Reviews : Roden Convair B36D Peacemaker USAF Heavy Bomber

Streaks ahead of the old Hobbycraft kit. Roden has corrected that kit's reversed wing taper. Be careful assembling the fuselage. The two parts are long and very flexible. Join carefully to avoid warping them - otherwise the flying surfaces won't align correctly. Also, dry fit the main landing gear! The instructions are not great on how they fit in the wing cavity, especially after the wing halves are glued together. Also, the plastic has a slightly pebbly texture so some light sanding/polishing is needed if you are going to attempt a natural metal finish. I finished mine with AK Interactive Xtreme Metal paints. I also bought the Caracal decal sheet and modeled the aircraft seen in the film Strategic Air Command. It's a great sheet, but decaling the jet pod front ends was a very fussy affair.

PROCEED WITH CAUTION! It may be a 'new tool' kit but it's also a Roden kit. The fit is not good (fuselage halves, engine intakes and wings to fuselage are the biggest problem areas). Also the engineering of this leaves a bit to be desired as you have to place the landing gear through the lower wing half, cement it to the upper wing half and try not to snap it off while it sets, then cement the wing halves together (This makes painting the NMF on the wings fun.....NOT). The decals were out of register so try to get aftermarket ones. In the end it looks like a B-36 and is still better than the Hobbycraft kit, which isn't saying much. I consider myself an average modeler and will say this one is for experienced modelers only.

This is a tough kit to build, my father served with the 336th heavy bomber group out of El Paso TX back in the 50’s so after his passing it was no question that I had to find one the 1/144 fit the bill but rodan kit was the only one close to what I wanted . Still ther was a lot to fill and modify