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Time to start the New Year off with a fresh project, although helping my youngest daughter remodel her house is taking it's toll on the ol' modeling time... This is the first Blue Whale: Anyway, this will be a build of the 1/72 Hasegawa A-3B Skywarrior kit into a model of the very first Blue Whale, the XA3D-1. The Hasegawa kit: will be paired with the Obscureco Skywarrior cockpit set (the A-3A being as close as I could get for the cockpit of the XA3D-1), shown above right. There are some pieces in this kit that are excess to requirement as they are for other "Version" of the A-3, and they are not shown in the above photo. Also used will be the Muroc Model XA3D-1 conversion set: This conversion set has the correct "slanted" intakes, which only appear on the #1 ship, BN 125412. The #2 ship, BN 125413, as well as all subsequent variants, have "vertical" intakes. This kit also gives you a resin "master" for the cockpit, which allows you to vacuform another, should the need arise, as this canopy is different from later variants. There is also a rear gun turret, although the guns and it's controls were not installed on the first prototype. The is also a new nose and pod for the top of the vertical stabilizer. Sadly, I just found out the the Hasegawa kit does not have the correct wheels for the prototype or bomber versions, but instead has the wheels for the other "Versions" that followed later on. I have order a Reskit conversion for the wheels, and a comparison will be shown for the edification of fellow modelers, in due time. I'll begin with a seemingly simple task, installation of the front wheel well that is included with the Obscureco kit. In the second picture of this article, I failed to notice that the wheel well was stuck to the cockpit floor, but I can assure you, it does not go there! Below, it is shown glued to the right fuselage half with just a couple of drops of CA: Picture two, just above shows the fuselage halves being pressed together, to assure that the wheel well sits straight up and down, before properly gluing into place with more CA on the right side. The third picture above, shows the addition of other glue, a thicker, sticky glue, in case the CA ever fails. You may ask me HOW I KNOW THIS. Let me just say, that once a wheel well (or even a cockpit) comes loose after the fuselage is closed up, it will make you feel greatly discomfited! Before anyone posts that they've never had this failure ... yada, yada -- give yourself another 40 or 50 years of modeling without taking this precaution, THEN we'll discuss it! Please note that this mostly only occurs when bonding resin to resin, or resin to plastic NOT plastic-to-plastic, but, you never know with CA. For plastics, I like to melt the dickens out of it with Weldon #3, and rarely use CA to assemble plastic. Next order of business is to install the various components of the Obscureco cockpit, show in the following two pictures: There are a few things to note here. Because of my inability to find even a single photo of the major areas of the XA3D-1's cockpit, I am a little unsure of the pieces glued on, and marked with the two arrows. The upper arrow points to an equipment support bracket that Obscureco tells you where to put, but not how to orient. The lower arrow is sort of an equipment shelf (selected for the A-3A version -- again, as close as I can get to the XA3D-1). Lastly, the "G" marking shows the area where gun controls would normally be installed on a version with the tail turret, were the guns and controls mounted. Next, a view of the cockpit from the rear: In the above photo, the arrow points to the A-3A Bombardier/Navigator station selection from the Obscureco kit. Again, stations for other variants are provided in the kit. Anyway, because of my lack of photos, if anyone out there can chip in with knowledgeable placement on these pieces, or on correct cockpit colors for this version, I'd be grateful. In the absence of further guidance, I'll probably choose the usual black-over-Interior Green selection, although it could be black over black as well. While the later variants come in a variety of colors, the fact that this prototype was built more or less around 1950, before the gray interiors became mandated, give one pause to think. If you KNOW, please help! Well, at least it's a beginning. More soon, I hope! Ed

This arrived from Muroc Models the other day and thought that if you was thinking of ordering you might like to see what you get. The parts are well formed and the intake lip is really sharp with no breakage and both conversion contain vacform front canopies and comprehensive instructions. The sets are for the Academy kit. Great service and reasonable priced. Robert

Hello, I have finished the YRB-49A conversion for the AMT YB-49. It makes for a large model, with a wingspan of about two and a half feet. If you search in Work in Progress - Aircraft for Muroc, you can see some build pictures. The resin conversion (with decals and vacuformed clear parts) is available for $59 plus postage. Production might be slow. You can contact me at newmanispwest at yahoo dot com. As with many projects by Muroc Models, this started as a part of a display for the Museum at Edwards AFB. It will be placed on the "First Flights Wall", which is a 1/72 collection intended to include everything which made its first flight at Edwards. These are all built with blue painted canopies and gear up. One of the pictures shows it sitting in front of the the Museum's F-106. David Muroc Models