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1/48 B-58 Hustler


Alan P

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I was going to keep this under wraps but there's no way it will be finished by SMW so i might as well try to exercise my modelling skills under the full glare of the Britmodelling fraternity with this classic kit!

The box!

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EDIT: Credit where it's due our very own chris57 sold me this at a knockdown price at IPMS Farnborough's Modelfest show, bless him!

The help!

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The seminal Jay Miller book on the left appears courtesy of Andy (general melchett from these very boards) who has very kindly lent it to me for the duration of this build. It has proved indispensable.

The obligatory aftermarket bits!

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That's the Aires J79 nozzles set...appears to be two lots of the usual J79 jetpipes and nozzles from the Phantom version, and is of the usual excellent quality.

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...and these are the Fisher Model and Pattern intakes. The Fisher set is equally detailed and crisply cast with two minor problems:

 

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One grungy bit of casting (7 o'clock position), not hard to sort out

 

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The sharp-eyed will notice the pylon fairing on each part - this is only present on the inboard intakes, the outboard ones should be completely clean. Not a particularly scary problem to fix though!

WIP so far is to sand down and re-scribe all the panel lines, including a few missing from the aft part of the wings - I have also removed the elevons and extra crew cockpit covers ready for scratchbuilding two new cockpits.

I haven't decided whether I will finish it in Alclads or foil - I will try the Alclad first and if it goes its usual way with me, I'll just foil over it!

Cheers for looking,

Alan

Edited by Alan P
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Al,

This should be fun to watch, nice aircraft, nice big ish scale and a big nutter to build it :rofl: Come on Al, you do the foil :worthy:

Bex

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Great choice of subject Al, the Huslter was a pretty impressive beast :D

Will be watching this one with interest :popcorn:

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Damn. I want one of those, but can,t justify the cost at the moment.

:popcorn::cheers: and :photo: ready.

Best of luck Al.

If you need a new fan section doing to replace the duffer, send me one and I can run you off a goodun, unless its common to all of them. If it is how about cutting a couple up and joining them, then re-casting four new ones.

I am of course assuming the parts are OOP.

rich

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And we're off! Starting with the scratchbuilding of the two extra cockpits. I'm a little mystified why the kit didn't include them from the outset, as you hardly ever saw the thing on the ground with just the front cockpit open - from all my references it looked like all or none, except when the plane was in development.

[DISCLAIMER! I must say I don't have the scratchbuilding skills of many notable Britmodellers, so while my efforts aren't bad for your average modeller, if anyone wants to copy the work I'm sure it will add a lot to the completed build.]

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Everything was test-fitted and measured using cardboard (the inner cardboard from Eduard etch sets), then I made various templates and cut the components from plastic card. I added details gleaned from the Jay Miller book, plus ejector seat rails.

 

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The pilot's cockpit is very detailed for its vintage. All that was needed was a gear lever and the grips of the thrust levers. I also added a first aid kit in each cockpit.

 

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The bombardier/nav's instrument panels were made from scored and scribed plastic card, as they have a lot of prominent knobs and buttons on them. The buttons etc are made from lengths of small diameter plastic rod.

 

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The DSO's panels were made from metal foil from a champagne bottle.

The sidewalls were a combination of plastic card and bottle foil:

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Most of the DSO's cockpit was covered in circuit breakers, which was pretty easy!

The gaps and edges are to be filled with Milliput which should tidy everything up.

Rich - just read your post again, the parts are still available from Paul Fisher, I just think it's a simple mis-casting. You would need a torch and a magnifying glass to really see the fault when it's in situ anyway.

Thanks for the offer though, much appreciated!

Edited by Alan P
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Keep going at this rate and it'll be finished by Sunday evening. All that work in just over two hours :winkgrin: .

I guess you know there's more to it than that! :lol: Just a matter of when i get the photos "processed", work is ongoing!

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Some work on the seats:

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I used the 1/48 seats from the Monogram F-105G Thunderchief as a basis. Obviously not the SACseat but close enough after some attacking with an X-acto!

 

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After some dicking around with plastic card and wire bits you end up with a close-enough approximation of the kit's seat:

 

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I added the rudder pedals to the front of the seat, which although inaccurate looks the part when the seat is fitted to the cockpit. Saddo that I am, if you could see it, I have actually scribed the "Convair" script on each pedal :nerd:

The Stanley encapsulated cover fitted on all three crew positions will take some more thinking out - more later!

Cheers for now, and thanks for the comments so far, very kind indeed, thanks!

Edited by Alan P
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I added the rudder pedals to the front of the seat, which although inaccurate looks the part when the seat is fitted to the cockpit. Saddo that I am, if you could see it, I have actually scribed the "Convair" script on each pedal :nerd:

I had no idea the pedals were fitted to the seats, bit of a crazy idea and possibly over complicating the escape sequence :mental: I thought a Cranberrys escape sequence was complicated enough :yikes: As for scribing Convair, nothing sad about that Al, just shows care, extreme eye for detail and more importantly making your model to do the real aircraft justice :worthy:

ATB

Bex

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I had no idea the pedals were fitted to the seats, bit of a crazy idea

That's why it's inaccurate, but it's the only way to make everything fit! They were attached to the floor really. :blush:

The escape sequence for the Stanley escape capsule was pretty hairy - there are accounts of pilots and crew smashing shinbones and losing toes, even in drill sessions.

Have a look HERE - especially the contortions of the crewman in the eject position! The original tests were done using chimps, it looks like they forgot humans were a different shape!

Edited by PHaTNesS
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That's why it's inaccurate, but it's the only way to make everything fit! They were attached to the floor really. :blush:

The escape sequence for the Stanley escape capsule was pretty hairy - there are accounts of pilots and crew smashing shinbones and losing toes, even in drill sessions.

Have a look HERE - especially the contortions of the crewman in the eject position! The original tests were done using chimps, it looks like they forgot humans were a different shape!

Thanks for the Linky Al................. Sod that for a game of soldiers :yikes: and gives me nightmares thinking abut it and Im a shortarse :yikes:

Bex

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The Hustler is one of the few "modern" aircraft that interests me, it's so outrageous, built for out and out performance, so I'll be watching this one.

Cheers

Den

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Al , great to see you tackle the old beast at last , great progress..Sure looks impressive when done,( 'specially in Bare metal foil (or easier route) , Alcad 2 chrome !!

Don't put your scratch skills down , any attempt at it is great and what you've done so far looks great!!

Al remember that the elevons always hung down when the aircraft was powered down, parked up.

By the way if you haven't already seen it b-58.com/ is a great site for more reference material on this awesome aircraft.

Keep going , your in for the long haul here old fella' :bangin:

Andy

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Very nice progress so far, Al!

As the Late, Great, '58 is one of my all time faves, i've taken quite a bunch of photos of the plane at Wright Pat. If i can be of any assistance regarding detail shots, lemme know.

Paul Fisher does make an excellent SAC-seat if you are doing an early vintage Hustler, and his resin Elevons are quite nice, too.

Now, if only he'd do the early folding "tobaggan" seat for the F-106.....

Also check out an excellent website called the "B-58 Hustler Rendezvous". www.xs4all.nl/~mvburen/b-58/

FLY NAVY!! (Heh Heh Heh...)

All the Best,

David

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Looks great, especially considering you say you don't scratchbuild that much! What an incredible airplane, certainly one of my all time fav's and a "model to build before I die" type thing. Having seen some of your previous builds, this should be nice, possibly consider bringing it to Milton Keynes show next year? They don't build 'em like that any more.

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