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1/72 Mach 3 Overload!


Alan P

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Hi folks,

 

Very long time without a build, due to a new career launch in writing. One novel under my belt, second is well under way. Details in my profile "About Me" section if you're interested.

 

Thought I was neglecting all those lovely kits I bought last year, so it's time to clear some shelf space, starting with one of the biggest.

 

The AMT/Italeri 1/72 XB-70 Valkyrie has been well-covered on here by the likes of General Melchett and Wee Beastie, so I won't say much about that. But the Anigrand 1/72 XF-108 Rapier is a new one as far as I know, so that will make some interesting building for me and for you too, I hope!

 

Having a problem with photos due to camera battery exhaustion, so I'll just use this as a placeholder for now. More soon!!

 

Alan

 

Edited by Alan P
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And we're off!

Quick look at what's to come:

tn_DSCN5347

Beautiful box art - a famous photo rendered in lovely paintwork.

Also adding some aftermarket help for the beast:

tn_DSCN5348

 

tn_DSCN5349

Armory Models correctly sized J93 nozzles

 

 

tn_DSCN5351

 

tn_DSCN5350

Extratech PE detail set - includes some detailed plates around the J93 six-pack plus numerous surface details for the upper body - vents, panels, and access covers.

 

That's the XB-70 stuff...

 

Edited by Alan P
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The Anigrand XF-108:

tn_DSCN5344

 

tn_DSCN5343

This is very big! Think of an F-111 bolted to an F-106 and you're in the right territory.

 

tn_DSCN5346

This is the only same-scale aircraft I had to hand. The XF-108 was about 90ft long with a 60ft wingspan. It was designed to use the same J93 engines as the XB-70.

The kit is very well cast as far as the details go - no bubbles, all the extra parts are intact, virtually bubble-free and not warped. Win!

 

The only casting issues are with the intake interiors, lots of flash and unevenness. But that's what knives and sandpaper were invented for, right? ;)

 

Al

 

Edited by Alan P
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Done some work on the Valk:

 

tn_DSCN5340

 

Seat capsules with added belts

 

tn_DSCN5341

Cockpit with added throttle quadrant - I had made a sexy six-lever throttle assembly, but somehow it got snapped off and has disappeared. In view of its mostly invisible appearance once the cockpit is fitted, I decided not to bother making another one. But I might do it anyway due to OCD.

 

 

tn_DSCN5342

Finished cockpit.

 

I can get on with rescribing the huge wing surfaces indoors!

 

More soon!

 

Alan

Edited by Alan P
Pic links restored.
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Impressive aircraft! Just read on Wiki that the F-108 programme was cancelled partly due to cost; estimated at $4 billion for the programme. Not sure how many they were planning to buy, but suspect it was more than the 11 F-22's you'd get for the same money*. :winkgrin:

 

Novel duly ordered, looks interesting!

 

regards,

Jason

 

* To keep the pedants happy, this would be about $33bn in today's money.

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Thanks very much Jason, for the comments and for the book! :)

 

Those were the days of seemingly infinite defence budgets all right. SAC wanted about 75 XB-70s and a similar number of Mach 3 escort fighters. Heady days indeed.

 

The idea was originally to save on costs by combining the research budget of both aircraft to produce common elements like engines and material design. Meanwhile Lockheed were quietly getting on with their A-12 programme which was ultimately more successful and long-lived (and cheaper!)

 

Thanks again Jason,


Al

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Excellent!!!! I just droped in by chance and this is great stuff. I have the same kits and aftermarket (I have posted some short reviews somewhere here on these sets). I recasted the nozzles from the Extratech set in resin for the F-108 as the Anigrand parts look quite poor IMHO. Both builds are shelft and I freequently think about pulling them back to the table - nice to see them build by you.

 

I shelved the (AMT) XB-70 before the Extratech set was released. I could live (hardly) with the intakes which end quite early but could not live with the undersized exhausts. In the mean time I bought an Italeri rebox which I plan to build as AV2 :shutup:. Well - some day.

 

The F-108 was shelved as I wanted to show it with open canopy and weapons bay. I got carried away again only to realize that I need more reference material. One tip: Do not try to open the weapons bay. I recasted some missiles from an Italeri YF-12 and tried to put them on a rotary launcher... But it will not fit inside the fuselage (too large diameter). No idea how North American had planned this. But of course it was not much more than a concept and even the mock up on which the Anigrand kit is based has changed quite a bit referring to later dated drawings from NA.

 

If you need reference material, let me know. I have some books on the XB-70 and a Wings article on the F-108 including cockpit pics (mock up of course).

 

René

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59 minutes ago, Caerbannog said:

Excellent!!!! I just dropped in by chance and this is great stuff. I have the same kits and aftermarket (I have posted some short reviews somewhere here on these sets). I recast the nozzles from the Extratech set in resin for the F-108 as the Anigrand parts look quite poor IMHO. Both builds are shelved and I frequently think about pulling them back to the table - nice to see them build by you.

 

I shelved the (AMT) XB-70 before the Extratech set was released. I could live (hardly) with the intakes which end quite early but could not live with the undersized exhausts. In the meantime I bought an Italeri rebox which I plan to build as A/V 2 :shutup:. Well - some day.

 

The F-108 was shelved as I wanted to show it with open canopy and weapons bay. I got carried away again only to realise that I need more reference material. One tip: Do not try to open the weapons bay. I recasted some missiles from an Italeri YF-12 and tried to put them on a rotary launcher... But it will not fit inside the fuselage (too large diameter). No idea how North American had planned this. But of course it was not much more than a concept and even the mock up on which the Anigrand kit is based has changed quite a bit referring to later dated drawings from NA.

 

If you need reference material, let me know. I have some books on the XB-70 and a Wings article on the F-108 including cockpit pics (mock up of course).

 

René

Thanks for the offer, Rene. I've got enough reference material for the work I want to do on the kit, most notably the Jenkins/Landis Specialty Press book. I'm not going to do much with the XF-108 cockpit as it will be mostly unseen, and the Anigrand presentation is quite plain in any case. I'm going to do the XF-108 in a notional AFFTC scheme in International Orange over White. I was toying with doing the Valkyrie as A/V 2 as well, but the wing dihedral is not a straight line and might present too many difficulties. I think if I do A/V 1 in its NASA scheme, it will give a good excuse to have the two side by side in an Edwards flightline pose!

 

As far as the missile bay goes: it was a rotary launcher, but the release aperture with the bay doors open only let one missile drop at a time, judging from the drawings.

 

2 hours ago, JamesP said:

The Cyber-Hobby kit provides 3 sets of wing tips to allow all position to be displayed, how does this kit handle that?

The kit only provides fully up or fully down, so I will need to do some doctoring to pose it at the intermediate 25-degree pose (which looks best in my opinion!)

 

Al

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On 30.11.2016 at 6:42 PM, Alan P said:

(...) I was toying with doing the Valkyrie as A/V 2 as well, but the wing dihedral is not a straight line and might present too many difficulties. (...)

 

As far as the missile bay goes: it was a rotary launcher, but the release aperture with the bay doors open only let one missile drop at a time, judging from the drawings.

 

The kit only provides fully up or fully down, so I will need to do some doctoring to pose it at the intermediate 25-degree pose (which looks best in my opinion!)

 

Al

 

The wing dihedral is the major problem of this conversion. But I am quite sure that it is a straight line:

 

XB70_01_zps6whkb6kb.jpg

 

I guess I will cut up one of my kits to find out :-)

 

Regarding the rotary launcer - I know it was meant to fire one rocket at a time. My point was that three rockets combined (including the fins) have a bigger diameter than the space inside the fuselage would allow. I could maybe fake this by cutting the fins of the upper two rockets so they fit inside. It would probably not visible. But having had about 10 years to get used to the idea I would probably just keep the bay simply closed ;-)

 

I am eager to see your solution for the 25° position. AV-2 had the wings at 25° on roll-out and the visor in the up position. Looks awsome :-)

 

René

 

Edited by Caerbannog
repaired corrupted Photobucket link
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North_American_XB-70A_Valkyrie_view_(top

Looking at this pic, I'd say the line of dihedral follows the curve of the intake section beneath the wing. There is a very small sawtooth at the leading edge of the wing, and the line ends at the leading edge of the fin. Then again, maybe it is a straight line, just slightly diagonal? I'm going to have a go either way.

 

But that is definitely the look I want to capture!

Edited by Alan P
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Al, great to see you tackling this one, should look mighty impressive when done. As I've got a couple of F-108's in the 'special needs' stash my plan is to have one sat fitted atop one of my SR-75's in place of the XR-7, (the other is a grey ADC machine with four drop tanks, scratched undercarriage and revised engine exhausts). Also have another XB-70 which is well on it's way to becoming the core of a Myasishchev M-18 long range heavy bomber project that was cancelled early on in favour of the Tu-160. 

I also thought about doing the AV2 configuration but just have way too much going on for that, would look good though.

 

Regarding the F-108 Rene's right about the rotary missile fit being too large for the fuselage so I just closed the thing up. Due to the breakdown of the kit there is a nasty join that runs through the bay which needs a fair bit of filling to sort out. On the ADC one I've opened both canopies, scratched the interiors and seats from mock up images, new U/C, added four wing mounted tanks and vac formed better fitting canopies, really must splosh some paint on the thing before it gathers too much dust.....

 

Good luck with the writing career and new novel.....sounds fun.

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  • 1 month later...

Aha, still have an AMT XB-70 in the model room. had to use industrial strength amounts of Milliput on the wing roots, I smoothed this down when it was still wet, so there was less sanding.  Careful dry-assembling and trimming reaps its awards when finally gluing the big wings and fuselage together.  Model Canopy has deep framing, but the real aircraft has very flush framing. 

 

AMT kit: 

xb70_5.jpg

 

xb70_2.jpg

In the museum, they rarely move the A1 prototype around, but call it the nodding dog when it moves on its wheels, as the nose section jiggles up and down to bumps i n the road, the prototype now has cracks in the fuselage just above the point of the delta. My model has a crack where the front fuselage joins the rear parts in about the same place. 

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Haven't been able to find the photobucket link mentioned above, but here are a couple of pics that might show this area a little bit more:

B70AFM001-vi.jpg

 

B70AFM002-vi.jpg

 

B70AFM006-vi.jpg

 

I have a few more close-up pics, but don't want to jam up the thread. Don't know where to put them.

 

Good job on this so far, I'll be watching it with interest.

 

Ed

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13 hours ago, TheRealMrEd said:

Haven't been able to find the photobucket link mentioned above, but here are a couple of pics that might show this area a little bit more:

I have a few more close-up pics, but don't want to jam up the thread. Don't know where to put them.

 

Good job on this so far, I'll be watching it with interest.

 

Ed

Feel free to post your pics on this thread Mr Ed!!! :lol:

 

18 hours ago, oldmodeler said:

Aha, still have an AMT XB-70 in the model room. had to use industrial strength amounts of Milliput on the wing roots, I smoothed this down when it was still wet, so there was less sanding.  Careful dry-assembling and trimming reaps its awards when finally gluing the big wings and fuselage together.  Model Canopy has deep framing, but the real aircraft has very flush framing. 

 

In the museum, they rarely move the A1 prototype around, but call it the nodding dog when it moves on its wheels, as the nose section jiggles up and down to bumps i n the road, the prototype now has cracks in the fuselage just above the point of the delta. My model has a crack where the front fuselage joins the rear parts in about the same place. 

Thanks for those tips. 

 

Interesting that when the AV/2 spun after the midair, it was the wings that broke off under stress rather than the long "neck". I would have thought the front fuse would have cracked first, as you say.

 

This is still my work in progress, but writing is consuming my life! I have novel no.2 written and in the editing stage, and have begun no.3.

 

Al

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