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Finally completed this brand new kit. While not without a myriad of challenges, it is hands-down the best 1/72 kit of this aircraft I've seen, to date. For those interested in the details, the build thread is HERE. The pics: Thanks for looking! Ed

Okay, those of you who had thought that I'm slowing going off the rails may be right, after all! Recently having been immersed in building Curtiss and Republic aircraft prototypes, I decided to look around and see whether anyone had done a Curtiss XP-46. I thought that perhaps LF Models had done one, but no joy, so I guess I was mistaken. However, while scrounging around on-line, I ran across the Shapeways 3-D printing site, and sure enough, someone offers there an XP-46 printed in a variety of smaller sizes, including 1/72. (Sorry bigger scale guys, but a table large enough to model a 1/32 scale aircraft would probably cost a king's ransom... My only real experience with 3D-printed objects was a set of WWII 1000 lb bombs, which were very nice, except of course for the textured surface. Since these bombs could have been assumed to have a rather rough coating, this was no major problem. Of course, surface on a 3D model refers to the block-like effect that you get when trying to print various sloped features. Think of Lego's blocks. A house built of lego's bricks can be very smooth. An egg built of Lego's, not so much. This height between layers is known as resolution, and while the resolution has improved a lot over the years, it is still an effect to be considered. After all, a 3D-printing machine capable of printing an infinitely-smoothed surface would probably take an infinite amount of time! As for me, I don't think I have that much... Anyway, I took the plunge and Pay-Pal-ed my $34.00 US to the kind folks at Shapeways, and in two or three weeks (they are no doubt printed upon demand) I had the following goodie in my hand (Sadly, there are no decals nor instructions...😉 The propeller and canopy are printed as part of the model, each joined by a single column of plastic, rather that being printed separately, using a myriad of support structures. These items must be trimmed off -- no simple task, given the lack of clearance. You will also note that all the parts, i.e., wheels, gear legs, wings, tail, exhaust, etc. are all molded in one big piece. Certainly makes assembly easy! I tried several different shots, trying to show the texture of the model, but due to my rather moderate photography skill, I was not successful. In the end, I decided just to start work, and let the pictures speak as things progressed. A couple more things to mention. First off, I snipped off the canopy from the cockpit floor, as far down as I could manage, leaving a short stub with which to hold the part. The canopy, of course , is the same texture as everything else, and NOT transparent. Therefore, I am going to have to try and get it smooth enough to either vacuform, or resin-cast a new one. Problem is that the canopy is molded full size, with no allowance made for the thickness of a vacuform plastic sheet, which may mean a canopy formed would be too oversize to use, or, alternatively, because of the thickness of the printed canopy as well as the fact that the rest of the printing stub is attached underneath the hollow canopy, it will require a large amount of work to get produce a master for moulding that would be either smooth or clear enough to use in the end. Second, the cockpit area is simply a sort of rounded tub, with the other end of the printing stub attached, and the fuselage sides in the canopy area are very thick, which will make it tough to fake some cockpit innards. Third, the actual aircraft just had to be, as one might fear, a sort of polished-look natural metal aircraft, and it remains to be seen whether I can achieve a smooth enough finish to pull THAT one off. We will eventually, of course, find out, and I may just have to take a dive, and paint the whole thing solid black and call it a WWII Recognition Model! Anyway, I began by sanding everything all over, with various 800 grit sanding devices, ranging from nail files, sponge sanding sheets to sanding paper. Hard to get around those already-added detail parts, I should also add! Then, I sprayed on a coat of Mr Surfacer 1500 Primer, sanded again, and then shot on a coat of Alclad II Black Primer, and sanded some more. This is akin to the guide-coat painting process used when repairing cars, where two different-colored layers of primer are sprayed atop one another, and then sanded, which then allows one to see the high/low spots: As you can see in the above photo, after all that, we are still a long way off from a polished metal surface! In addition, the propeller was moulded with blades that were quite thick, with no discernible trailing edge, so a LOT of sanding was needed there, before even getting to THIS stage. I might mention also that the plastic used is rather tough and slightly rubbery, which does not make for fine detail, and in the end, the only panel lines I will end up with will be those panels I can manage to paint. I will not be scribing any lines on this baby, and will consider it a victory to just show the control surfaces! There will be several more trips to the paint booth to try and resolve these issues, and we shall all see the outcome together. After all, I only THINK (and hope) that I can pull this off, but... Next is the canopy in it's present stage, after a lot of sanding, and so far, 5 different dips into the Future/Pledge trying to fill the roughness, At the moment, at least, I still have canopy framework: This will not be a moment-to-moment kind of build thread, but I will update it now and then. In fact, I have already started a new stock, fairly early P-47B build, using my favorite Academy kit as a sacrificial lamb. As I can think of no new techniques or skills that will apply here, I'm not planning on doing a build thread for that, probably just an RFI in the end. Thanks for looking in, and for any who may be interested in this new, weird off-shoot of modeling, welcome aboard! Conversation, opinions and general hob-nobbling are all welcome. Ed

Summer has passed and I'm back at the bench once more! This time I went a bit nostalgic and pulled out a pair of classic Revell kits: Douglas 1/54 D-558 Skyrocket & Douglas 1/65 Stiletto I plan to make these as desktop models - in flight and no interior! (I'm a bit lazy! ) Here's where I'm at, at the moment: I just found out that there's two GB I could have joined with these kits, but alas - that's a modellers life! Cheers for now Hans J

Because of issues with Village Photo no longer being "secure" I have been moving all my pictures to another server and when I go to this thread I realized that the pictures were out of date. So here is the latest. Here is the whole X-plane display The shorter set of shelves on the left are the real X planes i.e. aircraft built specifically to test aeronautical theories and never intended to go into production. The 2 sets to right are what I refer to as the "also rans"; Aircraft that made it to the prototype stage but for one reason or another did not go into full production. Perhaps a better term is just "Prototypes. This set is not all inclusive but, contains aircraft that I thought, looked interesting, were actually put into production, at least on papaer and then were cancelled, or were significant in some technical aspect. So lets take a closer look at each. In all cases the order is from right to left, top to bottom they are in chronological order of first flight starting with the oldest. Starting with the real X-planes: The top shelf is empty for now but will fill out over time. Starting with the next shelf down there is: Douglass D-558-2, Northron X-4 Bantam, Bell X-5, Bell X-2 Starbuster, Douglas X-3 Stillet, Bell X-1A,. Next shelf: Bell X-14, Ryan X-13 Verijet, North American X-15A-2, the then Dryden Flight Research Center M2-F1, Northrop M2-F2, Northrop HL-10, Martin-Marietta X-24A and Northrop M2-F3. The bottom shelf has: Martin-Marietta X-24B, Grumman X-29, Rockwell-MBB X-31, Boeing Bird of Prey, Boeing X-36, Boeing X-32, Lockheed-Martin X-35, and Northrop Grumman X-47B Now for the first set of Prototypes. Again the top shelf is empty for expansion. Starting with the top row from left to right they are: Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket Vultee XP-54 Swoose, Douglas BTD Destroyer, Bell XP-77, Douglas XB--42 Mixmaster, and Beechcraft XA-38 Grizzly. Next row:Consolidated-Vultee XP-81, Curtiss XF15C-1 Stingaree, Douglas XTB2D-1 SkyPirate, Northrop XP-79B, and the Edo XOSE-1. Next row: Curtiss XP-55 Ascender. Row 2: Douglas XA2D-1 Skyshark, Grumman XF10F-1 Jaguar, Convair YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, Bell HSL-1, Convair XFY-1 Pogo, and Lockheed XFV-1. Bottom row: North American XB-70 and Grumman F-111B. Finally the second set of Prototypes Again starting from the top: Curtiss XP-55 Ascender, Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet, Fischer P-75A Eagle, and McDonnell XP-67 Moonbat. Next row: Goodyear F2G-1 Super Corsair, Vultee XA-41 and Boeing F8B. Next row is the Northrop XB-35 Flying Wing. Row 4: Curtiss XP-87 Black Hawk (trying to take off) , McDonnell XF-85 Goblin, Vought F7U-1 Cutless, Republic XF-91 Thundercepter and Martin XB-51. Row 5: Martin P6M-2 Seamaster. Douglas F5D-1 Skylancer. North American. F-107A Ultra Sabre , and Vought XF8U-3 Crusader III. Row 6: Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne, Sikorsky S-67 Black Hawk (not to be confused with the Sikorsky S-60 Blackhawk) , General Dynamics F-16XL, Northrop F-20 Tigershark, Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II and Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche. As you can see there are a few spaces to be filled so stay tuned for updates.

My first completed build of 2021. This is the Whirlybird Bell X-5. The X-5 was based on the incomplete Messerschmitt P.1101, and was the first variable swing wing aircraft to fly. Unlike modern swing wing aircraft the X-5 wing would move forward and back as the sweep changed to maintain center of gravity and pressure. Despite that it proved a successful test aircraft. Except for vicious spin characteristics which caused the destruction of one aircraft and the life of the test pilot. This is my first Whirlybird kit and I would rate the at or maybe a bit better the Anigrand, with the same overly deep and wide panel lines, and altogether superior to the Mach 2 effort, The resin was smooth and devoid of pinholes except for the area around the pour line of the main fuselage. The kit had a single piece solid resin fuselage, a nice ejection seat, 2 vac canopies that had clear demarcation lines of where to cut, so rather crude white metal landing gear, and excellent decals. There was no need for additional weight in the nose, which was good since there was no where to put it. So here it is: Next up is the Hasegawa EA-18G Growler Enjoy.

This is probably my last completion of the year; the Special Hobby 1/72 Bell X-1A. The X-1A is the follow-on the the Bell X-1 with a longer fuselage to carry more fuel and other improvements. The Special Hobby kit was all butt joints for everything and no alignment pins, but it was still a pleasant build with excellent decals. Not much else to say do here it is: Next up is the Whirlybird Bell X-5. This is a new manufacturer for me but at least in the box the resin looks good. Enjoy

This is my build of the MPM 1/72 Northrop X-4 Bantam. The X-4 was built to test the theory that an aircraft without a horizontal stabilizer would have better transonic and supersonic because it would not have shockwaves coming off the main wing interfering with the stabilizer. As it turned out it disproved the theory and showed that without the stabilizer the control surfaces did not have enough authority to keep the aircraft stable at transonic speeds. The MPM kit was nice and simple and for a limited run kit there were no real issues. The kit decals were excellent. During the testing of the X-4 it was found that thickening the wing trailing edge of the wings would improved transonic performance, so in a bit of irony the usual complaint of limited run kits having too thick a trailing edge turned out to be a blessing in this case 😀. So here is the results of mu efforts; Next up is the Special Hobby X-1A. Enjoy

This is my build of the Aviastone AKA Alliance 1/72 Bell X-2 "Starbuster". The X-2 was the first aircraft to fly faster the Mach 3. The X-2 project was ill fated with the destruction of the first aircraft when the engine exploded during a captive flight killing the test pilot and and one B-50 crewman. The Mach 3 flight was the last flight of the second aircraft which then crashed killing the test pilot. More information can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_X-2. I first purchased the Mach 2 kit, which for Mach 2 wasn't bad, but as a backup I also purchased the Aviastone resin kit which is a rebox of the Alliance kit. Unfortunately the first version I purchased had 2 left fuselage halves and no right half. I then purchased a second one which was complete. So I had 1 plastic kit and 1 1/2 resin kits. The Mach 2 kit came with decals and a plastic canopy while the Aviastone one had no decals and a vac canopy. I was torn between which version to build since they both had plusses and minuses so I did something I very seldom do and started them both in parallel. Both kits represented the second aircraft early in the test program. Before the Mach 3 flight it had; large conical rocket exhausts added, the strut on the main skid was shortened giving it a more level stance, and the "wisker" skids were removed from the wings. Also there was a wheel well door for the nose wheel but it was placed on the aircraft with the gear up and was jettisoned when the gear was lowered so you never see photos with it on. This is how far I got on the Mach 2 kit before I abandoned it I ended up using the landing gear and tail from the extra Aviastone kit because the Mach 2 ones were totally unusable or warped. Even so the mach 2 wings were a bit warped and the resin tail was also warped so I set it aside and finished the resin kit. The Aviastone resin was very good with only minor pinholing and provided a smoother surface then the Mach 2 plastic. The vac canopy was easy to cut out and fit to the fuselage. You can't really see much of the interior through the small windows so I didn't spend a lot of time on the cockpit. In the past I have had some success with Mach 2 decals but the ones for this kit were close to useless. The entire sheet consisted of a single film that required trimming around each marking and it had yellowed. They also tended to disintegrate when removed from the backing. I did try scanning them and spent hours using GIMP to fix them up but even though I sprayed them with decal fix the colors still came off in the water. The only pieces that I was able to use were the Bell logos on the nose. The rest came from the left over pile. Here is the end results: On the whole I am happy with the results. Next up is the MPM 1/72 Bell X-4 Bantam yet another white plane. Enjoy

This is my build of the Special Hobby 1/72 Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket. The Skyrocket was the first aircraft to exceed Mach 2 and the markings are from that flight. The Special Hobby kit is decent. There is a fair amount of cockpit detail, which can not really be seen because of the tiny windows. All of the joints, with the exception of the vertical fin and the instrument probe, are butt joints, Including the wing to fuselage and stabilator to vertical fin. There was also one anomaly; it seems that they molded the main gear axles on the wrong side of the struts, so they have you cut them off, drill holes and insert rod to replace them: Not a big deal. The decals were very thin, but movable with only a slight tendency to roll up when moved. So here it is: This last picture is like a Polar Bear in a snow storm. This build was part of my X-plane collection and since I recently made some new shelves to hold them I figured I would include a picture of what I have so far These are (from upper left to lower right and in order of first flight) Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, Douglas X-3 Stiletto, Bell X-14, Ryan X-13, North American X-15, NASA M2-F1, Northrop M2-F2, Northrop HL-10, Martin-Marietta, X-24A, Northrop M2-F3, Martin Marietta X-24B, Grumman X-29, Rockwell-MBB X-31, Boeing Bird of Prey, McDonnell Douglas X-36, Boeing X-32, Lockheed Martin X-35, and, Northrop Grumman X-47B. As you can see there is plenty of room for more. And next up will be the Bell X-2 Starbuster. There are 3 molding of the aircraft. 2 injection plastic by Mach 2, and Golden Age (Olimp group). A resin version by Alliance/Aviastone and several vac kits. From what I have read at lease for the resin and plastic version, they are all bad. I have build vac kits but I would rather not. I really wanted the Golden Age one but after a year of searching I have yet to find one. That leaves the Mach 2 and Alliance/Aviastone ones and I have both. Right now I am leaning to work on the Alliance/Aviastone one but we will se in a could weeks what comes out. Enjoy

Please be kind. I’m firmly at the foot of this particular learning curve so am aware there is a lot could be improved. Sharing just in case folks might be interested rather than for critique I’ve been experimenting with laser cutting, 3D printing and digital design so decided to apply a bit of that to model making (in progress thread here Sharing the most recent output. Convair XP-92 in 1/72 scale. Parts modelled in Fusion 360, printed on a Creality Ender 3 in grey PLA. Assembled with isocyanate and painted with acrylics. Drawings thanks to @Space Ranger and decals kindly donated by @Pat C. Thank you both