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Call me crazy! 1/72 Northrop YB-35 Flying Wing


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3 hours ago, billn53 said:

Xtreme Metal is enamel, and will be going over a lacquer primer and base coat, so shouldn’t be an issue. But just to be safe, I’ll keep your thought in mind. 

Bill

 

Xtreme Metal is very hot enamel though, I find its safer to treat it as if its lacquer just in case. Lacquer primer should be OK though

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This is an awesome build of an amazing aircraft - have you got a b29 to do a size comparison against? Your nmf experiments are very interesting,  looking forward to see what you do with the real thing!

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9 hours ago, SaminCam said:

… have you got a b29 to do a size comparison against? 

No B-29 (or any other WW2 bomber for that matter). But, here it is with another famous Northrop warplane:

 

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(P.S. B-29 wingspan was 141 ft. The YB-35 comes in at 172 ft.)

 

I'm just about finished with the gloss black base coat. I've been sanding, polishing, repainting, etc. for the past couple of days and have blackened fingers to prove it!

 

48500413892_14c1ee246f_z.jpg 

 

I just finished some touch-up repaint for some areas where I had sanded through the black down to the primer. Tomorrow I'll give it a light sanding and call it ready for the next step. I still haven't decided whether or not to do the "mottling" over the black, but am leaning heavily in that direction.

 

On an entirely different topic, IPMS USA is currently holding its National convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee (just a couple hours away).

 

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I decided to play hooky from work today spend some well-earned vacation time and see the show. I have one word for it: overwhelming! The display hall is enormous and the vendor room is about twice as large!

 

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I didn't enter anything into the competition, other than my contribution to our local chapter's Group Build:

 

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That's mine on the far right (a larger pic is in the first post of this build thread). I'd like to say mine is the best of the bunch, but to be honest this I'd trade mine for this one in a heartbeat!

 

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I did pick up a few items from the vendors' area, such as:

 

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to keep me from spilling adhesive on my builds 😱

 

and this, to replace my bad bottle:

 

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and finally, this (because I am crazy beyond help 🤪 )

 

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17 hours ago, billn53 said:

 

 

Last item. For Moa and Bronzemeister, I present the Northrop Flying Wing Passenger Plane

Dang man, I've watched that vid like five times now.... and all I can take away it two thoughts.

  1. Why do the interior colors seem to match the ones Moa's been using on things like the Anson & Proctor builds?  At a minimum they're from the same pallet.
  2. Don't I have one of these in my horde somewhere?
  3. (I lied), where's the MST3K version of this film?
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16 hours ago, billn53 said:

I'm just about finished with the gloss black base coat. I've been sanding, polishing, repainting, etc. for the past couple of days and have blackened fingers to prove it!

I knew you would consider the SEA scheme with black undersides, I must admit it appeals to me.

 

16 hours ago, billn53 said:

On an entirely different topic, IPMS USA is currently holding its National convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee (just a couple hours away).

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour????

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I haven't seen that film for......... perhaps even longer.  Is it a very popular film in Tennessee?

18 hours ago, billn53 said:

and finally, this (because I am crazy beyond help 🤪 )

A YB-49, now that has to be done in a Vietnam era SEA scheme with black undersides. :wicked: At least no short propeller blades

Edited by Retired Bob
wrong plane
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I must admit that I was still trying to work out the poster, so I did not take in which flying wing you had bought, hence my edit.  How many other people turned up at the show and did not get the reference to the film, Animal House? :hmmm:

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Here's my Saturday evening update!

 

I'm calling the gloss black base coat finished, for good or bad, and have moved on to the clear glazing on the nose. On removing the protective tape and sponge I had installed prior to painting, I discovered the pilot's yoke had broken loose. Fortunately, I recovered the errant item and will re-install when I add the canopy. This is the second time the yoke has gone free, if you're building this kit take this as a caution to delay gluing the yoke (and gunners' periscopes, and rear armor shield) until late in construction.

 

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Here's the naked nose waiting for its glazing. Look how shiny that gloss black is!

 

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I wrapped the surrounding area with Parafilm M to help protect the base coat from fingerprints or other damage while I work on the glazing:

 

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I added some interior framing and simulated lightening holes where I thought they'd be visible. A test fit of the glazing confirmed my time was well spent:

 

48506943452_e2de275176_z.jpg  48506943542_d850f872bf_z.jpg 

 

The biggest fit problem is on the underside of the nose glazing, along the centerline. Note the gap running along the inner diagonal and horizontal edges:

 

48506943317_d07d7569d1_c.jpg 


I was able to reduce the width of the gap by sanding the outer edge of the clear glazing piece, but some filler will still be needed. The rear edge of the glazing isn't attached to anything --  a good squeeze might break a weak putty or, even worse, crack the glazing. I plan to use black Milliput because of its strength compared to standard putty.

 

I also simulated a beam on the inside leading edge of the glazing, which is visible in many photos of the actual aircraft: 

 

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That done, I carefully glued the nose glazing pieces into place. Here's what they look like installed (no putty yet):

 

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I'll add the Milliput, let it harden overnight, and come morning I'll a) blend the glazing into the nose profile, b) mask the glazing, and c) extend the gloss black base coat to the nose, plus a few other items. I still have hopes of getting the first layer of aluminum NMF on before the weekend is over.

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That photo is definitely a "what the heck were they thinking?" shot. Who, in their right mind, would have climbed into this and tried to fly it? 

Lovely job on the transparencies though!

 

Ian

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It's Sunday evening and I am happy to report that I met my goal of getting the first layer of NMF on the big wing! Let's see how that went...

 

After the Milliput around the nose glazing had set, I sanded it down, did some minor touchup with Mr Surfacer, and masked the glazing in preparation for painting the nose gloss black:

 

48515998881_d2fa0b48e3_c.jpg 

 

The canopy pieces are spares from my now-hanger-queen extra kit. I'm using them as convenient masking items to protect the interior from paint spray.

 

Here's the nose after painting, sanding, and polishing to blend with the rest of the aircraft. Excuse the dust, please:

 

48515998801_9775ecbb6f_c.jpg 

 

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I attended to a few minor, but essential, items.  I painted the tires & wheels (for the tires, I used a 50-50 mix of Tamiya gloss black and Nato black; the wheels are Xtreme Metal's dark aluminum)

 

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I also assembled the propellers and painted the hubs & spinners with Xtreme Metal matte aluminum. The propeller blades still need to be painted and decaled:

 

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Let get back to the main show!

 

It was time to fish or cut bait. I decided to go ahead with mottling the black base in preparation for the NMF. Instead of painting squiggles (which under the NMF looked too much like squiggles for my liking), I broke out a Hannants Luftwaffe mottling mask and went to town. This was the result:

 

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At this point, I must admit that there was a little devil on my shoulder, telling me to slap on a couple of Balkankreuz and call it an Amerika bomber ca. 1946!

 

I started the NMF by applying a light coat of Xtreme Metal aluminum to the underside of the wing:

 

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The mottling does show through, but it is very subtle and I have doubts it will survive the various panel shading and final gloss coat that lies ahead:

 

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Satisfied that everything was going okay, I proceeded to paint the upper surface:

 

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I'm put on a very thin coat of aluminum, because I didn't want to kill my mottling and also because I know there is more painting to be done when I do the panel shading. In the above pic, you can see some of the black base coat showing through, creating a weathered streaking effect (which doesn't look half bad!).

 

I am very happy with the finish, compared to the mess that was my first attempt a few days ago:

 

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If I didn't tell you, I bet you'd never notice that the outer wing join runs straight up through the center of this photo:

 

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There is, of course, the inevitable boo-boo that I'll have to fix once the paint is fully dry:

 

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And, once again, I forgot to add the small exhausts for the turbosuperchargers before painting. Not a big issue.

 

That's it for tonight. Next up: adding various shades of NMF to the wing's panels.

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On 8/9/2019 at 11:08 PM, billn53 said:

48500413952_b7ba130419_z.jpg 

 

I just noticed we are neighbors (I live over in Madison)!  One of my friends was posting pics from the convention in Chattanooga but I wasn't able to make it there.  

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39 minutes ago, mdauben said:

I just noticed we are neighbors (I live over in Madison)!  One of my friends was posting pics from the convention in Chattanooga but I wasn't able to make it there.  

Small world! You should come to one of our meetings. First & third Monday of the week. PM me if you want to know more. 

- Bill

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I’m sorry to say that I haven’t been able to get to the wing since the last update. I just had an exhaust fan installed in my work room and had to totally clear the bench for the contractors. 

On top of that, I’m on my way to the airport for a quick business trip, returning Thursday evening. This will put me way behind schedule, I’ll really have to hump if I’m to be done for our show on the 24th. 

Next update will be after I return from my trip. 

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I'm back from my trip and I have lost time to make up for.

 

When I left Tuesday, I had cleaned off my workbench so my contractors could install a much-needed ventilation fan. So, my first task was to return my bench back to working order

 

From this:

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To this:

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Returning to The Wing, I finally remembered to install the small exhausts on the turbosupercharger bulges. You can see below how I used a rotary tool to open up the exhaust outlets -- previously it was totally flat, just like the larger exhausts had been before I drilled them out:

 

48548765422_0aaebfdbd6_z.jpg 

 

Next, I finished up the engine warm air exhaust ducts at the rear of the wing:

 

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Here they are with the driveshaft fairings in place:

 

48548765342_15daf8e9d1_c.jpg 

 

Last item for today was to begin doing the panel shading. It's easy to go overboard on this, so I'm trying to be subtle and referring to photos as I go along:

 

48548621376_989782e2ec_b.jpg 

 

Tomorrow I'll do panel shading on the underside, and a few other items.

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