Revell 1/133 B-29 Superfortress

(From Revell Instruction sheet ) A graceful aerial giant the first B-29 saw action in the South Pacific in June 1944, shortly after carrying the fight right to the Japanese mainland. This model duplicates the “Dauntless Dottie”, member of the 859th Squadron, 497th bomb group of the 12th Air Force, piloted by General Emmett O'Donnell and co-piloted by the former pilot of the well-known B-17 ”Memphis Belle”, Robert K Morgan. On November 24th, 1940 “Dauntless Dottie” was the leader of the first bombing attack on the Japanese mainland since the Doolittle Raid.

This is a very simplified model, considering its scale. The fuselage consists of two fuselage halves and a cockpit section with various guns and ports as well. Like most other kits, there are wing halves that are assembled along with the wingtips and the engine cowlings. The elevators are solid. This is a very straightforward model and requires minimal attention to the instruction sheet (until it's too late).

As with most models, construction begins in the cockpit section. There, the pilots, and the Bombardier are installed into the cockpit. It is painted zinc chromate along with the black instrument panel. There are no details to concern yourself with except for painting the crew brown, with occasional flesh tones or yellow vest.

This will be unusual to consider: Add a (very) little amount of weight in the tail. Maybe 2 BBs. If you mount the built model on the stand, it becomes nose heavy and has a tendency to tip when off balanced. Due to the thickness of the plastic the fuselage did not warp after all these years, and I had little concern with it.

The wings however we're slightly warped. They did require clamping in a vise until the glue was set. Putting the engine cowling on the nacelles helped close the gap. The wingtips needed a little extra effort as the tabs were too large, but eventually worked.

With the exception of all clear parts, I sprayed the plane Tamiya Bare Metal Silver, AS-12 aerosol. This is an excellent paint and lays down very well. It's also very forgiving of overspray. After drying, mask the wings and add the black leading edges (don’t forget the propellers too). I often us a black Sharpie as it does not run like paint often does and is thin.

The only real reservation with this model is its small-scale and lack of detail. But that is kind of expected for a box scale kit of that era. A little trick for this model is to not paint the framing on the cockpit canopy. Again, due to its scale, all of us would have a tendency to over-paint the framing. The framing for this model, is actually on the inside of the clear plastic. That makes it exceedingly difficult to paint. So, I elected not to paint it at all, and let the surrounding reflection act as the silver framing. All clear parts were dipped in Future Floor Finish before attaching. The illusion is actually pretty good and it's very difficult to mess it up.

This model does not come with landing gear. However, once the model is mounted on the stand, it becomes nose heavy (noted above), and will wobble a lot.

1965 decals are over 50 years old and yellowed. So, I coated them with decal film, and set aside to dry. After, I trimmed away as much as I could and applied to the model. They were surprisingly good and settled well with MicroSol and MicroSet.

Finally, I coated everything with future floor finish to preserve the decals and then added all clear parts.

This is a very simple kit, and I'd recommend it for anyone who it wants to sit beside you as you build a model together. No, it is not worthy of contest building, but it does bring back good memories, as well as future memories with kids.

“Pacific Raiders” Series and Atlantis Reissues: The “Pacific Raiders” series consists of the B-24J Liberator, B-25B Mitchell (Jimmy Doolittle) and a B-29 Super Fortress. The 3 Revell Classics are among some of the earliest all plastic models Revell issued. Builders will delight in knowing that Atlantis has reissued these kits.

Kind comments and memories are encouraged. Please feel free to write: ChrisMikesh@Gmail.com

Chris Mikesh

15 April 2022

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