Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit, Modelcollect 1:72

[72modeler]

Too bad you can't see into the flight deck; guess that will save you doing a 1/72 folding lawn chair and sleeping bag that was used for the longer missions! That's going to be one big stealthy boomerang!

Mike

[Planebuilder62]

Dear Neil

 

Those nicely moulded panel lines are not very stealthy. If you look at the closeups released by the USAF the skin is super smooth with the panel joins being made visible by slight colour changes.

I made Testors B2 a few years and filled in all the panel lines. Something else that made a big impact was to chisel out the plastic under the intake lip to allow for the boundary air flow to divert away from the inlets. I would post some pictures but I have not got the hang of it yet.

 

regards Toby

[Lord Riot]

Looking superb already, a great subject, especially with the recent Fairford deployment.

 

That little 'office' area at the back of the cockpit looks cool. If I flew these I'd have a coffee machine and a TV in there! What's it for in real life? Is it just two crew in these things?

[neilg]

4 hours ago, Planebuilder62 said:

Dear Neil

 

Those nicely moulded panel lines are not very stealthy. If you look at the closeups released by the USAF the skin is super smooth with the panel joins being made visible by slight colour changes.

I made Testors B2 a few years and filled in all the panel lines. Something else that made a big impact was to chisel out the plastic under the intake lip to allow for the boundary air flow to divert away from the inlets. I would post some pictures but I have not got the hang of it yet.

 

regards Toby

Yes, but I expect they will fill in a bit with primer and paint.

[neilg]

2 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

Looking superb already, a great subject, especially with the recent Fairford deployment.

 

That little 'office' area at the back of the cockpit looks cool. If I flew these I'd have a coffee machine and a TV in there! What's it for in real life? Is it just two crew in these things?

There doesn't seem to be much in there!

 

It's a pretty confined space for such a large aircraft.

 

I wonder what's usually behind the door though...

 

 

 

[neilg]

As has been pointed out, the boundary layer splitter plate in front of the intake is a solid moulding:

 

 

I'm not quite sure how to hollow that out.

 

This photo shows the splitter plate nicely:

 

https://www.aerotechnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/B2h_web.jpg

 

[Screech]

That’s fine!  Let me know when you can I will send you some cash for them plus the postage!

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

4 hours ago, neilg said:

As has been pointed out, the boundary layer splitter plate in front of the intake is a solid moulding:

 

...

 

I'm not quite sure how to hollow that out.

 

This photo shows the splitter plate nicely:

 

https://www.aerotechnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/B2h_web.jpg

 

One way would be to grind it away and replace with a thin piece of card cut to shape

[Bravo52]

The easiest way to simulate the boundary fence is to just scribe a line at the base of the molding.  That is what I plan to do with mine (just received it today!).  It will be about right in scale.

[neilg]

7 hours ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

One way would be to grind it away and replace with a thin piece of card cut to shape

 

I should have done that before I attached the intakes.

[neilg]

All of the control surfaces are made of two parts:

 

 

The decelerons can be set either opened or closed.

 

In all pictures that I've seen of the B-2, the decelerons are never fully closed:

 

 

Does anybody know if they are ever fully closed, or why they are always partly opened?

[neilg]

Two days of filling and sanding the joints between the upper and lower wing halves.

 

The leading edge is on the upper half of the wing, and the lower half fits inside it:

 

 

Considering the good fit on other parts of this kit, you can see there is quite a large gap to fill.

 

 

[neilg]

This is the gust load alleviation system control surface:

 

 

The underside has a large seam that requires filler, and the only two ejector pin marks that I have found on the external surfaces.

 

I've closed all of the engine access doors and weapons bay doors, and they fit nicely.  Here's a view of the underside, the wings are just snapped on for the moment:

 

 

One of the weapons bay doors had a small chunk taken out of it when I cut it off the sprue, which has been filled and sanded too.

 

Tomorrow I should be able to close the upper and lower halves of the body, then it will be another filling and sanding operation on the leading edge.

 

 

[Bangseat]

On 17/04/2020 at 18:12, neilg said:

 

In all pictures that I've seen of the B-2, the decelerons are never fully closed:

 

 

Does anybody know if they are ever fully closed, or why they are always partly opened?

Presumably it's the computer telling the pilot "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave"

[neilg]

Here is today's progress.

 

I fitted the wings, and was left with a very large gap left and right, and above and below:

 

 

These gaps are large enough to fit coins in!

 

After many rounds and hours of my favourite activity, filling and sanding, I'm left with this:

 

 

It looks like I will be left with a small ridge on the leading edges of both sides.

 

Each wings is aligned by two tabs, one on the plastron, one on the wings, so the ridge is not caused by my misalignment, but rather the wings are slightly too big.

 

I haven't yet started the filling and sanding on the underside...

[Chemguy3000]

Very large gaps indeed! ☹️

 

I would suggest a long sanding block to remove the leading edge step. Start with 150 grit and move up to 400. You could have it flattened out fairly quickly. Just my .

 

Looking really good so far.

 

David

[Dans80]

Looks lovely. Could you have removed some material from the rear mating surfaces to give it some relief and bring the front into alignment? If you get what I'm saying. 

[neilg]

First coat of primer on:

 

 

[Rob de Bie]

On 4/17/2020 at 7:12 PM, neilg said:

The decelerons can be set either opened or closed.

In all pictures that I've seen of the B-2, the decelerons are never fully closed:

Does anybody know if they are ever fully closed, or why they are always partly opened?

I've read that they do that to hide the true (wartime) radar cross section. Sounds plausible to me.

Rob

[Shawn M]

they also provide yaw stabilization 

[SAT69]

The cockpit is very nicely done and your putty and sand work is superb. Other builds of this kit I've seen show a slight step at the top of the windscreen and I note you avoided that and that's great! You're leading up to an exceptional finish!

[Richard E]

On 4/16/2020 at 4:32 PM, Lord Riot said:

That little 'office' area at the back of the cockpit looks cool. If I flew these I'd have a coffee machine and a TV in there! What's it for in real life? Is it just two crew in these things?

Yes, only two crew although I think they were originally designed with space to accommodate a third crew member if required.

 

The area behind the flightdeck accommodates a "porta-potty", microwave oven and the Walmart garden chair and sleeping bag which @72modeler mentioned.

 

You're making good progress Neil, I've got the Testors' version in the loft which I'll get round to building one day.

[neilg]

1 hour ago, SAT69 said:

The cockpit is very nicely done and your putty and sand work is superb. Other builds of this kit I've seen show a slight step at the top of the windscreen and I note you avoided that and that's great! You're leading up to an exceptional finish!

 

There was no issue fitting the windscreen - it slotted in perfectly!

[neilg]

3 hours ago, Shawn M said:

they also provide yaw stabilization 

 

Yes, I understand that with differential opening, but they both seem to always be partially opened in every picture I see:

 

https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104482/b-2-spirit/

 

 

[fewr9fkr9595]

On 15/04/2020 at 12:23, neilg said:

instructions say to fit 50 g weights to prevent it tail-sitting.

That’s a mars bar! 😂