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Bell X-1A - Special Hobby 1/72


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Are some models jinxed? This one was 'finished' a year ago and had gone together without too much trouble but as I was adding the pitot tubes to the wingtips, something that is done last because otherwise they always get knocked off, it became obvious that the wings were at slightly different angles of incidence and so the pitots were at different angles. Bending them so that they were aligned with the fuselage did not look right either. In the great scheme of things this should not have mattered as it was only going to sit in a display cabinet along with a number of other less than perfect examples of the modeller's art but…

I thought that it might be possible to remove one wing, realign it and respray just the wing root but everything started going backwards and ended when a trace of CA on the fingers holding the forward fuselage wrecked the finish and the decals so a strip down and repaint was the only option. I managed to obtain a replacement set of decals from Special Hobby but it remained on the shelf of doom until late last year. Even when I got around to fixing it everything gave trouble from re-attaching the wing to the paint job and the decals and finally I had to steal the u/c parts from another X-1 kit.

Kit has a few issues.

There are some 'swellings' at the wingtips that I think should not be there. They look more appropriate to the X1-B when it had the reaction jets fitted.

I could not get the u/c legs to fit when the cross-shaft at the top of the leg was fitted. Leave it off and the fit seems OK.

I found the wing to fuselage joint somewhat fragile and strengthened it using a spigot made from brass tube.

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Here with a Hobbycraft X-1 from 20+ years ago which has somehow lost its pitot tubes

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John

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A shame that you suddenly had so much trouble with the build right at the end John but a superb rescue and I think she looks gorgeous - I've always been keen on experimental aircraft, as you can probably guess by my avatar of 'Chuck' Yeager!!

Cracking build John, love it - well done that man!! :Tasty::coolio::thumbsup:

Kev :)

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Nice to see "X" planes. About 20 years ago I started a collection when the Hasegawa X29 came out. I thought, "there is not to many of them and it would look pretty cool to have a line-up." I currently have ..... an X29. Even though an X1 hanging under a B29 would be nice. Someday.

.

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Well that does look great, especially next to the X-1. I know exactly what you mean about 'could have left it', but it's always that much more satisfying to know you've corrected it. Very sleek and shiny!

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