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1/48th NA X-15A-2....3rd attempt! - 13/12 update


trickyrich

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…and I appear here hanging my head in shame with this old build of shame!! I had though I’d actually started doing some to it last KUTA, I know I moved it to the WIP section…..and never got around to doing anything on it.

 

But I found her yesterday while combing through the mountain of projects I already have on the go and I felt really sad for her, so as bit of a break form current builds I’ve dragged her out.

 

She wasn’t that far from actually being completed, so lets finish her.

 

 

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The lower rudder air brakes were poorly cast so I carefully removed the internal detail and fitted it to some new card brakes. These were fitted along with the fixed top/bottom??. Most of the internal mechanism that operates them won’t be seen so I’ll add just enough to make it look “correct”.

 

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I needed to finish off the upper air-brakes, I had originally just used filler in this section (I really don’t know why) but I just couldn’t get the smooth shape and angles I needed.

 

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So out with the knife and remove all that filler…

 

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….fit some plastic card, which just happened to be the correct thickness!

 

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Some careful work with the file and she’s done, looks much nicer and only took 15 minutes! Just a wee bit of filler to finish off the main rudder.

 

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While I was at this end I fitted the rockets unit and surroundings.

 

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Seeing thinks were going so smoothly I even fitted the wings, they’ve already been filled and sanded back here.

 

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This is the first-time I’ve had her with the tanks in place, gee she looks impressive! I’ll glue the elevator in place right before I paint her. The cockpit area is about 90% done, I just need to do the seatbelts and some minor detailing, plus figure out how to mount the canopy open.

 

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There’s probably a few hours worth of fiddling and tiding up to go then she can be primed. I’ll be using Mr. Paint’s White Acrylic Lacquer for the main colour but I need to be very careful when applying it. The white on the actual aircraft was applied at varying thicknesses depending on where it was applied. It was a protective coating for the paint underneath which reacted to oxidizers (like liquid oxygen) very easily. This Ablative coating was Salmon Pink in colour. Plus quite a few panel lines were masked when painting and removed afterwards, so the aircraft wasn’t a pure solid white colour. I may need to do some more research on the colour scheme (or try and find what I did with it the first time!!).

 

 

I actually looking forward to getting back into this build and I will make a proper attempt to complete her…..finally!

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thanks, I really got back into the groove with this one today. Now I have the right paint for her it'll be fun.

 

Plus this will be a test run for this paint, if white goes on as nicely as the camo colours then I may resurrect the RB-51!! The only things that stopped me with that build was the paint finish. Now with these lacquer based acrylics I may finally be able to give her a finish she deserves! I'll have to strip back and redo some of the paint work but that's no biggy!

 

 

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I seem to have gotten my second wind with this build!

 

There probably doesn’t look to have been much progress on her since the last update, but it’s all been about getting the joins and little things sorted out.

 

Whilst trying to figure out how the external tank fitted that I realized that there was a lots of detailing missing from them! 

 

Originally they were completely misshapen and too narrow..

 

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… so I had to add spacers  to get them round again.

 

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So now with some detailing they look right and after a bit of fiddling they do fit.

 

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The other area that needed work was the exhaust/nozzles area. The overall shape of the nozzle is not 100% correct but there is just too much work needed to correct this and I’d never complete this build. So I’ve added some detailing that was missing and it’s actually starting to look a lot closer to the real thing than I first imagined, I’m happy with that. I just need to do a little bit more and it’s done.

 

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This is sort of how the tanks will fit, I’ll need to pin them so I can fit them and they’ll stay in place once everything has been painted.

 

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I’m going to have to replace the vent nozzles that sit at the back, while the cast resin ones are the right basic shape they are too flat, full of bubbles and very fragile. So I’ll cut and drill the pipe holders out of plastic sheet, then use plastic and aluminum tube to make them up….this’ll be a fun job!

 

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I can actually see the end in site for this one, finally. The elevators will be glued on next once I’ve completed tiding that area up. Then it’s just a case of checking all the joins and giving her a coat of Mr Surface 1200, that will help reveal any bad joins and smooth up the surface. Then I can paint her, the cockpit I can mostly leave till last.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Right just a quick update just to keep this thread alive and to say I haven’t forgotten about her.

 

As with the P-43 Lancer I’m in the seemingly endless loop of priming, filling, and sanding. Being an almost pure white finish all over the body work needs to be as good as I can get.

 

These photos are after the second lot of priming, I had re-scribe some missing details a job I really don’t like!

 

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She is almost ready to start painting, I need to do a bit more research for this, she wasn’t completely white allover, there were some “panel-lines” that were quite distinct. Plus the pattern on the external tanks were quite unique to each tank used as they were reusable. I can see lots of masking here!

 

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With luck I should be able to complete her before Christmas as I’m on holidays from the weekend. It’ll be great to finally finish her off.

 

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