Bones In the Sky-Making History with a 1/48 Revell B-1A Bone "FINISHED"

[LorenSharp]

38 minutes ago, Gondor44 said:

 

I must have missed that as I normaly only catch up on threads once a week so generally skim through the pictures unless something peaks my interest. I agree that what would have been supplied would have been AGM-69 SRAM missiles though the accuracy of them may leave a bit suspect as information on such things is not exactly something in every book.

 

Gondor

I'm not even sure they did much if any ordinance testing before'79. I do agree though there isn't much information much less photographic evidence on the -1A mostly stock footage very early on. Now the -1B more pictures and detail information than you can shake a stick at. I probably will try to swap out the GBU's for the SRAMS, though they are plain..... and white.... more white.

[LorenSharp]

Another small update before the turkey day weekend, ( You know that day when we give thanks here in the Colonies for what we have, before going out and try to run over others to get to the sales to get MORE stuff). But anyways,,

The tail cone added and filled in, a little more sanding in spots .

Then attached the horizontal stabilizers. I still need to add the vortex generators

[LorenSharp]

Skipping to the front, I engraved the panel lines for the ejection capsule and then used some thin card to make the folded stabilization wings for the capsule.

I want to try to get another coat of primer on it today if it warms up enough later. since it's supposed to rain for the next few days.

[LorenSharp]

On to the engines....

I tried to see what I cold do to get rid of the horrendous seam on the interior of the intakes. My first try was to cut very thin card and attach to the interior wall covering the gap. gluing to one piece went without any issues, but when attaching the other half, because of the  curved interior and going from a rectangular shape to a round shape at the rear the halves wouldn't join.  Herding cats is easier..

So after several tries and a lot of gnashing of teeth and a lot of expletives that path was abandoned. finally went with what I really didn't want to do which would be to apply filler and sand this  down.

It's the sanding part that I didn't want to deal with. Small narrow opening and big fat fingers do not co-operate together well. What to do?

I could order one of those fancy-smansy power sanders for small detail work, but my ancestors were penny-pinching Scots. so Genetics wouldn't allow me to waste, spend additional funds when I could fabricate my own sander. Searching online, I did find references on turning an electric toothbrush into a sander, but again didn't want to go buy a toothbrush( or fight the pre-holiday crowds) just for this. Searching through my what-not drawer, you know that place where everything you don't know where to put when cleaning and straightening gets tossed, I found a battery powered cutting tool for decorating pumpkins at Halloween. never really had enough oomph to cut pumpkins, but the saw does move quickly, back and forth. *Light bulb explodes above my head.* I glued a piece of Velcro to the blade then cut a strip of sanding disk paper with the cloth backing and,,,, Voila! a nifty sander to get into the hard to reach places.

[LorenSharp]

Now I be cooking with gas!

Solving that problem next came the intakes themselves. The -1A's intakes are very different from the -1B's. Originally designed to be a Mach 2+ penetration bomber The intakes looked more like what was on the XB-70. which makes sense in a way since North American, before they merged with Rockwell,  the contractor for both and this design would have been started right at the end of the B-70's service. Now  don't know if the intakes worked the same, and all the images I have found aren't that detailed so used the same basic shape and configuration for the modification.  I did use some the original kit part. I cut the top off the intake and used that to start. Then cut thin card for the intake divider and the bottom of the intake. From there I used some Milliput to build up the bottom curvature.

This gives an idea of difference in the intakes. Further sanding to smooth this out and then add the by-pass vents at the bottom. But the basics are there now.

[LorenSharp]

Now for the real pain in the backside for this build, The shape of the main body around the wing fold mechanism. Another change from the A to the B  was in addition to the different shape, the A used a complex series of folding panels to cover the opening in the body when the wings were fully extended. The B was changed to a simpler, and lighter, configuration. it uses an air filled bladder to plug the opening. I don't have any references on what all the folding panels would have looked like, but since the wings will be in the folded configuration it doesn't matter. It would be cool to see what that mechanism originally looked like. But for my build I still have to get the curves right. Or as best that I can with the few images I've found, which aren't many.

I did have to go back and remove some of the Milliput and re-apply to get the initial curves right. For the flat cut out, I used some thin flexible card then smoothed out with glazing compound.

A lot of sanding and smoothing later,

This is what I've come up with.

A quick check to see if the compound curves fit with the nacelle in place.

Now it's starting to get big. I'll be out of town for a day or so, so next update will probably be this weekend. Until then Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, and if you're a Yank.... Tomorrow, Get Stuffed!

[Hook]

That is some seriously impressive modelling!

[Alan P]

Great work in the weapons bays, and just an all-round lift of the whole kit. Really well done so far. It is a bit of a hybrid A/B but as you're not bothered, neither am I 😂

[LorenSharp]

28 minutes ago, Alan P said:

Great work in the weapons bays, and just an all-round lift of the whole kit. Really well done so far. It is a bit of a hybrid A/B but as you're not bothered, neither am I 😂

Thanks Alan, The kit in its ' original form is a mix of a late -1A, Test article #4 I think, and an early -1B. Trying to get a half way representation of the wing fold area for the -1A has been the interesting part to do as there aren't many good clear photos of the original 3 test aircraft. So pardon the pun it's a case "Winging it" to get as close as I can.. Now when I eventually do the -1B,The  bays will have to be redone completely and a lot of the flight deck. Just for starters.

[LorenSharp]

Now that the first of the holidays has come and gone(Thanksgiving) and being away from the Bone for a few days, I've discovered a glaring and I mean glaring error in my build that I should have  caught, but didn't. Well to be truthful, I did catch it, I just didn't understand what I was seeing.  In the last post with pictures, the area around the wingfold I had the wing sliding UNDER the aft portion. This was wrong. it's supposed to go OVER  the aft part but UNDER the forward portion of the wing. Confusing ain't it?Needless to say I thrashed myself severely for being a complete dunderhead. The studying the research images I

had and studied what I did wrong and thankfully it was correctable without to much additional surgery.

For a recap, here's what I came home to...

I just had to cut the back portion loose, not completely off, and drop down, like thus and so...

I did have to make a new cover flap for the wing which wasn't too bad. I did want to have the option to show the wings extended or folded, but now the wings will be permanently set in the folded back position. Too bad as I had figured a way for the wings to stay in one position and not shift when moved or placed at an angle. C'est la guerre.

And here is the finished correction.

I also printed out a set of vents for the main body that the -1A had but were omitted on the -1B.

[LorenSharp]

Now its tie to tackle the landing gear.

When I printed the vents out I also printed out a set of compression scissors for the nose gear. Then used a pin vise and small bit to drill out lightening holes for the retraction brace.

Then used some silver beading wire for the cabling.

[LorenSharp]

Now on to the main gear. I used the same wire for the hydraulic lines on the main gear, replacing the moulded on cables then added additional cables to the front and back of the man gear along with control boxes, not unlike the XB-70 I did. Which makes sense, both were not only built by North American, but the B-70 ended as the B-1 was in the beginning of the design phase.

I also added a few bits from the P/E set

[LorenSharp]

The wheel hubs I painted all gloss black with the center cap aluminum. These were painted the same as the early F-15's(early to mid 70's)

Didn't have to paint the tire , well they were already   rubber. I did paint identification markers( white stripes)

And painted the brake assemblies burnt metal.

[LorenSharp]

Having painted everything white then after curing a day or so the whole lot got several coats of clear gloss lacquer. Then the process of using a thin light gray wash highlighting the panel lines. There are a lot of panel lines on this Mini Great White Beast.

The tail with all it's pieces with the exception of the vortex generators I did attach their mounting plates, but the rest I'll do at the end so nothing breaks off and gets lost.

[LorenSharp]

The center section

Then the cockpit section

Some of the sensors I modified some spare P/E that had a bronze tinge, added the canards, and used a big darning needle for knitting as the nose pitot tube.

I also did the same for the refueling port on the nose, a piece of cut down P/E plating.

[LorenSharp]

Now for the fun part. attaching all three main pieces together.

I now have it balancing on a cup. The gear along with tall the small bits will be added last. I hope I'm still limber enough to do my Joe Cocker Imitation while moving this thing about.

There is still a lot to do, we're only at the halfway mark. I still have the engine nacelles to finish, re-scribe, panel wash, and attach. then finish the bomb bay with the AGM-69's, add the landing gear, the.. rest of the little bits, i.e. antennas, gear doors, bomb bay doors, and decals. And whatever else I can come up with to stuff into this. So don't go away, more is coming down the mountain.

[LorenSharp]

Moving onto the Nacelles, I made new airflow deflectors from some bits of flat strip

These are much the same as the -1B. The biggest difference I've seen so far, the -1B has radar deflectors in the throat of the intakes, the design simplified to do away with the XB-70 variable intake mechanism, overflow vents and the cans were changed out from the "turkey feathers" to a set up that reminds me of anF-15.

So the first art accomplished.

[LorenSharp]

I did try to print out new vents but I didn't like the look, so went old school and carefully cut new ports out and used strip to make new vanes

Cutting new ports with an x-acto knife is excruciatingly slow, but surprisingly, didn't damage the plastic or lose a digit in the process .

Added a little bit of the P/E to the back ends

and used my rivet wheel to give some detail to an otherwise smooth surface.

[LorenSharp]

The onto the "Turkey feathers" The kits cans are not exactly correct.(what else is new?) so I did my best to get them looking a little more correct.

First I used some strip to make new interiors to the cans.

Then used the rivet tool to give the feathers more detail. The interior I painted a greyish tan, followed by a misting of Burnt metal.

The outside a base coat of Model Master Exhaust then AK Titanium to the alternating feathers, followed by another misting of Burnt metal. When that had dried I used a cotton bud to buff the metalizer to a semi shine.

Added the P/E flame holder to the back and also gave it a shot of burnt metal.

 

[LorenSharp]

Still finishing up smoothing out the three piece join of the fuselage. one section of the front had a significant bulge that needed a couple of layers of filler to smooth out the contour.

with luck that should be completed tomorrow, then touch up with white where needed and re-scribe a few panel lines before using a light gray wash to bring them out.  Then it will be time to add the decals. So more to come.

[LorenSharp]

In between all the holiday madness, let's see what there is on the progress front.

I've finally got enough of the AGM-69 SRAMS to fill one rotary launcher.

The first first article 40-158 wasn't used to test ordinance, that came with #4 but since I don't want to have empty bays, we'll go with a "promotional" look. hence the stars and bars and AM name plastered on everything.

The decals I pulled from my spares drawer.

Now it looks more proper for the time period.

[LorenSharp]

While we're here on the underside, I printed out the retractable scoops near the main gear well.

And a better set of bypass vents(Again) for the engine nacelles.

I don't know if there are additional vents at the very front of the nacelles. in some photos it looks like they maybe something that looks like a vent, in others a undefinable " something" So, I've gone with the "undefinable"

Some thing else I found too late to be of use, the Article #1's nacelles were 3mm( about a foot) shorter that what the kit has. I found a line drawing comparison of the first aircraft, with the B-70 style variable intake, the 4th version, same intake, but taller, then the -1B as we know it today. Had I found this early on, I might have been able to cobble something to give a fair representation before gluing all the parts together.  This is no where near a perfect version. but it'll be as best as I can make it. As it is there is a nasty gap where the nacelle meets the wing, but for the most part isn't noticeable unless you're trying to see all the nooks and crannies.

[LorenSharp]

The panel lines are all re-scribed and given a light gray wash so it's time to add the decals. First I used automotive pin striping to do the walk way lines.

The original kit didn't have much in the way of stenciling and the tail numbers were for the #4 bird. so I scrounged through my spares and found enough warning and rescue and whatnot signs to get it looking like the opening day rollout.

 The addition of the USAF on the side showed that the stabilization fins on the ejection capsule were in the wrong position and new ones needed to be make from card stock. which also ment I had to re-configure the top hatch over the back crew compartment because I did want to show some of the interior.

[LorenSharp]

Added some of the little bits, antennas , pitot tubes and whatnot.

Painted in the marker lights I notched out where the lights went and covered the area over with a piece of clear plastic.

The wingtip lights I printed out clear pieces.

The spine marker light I made from a clear piece from the spares box. and the antennas from thin strip.

[LorenSharp]

I still need to give everything a good coat of gloss lacquer but that will be a  few days before I can get to town and pick up another couple of cans. Once those are dry I can finish up with adding the gear and the gear doors. and this project will be in the bag . So not much more to go, but at least it looks somewhat presentable. so stay tuned for the final episode.