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1/72 Testors B-2 Stealth Bomber (aka world of pain)


Despy

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I should say I began this model years ago. But it is literally years ago as I've begun this monster on 2011. And it's been waiting on my "shelf of shame/never ending model kits" corner.

This model kit is an old one from Testors with raised details.

So on 2011 I've made a big error to decide that I'm gonna change it to recessed detail. My first ever attempt to do so. and I began

 

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The model kit had many ejector marks...

 

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and sunken areas...

 

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Edited by Despy
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Having built this kit a couple of years back, my advice is to join the wings to their respective top and bottom halves before joining the upper and lower fuselages together. 

 

This made for a much better wing to centre section join and will reduce the amount of filling and sanding needed. 

 

It's not the nightmare that many will lead you to believe to be honest - it can be enhanced with some scratch work and comes out quite nicely. Aftermarket decals are a must though - the kit ones are useless!

 

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I've heard nothing but bad reviews of this kit but it seems all that's needed is care and patience. I'm excited to follow along with your build! Who knows, the advent of the new (Tanmodel?) kit may drive this kit's price even lower so I can afford to try my hand at one.

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Thanks for the suggestions. I should confess that I've already finished the model, I was trying to upload all the photos of all steps to share my experience and give some insight but I couldn't finish uploading the pictures yesterday. Today I continue.

tomprobert, I have gone the same way you've described and joined the wings to upper half but for the lower part...

aircooled, you are right about panel lines but as with any scale aircraft (apart maybe 1/32 scale) it is a modeller thing to add those thick/deep panel lines for the sake of modelling (eventhough in real life those lines would be equal to at least 3-4 cm of space-gap). I mean all the time the panel lines are exaggerated. So I couldn't stop myself and rescribed with exaggeration which made me feel good as a modeller :D

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As suggested, first I have joined the wings to upper central part (fuselage?). Here you can see the raised details.

 

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So the rescribing took some ages a. Because it was one of my first attempts at doing so and b. I was very clumsy and many times the needle slipped which I had to sand, fill and rescribe again.

I also had to fill some sunken plastic on almost everywhere on the model (this is the lower side of wing)

 

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Edited by Despy
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And more filling and scribing

 

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A dry fit of canopy(?) showed I'd need to order more putty

 

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Back to filling and smoothing the area after the motor intakes

 

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More sanding, filling, scribing and sanding, filling and guess what

 

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It was high time to take care of that canopy fit

 

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That is probably when I discovered that I was trying to realize something beyond my abilities but I kept trying to make my best

 

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And I closed the canopy that will stay like that 7 years (unknown to me at that time)

 

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And joined the lower side of the wings

 

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Put some weight under the cockpit so it won't be a tailsitter (but later I scraped the idea of having the landing gears deployed)

 

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Edited by Despy
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When I assembled the central lower part, and I used CA glue to have a strong joint and filling the gap of bad fitting parts, a bad surprise was there for me: no joining panel lines. I made this join in a hurry and my mistake not to dry fit and check before.

On the other hand, have a look at how bad are the corner/edges of the parts, roughly shaped details etc.

 

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So it was time to unglue it which needed a special debonder

 

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First try with debonder, with some force, I could disassemble the wings. As I decided to fit the wings to central part not the other way

 

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I filled the lower leading edge to be able to rescribe with joining panel lines

 

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More sanding and correcting

 

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I know it was an overkill but I used photoetch set of Eduard (which was intelligently including the pedals in the cockpit too (and you've seen the cockpit, right?))

 

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And I was still trying to perfect the details, correct not only my incompetence but also the errors and rough details of the kit

 

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Edited by Despy
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After putting the project on hold for several months, I could collect my energy again to dare the next step and finally I was able to put the primer

 

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Which brought nothing but more frustration, all my errors were highlighted again

 

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which needed retouch and sanding

 

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And primer again

 

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And the project took it place on my never ending agony shelf for...6 years

 

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When last year Modelcollect announced that they'll release a new mold 1/72 B-2, I decided that I should finish my build and buy the new one from Modelcollect.

 

But first, I couldn't finish Testors one as fast I wanted to. Second, eventhough the Modelcollect seems an upgrade (recessed details for example) after seeing the first few sprue pictures, I decided not to pay such sum for that kit (again, it seems not bad but I don't see myself paying $100 for that kit)

 

So the only good outcome was it was a push for me to finish that model that was collecting dust.

 

To be able to finish, I made some compromises. First decided to have the landing gear retracted. No addition of detail for aileron. No open ears on engines etc.

 

After passing a lighter gray, I've begun masking which took some centuries to finish for me. And I could not find a perfect guide to mask it. Every aircraft seemed to have different patches and even the same aircraft was different colored on different times (because probably the stealth coat is patched every few flights). So I took "artistic license" and applied the most common seen ones.

 

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Than a darker gray was applied over

 

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When I've begun to take out the mask, the result was not mesmerizing but I already decided to finish it no matter what

 

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First applied Future. Than I've begun the decal. The ones from Testors were already too old and brittle. Good that I had the Begemot set. But it was yellowed by time. I've stuck on window and left for day sun to whiten a little, I'm not sure if it worked, to my eyes, it was the same. BTW the numbering of Begemot decals was really very hard to understand and at least for one decal wrong. Anyway, with common sense one could understand which one goes where. And the final matte finish over the decal ended that stealth bomber soap opera.

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