Research Pioneer: Bell X-2 - **completed**

[Mike N]

Here’s my entry for this GB: the AZ Model Bell X-2 in 1/72.

 

 

AZ offer a separate boxing for each of the two aircraft produced, although I believe they only differ in the decals. I bought the one for 46-675. This was the first one to fly, initially as a glider, as the engine was slated for 46-674. In the event, an engine was first installed in -675, but during a captive carry flight over Lake Ontario to test airborne procedures, an explosion occurred: X-2 pilot Skip Ziegler and B-50 mothership crewmember Frank Wolko were both lost without trace. The X-2 disintegrated with the debris falling into the lake below, but the B-50 managed to limp back to base and was written off. The other X-2 went on to be the first aircraft to fly at Mach 3, but was lost on the same flight as the aircraft became uncontrollable after turning for home. Although pilot Mel Apt jettisoned the escape capsule, he could not extricate himself in time before it struck the ground and was killed.

 

On to the kit. Here's what you get for your money:

 

 

My plan is to depict the aircraft as was very early in its life, essentially option 1 in the kit.

 

 

I have a couple of references that are useful.

 

 

 

The Osprey book, while being very readable, unfortunately has no drawings or even dimensional data. The Jay Miller book does have some data and a drawing, but there are some discrepancies with other sources. I did find another drawing on the internet, but I don’t know how good that is either. A lack of references and surviving aircraft makes accurate modelling somewhat difficult!

 

One thing that is immediately apparent is that AZ have got the wing positioned too far forward. Scaling from as many drawings and photos as possible, I reckon the wing leading edge should be about 10mm further aft than on the kit. It’s enough to throw off the look of the model, so I’ll be trying to rectify that.

 

There are also, no doubt, other anomalies, perhaps not surprising given the lack of references and changes made during the programme: for example the landing skids evolved during testing. I will have to rely on photos of my chosen aircraft at a given moment in time to try to get it as right as possible!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Mike

Edited December 20, 2022 by Mike N

[BritJet]

Hi Mike,

 

The Jay Miller X-Planes book is the one I was talking about earlier

 

After looking at your photo of the fuselage and following on from our chat today, could you make the front cut just in front of the wing where the under fuselage fairing starts to change angle and then add the section removed from behind the wing to the front. That way the work to fair in the fuselage contours should be reduced as there is less taper than further foward. Might be easier to add and blend in the section at the front before replacing the wing.

 

From this,

 

 

To this

 

 

Still going to need filling & sanding but doesn't look too bad.

 

Good luck with it.

 

Steve

[Col.]

Good to see another X-plane in our GB even if the kit will make you work to create an accurate replica Mike.

[Mike N]

1 hour ago, BritJet said:

Hi Mike,

 

The Jay Miller X-Planes book is the one I was talking about earlier

 

After looking at your photo of the fuselage and following on from our chat today, could you make the front cut just in front of the wing where the under fuselage fairing starts to change angle and then add the section removed from behind the wing to the front. That way the work to fair in the fuselage contours should be reduced as there is less taper than further foward. Might be easier to add and blend in the section at the front before replacing the wing.

 

From this,

 

 

To this

 

 

Still going to need filling & sanding but doesn't look too bad.

 

Good luck with it.

 

Steve

Hi Steve,

 

I agree that's the best way to go about this. The main fuselage looks to be of constant section up to the wing leading edge, just the keel that starts to reduce, but that's not so difficult to sort out.

 

Love the cut and shut imagery, let's hope the plastic version isn't much harder!

 

Mike

[Shorty84]

Hi Mike,

 

lovely choice. I've really developed an interest for these X-planes lately, so this build is a 'must' for me. And it is great to see you are not afraid of hacking the kit apart to make it more accurate. Best of luck

 

Cheers

Markus

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome along to the build with a good choice. 

[Mike N]

Thanks everyone, hopefully I'll do it justice!

[Mike N]

Plunging right in, the first thing to do has got to be to sort out the wing position. Along the lines @BritJet illustrated, I marked the cutting lines for the surgery. The lateral cuts were done by razor saw and the longitudinal one was scored using a scriber until thin enough to snap out.

 

Here's a shot part way through that process:

 

 

After swapping the pieces around and gluing them back in, here's a comparison with the unaltered fuselage half:

 

 

A lot of tidying up to do but it'll be worth it.

 

Mike 

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Mike N
Wrong photo link

[Courageous]

Initial surgery is looking good .

 

Stuart

[PhantomBigStu]

Watching along, this kits sitting in my cart from a certain model site.......

[Mike N]

Done a bit more work on this, but am no further forward...

 

After looking at the revised wing position, I had a bit of a crisis of confidence that I'd got it right. The upshot is that I decided to move the wings forward slightly, so yet more cuts 

 

 

The trouble is that every photo is from a slightly different angle and suggests a subtly different wing position. Oh well, I'm not moving it again!

 

While I was looking for some more info, I found this video showing some early flight testing. The commentary is a bit wooden and sadly there's no ambient sound, but it's interesting footage to watch:

 

 

Thanks for looking, Hopefully next update I'll be able to show some kit parts joined together rather than just rearranging the starting pieces.

 

Mike 

[BritJet]

On 25/09/2022 at 20:54, Mike N said:

Love the cut and shut imagery, let's hope the plastic version isn't much harder!

 

Mike

 

I wish the modelling surgery took the 30 seconds that digital surgery took! Looks like you've got it well on the way now, after watching the video you posted I totally agree with you about the slightly further forward wing position.

 

Steve

[CT7567]

Strangely considering how iconic the bomb bay footage of the X-1 from directly overhead seems to be, on quivk review of several Youtube segments there doesn't seem to be any similar film of the X-2 that would provide a definitive plan view.  Closest I spotted was a wind tunnel model at 2:13 in this video:

 

https://youtu.be/9SejT0cJFIs

[Mike N]

On 10/8/2022 at 4:24 PM, CT7567 said:

Strangely considering how iconic the bomb bay footage of the X-1 from directly overhead seems to be, on quivk review of several Youtube segments there doesn't seem to be any similar film of the X-2 that would provide a definitive plan view.  Closest I spotted was a wind tunnel model at 2:13 in this video:

 

https://youtu.be/9SejT0cJFIs

Agreed. You'd think footage must exist but now you mention it I've not seen any examples either.

 

Thanks for the link - I still don't even think to check YouTube for research! Although the wind tunnel test bit was not conclusive (not even sure it's an X-2 in there as the wing planform looks off), there were a couple of other useful views, and this video, which was suggested in the sidebar, has a decent side view at 21:12. Holding up the modified fuse halves to the screen and squinting makes me a bit more confident I've got the position about right.

[Mike N]

On 10/8/2022 at 4:24 PM, CT7567 said:

Strangely considering how iconic the bomb bay footage of the X-1 from directly overhead seems to be, on quivk review of several Youtube segments there doesn't seem to be any similar film of the X-2 that would provide a definitive plan view.  Closest I spotted was a wind tunnel model at 2:13 in this video:

 

https://youtu.be/9SejT0cJFIs

I've found some footage of the drop in this video. Strangely it's used right at the end, almost as an afterthought!

 

I've not had a lot of free time to get on with much modelling, but I've made a bit of progress. The fuselage surgery will be fully cleaned up after the halves go together, so I worked on a few other areas before that could happen. First was to improve on the butt join of the wings. I drilled a pair of holes in the fuselage and then back through them into the wing. The brass rod is a nice tight fit and will add rigidity to the joint.

 

 

Turning to the tailplanes, I found the tips to be too rounded so straightened them off a touch. You can also see the flash, which affects every part unfortunately.

 

 

On kits with butt-joined wings and tailplanes, I much prefer to attach one of them to the fuselage before joining the two halves of the latter. This way I can lay the fuse half flat on the mat and use a square to align the tailplane accurately.

 

 

I'll leave the other off until after joining the fuse halves to ensure it matches the position of the first.

 

I also built up the cockpit into the same fuselage half, one component at a time to allow me to get a decent fit without trimming a fragile sub-assembly. It's actually quite a nicely detailed cockpit, perfectly adequate with the closed canopy I plan on having.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Mike

[Col.]

Nice progress Mike  

[Mike N]

This is still coming along, just slowly!

 

The fit of the parts is pretty rubbish in most places. This, and damage from having to thin some of the trailing edges, resulted in some repairs using bits of sprue glued in:

 

 

With the cut and shut job on the keel I used plastic strip to fill the skid recess. The same was also used to support the nose wheel door, which was to be added. On the real plane it was jettisoned on approach, so it's either closed or off! The assembly also made an amusing cat toy.

 

 

Skipping forward over lots of filling, sanding and cursing, and we have this:

 

 

 

 

This shows the canopy in place, again a poor fit. I invested in the Peewit masks, as I hate cutting them on indistinct frames like this, but it really was a bit expensive at £3.99 for 2 masks! My justification is that I might end up doing 6674 at some point, too 

 

To display it in pre-flight configuration, the landing gear is up and I've decided to scratchbuild the dolly that was used to move it around on the ground. More on that another time...

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Mike 

 

 

[Col.]

Good work again Mike and well done for persevering with it rather than allowing it to permanently become a cat toy.

[Mike N]

While the X-2 itself has been receiving seemingly endless coats of Appliance White, I've been beavering away on scratch-building its transportation dolly. References for this have been hard to come by. I found an X-2 cutaway drawing that also showed the dolly, but I know there are a few inaccuracies with it so I've had to use some imagination. Anyway, here's where it is up to, ready for paint:

 

 

 

The majority is cobbled together from Evergreen tube and strip, with a couple of bits from the spares box, which is also where the wheels will come from. I robbed from tow bar eye from a tank kit.

 

In the background are a couple of cylinders, which I think are pressurised tanks. The dolly was designed to be lowered once the X-2 had been secured to the mothership, so they must relate to that. I made these from pairs of old bombs that I found in the spares box, the tail sections were simply cut off and the bodies joined.

 

 

In the next update I should be pretty much there!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Mike 

[Col.]

This looks to be going well Mike

[Courageous]

Moving along great, especially like the dolly.

 

Stuart

[BritJet]

Very tidy work on the dolly, it will really add to the finished model.

 

Steve

[Mike N]

On 12/6/2022 at 10:57 AM, Courageous said:

Moving along great, especially like the dolly.

 

Stuart

 

On 12/7/2022 at 6:25 PM, BritJet said:

Very tidy work on the dolly, it will really add to the finished model.

 

Steve

Thanks very much. It's been a struggle to get all the details, so it should be firmly considered as a 'best guess'!

 

It's got some paint on now, but I'll wait until it's done before posting any more pics, shouldn't be much longer.

 

Cheers, Mike 

[Mike N]

I've finally got the aircraft itself pretty much done. Considering it is essentially all-over white, it took a lot of painting sessions due to not getting everywhere properly covered, or damage. It was also not easy to hold as there were no holes at all to stick a handle into! In hindsight, I should have drilled a hole into the back as I'll be adding the blanking cover (not supplied in the kit) that was used prior to the engines being fitted. Anyway, I've spared you pictures of the painting stage and jumped straight on to it with the decals on.

 

 

I've always found AZ's decals to be excellent, definitely the highest quality element of their kits. They are very thin and reasonably strong with good register.

 

 

The decal sheet covers only 6675. There is a separate boxing of the only other X-2, 6674, but I'm convinced the only difference between the two is the decal sheet and box, which has the painting guide on the back (reminiscent of the Matchbox days of my youth ). I understand that they think they'll perhaps sell more kits this way, but it's still a bit mean to include only one specific aircraft!

 

 

I used photos to get the locations right, but the kit instructions look to be accurate.

 

A few notes on the markings. Here is what the back of the box tells you:

 

 

Only the first option has any information, but I specifically wanted to depict the first (glide) flight anyway:

 

 

Strangely, the side of the box shows this:

 

 

From my research, option 1 is correct in general terms. The Osprey X-Planes book is contradictory in stating that the 'diamond and line' centre of gravity calibration markings were only added at the time of the second flight, but the same page also has a photo captioned as being of the first landing in which this marking is visible! I believe the photo is indeed from the first landing as there is only a single groove in the dry lake bed (the wing whisker skids were added after this), so the AZ instructions are correct to show them. The only error I did find in the decals was that the diamond black and white segments are handed: the forward-upper quadrant should be black on both sides, so I had to cut this portion out of one of the decals and rotate it to suit. The lower (starboard side) view on the box is correct.

 

So that's the plane done (minus blanking cover), just a case of finishing its taxi now!

 

Mike 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Nice finish to the X plane, I think it stinks about the markings. Should have both on the sheet in case something goes wrong.