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Italeri /AMT XB-70A Valkyrie


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Thanks for that General! The yanks had a real affinity for sledgehammer tactics in those days. Not enough room for bombs? Make the ones you can get in there more powerful! Can't make a reliable guided AAM? Put a gyro and a nuke warhead in it! :boom:

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Reporting in General!!

Relief column arrived Friday afternoon Sir!!

Communications delay due to number 3 son arriving and taking over the equipment for the weekend Sir!!

Well, that brings back memories I must say, luverly big beast!

Typical AMT tho' eh? Big bits, not a lot of them and that plastic!! Still, it's lovely stuff to sand.

One point I must clear up General SAH!!

When gluing the forward fuselage halves to the rear halves, did you remove those internal locating lugs? ( One each inside wall on the rear halves.)

I'm toying with the idea of removing them as a test fit before parts washing shows they seem to push the front fuselage over to one side leaving a nasty step.

Still, not a major problem.

Oh, and where did you get them seatbelts from? My decal sheet don't have any!! Roll out the Tamiya tape eh by Gad :hobbyhorse: :hobbyhorse:

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Hi chappies,

2 Vulcans (Welsh and Anigrand) and two Anigrand Victors. Several tins of appliance white in the stash!!
...

My God man do you have the keys to the Bank of England, or Bill Gates's PIN number ...................those Anigrands aren't cheap by Gad !!!!! can you report on the quality per chance ??, BTW ,Love the gear on the 730....good job !!

Now Keef !!!!....can you honestly imagine something of this weight ,inertia and high wing loading , hurtling along at 600 knots , in thick, turbulent, gusting air, trying vainly to pull up and lob it's nuke in a LABS manoever before climbing through typical low level clag in a brave attempt to run away before it got it's bottom well and truly fried by it's own horribly powerful bomb, whilst trying desperately to avoid ripping it's own VG wingtips and forward fuselage off in the process :analintruder: !!!...NO.................. but it would make a hell of a spectacle wouldn't it :heart: !!!..imagine the supersonic footprint at that altitude.... :hypnotised:

Hatchet, agreed, blanket bomb the entire area,....collateral damage, well yes , but acceptable losses ( what's a continent amongst friends !!! :whistle: )......sledehammers and nuts come to mind !!

Plastic, stand easy :shutup: ....... glad the relief column arrived...stop, .................hold off on firing squad....stop................glad you like it and that it meets with your approval ...stop...........................now get on with building the blasted thing!! .........................and don't ever ...............................stop!! :bounce:

Yep, I cut the lugs off to ensure a good fit, if you don't you run the danger of press fitting the blighter into place and not being able to retreive the long, pointy end, old fruit !!

Oh the belts came from the Revell Gannet kit, ( got a spare from somewhere!).....

All ze best,

Melchie ....

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Nakajima....the Valkyries will get cheaper as time goes on, keep an eye on Ebay and just grab one and go for it......................expand your horizons grasshopper !! :thumbsup:

I will, I will hunt one down and capture it!! :wicked:

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You learn fast glasshopper.....remember to feed it well , lots of lovely putty and filler, covered in cyanoacrylate and accelerator, all washed down with gallons of Halford best !!...eventually a white swan will emerge from the mess Nakajima san!!......................................BANZAI !!!!... :hobbyhorse:

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I will, I will hunt one down and capture it!! :wicked:

Not sure what the going price is for these kits but I know of a model shop not far from me that has two of the Italeri 1/72 kits on stock for less than £30 each, I was sorely tempted to buy one becouse they just looked good value for money, I bet you would spend more than that again though in paint and filler!!!.

Some very nice progress there by the way General Melchy....

Tally ho

JB.

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Thanks John, I managed to bag this one for £24 at Cosford show, but I think they are cited at around the £30 mark .As you say you will need a fair bit of filler, primer and paint if you want to do a serious job on this kit as 'gaps-R-us' rule here !!

Not a lot of progress sadly at the mo!!......Sun + hols + kids = 'not a lot of time for modelling' ... :shrug: still progress is being made.....in the form of primed, rubbed back, refilled, primed, rubbed down, refilled, primed etc....you get the idea !!!

pics to follow...

Melchie

Edited by general melchett
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You learn fast glasshopper.....remember to feed it well , lots of lovely putty and filler, covered in cyanoacrylate and accelerator, all washed down with gallons of Halford best !!...eventually a white swan will emerge from the mess Nakajima san!!......................................BANZAI !!!!... :hobbyhorse:

Why am I a "glasshopper"? And why do people put "san" after Nakajima?!? :shrug:

I'll get around to capturing one as soon as I have finished getting others......just now I've spent £20 on 2 1/32 Stuka's, a 1/32 Macchi 205, and a Grumman E2 C.

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Sorry :doh: ,Naka, showing my age here, this was from the old 'Kung-Fu' series shown way back in the seventies, ''grasshopper'' was the term given by the Kung-Fu master to his student,( played by the recently deceased David Carradine). It was always said when he made good progress, no offence meant and san is an honorific term much like the English 'Mr' and is added to the end of a Japanese name to indicate respect. That's what that's all about,

Sounds like you've got a bit of a bargain going on with all those models old chap, who makes them ? Century toys, Fujimi ? by any chance... ;)

Melchie

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Sorry :doh: ,Naka, showing my age here, this was from the old 'Kung-Fu' series shown way back in the seventies, ''grasshopper'' was the term given by the Kung-Fu master to his student,( played by the recently deceased David Carradine). It was always said when he made good progress, no offence meant and san is an honorific term much like the English 'Mr' and is added to the end of a Japanese name to indicate respect. That's what that's all about,

Sounds like you've got a bit of a bargain going on with all those models old chap, who makes them ? Century toys, Fujimi ? by any chance... ;)

Melchie

Oh, so that's what the san bit means! Obi-Jiff called me that too, and I didn't know what he meant by it.

The Stuka's and Macchi are the 21st Century ones, I really wanted some Stuka's in 1/32nd, so I bought some of the last ones this person on eBay wa selling off at £3.59 each. I left him with 7 Stuka's, but he has a lot of Macchi's left for the same price, and as far as I can tell, they're really good kits for the money!! The Hawkeye E2 C is by CC LEE, never heard of them before, i'm just hoping it's not a really bad kit, but for £4.99, it's OK. Will be the first of my new "JASDF" Collection to go with my WW2 Japanese collection.

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OK another day of sanding , filling and priming, rub down and do again ... :hypnotised: Because of the nature of the soft, flexible plastic, filling imperfections is time consuming especially as it's going to have a polished metal finish, every blemish will show through !! I started with heavy grit sticks then moved onto medium grade now onto Micro Mesh working through the grades slowly to end up with 12000 for a glass like finish.....

Rome wasn't built in a day..... :whistle:

Primer sanded back to plastic once again, awaiting an alcohol wash( the model not me!!) to clear away sanding debris... the elevons have been filled too as only the end half showed a gap,

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Cheers Keef, old fruitcake !!.... just to let you know that the project is very much ongoing........................

I've been a bit busy with other things this past week :frantic: , finishing a few review models and travelling around a bit, (as well as fitting in a bit of work here and there :whistle: !!), so not a lot has been done to the B-70, until today when I was given a few hours off for good behaviour by the Memsahib before doing the obligatory family visits !( bless 'em all :suicide: ).....

Pics to show that the primer has been fully applied, (except for the nose area, where a bit more blending is needed), after this the next stage will be first run of Alclad......luckily I was able to stock up aplenty at Waddington!!!)...must admit I think all the filling, sanding and swearing has been worth it ....up to now !!!

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The before and after of the forward fuselage joint......this, the intakes and the fuselage spine have needed a LOT of work to make 100% smooth.........a lot of time has also been spent on lightly rescribing fine panel lines lost due to the sanding process... :hypnotised: :hypnotised: :analintruder:

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This hopefully shows the after effect of all that sanding and filling that was neccessary to eliminate all the nasty sink marks and gaps that occur all over the model....

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Thanks fellas, I don't think I've ever spent so much time sanding and smoothing a model in my life :deadhorse: , still the top coat will only work if it's as smooth as a babies whats it!!!!! so on we go ......reckon I've used as much primer as the real thing did.....God alone knows how much Alclad it will consume..... :shutup:

Melchie..

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I suppose I should 'wind you up' - so when are you going to scribe in the panel lines, you know without them it wouldn't do well in a competition !

Could also do with some subtle panel line shading.

He He, I know, I know ...............

'V'

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Geoff, you're a very naughty boy!!....actually the lines have already been lightly scribed more as reference for the multitude of panel shades than anything else as again, like the V-bombers the Valkyrie had a very smooth, flush finish...as you well know !!!....so there... :tease:

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OK, just for that I will!! :jump_fire: ...unfortunately I'm away working ( yes I do find time for that!), for a few days so it'll have to be early next week, also got a tanky thing and an expermental jet that needs finishing for mag reviews.....................damn deadlines...publish and be damned I say !

I know ...excuses, excuses!! :tomato:

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Ah yes, ...ummm ...er,,, one of these,....I know ...where are the afterburners and delta wings???

is3_3Large.jpg

One very mean looking tank !! not the most reliable or successful machine in the world but I rather like the look of it!

Has been finished using full ARBA pe set , metal barrel, ,Friulmodel metal tracks, figures and 'accessories'...has yet to have final post shading applied and all the weathering and crud I can throw at it ........ :D

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Tanky things? Tanky things! Right chaps the General has finally lost the plot. :mental: Somebody send for help; the rest try not to excite him too much until it arrives. Nice work General. :D

Martin

PS: Next week General Insanity Melchett invites us all to an XB-70 Group Build (Guava halves optional).

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Martin, I plead the fifth on all counts....two pints of Thorazine with a splash of hydraulic fluid please Matron !! :elephant: ............

Take a message Darling.....open....General gone completely tonto...stop....call General Haig and demand re-enforcements...stop...knitting needles and underpants on standby....stop......inform the Kaiser that I won't be round for tea and to shut the shop early today....stop!! :jump_fire:

All activities on tanky things to cease forthwith on pain of death ......normal service to be resumed ASAP!!!!!

Mind you,

XB-70 groupbuild eh.......... :hmmm: ............................................ :wicked:

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