​Showing up for a first flight after WWII, the B-36 was perfectly suited to handle the early Cold War.  Its nearly absurd size was soon made obsolete by in-air refueling, but only the B-36 could carry the early hydrogen bombs of the era.  While the B-36 never dropped a bomb in anger (it did drop at least one hydrogen bomb by accident--oops!), the reconnaissance versions were tasked with cold-war spying missions.  An outsized Boston camera carried by the B-36 had a huge focal plane roughly the size of an open newspaper, and the film negative stock required for a mission resided on giant rolls similar to those employed for printing paper in the newsprint industry.  The B-36 saw active duty though most of the 1950’s.

Atlantis’ B-36 #H205 began to show up in stores in early 2020.  This was originally a Revell kit, debuting with a lot of their early aircraft models circa 1954.  It last saw the light of day in 1980, although I don’t remember even seeing it in hobby stores in any great numbers at that time.  It has been very hard to find since then and collector examples for sale have priced quite high.  Atlantis Models has obtained the tooling for this kit and made it their own, releasing it with vintage artwork!

Atlantis' box is much larger than the standard-size Revell box used back in the day.  It makes the box art that much more spectacular!

This kit review is a work-in-progress and both of us (Dem Brudders) will weigh in on this kit.  Brudder Dick is a bonafide B-36 geek.  If you don’t believe it, check out his 1/72 Large Aircraft Gallery where you’ll see TWO huge B-36’s he’s built (keep going; we just might have some pictures further on in this article!).  As for me, I love the B-36, but don’t care to punish myself with the big Monogram kit.  There was a smaller kit in 1/144 from Hobbycraft that came along years ago, but that one has a pebbly finish to the plastic, which looks like a lot of work to fix in order to get that metal finish to look right.  That one’s become rare as well since it’s only had limited or no release since then.  Good luck finding one at any less than its original $40 MSRP.

Kit parts.  Note that a small stand also comes with it...

The perfect solution is the new Atlantis B-36.  While it was originally released in 1954, either the molds were carefully stored, or Atlantis has had some magic done to be sure that the kit parts look a lot better than their age.  With a 15-inch wingspan, it’s still a pretty good-sized model that will stand out on your shelf.  Official scale of the kit is listed at 1/184 but some sources cite 1/180.
 
Dem Brudders love Atlantis kit boxes!  They use all six sides of their boxes to great advantage, cramming all sorts of enticing information about the kit in this space.  There is an old debate among modelers as to which is better on a kit box, a cool painting, or a photograph of the model.  This box satisfies both preferences with a photo of the built model on the back.

Atlantis’ B-36 kit has the classic 1960’s Arctic box art version on the cover.  The picture has no text or graphics.  This is so you can cut it away from the rest of the box and hang it on your wall,  “suitable for framing” as the box states.  Consider it a free 8X13” print included with the model.  That’s a pretty big frame you’ll need.

There were a couple great sets of box art that appeared on the original kit boxes back in the day, and Atlantis includes the earlier version (initial “yellow sky” artwork) on the box ends.  The B&W photo on the back of the box appears to be vintage with some old-timey airbrush and touchup work done, and it is very cool—I’d say it’s probably worth cutting out and hanging on your wall, too, if you like doing that with your kit boxes.
 
Like a number of Revell’s early aircraft kits, especially the big bombers, this is a desktop model with no landing gear.  A clear “Atlantising Stand” is included in addition to a smaller “world globe” stand that was molded as part of the original kit.  Whichever stand you choose to use will provide a spare for other projects.

The decals for previous releases of this kit have probably never looked as good as they do here.

One important item I should mention up front is that you should wash kit parts in soapy water before any painting is done.  Regular dish soap works fine.  Like other model kit makers, Atlantis uses a mold release agent in order to assure high-quality parts and it may interfere with paint adhesion unless it’s washed off.  It washes off very easily with soapy water from Atlantis kits, unlike the silicone-based stuff that some other manufacturers use that requires more aggressive measures to remove.

...The Atlantising Stand:  #2 of 2 stands that come with the kit.

DEM BRUDDERS TIP:  When rinsing kit parts in the sink, be sure the drain is blocked slightly, enough that water goes down, but not any small kit parts.  Don’t ask us how we know this.
 
BUILD IT ALREADY!
 
The Atlantis B-36 is a basic kit, with few parts.  For the most part, everything fits together well and even new modelers who’ve been around the block with a tube or bottle of model glue should have no problems building it.
 
Your Atlantis B-36 is molded in silver plastic just like the original.  It will look even better under a coat of silver paint, and even better than that if parts of the plane are masked off and different shades of silver are used.

The modeler who plans to build this kit out-of-box with no embellishments should be able to make it an enjoyable weekend build.  I anticipate no unpleasant surprises; I have done some dry-fitting already and it all looks good so far.

Box tops were always a thing with modelers.  Who'd ever thought we'd be talking about box bottoms!  Kudos to Atlantis for utilizing that otherwise wasted real estate!

Parts will need a little cleanup, but nothing major.  There is a little flash.  You can watch “Strategic Air Command” (a great movie featuring the B-36 with Jimmy Stewart co-starring) and probably get the parts cleaned up before the spectacular B-36 crash in the film.  Watch the sprue attachment point on the tail; it’s pretty heavy and you can damage the tail leading edge if you’re not careful removing the sprue there.  If it does get dinged, a little sanding and model putty will easily fix it.  My kit had a few sinkholes, less than you’d expect for a vintage kit.  Filling them was easy.

One item that betrays the kit’s early origins is the raised decal locator markings.  Original kit makers put these on their kits to assist young modelers with accurate decal placement.  This feature went out the door after a couple years or so in the early days of plastic model kit production.  With this kit, it is very easy to deal with as the panel detail is of the engraved variety, and sanding off the raised markings will not affect the engraved lines.  You’ll probably want to remove them with 400 grit sandpaper, and follow up with 600 grit to smooth the surface in preparation for that silver finish.  After sanding, I’d hit just those areas with a little primer to be sure they’re totally smooth.  If not, simply re-sand, and recheck with primer until you’re happy it looks good, and then prime the whole model like you normally would.

Since when does a box end deserve a full-spread picture in a web article???  This box art ("Yellow Sky") is from the first issue of the Revell B-36.  We think it's great that Atlantis includes it on the box, and it certainly deserves "centerfold" treatment.

A wonky characteristic of silver plastic is that an image of the raised lettering will remain even though it’s been sanded perfectly smooth.  This is because silver plastic is just clear plastic with silver flakes in it.  So it has a somewhat translucent quality and the flakes align themselves below the surface of the raised detail, retaining an image of it even after the raised areas have been sanded away.

Kit specs (model length 10.25", wingspan 15"), a short B-36 history, paint colors, and a built photo of the model on this side of the box.

This side of the box includes a plug for the stand, the required, awful UPC, and specs for the real B-36.  It also says, "Made in America."

This photo shows the raised insignia markings sanded away.  They won't show up under paint.  Find out why by reading the fine print and Mad Scientist-Geek Bill will explain.  Also note some minor sinkholes after puttying, priming, and re-sanding.

Construction of this kit is pretty straightforward thanks to its simple design.  Some trimming of the six lower prop-engine pods might be needed to improve fit.  Experienced modelers know to dry-fit parts before gluing and any gaps can be dealt with appropriately.  This strategy is a good one to use for those six lower engine nacelles that are separate parts.  The reason those nacelles are separate are to easily create the bifurcated air intakes.  On this kit, the upper intake is created between the wing halves, and the bottom intake comes from the opening at the front of the separate lower intake piece.   You’ll probably have to tidy up the seams around these intakes, but the simple engineering actually creates a pretty elegant result. 

If you plan spinning props, don’t forget to trap them between the wing half when you glue those lower nacelle parts on.
 
Some minor sink marks and a couple areas on the fuselage joint will benefit from a swipe of putty.  Take your time to dry-fit the wings to the fuselage and that seam may need a little putty after wings are glued on.

We’re beginning to sound like a broken record here, but Atlantis decal sheets are very high quality and we see no issues getting the decals to look great on the model, and Atlantis includes a nice B-36 logo for that clear Atlantising Stand.
 
This is an easygoing build.  Originally designed for simple assembly, this kit might be a good one for a beginner who is looking to graduate from snap-together to glue-kits.  More experienced builders will enjoy the results obtained after the aforementioned parts prep and seam work since the paint scheme isn’t that complex.

Another view of prepped parts.  Note drilled gun blister positions.  Why do you think that Brudder Bill had to putty the leading edge of his vertical stabilizer?

Dem Brudders give this kit an enthusiastic four thumbs up, first to Atlantis for unearthing it in the first place, and secondly for their efforts to present the kit with first-rate quality, all the way from box to decals.  We wonder how they do it at the bargain price.  I'll go out on a limb here and proclaim it the best single thing to come out of the year 2020 so far.
 
SPECIAL SPECIAL THANKS TO ATLANTIS MODELS FOR PROVIDING EACH OF DEM BRUDDERS WITH A COPY OF THIS KIT TO REVIEW!!!  VISIT ATLANTIS-MODELS.COM TO SEE THIS AND THE OTHER FANTASTIC KITS IN THEIR RANGE--THEY ARE ANNOUNCING NEW ONES ALL THE TIME, SO WE SUGGEST THAT YOU VISIT OFTEN!

(Click on the picture above to learn more about the Atlantis B-36 at Amazon.com!)

BUY THE MODEL AND HELP OUR WEBSITE!  We are Amazon Associates.  Through our Amazon Affiliation, we receive a small commission when purchases are made on Amazon after being referred through these links--AT NO EXTRA COST TO YOU!

BONUS MATERIAL

BRUDDER DICK WEIGHS IN:  ADDITIONAL HISTORY OF THE B-36

Recently, I received by e-mail a copy of “The Corsair,” the official newsletter of the IPMS/Craig Hewitt chapter in Phoenix, AZ, which sponsors a fun annual show in that area called “Modelzona.”  In the newsletter was an article by Mark Krumrey featuring the B-36.  I learned from that article a few interesting tidbits about the actual aircraft worth repeating here:

In 1941, the USAAF worried that there would be no way to bomb Germany if Great Britain fell, so they issued a request for a bomber with intercontinental capabilities.  This meant not only a larger aircraft  with increased range, but an increased ceiling of 40,000 ft. to avoid Germany’s standard flak guns that wreaked havoc with the British bombers that flew at altitudes lower than this.  It also specified a 10,000 lb. bomb load, and a cruising speed between 240 and 300 mph.  The war in the Pacific also necessitated development of a longer-range bomber to operate out of Hawaii for long-range bombing missions over the main Japanese islands.

The first of two Monogram 1/72 B-36 models that Brudder Dick built.  Note that this is NOT the Atlantis kit.

The USAAF had an initial request of 100 of the new, outsize bombers before the completion and testing of prototypes was even accomplished.  Eventually, 384 B-36's were built.  Consolidated merged with Vultee in 1943 to become Convair.  They delayed production of the new bombers as they had their hands full building B-24’s and then a few B-32 Dominators (the Dominator was a hedge-bet in case the Boeing B-29 was not a successful aircraft.  We’d sure like to see a major kit manufacturer do a B-32!).

​With these delays, the first B-36 was not unveiled until August 20, 1945 and would not fly until August 8, 1946!

BUILD IT!​

​Having already built two rather large 1/72 scale Monogram kits, one not long after the kit first came out in the early 1980s, and the second one built more recently, I thought it would be fun to try out the new Atlantis-molded effort of what their box labeled as the “USAF B-36 Peacemaker Giant Bomber.”

The second of two Monogram 1/72 B-36 models built by Dick.  Check out our gallery of his large 1/72 scale aircraft.

So, with that in mind, I was plenty interested in adding one more of this “Six-Turning Four-Burning" giant to my collection.  I am happy to use the display stand that comes with the kit so I can pose the 1/184 model in flight and a quick look at the parts tells me the surface detail for that scale with engraved panel lines, etc., will look really good, especially when I use the same fancy metal shade combination of aluminum, silver, magnesium and anodonic gray as I used on my most recent Monogram 1/72 B-36.  With the recent (as this is written) cancellation of the 2020 IPMS/USA Nationals Convention in Texas, pressure is off to finish projects for that event, so I will move the Atlantis B-36 to my modeling on-deck circle and will provide building updates as I proceed!  Thank you, Atlantis, for giving me a fun and refreshing project to take my mind off COVID-19 for a while!
 
CHASING THE HOLY GRAIL:

We’re delighted that the folks at Atlantis enjoy our website!  Peter Vetri generously provided Dem Brudders a pair of B-36 kits.  While I felt like a slug requesting two, I knew that Brudder Dick and I would have a tug-of-war over one kit and we need to give a special thanks to Atlantis for providing a pair to make Dem Brudders happy.

For me, I knew I had to have a classic Revell 1/180 B-36 the moment I saw it wired to a pegboard display of built, small-scale plastic models at Tucson Hobby Shop in the mid-1980’s.  When asked if they’d sell it to me off the pegboard, the shop staff replied with a definite “uh-uh.”
 
By that time, it was impossible to find the classic Revell B-36 kit in hobby shops, the last examples of its previous release long since sold.  

Formerly rare as hen's teeth.

Pre-Internet, many mail-order sellers would provide lists of old kits for resale (you’d mail a SASE to get one—if you don’t know what a SASE is, it probably means you’re not old guys like us—Google it!).  None of those lists I ever got had a Revell 1/180 B-36 on it at any price.

THOU SHALT NOT COVET
 
When Dick and I began attending the IPMS/USA Nationals in 1995, I eagerly perused the supermarket-sized vendor’s areas there, looking for a classic Revell B-36.  After attending a few times, I noted that on occasion, a guy would show up with a set of vintage 1950’s Revell kits, all in pretty good shape, and it seemed like the B-36 was always there.  However, it taunted me with its price, well over $100.00.  It’s possible that I saw the same guy trying to sell the same B-36 at the same price—year after year.  While I was having fun doing all the other things at Nationals, he was probably having just as much fun watching me drool over his high-dollar B-36, wondering when I was finally going to bite.
 
If and when you happen to acquire a collector kit like this, the next agonizing decision (after spending big bucks for a kit that originally sold for like 79 cents), is whether you want to build it or not.  As we all know, building a vintage kit reduces its value to other collectors, especially if it was a sealed kit in the first place.  But it’s so much fun!  Removing that cellophane from a sealed vintage kit allows you to fondle the contents like a tomb raider.  You know the plastic inside has not seen the light of day since it was first made and that first glance is a momentous occasion.  But you’ve also just reduced the value of that collector kit by simply opening it.  Dang economics!
​
ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO HE WHO WAITS

Atlantis completely wiped out this dilemma for me when they released the B-36 in early 2020.  At its low, low price of $21.99, you can easily buy one to build and one to collect!  Keep the kit with the straightest box unopened in your stash and let some other schmuck drool over it decades down the road.  Take that, guy who enticed me with that beautiful, vintage Revell B-36 at Nationals all those years!!

A couple years or so ago, I had a conversation with the proprietor of a favorite hobby shop which shall remain nameless.  We discussed the then-recent news that Atlantis Models had acquired a significant amount of Revell Models' legacy tooling after Revell had imploded thanks to the Hobbico malfeasance.  The proprietor didn't seem confident that he'd carry many of these "old Revell kits" because he didn't think there'd be any interest among his customers.  Fast forward to mid-2020; during a recent visit, he had at least a half-dozen Atlantis B-36 kits in his shop indicating a strong interest in this kit.  I found it quite amusing that one of them was placed with his science fiction models, as if someone might not believe that the B-36 was a real aircraft! 

A QUICK SCREED ON “BOX SCALE” MODELS
 
Most modelers know that “box scale” means that a model kit’s engineering was aligned so that the completed parts would fit inside a specific-sized box.  In the early days of scale models, the kit boxes were an elaborate affair.

Four Giant Model Bombers!  All the same size - only in "Box Scale!"  B-52--Check!  B-36--Check!  Let's hope that Atlantis Models can soon re-release the box-scale B-29 and B-47 (hint, hint! ;-).

Fairly heavy cardboard was die-cut at the edges and notched to fold into box tops and bottoms.  The notches became corners, which were pasted with four bits of hinge-like pieces of paper, one at each corner, top and bottom.  A shiny paper overlay with the box art was pasted on the box top.  These boxes—eleven separate pieces of paper each— then had to be transported or stored somewhere awaiting production of the kit to put inside.  The box actually cost the model company more than the kit plastic inside.  Standardizing kits to a similar size to fit this elaborate box was almost a necessity explaining the different scales when it came time to box a B-29 (in 1/130 scale) in the same space as a B-36 (1/184 scale).  Each box had about the same amount of plastic so that the models could be the same price.  This simplified inventory handling all the way from manufacturer to retail shelf.

We assumed that the elaborate eleven-piece box was no longer made.  However, we have it on good authority that at least one Atlantis kit comes with one of these vintage-style eleven-piece boxes!  If they send us one, we'll review it ;-)!

For the modeler, Box Scale meant that the kits were always about the same price and were roughly the same size when complete and that B-24 (1/92 scale) needed the same amount of shelf space as that B-52 (1/175).
 
Of course we all know that modelers matured and made demands on the model companies like releasing their kits in a constant scale so the size difference between different airplanes could be realistically portrayed.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but now that Atlantis is re-releasing many of these box-scale kits, the modeler can once again enjoy these old Revell classics, or enjoy them for the first time together on the shelf.  At roughly the same size, a collection of these models built and placed on the shelf will make an interesting and appealing display together, as they did originally back in the day.
 
I’m guessing that additional kits in this original series will appear in the future and perhaps we’ll see classics such as the 1/117 B-47 and 1/130 B-29 from Atlantis that we can put on our shelves alongside their B-24, B-25, B-52, P-3 Orion, and of course, the B-36.  The magic and appeal of “box scale” comes when all these kits can be found and collected at the same time, something that hasn’t been able to happen in decades.  So, start collecting "Box Scale" if you haven't already!

EXPERIENCE IT!
 
If you’ve read this far, we’d guess that you like the B-36.  We’d also wager that you’ve heard of or seen the movie, “Strategic Air Command.”  If not, drop what you’re doing and watch it!  A few years ago, it was remastered on BluRay disc and it looks simply amazing!  The star of the movie is unquestionably the B-36.  Jimmy Stewart is in it, too.  Within just a couple minutes or so, the B-36 makes a spectacular flyover (turn up your sound!!) and there are many scenes on the ground and in the air where this airplane is beautifully depicted.  It's a must-see for all B-36 fans.

We don’t want to give anything away, but there is a spectacular crash with a nice cascade of 1950’s special effects that range from “Wow, that’s cool!” to “Wow, that’s pretty cheesy!”  Does Jimmy Stewart survive?  Will Jimmy Stewart’s baseball career survive?  You’ll just have to watch it to find out (SPOILER ALERT WARNING:  JUNE ALLYSON IS REALLY REALLY WHINY IN THIS MOVIE!)
 
We’d love to give you a referral to some source where you pay big bucks for this movie and we get a swanky kickback, but we can’t be quite that shameless.  It’s our little secret that if you have an Amazon Prime membership, you can watch the movie FREE (as of time of posting!).  If you have Amazon Prime and have never used this perk, go to Amazon.com, and sign into your account if you’re not already.  Search for “Strategic Air Command” in the search bar. 

If that low $21.99 MSRP for the Atlantis B-36 is a bit stiff right now, you can always print one of these to build while you save up your money.

Scroll down to the version that says, “$0.00 with a Prime membership” and click on the B-36 to start the movie.  If your TV has Internet capability, you can probably set it up to watch Prime Video there.  If you’ve never done it and don’t know how, your kids can probably help you set it up.  Just between you and us, Amazon Prime Video has a bunch of aviation and space-related documentaries that are better than those on Netflix.  The price of a Prime membership is worth those alone in Brudder Bill’s humble opinion.  For some people, it's popular to bash "I-will-never-shop-there" Amazon.  If you're one of those people, sign up for Prime, never buy anything, and enjoy all the free movie and documentary content.  It'll be a lot cheaper than cable TV.  Take the money you'll save and buy your Atlantis B-36 right away, instead of having to print up the lame paper thingy above.

EXPERIENCE IT SOME MORE
 
Brudder Dick and I have visited aircraft museums where there are B-36’s in differing conditions and settings, and we’d like to share some photos with you.

DEM BRUDDERS WHAT-DOES-IT-HAVE-TO-DO-WITH-MODELING TIP:  The B-36 at the NMUSAF is so big, it's really hard to get the whole thing in a photo.  To get this balcony photo, I used "Pano" (panoramic) mode on my camera.  I kept that line in the center of my screen lined up as closely as i could to the centerline of the fuselage as I made the scan for the picture.  Taking the picture this way keeps the horizontal lines of your subject from distorting.  Otherwise, the B-36 would have looked like a banana.  Try it!

Perhaps the most pristine B-36 can be seen at The Museum of the United States Air Force, in Dayton, Ohio.
 
In the heartland, a B-36 resides at the SAC Museum in Ashland, Ne, not far from Omaha.

PIMA AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM SPOTLIGHT
 
Out West, the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, AZ has a B-36 that lives in their outdoor display area.  Perhaps the biggest appeal of this aircraft is that there are no other planes close by, and it is pretty easy to photograph the entire aircraft.  When we were there a few years ago, it wasn’t roped off so you could get good and close to photograph many obscure details that would help you build an accurate model of the B-36.

The outdoor aircraft display area of the Pima Air  and Space Museum (near Tucson, AZ) is huge!  We liked how they put the B-36 by itself so it was very easy to photograph when we were there last in November, 2016.

Special Dem Brudders What-Does-It-Have-To-Do-With-Scale-Modeling Tip II: 
 
We’ve learned that a good time to visit the Pima Air Museum is between October and April when the weather is cooler.  As a bargain, with the sun lower in the southern sky, you get better light for photography.  Some of our B-36 photos here were taken in November!  The weather there was great and the color in all our photos was richer thanks to the low angle of the sun at that time of the year there.

This B-36 is "City of Fort Worth," the last B-36 built.  Note the underside of this aircraft is "Nuclear Flash White."  The theory here is that the reflective finish would prevent the infrared flash of a hydrogen bomb detonation from cooking the aircraft.  If memory serves, the earlier B-36's, such as that portrayed by the Atlantis kit, were overall metallic.  The "white bottom" scheme here was also shared by early B-52's.

If you are visiting Pima Air Museum in the summertime, we’d recommend that you arrive as soon as the museum opens as a strategy to avoid the Arizona heat.  Once you’re in the museum, resist the urge to linger in the main museum building where the entrance is, and head right on outside to the multi-acre display area there.  It never gets very crowded there, but you’ll have the whole place to yourself until the other people percolate through the main building.  The main benefit is that it’s a lot cooler.  As it warms up, you can go back and see the many air-conditioned buildings. 

Brudder Dick is about 6'1" or so; he's a pretty tall guy.  Not so much next to a B-36.  And no, Dick did not flip the aircraft around so it faced the other direction.  This picture was taken during a summer visit.  Note how the lighting has changed compared to the pictures taken in November.  The sun is practically overhead here and the colors are flatter.

Brudder Dick is now standing underneath the wing, and I've pulled back a bit.  You can barely see him in this picture!

It seems like every time we visit Pima Air Museum, they’ve finished a new indoor display area, and many aircraft in their collection have been moved indoors and restored to look like new.  Their Martin Mariner is a good example of this.  For years, the Mariner sat outside in a rather mundane aluminum finish.  Once their main building annex was prepared for it, the Mariner was restored and looks great in its Navy sea-blue finish.

Here's a look at the business end of the engines, five per side!

This shot provides a nice side view of the forward fuselage.  The B-36 has a definite nose-down stance on its landing gear.  Keep this in mind if you decide to scratchbuild landing gear for your Atlantis B-36.  Who would be crazy enough to try that?  We'll update this website as we build our own B-36's...

In Atwater, California, you can visit the Castle Air Museum to see a B-36, and a lot of other very cool aircraft as seen in this aerial photo.

(Click on the picture above to learn more about the Atlantis B-36 at Amazon.com!)

BUY THE MODEL AND HELP OUR WEBSITE!  We are Amazon Associates.  Through our Amazon Affiliation, we receive a small commission when purchases are made on Amazon after being referred through these links--AT NO EXTRA COST TO YOU!

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