isn't that nice!  They had a bed in the cockpit... 

Since my friend wanted the missiles, here they are, getting their camo. 

I'm primarily using MRP paints but could not get the Flat Dark Green in MRP so thought I would try the AK Interactive paints.  I can't decide if that is a mistake or not.  I failed to ready any reviews before I bought a couple of bottles of the Dark Green (did I mention this is a huge plane??).  Lots of reports of sputtering even with thinning, that the paint doesn't thin well with their own thinner, and various concoctions of other thinners, retarders and what-have-you.  I bit the bullet, thinned it about 50% with the AK thinner and stirred the heck out of it.  Still seemed to separate in the cup.  Weird.  However, the Dark Green, despite sputtering a lot while spraying, seems to have sprayed pretty smoothly.

Anyone have thoughts about the AK paints?

More to come!

[My other hobby........]

5 hours ago, FullArmor said:

Very nice pens. I especially like these multicolored ones. How valuable are these? Have you ever thought about selling these?

Thank you!  I do sell them, mostly locally and we have a crafts fair coming up that I'm trying to stock up for.  Prices range from $95 to $30 for some of the Slimline pens.  I can send you more pics if interested and let me know what catches your eye.  I have about 30 pens at the moment.    Thanks for asking!

[My other hobby........]

Sorry folks.  Been far too absent and have missed you all.  Lots going on, as usual.  Elderly mom is declining and trying to put guardrails up to keep her from getting taken advantage of/making bad decisions that would impact her quality of life/etc. is taking a disproportionate amount of time.  Its hard when you know she needs help, but legally it is very difficult to show cause to take over responsibilities.  

On the flip side, have been doing more on the pen making, as it is a nice distraction that only takes a couple of hours to accomplish.  Here is some of my recent work, using custom acrylic blanks I picked up at the recent DC Pen show.  I knew nothing about this entire world (mostly about fountain pens).

Also looks like I am going to pick up a commission build of a 1/72 B-52 so will make that a build thread.

Take care, all!

Chris

[My update...]

Thanks for the comments and the sharing. We really do have a nice community here.  I'm looking forward to getting back to the bench, but not quite ready to do that yet.  Kinda fun making the pens as I can finish one in a few hours, so the gratification is a lot faster!  Here are some of my current pens.  Mostly spalted woods, some Ambrosa Maple, Olive Wood and Cocobolo.

The finish is CA, wet sanded.  It is nearly indestructible!  I carry one of the pens pictured below in my back pocket and have for a couple of years (it's the 8th pen pictured below).

[My update...]

Mike and Mark, thank you for your support!  It means a lot. 

Mike, I do have some nice wood blanks - I really like spalted and stabilized blanks - and have one pen I'm having to work on the finish - it's getting there.   I've never turned acrylic but the guy who taught me only turns acrylic.   I'll get some pictures to post for you. 

Cheers, gents!

[My update...]

Hi folks,

I feel like it's been forever since I've posted so wanted to check-in and say hi and that I have not forgotten you.  I have so many things I could build I'm still choosing something.  I have diverted some time back to making a few pens, which is a quick-hit to completion - like 3 hours quick hit!  I had picked up some really nice-looking blanks.  Will post some pictures when I get a few more done.

Health update - actually, not bad.  Had a few kidney stones but been down that road before.  One quick (four hour) trip to the hospital for one of them and Morphine is a wonderful invention.  Passed no problem.  Otherwise, still (mostly) vertical!  

Cleaned out some people from my life who have not been as invested in our relationship/friendships as I have been.  Freeing up that mental space has been a really good feeling.  Helps that I found a new friend who continues that brings life and sunshine into mine.  She actually will ping me to say "Are you busy? I don't feel like cooking tonight.  Want to go grab a bite somewhere?". It's nice.

Taking care of my mother is a different matter.  Took her to dinner for Mother's Day (of course!).  During dinner she was talking about how her father was so good raising all of the (seven) kids by himself.  Ummm.. Yes, her mother left when they were young, but her father remarried shortly thereafter.  Even growing up I met her stepmother several times.  She had forgotten about her stepmother.  This is the most glaring of her memory issues and indicative of her continued decline.  She's 89 and in otherwise very good health, but I'm having to spend more time taking care of her affairs.  It is VERY hard to set up the guardrails for an elderly parent.  I at least am able to ensure her bank and investment accounts can't be emptied without me knowing she's trying to move some money.  If she has to go full memory care, that will drain her accounts very quickly...

Fortunately, she moved to an assisted living facility 10 min away from me, so I know someone is there 24/7 if something happens. 

So that is my update; Sorry to not be as active as usual, but I'll get a build started sometime soon and will try and be more diligent about at least seeing what great work you all are doing.

 

 

[small update on me]

I was just going to post a similar update!  Good to see you check in.  Even if you can't build at the moment, would be good to hear from you on the various builds going on...