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There was a demon that lived in the air.... 1/48 X-1 and B-29 Mothership 75th Anniversary FINISHED! And a "small" Post Script


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Finishing Tom Wolfe's opening line quote to the Right Stuff..

 

"They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, 750 miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it: The sound barrier. Then, they built a small plane, the X-1, to try and break the sound barrier. And men came to the High Desert in California to ride it. They were called test pilots. And no one knew their names."

 

Actually, if you drive the streets of Edwards Air Base home of the Dryden Flight Research Center you can remember the names of those test pilots at least the ones who never made it back. But in a little over 2 months the 75th Anniversary of Chuck Yeager's historic flight ,that pretty much spit in the eye of that ol' demon, October 14, 1947.

 

Call me totally whacked, but In addition to trying to finish up numerous GB subjects and a really tight building space Im going to attempt to not only build the X-1 "Glamorous Glennis" but the B-29 Mothership. Oh yes, did I mention both in 1/48th?

The B-29 will have to be heavily modified, i.e. gun turret removal, bomb bay modification, and the addition of the landing flaps and corrections to the engines, cowlings and whatever else I can et my grubby little mitts on. So this will have a little bi of everything, P/E, scratch building, 3D printed parts, and more than likely one or two nervous breakdowns :mental:

Somebody call out the guys in the white suit and butterfly nets please? 

Anyway, here's what we gots to start with..

Part one Eduard's 1/48 X-1 won't need the landing gear so that will simplify things a little.

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And yes there will be a sawed off broom handle in the cockpit. then we have..... The Monster, I mean Mom..

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there was one more parts tree but that is all the black parts, wheels, etc. I forgot to photograph them. As far as I can tell aside from a build long time ago on the ARC forum it hasn't been done much( probably a good reason why, which I'm about to find out) So if there's anyone brave enough, or crazy enough to follow me on this Fool's Parade welcome aboard! All comments suggestions, opinions,(even about my mental state) and even a joke or two to keep me sane are not only welcome but needed.

I know I'm going to regret this, but Damn the Martini's, full speed ahead!

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Good luck Loren. I bought a 1/72 Tamiya X-1, Academy B-29, Metallic details engine set                     and I found a set of decals for the B-29, and then chickened out and just built the B-29 nearly out of the box.

 

Good luck

Regards Toby

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11 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

God speed and fair winds. This, I gotta see!

I'll sling a hammock at the back of the Hangar, and change the tanks on the extra thin dispenser for you.

Thanks Pete. I might need you to scrounge up a pint or 10 of @corsaircorp's "rocket fuel" or the equivalent. If I don't need it during, I definitely will AFTER!:drink:

10 minutes ago, billn53 said:

If you can pull this off, it will be super! I'm in!

Thanks Bill, Cross your fingers, toes and whatever other body part for luck. It never ceases to amaze me. Just when I swear think I'll not do something like this again,... I go and do something like this again. I thought next year was the 75th, plenty of time, don't get involved in too many GB's, have plenty of space on the bench(and the display area. Still working THAT one out) Nice calm no rush, no worry, and all the ducks in a row. Oops, rug being pulled out on that one. Oh well, C'est la guerre.

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Wow Lauren, this is going to be one high speed adventure! I haven't seen the Eduard X-1 but built the Twelve Squared kit a long time ago. I like the X-Planes, so I'll pull up a seat. Good luck!

 

Colin

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2 hours ago, heloman1 said:

Wow Lauren, this is going to be one high speed adventure! I haven't seen the Eduard X-1 but built the Twelve Squared kit a long time ago. I like the X-Planes, so I'll pull up a seat. Good luck!

 

Colin

Thanks Colin. The Eduard kit isn't too bad. The kit doesn't have that many arts to it, but neither did the X-1. I will try to slip a sawed off broom handle it it some where along the line.:coolio:

 

2 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Crazy ambition! Hope you have some spare propellers lined up too, looking at the sprue shots.

 

Definitely gonna be watching this.

 

Regards,

Adrian

You know me Adrian, "Go big or Go home"   The Props from the kit are the wrong type any ways. I have proper bits saved from an extra kit. It's the one reason I got this kit so cheap(30$). one of the props were broke. Replacement cowlings though are still way over priced, so I'll have to see if I can fabricate more accurate ones. I do wish I could have found the old Eduard P/E Cockpit set. But the only way to get one of those now is to buy the out of production Revell AG Full kit. It's cheaper to buy a Collect-Aire 1/48 F-108 Rapier.:gobsmacked: But no matter I think I've got a plan( He thinks) to spruce the cockpit up as well.

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First things first, starting with the The X-1. I'm starting with the cockpit The Eduard kit's a little sparse so let's see if I can "improve" it some.

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Though the interior is not bad it can stand some improvement. so, I trimmed some of the parts to turn cabinet into a more accurate shelf.

A bit of wire for an oxygen hose, a bit of thread in various colors to simulate wiring. Some 1mm tape for the seat harness and a bit of plastic shopping bag for canvas coverings.

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Since this is going on later as a dropship, I don't need to add ,the landing gear, nor add any weight to the nose. But until I get the B-29 done just letting this sit around not protected is not wise. So I've recycled an old dolly from a U-2 I build long time ago. I cleaned it up some gave it a purdy paint job and presto a new , though not entirely correct, placeholder.

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And it surprisingly, it works.

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Being a simple design the wings and tail surfaces mated ok, but not fuselage. It doesn't have that great of a fit. there was a gap on the bottom that needed a wee bit rod to fill the gap then some glazing compound to fill the rest of the gaps. I'll let this dry overnight then sand down to being painting. One small part down, many more to go.... Stay tuned....

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Now, that's a greay project Loren !! :partytime:

I did the Eduard X-1 moons ago, fine little kit. 

I take a seat at the bar if you don't mind it !!

Broom stick and Rocket fuel at the ready !!

Yiiiiiihaaaaa !!

PS just be carefull with these damn pitot tubes....

Guess how I know it !! :whistle:

CC

 

 

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Gidday Loren, I don't remember that opening line but I remember the movie - great movie. I've also read Chuck's autobiography a long time ago. To think he broke the sound barrier with a broken arm at the time.

       I'm more into floaty things rather than things with wings but good luck with the build. Regards, Jeff.

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4 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Now, that's a greay project Loren !! :partytime:

I did the Eduard X-1 moons ago, fine little kit. 

I take a seat at the bar if you don't mind it !!

Broom stick and Rocket fuel at the ready !!

Yiiiiiihaaaaa !!

PS just be carefull with these damn pitot tubes....

Guess how I know it !! :whistle:

CC

 

 

Thanks CC. That's the very reason I came up with the MCDU(Mobile Carriage Display Unit:coolio:) To keep bits from breaking off during the build.

 

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4 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Loren, I don't remember that opening line but I remember the movie - great movie. I've also read Chuck's autobiography a long time ago. To think he broke the sound barrier with a broken arm at the time.

       I'm more into floaty things rather than things with wings but good luck with the build. Regards, Jeff.

Thanks Jeff. Actually it wasn't his arm that was broke, but close, it was his ribs on is right side. And an interesting tale that was. The test pilots at Edwards (Muroc at that time) frequented a little watering hole by the name of Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club. The Proprietor of this wonderous social establishment and pub was one Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes. Who was an aviation pioneer , record holder, and all around wild character in her own right. She also had the opinion that anyone who didn't fly or more specifically, wasn't a "true" test pilot was more or less a "weenie"(Her words. She had other words but this is a family site). She especially didn't care much for Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin, the one of the original X-1 test pilots. Case in point, he wanted $150K ,$1.8 Million in todays dollars, to do the test flight that broke the sound barrier. The Govt didn't quite cotton to that idea and asked Chuck Yeager if if it was possible to achieve, most thought it was impossible, , and what he would charge to do the flight. And in perfect West Virginian common sense," The Barrier is just something to be overcome, It's possible to do no big deal. The Air Corp already pay me to fly so that's good enough." How much was that you may ask, about $300 a month. The  record flight was to be on a Tuesday. the night before Yeager and his wife went to the club to go horse riding. It was dusk and they thought they had left the gate open but somebody had closed it after they went through. Yeager and his wife were racing their horses back to the club when Yeager's horse suddenly balked at the closed gate that he didn't see was closed and was thrown off his horse breaking a couple of ribs on the right side. Now if Yeager had gone to the Base Infirmary to get fixed up the Flight Surgeon would have scrubbed him from the flight. That wasn't happening. Instead they drove to a nearby town and the doctor there taped his ribs up and sent him on his way. The problem with his injury was now not being able to move his right arm much, especially up and down , he couldn't close the locking mechanism on the X-1's hatch. Yeager asked his buddy Jack Ridley if there was a way to overcome this. Otherwise the flight would have to be canceled. Now Ridley not only being a top notch test pilot was also an excellent aeronautical engineer. Thinking on this a minute , they walked over to the hanger and found a janitors broom and cut off a meter's length of handle. testing it out it allowed Yeager to get enough leverage overcoming his injury to close the hatch. Ridley snuck the broom handle into the X-1 and the rest as they say was history. Another aside to this tale. Pancho had a standing offer, "To the first person to break the sound barrier, A free Steak Dinner"

Unfortunately once Yeager broke the sound barrier, the flight was classified and it was 9 months before he got his free dinner.

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52 minutes ago, LorenSharp said:

found a janitors broom and cut off a meter's length of handle

Yeah, I remember that bit in the film. I would remember it - I'm a retired cleaner. 🙂 I believe Chuck had a lot of respect for Jack Ridley. In the book Jack spent his life thinking "What if .   .   .  ". He woke one night thinking "What if the rocket motors didn't fire?" I believe there was no way of dumping the fuel and the undercarriage couldn't take the weight if it landed with the fuel still on board. So they bought a simple plumber's tap and put it in a home-made bypass in the fuel line. A few flights later - you guessed - the rocket motors didn't fire. So Chuck simply turned the tap. And hoped it worked. There was no fuel level gauge on board. Obviously it did work. I also remember him refusing any extra payment for that sound-breaking flight.

     Sorry, enough of me rambling on, it's your thread. Regards, Jeff.

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17 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Yeah, I remember that bit in the film. I would remember it - I'm a retired cleaner. 🙂 I believe Chuck had a lot of respect for Jack Ridley. In the book Jack spent his life thinking "What if .   .   .  ". He woke one night thinking "What if the rocket motors didn't fire?" I believe there was no way of dumping the fuel and the undercarriage couldn't take the weight if it landed with the fuel still on board. So they bought a simple plumber's tap and put it in a home-made bypass in the fuel line. A few flights later - you guessed - the rocket motors didn't fire. So Chuck simply turned the tap. And hoped it worked. There was no fuel level gauge on board. Obviously it did work. I also remember him refusing any extra payment for that sound-breaking flight.

     Sorry, enough of me rambling on, it's your thread. Regards, Jeff.

No worries Jeff . That's what make these builds so much fun One of the other things about Jack Ridley he could explain complex engineering details in such a way that anyone could understand them. Yeager was one of the rare breed of Test Pilots at that time. He didn't have a college degree. which was needed to go through test pilot school. He got around it because I flew for Col Boyd at Wright-Patterson after the war checking out various aircraft and some German designs shipped over after the war. As a young man he worked in the oil and gas fields in Southern West Virginia and knew a lot about pumps and hydraulic systems. In fact one of the pumps he used in the fields was the same type on the X-1. Ridely would help "translate" what the boffins were coming up with so he could understand what what was going on while testing. Eventually he did get through Test pilot school on a special waiver. There was mention that one of the test cards yeager did on a test flight was so perfect in its execution that it's been used as an example of what a perfect test flight is supposed to be..

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After masking, filling, and letting that all dry overnight, I sanded down the excess.

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I finally got some button magnets for doing crafts in. I figured this would make it easier to attach or remove the X-1 from the fuselage. And it's an experiment for for another oversized build languishing but soon to restart(I hope). Another magnet will be placed in the proper spot in the bomb bay(flipped to its proper orientation to attract correctly. 

Now its time to paint the exterior. For that , I'm breaking out paint I got decades ago just for this moment..

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A bottle of PollyScale Railroad paint. Reefer Orange. Settle down with jokes all you Boomers. Act your age, not your hat size.:hmmm:

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First though a coat of white as a base.

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Drawback the paint is an enamel and will take probably the rest of the day as it's damp and rainy here now. Small progress, but progress none the less. Soon it will be time to  start the meat of this build, the Mothership. That almost sounds like a cheesy 50's sci-fi movie.:door:

More updates soon.

 

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6 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Oh, very cool! :popcorn:

 

All the more as I plan to do this in 1/144 with the Fujimi B-29, Muroc Models B-29 Mothership conversion set, and Dragon X-1.

I can't wait to see that build David. Though I don;t envy you working in that scale. I'd have trouble seeing all the tiny bits, and have all the important bits stick to my glued up fingers.

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On 8/21/2022 at 8:32 PM, Cklasse said:

I have seen the B29 in a museum near Pratt&Whitney in Connecticut, USA.

At 1/48, your “mom” is huge. I wish I can have that kind of space that you have.

Will follow this fantastic build.

Thanks Cklasse. Welcome aboard, The party is just getting started.:drink:

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Paint job done, more or less,  for this portion anyways.

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I did make a sawed off broom handle for the cockpit, from a piece of plastic rod. then added detail to the door that said broom handle was supposed assist in closing. Gotta love high tech solutions. Flight test at its finest.

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I haven't decided if I'll attach it or leave it off and hang it in the bomb, or is that launch/drop?, bay.

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Added the 4 chambered rocket system at the back end and used a wee teeny-tint piece of brass rod for the fuel dump.

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Then masked and paint the windscreen. I don't think I've ever masked a more complex or small frame before. And to my amazement, no runs, drips, or errors. The Modeling Gods have smiles upon me this day. And you no what that means? No, its not Howdy Doody time, but it is time to start adding decals and stenciling.

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