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Monogram 1/48 B-58 in foil.


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When I was a kid (55 years ago) I built a B-58. Last year I thought that it would be fun to build another B-58. Was I ever wrong. I bought a 34 year old Monogram B-58 from ebay. 

 

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After working on it for two months I was so frustrated with the poor engineering of the kit that I put it on the Shelf Of Doom. This past June I started working on it again. I finished it this year on September 22. It took a lot of time and many sheets of Bare Metal Foil. Following are some photos.

 

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The aircraft carried five nuclear bombs. Four small nuclear bombs (if there is such a thing as a small nuclear bomb) were mounted under the wings. One large nuclear bomb shared a fuel tank and was mounted under the fuselage. The plane had no interior bomb bay.

 

 

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Monogram did a nice job on the landing gear. I like the way the four baby nukes look!

 

 

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The finish on the elevons and dark areas of the engine pods was due to a mistake that turned out to be good. I painted the elevons with Testors' Metallizer Aluminum with Testors' Metallizer Titanium as a top coat. Those are lacquer paints. I used an enamel based wash and guess what? The wash partially removed the lacquer paint!! However. the result looked really good so I used the same technique on the engine pods.

 

Edited by Johnny_K
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Yowzah! That's gorgeous Hustler, and the Monogram kit is said to very challenging. You have given all of us something to shoot for! Well done! Very realistic finish and on top of the poor fit of many parts, you deserve a medal for perseverance and modeling ability!

Mike

Mike

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4 hours ago, Johnny_K said:

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for the kind words. This was the worst engineered kit that I have ever built. Just crazy stuff.

 

This kit is waiting for me in the shelf - might have to get couple more kits under my belt before taking it on, then :D

 

Exquisite results anyway! The foil looks brilliant and the engine pods look just like in the real thing.

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Yeah,I do agree with 72modeler.You should be given some sort of a modellers Medal of Valor for the fantastic Hustler and  completing it on the second try. the closest thing I had to the B58 was the Aurora kit.

Edited by Kampartiger
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Man, that thing looks great! :worthy: One of my all-time favorites too, and you've done such a fantastic job on the old kit.  My hat's tipped and I'm grinning like a cow eating yellow jackets! 😁   

Just out of curiosity, what are the approximate dimensions of the model?  (he asks while mentally calculating available display space...😉)

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2 hours ago, Gary Brantley said:

Man, that thing looks great! :worthy: One of my all-time favorites too, and you've done such a fantastic job on the old kit.  My hat's tipped and I'm grinning like a cow eating yellow jackets! 😁   

Just out of curiosity, what are the approximate dimensions of the model?  (he asks while mentally calculating available display space...😉)

The finished model is 27" long x 16" wide X 6" high.

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Absolutely superb. Must be incredibly impressive in person. Glad you persevered!. Sometimes walking away from a project for awhile is the best thing a modeler can do. I still can't believe that Monogram decided to release a 1/48 Hustler way back in the 1980's, when many other smaller, popular, and less expensive aircraft subjects in 1/48 were waiting to be done. But I'm glad they did it!

Edited by Hobo
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For those modelers that are thinking about building this model , I have some suggested solutions to this models worst problems.

 

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First off, you will need a lot of clamps throughout this build to minimize the size of numerous seams. The wings on my model were warped. I used an architect's scale and clamps to straighten the wings while the glue dried.

 

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A lot of clamps are necessary to diminish the size of the seam between the two sides of the engine pods.

 

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Don't forget the nose weights. I taped the entire model together, including the main landing gear,  and started adding weights to a small plastic bag located at the front of the model until the nose of the model tipped down. Then I added more weight for good luck. I stuffed the weights into the nose of the model before I glued the fuselage together.

 

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Use clamps to squeeze the two halves of the fuselage together to provide a strong seam and to reduce the size of the seam. After that cures, use a big clamp to secure the fuselage to the wing. A big clamp is required to minimize the size of the seam at the wing root. That big black foam thing is a great way to keep this model steady when working on it. The foam thing is used by ship modelers to keep their ship's hulls steady.

 

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If you are going to finish this model in foil, I suggest that you complete all of the foiling, except the panels adjacent to the tail seam, before fastening the tail to the fuselage. The seam between the fuselage and the tail is really bad news. It requires a lot of sanding on the underside and a lot of filler all around. This is what caused me to put this model onto the Shelf of Doom for a year.

 

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Okay, just some more nonsense from Monogram. The mounting pins on the inner engine pylons are way smaller than the holes in the wings. Plus, the shape of the pylons do not match the shape of the wings. The engines are heavy and they need a stronger mounting system.

 

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I drilled some holes in the pylons and glued sections of steel nails into the holes with super glue. I then drilled mounting holes in the wings to accept the nails which will be super glued to the wings.

 

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The outer engines have the same mounting problems. To make matters worse, the thickness of the wings at the outer engines are too thin to drill holes.

 

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I cut a slot in the wing's top layer of plastic. Then I took a piece of flat brass and bent in into the shape of an "L". I super glued the brass piece to the wing and drilled a hole in the pylon to accept the brass piece. The engine was clamped (yes, more clamps) to the wing while the glue dried.

 

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The shape of the engine pylons do not match the shape of the wings, so I filled the seam with Perfect Plastic Putty, a water based filler, and cleaned up the excess putty with a wet finger. I then painted the putty an aluminum color.

 

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The kit supplied smaller nuclear bombs have a nasty seam that would require a lot of sanding which would produce flat spots. I purchased some Eduard resin bombs that have nice details and nice decals. Unfortunately, there is no way to fasten the bombs to the bomb rack. I super glued some thin brass bars into holes that I drilled into the bomb racks. The bars are then super glued to holes drilled in the bombs. By the way, I used the same technique to fasten the main bomb to the fuselage.

 

Well, I think that covers all of the issues with this kit. Remember this kit is 34 years old and it is not engineered like a Tamiya kit.  I do think that any modeler with moderate modeling skills can deal with this mess. All you will need is patience and a lot of time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Johnny_K
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That’s a really well executed B58. I made one of these mid 1980’s if I recall right and reading your comments on fit etc brought back memories I thought my brain had erased to spare me the pain. Yes the engine nacelle pylons are a pain. I recall also the nose weight in mine came loose so it rattled when moved. If I remember the wing/fuselage joint left something to be desired too or am I thinking of something else there. 

Anyway well rescued off the shelf of doom and top marks for perseverance. It was well worth it 

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JohnT,

 

You have a good memory regarding the wing fuselage joint.

 

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This is the wing/fuselage joint "before" using the "big clamp". The shape of the fuselage does not match the shape of the wing.

 

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This is the joint after using the "big clamp" to squeeze the two parts together. A big improvement.

 

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Even after using the "big clamp" there remains a big open seam at the front of the wing. The only fix is filler.

Edited by Johnny_K
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Great kit and great build. I've done 2, Surprisingly without having to use large clamps. My condolences to you for having to use them. However, B-43 bombs look great. I was a bomb loader for 22 years with the USAF. Loaded many of the on F-4, FB-111 and B-52D aircraft for Victor Alert along with B-61, B-28, AGM-28, AGM-69 and the B-57. All of which will ruin your day.

 

Again wonderful finish on your build and the exterior finish is Outstanding.

 

Ron VanDerwarker

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On 24/09/2019 at 00:49, Johnny_K said:

When I was a kid (55 years ago) I built a B-58. Last year I thought that it would be fun to build another B-58. Was I ever wrong. I bought a 34 year old Monogram B-58 from ebay. 

 

spacer.png

 

After working on it for two months I was so frustrated with the poor engineering of the kit that I put it on the Shelf Of Doom. This past June I started working on it again. I finished it this year on September 22. It took a lot of time and many sheets of Bare Metal Foil. Following are some photos.

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

The aircraft carried five nuclear bombs. Four small nuclear bombs (if there is such a thing as a small nuclear bomb) were mounted under the wings. One large nuclear bomb shared a fuel tank and was mounted under the fuselage. The plane had no interior bomb bay.

 

 

spacer.png

Monogram did a nice job on the landing gear. I like the way the four baby nukes look!

 

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

The finish on the elevons and dark areas of the engine pods was due to a mistake that turned out to be good. I painted the elevons with Testors' Metallizer Aluminum with Testors' Metallizer Titanium as a top coat. Those are lacquer paints. I used an enamel based wash and guess what? The wash partially removed the lacquer paint!! However. the result looked really good so I used the same technique on the engine pods.

 

Excellent finish wow 👍

I contemplated doing a model with Bare meal foil but chickened away after seeing a model with parts of the bare metal foil that came off.

You really did an excellent job here!

 

I had a similar occurrence with lacquer paint and enamel based wash... oh and Alclad II clear and Tamiya pannelliner was not a huge succes either... that is why I used aquarelle pencils and pastel chalk to make my own washes. You need to fix them of course afterwards!

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Lightpainter,

 

If Bare Metal Foil is correctly burnished it should not ever come off. I use a paper stump, available at craft stores, to burnish the BMF. The stump it very soft so you can rub the BMF really hard. It removes wrinkles and provides a nice smooth surface. This whole mess of having enamel thinner remove Testors' lacquer paint started with me trying to remove excess Tamiya Panel Line paint. You can imagine my shock when the Testers paint came off on my Q-tip.

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18 hours ago, Johnny_K said:

JohnT,

 

You have a good memory regarding the wing fuselage joint.

 

Oh God it all coming back seeing those photos :D

that just reinforces to me what a great job you made of it. Bravo 👏 

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