oldmodeler Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 She is just beautiful.... Thanks for the extra pictures of AVI RealMtEd... The engine compartment was left natural metal when the plane was flying, and the bomb bay contained various recording equipment. The B-70A died when the stealth technology and blended aero/thermodynamics of the A-12 were developed plus of course those nasty missiles. (would have been called hittiles if they ever hit anything). A time when technology raced a head almost on a daily basis, comming in to the drawing board, yesterdays ideas were out of date. Ive not seen Carebonag's pictures before, and are very useful in showing A2's differences. To make an AV2 would be tricky, as the dihedrals is set outboard of the engine compartment, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealMrEd Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Okay Alan, here goes. These photos taken in the 1980's. Have a few from 1969, but don't know whether I'll be able to find them. A couple of points -- the wheel/tires/landing gear are all painted high-heat aluminum silver color. As you can see, if the aircraft gets moved, the paint wears off the tire tread. Next, not shown here (and maybe to been seen again), under the correct light (early sun-up), the major components of the fuse seem to have a small, printed circuit look, under the paint, and all over the place. Took me years to find out that is how they circulated the fuel throughout the aircraft's skin, to help keep it cool at Mach 3. Doubt is you would notice this in scale, as it's so fine, you really can't see it in photos, unless you had one with dead perfect lighting. One last point. My last remaining AMT kit is still sealed and I don't want to open it. For some reason that I can no longer remember, I decided to go with the Contrail 1/72 vacuform kit, rather than the AMT plastic one. (Still haven't finished it). One problem on the Contrail kit is while the fuse cross-section at the cockpit area should be a perfectly circular fuse with a little squarish cab atop it, the Contrail kit has a tall, inverted "u" shaped cabin atop a much smaller diameter fuse. I filled one side with about a whole bottle of CA and sanded to the correct shape, then tossed it all back into the box for a later time. Hadn't opened the box in 20 years, but that's where I found these photos. The whole point of this, is to give you a heads up on possible problems. I can't imagine what I found that make me favor a vacuform over a plastic kit, but beware of shape issues and the like, on your build. Back in the day, someone (I think on-line but may have been a magazine article) critiqued these two kits side, and if you could find THAT article, it would probably tell you a lot more than I can remember! BTW, the Contrail kit does have some great 1/72 full-size drawings, but they missed the wing wiggle too. Good luck, Ed 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 8, 2017 Author Share Posted March 8, 2017 (edited) Love the pictures Ed! I've been making some progress, finally... New throttle quadrant fitted Front end loaded with lead and fitted together. More coming! Edited March 20, 2019 by Alan P 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 21 minutes ago, Alan P said: Love the pictures Ed! I've been making some progress, finally... New throttle quadrant fitted Front end loaded with lead Fuselage fitted together More coming! Alan, you don't need ANY lead. Mine doesn't have a gram of ballast, and is quite happy on it's wheels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 There was once a build report on a russian site. The builder did several corrections on the kit but the report was ending in the middle of the build. I remember that he corrected the shape of the cannards and vertical stabs. However I cannot find the page again but stumbled about these plans - maybe they are interesting for you: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/PLS-72033-1-72-XB-70-Valkyrie-Full-Size-Scale-Plans-two-A1-format-pages-/272567850170 (I am neither the seller nor do I know him) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 8, 2017 Author Share Posted March 8, 2017 4 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said: Alan, you don't need ANY lead. Mine doesn't have a gram of ballast, and is quite happy on it's wheels. Cool, then I've created the first nose-sitter of my modelling career 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 8, 2017 Author Share Posted March 8, 2017 3 hours ago, Caerbannog said: There was once a build report on a russian site. The builder did several corrections on the kit but the report was ending in the middle of the build. I remember that he corrected the shape of the cannards and vertical stabs. However I cannot find the page again but stumbled about these plans - maybe they are interesting for you: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/PLS-72033-1-72-XB-70-Valkyrie-Full-Size-Scale-Plans-two-A1-format-pages-/272567850170 (I am neither the seller nor do I know him) Thanks for the link! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Pulling up my chair - very interested in how you get on with the Anigrand F-108. I have this same kit, and it keeps looking at me. Cheers, Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 (edited) On 3/8/2017 at 5:20 PM, Navy Bird said: Pulling up my chair - very interested in how you get on with the Anigrand F-108. I have this same kit, and it keeps looking at me. Cheers, Bill Thanks Bill, funny you should say that... The interior is very simple, just needs priming and painting: The fuselage halves fit together like any limited run resin kit, ie. at least they look like they're from the same kit! Intakes needed a lot of cleanup, and the sprue spacer is due to some warping. Some steps to sand down along the wing roots: The wing joint is a simple butt joint, so I will need to find some brass rod to use as mounting pins because those wing parts are very big. All stuck together with goodly amounts of CA glue and accelerator: Some nasty gaps in the underside, but the CA/zip combination makes a very good filler. This aircraft is huge in 1/72. Though it's a fighter/interceptor, it's about the size of a B-58. More soon! I'm on a roll! Al Edited March 20, 2019 by Alan P 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 (edited) Believe it or not, I am still working on this project! One of the bits I was dreading and not sure if I should try right up to the last minute was the wing dihedral for A/V 2. Today I did it. A five-degree dihedral added. Sadly it didn't all go to plan and the starboard wing came loose at the join. A pity as it'll be a weak spot for the remainder of this model's life. I positioned the fuselage and glued the join along the top Here's the secret of the dihedral effect: First I scored along the line of the fold on the top edges. Then I flipped it over and sawed right through the bottom half of each wing along the fold line. I carefully folded the wing up and filled the gap along the bottom with plastic card (can't remember what thickness exactly) I used a handmade jig made from plasticard to get the 5deg angle correct and lined both sides up by eye. As you can spot in this photo, I also removed the elevons to be positioned individually later. While in this reckless mood, I also sanded off the vents from the fuselage to be replaced by etch metal parts. The XF-108 is mostly assembled, reasonably painless but a lot of work ahead on both kits: Still have a lot of remedial work ahead, but I will hopefully end up with two unique models. Alan Edited March 22, 2019 by Alan P 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 They both look great. The F-108 is one of my favourite projects. Very bold move putting in the extra dihedral of a kit that big! I like the "get it done" approach you are taking. Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark4700 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Really coming along now. Nice progress. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howlindawg Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Great choice of subjects - I'll enjoy keeping tabs on this one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 ...I just found out that you modified the US Airfix Walrus box art to show the pilot fighting the Nazi! I'm still giggling now. On that theme, is there any chance you could add a secret serviceman battling it out with a Commie Spy inside the XB-70 intake? Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted April 13, 2017 Author Share Posted April 13, 2017 On 08/04/2017 at 2:13 PM, AdrianMF said: ...I just found out that you modified the US Airfix Walrus box art to show the pilot fighting the Nazi! I'm still giggling now. On that theme, is there any chance you could add a secret serviceman battling it out with a Commie Spy inside the XB-70 intake? Ha ha! Where did you find out about that? I saw a thread on another forum that linked my photoshopped picture as the actual box art 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 That was the one! Mind you, the original was so OTT that it was hard to tell. Looking forward to the fighting figures in the intake... Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted May 29, 2017 Author Share Posted May 29, 2017 (edited) Hello again, Long time away, but I've almost finished my third novel Most of the work on the Valkyrie has been preparing the intake/engine compartment slung below the main planform. First I thinned out the rear end of the fuselage - the original is far too thick: I built up the six engine faces ready for the new Armory PE exhaust nozzles: Then started adding the Extratech PE Then went all the way up to the front and started work on the intakes. First sanded off the extraneous detail: Added PE Fitted the intake splitter plates: They don't fit very well, so I needed to sand a lot of plastic off the bottom of each splitter plate to get them to sit flush. There are still big gaps along the bottom edges. Also replaced the thick plastic vanes in the outflow duct with ones cut from aluminium litho plate. Next step - PE nozzles. Al Edited March 20, 2019 by Alan P 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted May 29, 2017 Author Share Posted May 29, 2017 (edited) Okay, the nozzles: The PE is a bit fiddly - there's an inner section that needs to be folded in a circle and slotted into the base. Then the outer petal section folds around it and slots over the base. When assembled, it looks far better and to scale. Added the afterburner rings to each engine: This is the first six-engined aircraft I've ever built! The noise this thing made when it took off must have been pretty memorable! Next - back to the XF-108. Al Edited March 20, 2019 by Alan P 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted May 29, 2017 Author Share Posted May 29, 2017 (edited) Not much assembly left on the XF-108, but lots of finishing. Here it is compared to the Valk: I wish I had a modern fighter for comparison! We know the Valk was a monster, but the Rapier was a big aircraft as well, over 90ft long. You can see here the milliput patches I've had to apply for some of the gaps, holes and malformed mouldings. The corners of the intakes were both lost through bubbles in the resin. The holes in the wings were caused by the mountings I made to attach them rather than the butt-joints the kit expects you to use. The big gaps in the bottom are now filled: These are both hard work, but impressive kits all the same. Thanks for looking, Alan Edited March 20, 2019 by Alan P 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howlindawg Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 1 hour ago, Alan P said: Long time away, but I've almost finished my third novel Nice one - I really enjoyed Voyager BTW. That bank of PE nozzles look very impressive; it's almost a shame to paint them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted May 29, 2017 Author Share Posted May 29, 2017 44 minutes ago, Howlindawg said: Nice one - I really enjoyed Voyager BTW. That bank of PE nozzles look very impressive; it's almost a shame to paint them. Thanks for your comment and many thanks for reading the book 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 One of my "to do" models as well (the XB-70). Finished the book as well. It is a cracker. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 20, 2019 Author Share Posted March 20, 2019 Pics updated - will be revisiting this epic Mach 3 build soon! Alan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearmatt Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 knock, knock? 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted November 23, 2019 Author Share Posted November 23, 2019 On 9/30/2019 at 9:50 PM, bearmatt said: knock, knock? 🙂 Soon... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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