Collect-Aire Models

Kit Number 4874

1/48 B/RB-66 Destroyer

Reviewed By Rod Lees, #10821

Collect-aire’s B-66 kit ranks up among the best resin kits I’ve ever built (and I’ve built a lot of them).  The surface detail is almost perfect, as is the fit of all the parts.  You can build a twin-20mm gun tailed B-66B straight out of the box, or one of several variants of the EB-66 family with the associated electronic protuberances.  Tails for both versions are included in the kit.  With the exception of two or three enclosed radomes, you are on your own for the electronics suite.  I opted to construct an EB-66C from the 36^th at Bitburg, as I didn’t fancy the option of building about 30 antennas to stick on the bottom of the fuselage, and I also wanted to use the wingtip pods.  Several other color schemes are provided for on the decal sheets, including natural metal and camouflage versions.

On to the build, which was almost uneventful.  The cockpit only needed some harness and buckle assemblies for the seats, which are extremely well done.  The instrument, electrical and ECM panels all were extremely well detailed.  No pitting, no bubbles, no “short shots” on the switches.  Paint, assemble, and install, period.  The fuselage halves fit together perfectly.  The main landing gear is metal, well formed and fit where it was supposed to.  And most importantly, it holds the weight of the finished kit!

On to the engines; the nacelles contained compressor fan faces attached to the accessory section bullet and vanes, in single piece intakes; no seam to fill!  A turbine face is included, in a simple “glue to one side” mounting.  Assemble both halves, add a little filler, sand it down, and put aside for later installation.  During dry fit, I determined the engine nacelles fit well enough to install after the model was painted, but I like to get my filling and sanding finished before painting, so I went ahead and superglued them in place.  The substantial wing attachment tabs required minimal cleanup before being installed in their slots.  Like the rest of the kit, a little adjustment, some filler, and structural integrity is assured.  This is good, as the wings are extremely large castings with plenty of weight.  I used my Dremel tool with a sanding drum to hog-out attachment points for the wingtip pods.  This was the only area I had difficulty with, as it requires a lot of Mk 1 Eyeballing to get both pods installed properly.  A bit of filler, and they are in.

I installed the canopy at this juncture; Collectaire provides two vacuum-formed canopies for the usual “oops” factor.  I successfully cut one out, Future-treated it, and installed some .010 strip around the back of the cockpit frame to provide structure for the canopy to rest on.  I initially glued it in place with Hypo-tube watch crystal cement, followed up with RC-56 canopy glue for strength.  I masked the clear sections, sprayed the frame black, and filled and sanded any remaining gaps with Squadron white putty to blend the canopy into the fuselage.

I installed the large lower forward antenna, with the spares box providing the mid-fuselage and aft radomes.  (In this case, half an appropriately shaped external gun pod and a teardrop shape from another kit for the rearmost antenna).  I decided to install the slats in the proper “open-on-the ground” position, and left the fuselage speed brakes off until I had completed painting and detailing as I was running out of places to hold this beast!

To finish, I used Polly-S Vietnam camouflage colors, and Lou Drendel’s out of print book, “TAC: A Pictorial History of USAF Tactical Air Forces, 1970-1977” to accurately paint the camouflage pattern.  It contains several good photos of camouflaged EB-66’s.  The decals went down well over the Tamiya clear coat.  A coat of Testors Acryl flat, superglue the wheel/tire assemblies in place, and add the final detail work like crew entrance door/ladder and IFR probe.

I’m missing a couple of flap fairings, as my hams and digits raked across them during an attempt to move the model.  The garage floor has them hostage, I’m sure… someday I’ll make some out of sheet plastic.  I scratch built and installed the large forward and mid-fuselage side ECM antenna blades… using the TLAR method (“That looks about right”), added a rotating beacon from Cutting Edge, and decided to quit.  There are still a few things left to do, but not now.

The only criticism I have?  It takes up the space of two F-105’s and an F-100!  This is a magnificent effort by Lou and crew at Collect-aire… I’m sure there was not a lot of profit in this one, as the effort that went into it was more of a labor of love than an effort to pay the mortgage.  The bar was just raised once more…

(Review kit courtesy of my wallet and an extremely dead cash cow)

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