Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 I have been fascinated by lifting bodies ever since I saw an article in an early 70s edition of Airfix Magazine. If memory serves, it was written by Alan W Hall. He scratchbuilt the Northrop HL-10 and M2F2 from balsa wood! I'm going to have a go at the same vehicles, but not from balsa. I will be using the Anigrand kits. And I'm going to chuck in the Mach kit of the Martin-Marietta X-24 for good measure. Incidentally, the title of this thread is a reference to The Six Million Dollar Man. In the title sequence, Steve Austin is shown launching from a B-52 in the HL-10 which miraculously changes into the M2-F2 before it crashes! 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 Awesome! Anything that references The Six Million Dollar Man is already a winner in my book! It was compulsory viewing due in no small part to the title sequence. Chair pulled up and popcorn at the ready! 🇺🇦 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pin Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 Yess! I was considered these gnats myself, but I would rather watch! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 Oooh, a Mach Poo kit, you're a brave man boss. 3 hours ago, Enzo Matrix said: Incidentally, the title of this thread is a reference to The Six Million Dollar Man. In the title sequence, Steve Austin is shown launching from a B-52 in the HL-10 which miraculously changes into the M2-F2 before it crashes! To be fair that's by far not the worst continuity break in the history of cinemaphotography 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted September 16, 2022 Author Share Posted September 16, 2022 Classic! 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 Steve Austin will enjoy this build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted September 25, 2022 Share Posted September 25, 2022 Goodness me that really takes you back, thanks. I'm off to eat my tea as fast as possible so I can watch this on the telly, no pausing it in those days ! Best of luck Cheers Pat 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Lambess Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 On 17/09/2022 at 07:27, Col. said: Oooh, a Mach Poo kit, To be fair the Mach 2 lifting bodies are WAY more accurate than Anigrands HL10 which is like a squared off caricature of the real thing .... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Crikey used to love watching the Six Million dollar man. My Nan bought me an action man style six million dollar man figure, which could lift the orange rubber I beam , had roll back skin on his arm and you could look through one of his eyes and see round corners!!! My cousin got an Action man helicopter, gutted!!! These will be interesting. Chris 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 17 hours ago, bigbadbadge said: Crikey used to love watching the Six Million dollar man. My Nan bought me an action man style six million dollar man figure, which could lift the orange rubber I beam , had roll back skin on his arm and you could look through one of his eyes and see round corners!!! My cousin got an Action man helicopter, gutted!!! These will be interesting. Chris I had that too! Bringin' back memories here! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 18, 2022 Author Share Posted November 18, 2022 It's about time that I started work on these. One thing that I didn't realise is that The Mach2 X-24 kit only has one set of resin and one canopy. The resin isn't too much of a problem as there are some dreadful plastic moulded bits for the cockpit which can be used. The single canopy is an issue however. It may be possible to use a canopy from a Tempest so I'll just crack on and see how things pan out. X-24A The first step was to fit the undercarriage bays. And then use the resin part for the cockpit. I used a Yahu pre-painted PE instrument intended for an Me 262. The fuselage has been closed up. The control surfaces fit where they touch... The leading and trailing edges are like planks! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 18, 2022 Author Share Posted November 18, 2022 X-24B The same process applies to the X-24B The X-24B was actually the rebuilt X-24A. The National Museum of the United States Air Force has an X-24A replica displayed next to the X-24B. The replica is a slightly rebuilt SV-5J. The SV-5J was a jet powered version which was intended for training. However none of the Martin Marietta test pilots were willing to fly it, even when offered a $20,000 bonus! The SV-5J was never flown. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 18, 2022 Author Share Posted November 18, 2022 HL-10 There are no seperate parts for the gear bays on the resin kits. The instrument panels and consoles are a nicely cast component. The centre fin is simply intended to be a butt fit to the fuselage. That never ends well, so I have frilled a hole to accomodate a pin. M2F2 Again, a similar process to the HL-10. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted November 18, 2022 Share Posted November 18, 2022 He has the technology to (re)build them! And he's doing a very nice job too. Great to see your collection of lifting bodies coming together, they're going to look so good. 🇺🇦 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 18, 2022 Share Posted November 18, 2022 Thinking of lifting bodies in the media I remember a film called "Marooned" of "Moroned" as Mad Magazine parodied it involving something called the "X-RV" which seems to have been loosely based on the X-20 Dyna Soar. Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 18, 2022 Author Share Posted November 18, 2022 14 minutes ago, PeterB said: Thinking of lifting bodies in the media I remember a film called "Marooned" of "Moroned" as Mad Magazine parodied it involving something called the "X-RV" which seems to have been loosely based on the X-20 Dyna Soar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marooned_(1969_film) It seems that the story was written by Martin Caidin, who by coincidence wrote The Six Million Dollar Man. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted November 18, 2022 Share Posted November 18, 2022 Some good progress on these, great work Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 18, 2022 Share Posted November 18, 2022 You're off to a good start with these boss. Although if your previous record is anything to go off your next update should be the finished articles 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Lambess Posted November 18, 2022 Share Posted November 18, 2022 Don't forget to reshape the fins on the HL 10 as they are not even remotely accurate ...:( 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted November 19, 2022 Share Posted November 19, 2022 9 hours ago, Enzo the Magnificent said: The SV-5J was a jet powered version which was intended for training. However none of the Martin Marietta test pilots were willing to fly it, even when offered a $20,000 bonus! I don't blame them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 19, 2022 Author Share Posted November 19, 2022 20 hours ago, Neil Lambess said: Don't forget to reshape the fins on the HL 10 as they are not even remotely accurate ... It's not just the fins. The fuselage on the real thing has a graceful curve down to the centreline. The kit has a rectangular profile for the fuselage. That would take major surgery to rectify so I'm not even going to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Lambess Posted November 19, 2022 Share Posted November 19, 2022 2 hours ago, Enzo the Magnificent said: It's not just the fins. The fuselage on the real thing has a graceful curve down to the centreline. The kit has a rectangular profile for the fuselage. That would take major surgery to rectify so I'm not even going to try. Yes it's staggering how wrong the shapes are /yet it still looks like an HL 10. On my kit I've done massive amounts of sanding to restore the curved feel . (The resin is thick enough) fixing the fin shape is worth doing to improve the look ....don't get me started on the anigrand xb 51 tho ...it's worse 😛 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted November 21, 2022 Author Share Posted November 21, 2022 Fins fitted and faired in. In every case they needed a lot of Milliput. Now comes the monumental job of cleaning them up. The X-24s have some very nasty sink holes on the fin sides. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 1as with the Mirages that I am building elsewhere, there comes a time when I need to stop messing around and just get on with the build. All models primed. And sprayed with aluminium from a rattle can, except obviously for the X-24B which was sprayed white. From a rattle can. The natural metal schemes were then masked. And we have these, shown in excruciatingly cruel close-up... 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 And all of them would be perfectly acceptable in a Star Wars film. Funny old world Galaxy innit? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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