Folks,
I was at McChord AFB's Heritage Hill Air Park a couple of months ago, and shot some picks of thier B-18 Bolo-- a truly hideous aircraft. (My trip to McChord was originally to shoot picks of thier F-102 and F-103, as I'm building the Hasegawa and Meng kits, but I figured since I was there I'd take pics of all the A/C in the park-- which turned into an article for Large Scale Planes). I've now become seduced by the total ugliness of the B-18A. I was totally unaware that Special Hobby released a B-18, until by chance I saw one in my LHS last week. Do any of you have any experience with the Special Hobby B-18 kit, There's a feature at the IPMS website by a guy who started building one, but didn't finish. I'd like to know if there are any pitfalls before I get started. It's one of those aircraft that makes you want to wash out your eyes with lye when you see it, but it kinda grows on you after a while!!
VR, Russ

I found this and hope it helps.

https://modelingmadness.com/scott/preww2/previews/mpm-sh-az/72095.htm

Can't help you with the kit, but totally sympathize about the charismatic appeal of the aircraft. the 30s were a wonderful time for aircraft design.

It truly is hideously ugly. I can't believe it made it off the drawing board.

I can't believe that it's a close cousin of the Dakota, which is the diametrical opposite of hideously ugly. They obviously had to work extremely hard to make it look so awful.

At least the Digby, with its shark nose, looks slightly more purposeful and militarily dignified.

Jessie,
Thanks for the link. Actually, I've purchased the SH "B-18 Bolo at War", (for an equally hideous price by the way-- although I got a fair deal on mine), it's really the same as the Digby, just in US colors-- with the long shark nose. I was trying to find someone who's built the kit, but all I can find are previews. The "shark nose" B-18 is what's at the McChord AFB museum-- one of only six B-18s/Digby's in existence woldwide. My understanding is the Digby was employed as an ASW aircraft and transport in Canada, actually sinking a sub, and one US Bolo sank a sub too. The kit comes with all the parts to make any version, just not the decals. The B-18 is more closely related to the DC-2 than the DC-3 I think, and the B-23 Dragon was Douglas' attempt to fix the Bolo-- it's only slightly less hideous. Not sure why I've been "bitten" by the ugliness of this bird-- temporary insanity maybe??
VR, Russ

Oh, I thought that you meant the round-nose B-18, which obviously had an extra-long session with the Ugly Stick.

The pedigree of the B-18 is somewhat confusing given that it was developed at about the same time as the DC-2 and -3 were. It's got a C-39 tail, DC-3 wing, DC-2 fuselage but it has an entirely new lower section to house the bomb bay and also the new nose section for the guner, bomb-aimer and other crew to sit in. Douglas was branching out in all sorts of directions at the time, which from the perspective of looking back and expecting an orderly, linear, evolutionary development process make exactly no sense.

I've built the SH DC-2 which is a very similar kit, and had very little trouble with it. You need to have some familiarity with short-run models given the complete absence of locating pins and the sometimes frustrating breakdown of the parts (separate prop blades and hub, anyone?) If you have any amount of experience, I'd say that you'll enjoy building it

There are a few online builds of the Digby boxing which you may not have found if you were searching strictly for "B-18". Many of them are suffering from Photobucket's infamous ransom notice though

Jessie, thanks for the tip about the Digby-- I'll look that one up. I've built several SH kits, resin, and Vacform over the years, so it doesn't scare me much-- I was referring to detail issues and corrections. I just got back from doing a photo shoot of the 17th BG B-18 at McChord, but it has some details that are different from other B-18s and I'm trying to sort those out. This particular aircraft was supposedly recovered in Mexico, but beyond that I haven't come up with any other history. I am pleasantly surprised that what's in the kit box includes everything for a B-18A, B, Digby, and a bulbous radar nose for the ASW versions, so you can really build what you want-- unfortunately there aren't many references available. As I walked around it today, I definitely saw the "piecemeal" designs you speak of, and since there is a C47 and B-23 parked right next to it, it's easy to compare. I did read somewhere that the B-18 was a product of the Great Depression, but had the same performance specs of an HE 111!!!
VR, Russ

If you don't have it, you'll probably want to get a copy of this.

Jessie,
Brilliant! Thanks for the link! I can't believe I'm going to spend some more on this ugly beast-- but it kind of grows on you!
VR, Russ

It's a bit like a bulldog; so ugly it becomes endearing

Funny, that's what I was thinking too-- a few years ago, I was sucked in by the not quite but almost as ugly Breuget XIV too, and scratched an interior and wings for a 1963 Aurora kit, and a whole bunch of other stuff--- it became more endearing as I went along, but it's pretty ugly too. I'll let you know how the B-18 comes out.
VR, Russ