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

[CANicoll]

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!

 

[CANicoll]

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.

[CANicoll]

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

[BlrwestSiR]

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

I think Harv would have loved this kit. 

[CANicoll]

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.  😢

[BlrwestSiR]

22 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Oh.  I didn't think about that.  😢

I think he was ground crew for B-52s that participated in Linebacker. Others will know better. 

[belugawhaleman]

Didn't know about this kit. It'll be interesting to see how it builds up😀

[Martinnfb]

Great choice. 

[CANicoll]

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.

[BlrwestSiR]

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. 

[Martinnfb]

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

 

[crazypoet]

Following this!

I have the ancient Monogram kit, that I’ll (eventually 🤣) build, also in Linebacker II colors

It will be an education for me to stare over your shoulders as you build this one 🙏

[CANicoll]

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!!!     

[BlrwestSiR]

7 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Don't tell me that Carl!!!     

Well, I guess it's a good thing the cockpit windows are small?

[CANicoll]

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....

 

[Martinnfb]

Yes BMDR72027.  I mean , the cockpit is basically hidden so. I wouldn't worry too much about it Chris . I might follow in your footsteps and build one myself. Will learn from you as you go .

Cheers

Martin

nkn.avif

[Landlubber Mike]

Great subject Chris!  Another big one for the shelf!

[CANicoll]

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.

 

[CANicoll]

Making progress and showing some of the peculiarities of this kit: Many parts have no locating pins.  Such as the cockpit instrument panel tub:

The instruction sheet shows this as 1 piece.  Took me a long time to realize this is actually two pieces.

Very cool that there are PE instrument panels.  Not cool that there are no decals to go over the panels.  Going to paint the tub gray, then the PE panels Black and see what I can do from there.

The PE fret has plastic over both sides.  Interesting.

Good detail but wish I had decals to go over them.

Some really nice detail on the cockpit walls for the various stations.  I probably should have painted these before assembling.  Hmmm

Location information from the instruction sheet means dry fitting is mandatory  There is some minor flash to address and I've already figured out there is a fit problem with this next step.  The floor is too long to fit the next step.  More on that later.

 

[CANicoll]

Made a LITTLE progress mostly because I ran into major airbrush issues (please see my message "Well, THIS is embarrassing").  Have most of the two-tier cockpit (I didn't know the cockpit was two levels!  The Italeri kit doesn't show this level of detail) in Light Gray and the Instrument racks and PE instrument panels in black.  All the black areas and the seats have a gloss coat getting ready for washes and detail painting.  The bombs have an initial coat of Green but not full coverage yet.

Here is my motivation for the bombs.  They are greener than I thought they would be. Notice how high up the side of the fuselage the black comes on the plane:

And my first coat of green.  Had airbrush issues so this was the best I could lay down.  The issue is fixed now, so hope to make more progress tomorrow. Will be layering a few colors.

[CANicoll]

Quick update.  Painted and did some dry brushing and some detail painting of the PE panels.  It is not accurate, but this will not be seen anyway.  Hate doing it this way...There is a lot of detail there, but more could easily have been added with some decals.

[Landlubber Mike]

Great start!  Sometimes I feel like the reward for the time spent on detailing a cockpit that will never be seen is minimal at best.

[CANicoll]

Pulled together the cockpit and again, the fit is interesting.  Not a lot of locating help.  But seems to be working out.  Cleaned up some of the detail in the cockpit.

The cockpit tub looks pretty good

and the tub concept fits much better than the Italeri cockpit, which has more detail at the rear of the cockpit. These are supposedly the same size.  Also the Italeri kit does not show the second level of the cockpit at all.  NONE of that detail will be seen, but cool to know it is there!

These guys didn't' have a lot of headroom!  I'd have spent more time on this but...

Some of the pour gates are really big, but all are on back surfaces (so far anyway).  I did finally find some pictures of this area.  Would have been cool to detail.

Working on the bomb bay we again get to strange misses on the part of the instructions:  it doesn't show the assembly of the bomb racks!  Part A6 is shown completed, but nowhere in the instructions is how to put it together.  

It will not be hard to figure out, however.

Base coat is completed on the bombs.  Will do a top coat of darker green, then some color bands.  The plane will be suspended from the ceiling so will be paying some special attention here 

That's it for now!  Thanks for hanging in with me.  Keeps me motivated to keep working on this beast.