Minicraft/Hasegawa 1/72 B-47E Stratojet

The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long-range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft. The primary mission of the B-47 was as a nuclear bomber capable of striking targets within the Soviet Union.

This kit is actually a WB-47E, so here is a bit on that variant. Following the single WB-47B conversion, in the early 1960s, 34 B-47Es were converted by Lockheed into WB-47Es for weather reconnaissance to replace 44 WB-50D Superfortresses that had suffered several fatal crashes between 1956 and 1960. Stripped of combat gear, they were fitted with nose cameras to photograph cloud formations and a meteorological instrument pod in the bomb bay. Initially assigned to the Air Weather Service of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS), they became part of the Military Airlift Command (MAC) upon its establishment. The WB-47Es, the last B-47s in USAF service, were retired in October 1969.

The 53d Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, of the 9th Weather Reconnaissance Wing, operated WB-47Es from Hunter Air Force Base and Ramey Air Force Base. These assets were transferred to the 57th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron for Operation Arc Light, operating from Clark Air Base.

For many years in the 1970s and into the 1980s, Minicraft reboxed Hasegawa kits for sale in the US. Sometimes the box art and decals were the same, while at other times Minicraft used Scalemaster decals for their kits. These kits also included instructions in English, which meant that the artwork in construction section was the same as in the Japanese kits. It was obviously a good deal for Minicraft. A LOT of the Hasegawa kits I built during that time period were in Minicraft boxes. This is one of them.

Molded in white plastic, the kit parts are not in a bag, but separated by thin sheets of paper. The lone transparency is simply tossed into the box in a method similar to Monogram. Despite being a large kit, it is also quite simple.

The cockpit has two generic seats for the crew and a single control for the pilot. This is trapped between the fuselage halves. No color information for this or any other part is provided during construction. No indication if nose weight is needed, but there is plenty of room for it if you wish to add some.

Next the landing gear and wheels are assembled, including the outrigger wheels and struts. To fill the bomb bay, 24 bombs are then assembled and attached to plates that will fit in the bomb bay. Wings and tailplanes are next glued together and installed. This is followed by the external tanks and the two engine pods. The kit shows a tail gun being installed, but for the markings provided, that would have been faired over.

The next steps involve installing the landing gear and bomb bays. Follow the instructions on this one as there is a sequence for doing this. The gear are then attached along with the engines and fuel tanks. The bomb loads are then added to the bomb bay. This is followed by the bay and gear doors. I'm betting that you can rig the bay doors closed as the weather bird would not have carried bombs. Finally, a crew entrance door and ladder are attached, though with no real interior, most of us will model this door closed.

I've mentioned the instructions in the lead paragraph. The markings option is for a weather recce bird in unpainted metal and white with da-glo orange markings. The Scalemaster decal sheet is, as usual, a bit off register on the da-glo bits, but not as bad as I've seen others. Due to the age of the markings, they should be clear coated to ensure they don't break up as B-47 decals are not the easiest to find.

As far as I can tell, this is still the only B-47 kit in this scale. Over the years there have been upgrade parts for it but I'm unusure what is currently available. The last Hasegawa release of this was just last year, so it isn't impossible to fine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-47_Stratojet

October 2025

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