The Little World

Walter, the term ” Aluminium Overcast ” has been laughingly applied to a number of large aircraft in the past. But I think the only true claimant is the Convair B-36 ” Peacemaker ” bomber of the 1950’s.

The heading image is of a Revell model of the 1955-57 period. The scale is anyone’s guess but I’d say about 1:144th. However that is a modern commonality – in those days the model kit firms just cast whatever would fit in a box, and I reckon the size was dictated by the company that made the cardboard boxes…

It was a model that every kid I met had. I was just starting the 6th grade in Spokane, Washington and this was where a great many of the bombers had been based in the early 50’s. By the time I got there, the planes had ceased to be the front-line strategic bomber for the USAF and had passed to being reconnaissance ships. Then they went from that to the museums and scrapyard.

But I got to see the last B-36 out of Fairchild AFB in Spokane on one hot summer afternoon. A bunch of us kids were playing in the back yard when we heard a thrumming noise on the horizon. It got louder and louder, but very slowly. We had long been used to loud jet bombers as Fairchild operated the then-new B-52 ‘s and they could be flying all day. But this noise was different.

As it reached a crescendo, we looked above the house and a lone RB-36  – the last one – was heading up and out. I like to think it made it to Akron, Ohio to be part of the Air And Space Museum but it could have been headed for the boneyard. It had all six piston engines going like mad and all four jets alight. To a kid who knew what he was seeing it seemed like it took a day to pass over the house. I never wished it gone.

The funny thing about the B-36 for me is I have always been fascinated by them – I have a giant textbook on their history – but I never got to build a Revell kit of one.All these years and no B-36. I am hoping I encounter a 1:72 scale kit of one somewhere in my travels as I will buy it instantly. But if I ever see an old box-scale Revell one with most of the parts intact, I’ll settle for that.

‘Cause just once, I’d like to see one of those built with no cement fingerprints on the cockpit canopy…