Little Boy

[Nando]

It's almost six years that I'm member here, but I mainly posted at pm.com in the last time. Recently Zathros invited me and I'm here now to present my last project.
All started from some book I read about the history of the atomic bomb.



The argument triggered my curiosity and i begun to collect information about the first bomb used as operational weapon: the Little Boy dropped over Hiroshima the august, 6 1945. Soon I collected enough material for try to design the bomb and before to begin I had lot of doubts for the nature of the subject e for the pain that it caused. I was a post-war child, and my life and that of my generation was deeply marked by those events, therefore I decided to try to realize the model.

I started with some pictures and drawings that I found online: the original device, but also replicas, models and original casings.

The project has taken shape in Sketchup

So the cycle of prototyping has started, going from design to test built to return to the drawing that contains corrections and additions, which were identified while building.

Two solutions for the tail tested. The green is the chosen one, and this time I started to colorize the parts using Inkscape

Below You can see the first attempt to reproduce the Yagi antennas

 

[Nando]

The Dolly

This is the first version of the dolly. I was not very satisfied.

I redrawn the dolly changing the wheels, adding reinforcement, some details (the rings), a bar ( the tiller?) to sustain the heavy tail .

The dolly doesn't reproduce the real one. Many carriages and supports were used with the real thing and today in the exibitions, but i think that a similar real dolly could withstand the four tons of the bomb.

 

[Nando]

Colors

Too many colors: green, light green, brown, blue, dark blue …

I looked for footages in videos on Youtube and I found only a sequence when the people is tugging the bomb out of the Tinian hangar. Some videos, all poor quality and again different colors …. In one it seems dark blue and in an other dark green.

FS34087-99 could be the one for me, but in this comparison it seems to me that the FS34130 is better, even considering lighting. At the end however I chose to complete the model painted with the FS34087 tone.

 

[Nando]

The Model

Here below some steps into building process model and I'm quite satisfied for the overall result.

A little bit of weight to balance the tail

Components of the body now are completed

The Yagi Antennas

The lift lug

The Tail

 

[Nando]

The Dolly

 

[Nando]

Model complete

Little Boy is my first commercial model and it's available here.

I hope You Enjoy. You can see more pics at my web album

Best, Nando

 

[Zathros]

To say a nuclear bomb is beautiful is kind of weird. To say this model of a nuclear bomb is beautiful is just stating fact!!

 

[niebla de fuego]

Your bomb is very nice. I like a lot the way you design

 

[Nando]

Thank You all for your appreciations.
I'm thinking about to complete the collection with the Fat Man model and with the reproduction of the trailer of both the bombs at Tinian.

More soon. Best, Nando