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Hi all! I guess this is an aircraft, though it's rather non-traditional. This is one of Anigrand's 1/72-scale lifting bodies: the Northrop HL-10. It's a resin kit of 23 parts (+3 clear vacu-formed canopy pieces). First time building an Anigrand kit, and it was rather fun. Metallics are Alclad, and I weathered with acrylics, pigments, pencils, and oils. I was very wary of this thing ending up looking like a dinky tin toy; though I didn't quite get the finish I was after, but I'm happy enough with it. Thanks for looking!

A build from 11 years ago> While some designers choose to do away with the fuselage and the tail and create a “flying wing”, others choose to eliminate the wings and create a lifting body. That was the choice of William Horton, from California and Vincent Burnelli, both of them shaped the fuselage as a wing section. The Horton design featured large “endplates” –apparently described as “sealers”- along the fuselage/airfoil to improve its efficiency. A number of control surfaces can be seen at its rear end: a central, finned elevator and two surfaces on the sides that look like elevons (elevator+ailerons). Two fins and rudders are integral with the endplates. It is of notice that the concept of lifting body in this case was linked to the “roadable” plane too, since it was suggested to develop such machine later on. The design can be also described as being of “negative aspect ratio”, since its span is less than its length, roughly a 0.5 to 1 ratio. And perhaps we should clear some recurrent confusion: William Horton was an American from California, while the Horten (with “e”) were brothers from the nazi Germany that later got a free-pass to Argentina for a while. The Horten Bros. designed a number of flying wings and William Horton, as said, worked on the concept of lifting bodies, creating first the plane which model is here depicted, and later a more futuristic-looking, twin-engine bigger machine also called the Horton Wingless. William Horton associated with Howard Hughes, a joint-venture that apparently didn’t work out very well due to the iron grip of Mr. Hughes. Unfortunately, Hughes stalled in every possible way the development and sales of the Wingless. Shame on you Howard. Nevertheless the prototype achieved some flight and its beautiful lines were preserved in a few images. Simple lines on a model don’t necessarily translate into simple construction. Once the planning and engineering started, it was obvious that once more simple design didn’t mean simple construction. One or two parts were modified spare bin sleepers, while wheels and prop –Hartzell on the original plane- were modified Aeroclub items. Only a bit of the interior can be seen in the available photos of the real plane, enough to see the bulk of the long Franklin 68A engine in the middle of the cockpit/cabin while the shaft protrudes ahead of the fuselage. The pilot seat seemed to be the located on the left. The part count was about a hundred when I judiciously stopped counting. Although undiscriminating fellow modelers whose visual education and taste leaves much to be desired dared to call this beauty a “flying toaster”, one thing can not be denied: imagination was for sure abundant in the blooming 50’s.

A build from 12 years ago: In 1993 a very strange –or familiar, if you think about it- sight in the sky puzzled more than one casual cloud-gazer. The FMX-4 Facetmobile is a homebuilt aircraft created by Barnaby Wainfan with the lifting body concept approach, and its looks, as hinted before, resemble…a flying crushed cardboard box?...a miss-assembled tent, blown by the wind?...or…yes, you got it, a very famous "secret" (no more, actually) plane that uses stealth technology, the same technology used by the crooks that steal from people making millions and get rewarded by their corporate headquarters for it . But I digress. This one reputedly flew before the other one was unveiled to the public. A difficult shape to forget, the Facetmobile was a temptation that posed as an innocent would-be model. Little I knew. The images will tell you how I made it. Suffice to say that I had more than one accident with the superglue, because given the fact that the body was build with two shells of clear plastic, the use of normal styrene glue didn’t cause the desired effects. After –seemingly- months of merciless bouts, the model emerged; not perfect, but perhaps good enough to bring a smile. The original flew, and very well!