1/48th North American X-15A-2 - finally a new update

[trickyrich]

Well this is a totally unplanned GB for me and it’s only by chance I’ve decided to join. This baby just happened to show up on evilBay for the right price and I just couldn’t help myself, plus I’m a huge fan resin especially resin from Collect-Aire, I presently have quite a collection which I do hope to build…one day.

 

So for this GB I’ve got the Ultimate Badass beast, the X-15A-2! She has held the absolute speed record for a manned aircraft for 50 years! Set in 1967 by William J. “Pete” Knight at 4519mph/7274km/h (Mach 6.72) at 102,100ft/31,120m, and a record that still remains for this type of aircraft!

 

 

This is a typical Collect-Aire model (well better moulded than some releases!!) with some lovely details parts, the wheels suffer a wee bit form excessive resin flash but they’re easy to sort out. The white metal bits are some of the nicest I’ve seen.

 

 

 

She comes with 2 vacform canopies (opps forgot photo) and a resin one which requires clear acrylic windows to be fitted (supplied.

 

 

 

The decals are nice but I probably won’t use most of the as I planned to do her in her White Ablative scheme which she set all her records in.

 

 

I won’t unfortunately be able to start her until the end of May due to work commitments but I intend to take some time off after that so I should be able to get her done.

[Basilisk]

What - you will take some more time off after your cruise on the rig

 

Looks like a challenging kit and it will be interesting to see how well things fit. But I am curious to know why you are  a huge fan of resin kits from Collect-Aire - I don't think it is the quality of their kits or are I mistaken?

 

Cheers, Peter

 

[trickyrich]

Because they're AWESOME!!!!!!!  

[snapper_city]

Should be interesting. 

[TonyTiger66]

This looks great Rich! It also looks quite tricky, so it should suit you just fine .

 

It's good to see a resin kit being built, especially of such an awesome subject in 1/48; it's going to be quite big.

 

I'll go and do a little research to find out what the white scheme looks like that you're aiming at.

 

Good to have you on board 

TonyT

 

[Caerbannog]

Great choice! Will follow with interest.

René

[trickyrich]

I've been reading quite a bit about the white scheme.

 

The actual Ablative paint is a "Salmon Pink" in colour but it's very reactive to oxidisers, especially liquid oxygen! Plus once it's applied it has to be sanded back to a precise depth depending on where it is on the airframe. The actual white colour is a protective coating made by Dow Corning which happens to bond well with the Ablative coating. From what I can gather the panel line where masked off with a special black foam tape that was removed after she was painted. i need to find some photo's of her before any of the launchers to see how these panel lines looked. She was very much the worst for wear after her record breaking flights.

 

The hardest part of the build will be getting the finish just right, again from what I have read so far the white coating was a bit thicker on the upper surfaces (???), and the unmasked panel line could be seen or were just lightly coated in the white protective coating.

 

I need to do further research on her, I have the excellent Aerofax Datagraph book on her which should help. The moulding is one of the better ones from Collect-Aire, nice a crisp moulding, other then the wheels (easy fix) everything else is perfect! The wings are just butt glued to the fuselage, I pin these together to help get a stronger join and keep them even. 

 

If my sailing date is delayed I may even get a chance to start on her. The more I look into this project the more i want the actually build her!!

[Caerbannog]

Hypersonic started with X-15 improvement parts for the 1:48 Special Hobby X-15. They also have a reference pack including a CD with hires pics from Tonly Landis' collection. The Toni Landis books "Hypersonic: The Story of the North American X-15" and the "X-15 Photo Scrapbook" are also very nice. I can check at home later if I find suitable pics to answer your questions on the panel lines.

I initially wanted to add the Special Hobby kit with Hypersonics Full Meal Deal but am affraid I would bit off more with this than I can chew :-)

René

 

[trickyrich]

I have seen the "extras" available for the Special Hobby version. I did think about them for a while for this model, but the base bits are actually quite nice to start with. Plus from what I've read there's not much to do to improve this model.

 

Any info you can drag up would be greatly appreciated!!  I just need a close up of one of the panel lines so I can get an idea of how best to represent them.

[exdraken]

Sounds like a cool project to me

God luck with your timing

[trickyrich]

Ok I hadn’t meant to start this build at all, I had planned just to check out all the parts and cleanup/remove some of the resin mould plugs……  But I just couldn’t help myself and two days later…..

 

After everything had been give a good wash I looked at the external fuel tanks, and I wasn’t that happy with what I found! They turned out not to be round in section at all!

 

 

At first I had thought of replacing them with tube or use a drop tank of similar size but I didn’t have anything, so I was left with having the reshape them. The easiest way was to widen then to match their height. I’ve done something similar to this with the Unicraft Turbo Prop engines for my Ar-245P-5.  So once I had worked out the thickness of the new shim I required I glue each side to a thin sheet of plastic.

 

 

Once dried these were then cutout.

 

 

Now it’s just a case of gluing each side to a shaped piece of plastic sheet the right thickness, plus gluing a plastic to plastic join will make alignment a much easier task.

 

 

I glued the rear section of the upper rudder to the main unit, it just needs to be sanded back.

 

 

The lower rudder unit needs to be reshaped. The shape here is for A-2 early in her test phase, later for her high-speed runs (the really fast ones in the White colour scheme) and testing on the dummy RamJet she had this section modified. I need to remove everything back to the RHS line and give the leading edge a much-rounded edge instead of the sharp chiseled one.

 

 

The lower airbrakes had a lot of pinholes in the resin, so it was just easier to replace most of them with plastic sheet, just leaving the internal resin details. These will be fitted in the closed position so you will not be able to see much detail.

 

 

I’ve started to clean up the seat and transport trolley. The trolley needs a bit of extra work and I may end up (I do have to replace a couple of items) replacing some part with either plastic or metal rod.

 

 

Ok the wings and tail, neither side lines up correctly plus they are just the usual “butt” joint on this model which is not very strong. To fix I'll pin the wings and tail. These will then go into brass tube set to either the correct angle or nice and level. For this I made up a box section to hold two brass tubes for pinned wings to fit into. This will ensure everything is perfectly square as well as giving the wings some additional strength.

 

 

 

The elevators needed something similar plus they needed to have 15° anhedral, so I made up a jig for this as well….though I used the wrong bit the first time!

 

 

 

Both have an aligning line so now it’s just a simple matter of positioning them correctly and gluing them in place.

 

 

A lot of other parts have now been cleaned up and test fitted as well, the cockpit unit and nose wheel bay required quits a bit of “fiddling” to get them to fit. I need to done more work on both before I can glue them in place.

 

 

She’s quite a bit bigger that I thought she’d be! I’m not to sure how much more I’ll do on her, this was just meant to be a clean up/test fit session!!

 

Oh and “Cussie Bro” in the background is all ready for decals!

[Caerbannog]

Great start. I had to clean up "my room" to get the reference I was looking for so it took a bit longer. Here is what I found on the "panel lines":

First the pink ablative with panel masks removed which shows the thickness of the ablative quite well and also it makes it easier to spot which panels were not covered in the pink ablative:

This is how the panel lines looked after the white paint was added. Obviously the white did not cover the "black" metal as good as the pink ablative:

Some pics in flight which show the belly side. Some panel lines seem to be not covered with ablative nor white paint:

And after the flight. It seems to me that the ablative thickness has reduced a lot - makes sense but then I should think it would look more pink...:

Hope this helps.

When I am going to build mine I will most likely follow the same pattern in application. First spray the X-15 a gunmetallic black colour, tape off the seams with thin strips of insulation tape or other tape which is thicker than normal masking tape, apply a thick coat of primer (maybe even pink) and then white. I would like to show the X-15 after ther record flight. In this case I think some sanding will give a good effect. But as you already did start on the fuel tanks you will choose the fresh pre flight look.

René

[mirageiv]

Awesome choice Rich, one of my most favourite aircraft ever! I really look forward to watching this one.

 

David.

[trickyrich]

20 hours ago, Caerbannog said:

 

When I am going to build mine I will most likely follow the same pattern in application. First spray the X-15 a gunmetallic black colour, tape off the seams with thin strips of insulation tape or other tape which is thicker than normal masking tape, apply a thick coat of primer (maybe even pink) and then white. I would like to show the X-15 after ther record flight. In this case I think some sanding will give a good effect. But as you already did start on the fuel tanks you will choose the fresh pre flight look.

René

 

 

Thanks for that Rene, those are awesome photos, some of which I haven't seen before. I have read (somewhere) that the thickness of the coating, the white Dow stuff, varied and was quite a bit thinner on the underside of the wings especially which gave them that slight pink tinge.  I have to do more reading up on this.

 

I head off on my work adventure on Saturday so no work on her for 8 weeks unfortunately!!! 

[TonyTiger66]

He's passed the equator...  

 

Stunning pictures and some great advice there @Caerbannog, many thanks, that helps all interested in the X-15.

 

I would like to do one one day, but it will have to be in 1/72 due to space restrictions.

 

Looking forward to Rich's return and seeing this one progress .

 

All best regards 

TonyT

[trickyrich]

my 6 weeks on a leaky boat/rig are nearly over, about to pass Timor and by the looks of it will now be at home on the 1st June!! 

 

I have my F-111 build to press on with but I'll still do bits and pieces to this one when I can, from memory I've finished most of the structural stuff I need to do for the wings/tail. The cockpit should be fairly quick as it will be closed and very little can be seen. 

[Caerbannog]

1st June?

Happy that I did not start mine X-15 - have lost my mojo a bit at the moment :-)

René

[trickyrich]

I have Mojo problems at the moment too.....it's called a Hobby Boss F-111C!!! What a piece of crap it is!

 

I'm hoping to have a few weeks off after my trip so hopefully I can get something done on this one as well.

[trickyrich]

Wow after almost half a year I’m finally back to this build. After a longer than expected trip away overseas and other GB’s taking up time this build was sort of shuffled off to one side.

 

After a couple of stalled builds and with the old modelling Mojo at a bit of a loss I pulled this out to play with a couple of weeks ago. That small play has resulted in quite a bit of work being done then and now this project being back to full active status. Building a resin model is a good way to get the modelling Mojo working again

 

Ok update time, I’ll keep updating this thread but will also move it to the WIP section…..hopefully!

 

Ok with the new mounts for the wings and tail done it was time to fit these. I needed to make sure that these new mounts were perfectly square with the body. The moulded mounts on the model were out quite a bit!

 

 

The front mounts were off by nearly 5mm from one side to the other. The rear mounts for the elevators was I though correct at the time but it ended up being 3mm too high! Unfortunately I didn’t find this out until I’d glued the fuselage together!

 

 

At this stage I also modified the lower rudder leading edge. During the early flights this rudder was longer and similar in shape to the upper one. Later on it was reduced in length and the leading edge squared off. This wasn’t the easiest of jobs to do as only the front 10mm had the new beveled shape, and everything had to be square as well. It came out pretty nicely in the end. The speed brakes will be closed on her but the insides these lower ones can be seen so I’m going to have to add details here. The model supplied parts are pretty poorly made (white metal and “off cast” resin) so I’ll have to scratch build this area. Not a big job just time consuming.

 

 

Now the cockpit. I still not quite sure if I’ll leave the canopy open or closed, a lot will depend on if I stuff it up or not!  The detail is a bit on the basic side but I’m not going to go too crazy here, just some careful painting and a few small extras. Luckily I have the Aerofax book on the X-15 to help out, it’s a great reference manual.

 

 

With the basic work done on the cockpit I could close up the fuselage….and what a fun task that was! CA glue was no go for this stage as it dries too quickly (even the Gel stuff for this sort of work), and there was a bit of aligning required as the nose was slightly warped. So the Epoxy resin was pulled out, funnily enough I could have sworn the last time I used it it was the 5 minute type and not the 24 hour type I had in my hand?? I got the fuselage together eventually along with covering everything in epoxy. It was put aside to dry.

 

While it was drying I found the 5 minute epoxy, now I was worried, I had a feeling the stuff I used was VERY old! Two days later it still hadn’t dried properly and the entire nose has moved to one side!

 

The only thing that saved this now was that the epoxy hadn’t set, so I was able to carefully split the fuselage. The only time I’ve been glad for really thick resin fuselages. Once I’d removed all the old stuff and re-cleaned up the fuselage, it was re-glued with the 5 minute epoxy. This cured nicely and everything remained in it’s right place. Then some careful sanding back and she was done. I forgot to take photos of all this fun and games.

 

Inbetween this I managed to almost finish the auxiliary tanks, they're now finally round and not oval. I now just have to start adding all the detail to them. (ones on the left are before filling and re-scribed, one in right are complete).

 

 

 

With the fuselage done the upper rudder was fitted. The airbrakes will be closed on her, these were fitted later along with the Helium bottle that sits behind the rudder. It was around this stage I found out that the elevator were in the wrong position, luckily with a bit of “keyhole’ surgery I managed to get them in the right position, as seen here. I need to rebuild/make the fairing section where the elevator meet the fuselage.

 

 

The main skids were fitted now as well, as I’ll be using the trolley at the rear these skid are in their flight position. It’s a strange combination on resin skid and white metal support here, namely to support the weight of the model. The support was actually too thin, it now sits on some plastic card so it’s at the right height. I still need to make the hinges for the struts, these will be from plastic rod and card.

 

 

The cockpit is actually starting to look quite good, this is just the basic painting, I have a lot more to do here.

 

 

 

..and finally all together. The wings and elevators are just slide in place for the moment, but she’s starting to look really nice. Most of the re-scribing has been complete since these photos and the upper rudder is nearly completed.

 

 

 

I’m really starting to enjoy this build, apart for a few errors a faults it’s a really nice model to build. I should be ready to paint her by the end of my next break.

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Rich

Looks the business, having come this far let's see this one finished please

cheers Pat

[trickyrich]

no this will definitely stay on the workbench now until finished. All the really hard stuff is done and it's mostly a case now of putting her all together and getting a nice base finish. There's some detailing to do but nothing major. The colour scheme is just Ablative White overall with a few patches of black, the only hard painting will be the two tanks.