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No Prototype Needed - Douglas RB-66A 1/82


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Welcome to a quick build of the Monogram 1/82nd scale Douglas RB-66A Destroyer.

 

The Douglas RB-66A Destroyer was supposed to have been a straightforward adaptation of the A-3 Skywarrior for the U.S. Air Force to replace the RB-57A Canberra. There were to be three versions of the B-66; an RB-66A recon platform, an EB-66 ELINT version, and a WB-66 weather recon version, and it was believed that no prototypes would be required. In practice the aircraft produced was an almost new design which was overweight and underpowered. Five pre-production RB-66A aircraft were produced and none of these were used operationally. The first aircraft was serial 52-2828.

 

The kit itself was first released by Monogram back in 1955 and was scaled at 1/82 to 'fit the box'. It originally had a mechanism to open the bomb bay doors and release a bomb, it had heavily raised detail including rivets but was spared outlines for decals. This version is dated 1995 and was purchased in a model shop in Minneapolis. The build belongs here because it is marked as 52-2828 and the kit contains a non-standard nose boom which would only have been used for test instrumentation.

 

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The parts of the kit come on one long sprue, I have already removed most of the main parts and sanded them. The instructions are contained on one page!

 

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These old kits fascinate me and I look forward to seeing how this one turns out. I am between almost finishing the new Airfix H.P. Victor B.2 and starting an FB-111A for the F-111 STGB so I just want to have a bit of quick fun with this oldie :P

 

Thanks to TonyT for helping me with the detail.

 

Michael

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Great to see this out of the box Michael :).

What a lovely nostalgic kit. These really are mojo building kits. Put it together in an afternoon as a kid. Fly it around the room. Put the transfers on in the evening and put it on the bedside table or hang it from the ceiling. Great stuff.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the decals for you. The backing paper has yellowed but the decals look fine; ones of this era usually are.  Might be worth testing the serial number of the decals sheet - the 024M0300, see how it fares. 

Looking forward to seeing this cold war golden oldie going together.
Best regards
TonyT
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Made a start yesterday, was going to make it as a 'long weekend' kit but it might take a bit longer.

 

Start with the cockpit detail, a grand total of four parts!

 

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The kit instructions state that the cockpit is grey, seats black, flight suits blue grey, white helmets, and orange Mae Wests. Which looks like this:

 

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Have also cemented the jet engine pods together. These are far more detailed than the much later Italeri 1/72nd kit of the Douglas Destroyer

 

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The wings are quite simple, one complete upper segment cemented with the two lower halves. The intention is to spray them overall with a rattlecan of Halfords Aluminium then pick out panels with pieces of silver kitchen foil.

 

IMGP3949size_zps5lofxh11.jpg

 

So have got started anyway :)

 

Michael

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Just a little bit more progress made, cemented the two fuselage halves together. Nostalgia for these old kits is great until you see how badly they fit! So out with the filler today, have bodged it in my usual way as I detest filling!!

 

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Top view of the top:

 

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And the undersides:

 

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Looks like out with the sandpaper tomorrow. Going to try to keep as much of the raised surface detail as possible :)

 

Michael

 

Edited by Ghostbase
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