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1/48 Monogram B-29 "Top of the Mark"


ghodges

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I built this model with 3 purposes.... the first was to have a B-29 in my collection; the second was to christen my new display case I finished recently, and the third was as "practice" because I plan to cut one up to make a B-50 using a resin conversion set I have. I put the full interior into it as part of this process, just to see what can be seen in the end and what can be skipped in the future.

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This was a project that took longer than expected, considering it's OOTB for the most part. It was a case of 2 steps forward and then one back; especially when painting time arrived. The fault was entirely mine. I sanded and polished the canopy and nose glass, using some of the Novus polishing compounds. I failed to remove all of the residue and had repeated problems with the paint around the canopy and nose as a result. Repeated filling and sanding finally overcame things.

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The only correction I tried to make to the kit was the exhausts. Monogram gives you one large piece for the exhaust when it should actually have two, one larger for the engine and one smaller for the supercharger on each side of each nacelle. I drilled and shaped new holes and used plastic tubing to replicate them. I also added clear plastic wing tip lights. Another mod was I sawed the cowl flaps apart so I could flare them to a more open position. This not only looked better, it helped the cowlings fit the nacelles easier.

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I chose to do a black bottomed Korean War B-29. I've always like that scheme, and by painting the entire model black, it also served as the base coat for the Alclad and AK Metallics paints used on the top. I used the Alclad gloss black primer for the black. Alclad had some bad batches of this product that doesn't dry properly, but my bottle worked perfectly, drying hard in 24hrs. I used various metallic colors to get the varying panel tones and the anodized wing spar center section. Since I'd lost so many raised panel lines in sanding, I decided to go retro and "ghost" panel lines on the top. This also served to give it the more weathered look of a Korean War B-29 years older than its WWII counterparts.

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Enough of the in-progress stuff...on to the finished model!

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Comments, critiques, and questions welcome!

Gil :cool:

Edited by ghodges
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That’s a real beauty of a build Gil! Bravo! 👍🏻👍🏻
I’ll have to remember your upgrades when I tackle the B-29 in my stash one day.

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Very nice and very big! Love that finish.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Gil

 

I don't care what you build, it ends up in the SUPERLATIVE column.  The weathering is as spot on as it can be.  Well Done.

 

Mark

Edited by MarkYoungCrewChief
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  • 2 months later...

Best glass work I've ever seen on that kit, Gil.  I'd be happy if one I built was as good as yours, which by the way is much better than the real things that I have seen.  I don't know if it is true of wartime production, but here is a photo of the one at Travis, which has many panes which are flat glass.

 

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Edited by johneaton
too many files in first post
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