Pappy Posted June 13 Posted June 13 (edited) G'day people, I think there is enough time to get in a second build following on from the F-20. There is link to the F-20 as the X-29 used a modified F-5A forward fuselage and the F-20 was originally designated as the F-5G, so both jets had the the F-5 in common. Of course, the X-29 also used a GE 404-GE-400 engine, the same powerplant as the F/A-18 Hornet and the main u/c legs were based the F-16 so it was a real bitsa. Obviously, the X-29s main claim to fame were the distinctive forward swept wings and canards. The whole premise of the design was to determine if a statically and dynamically unstable design that employed aeroelastic divergence (thanks to the advent of advanced composites being developed) as part of the flight characteristics was a viable concept. that would result in greater manoeuvrability. Theoretically this should have been the case, but in order to keep the design stable enough to be controllable (even with assistance of a DFGS) the increased agility was not as great as was anticipated. While all this may have sounded futuristic in 1984, in actual fact, canards and wing warping technology was first employed way back in 1903 by a pair of guys who called themselves the Wright brothers... Anyhoo,, onto the kit itself. I will be using the venerable old Hasegawa kit cheers, Pappy Edited June 22 by Pappy 12
modelling minion Posted June 13 Posted June 13 Oh yes, what a great choice and the perfect companion for your F-20. I always liked the look of the X-29,it would look right at home in Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica. Very interested to see what you can do with this one Pappy.
81-er Posted June 13 Posted June 13 Welcome back, Pappy! Nice to see the X-29 here, I vividly remember one of the heros flying one of these in the Ring Raiders tv show/toy line back when I was a lad James
Mr T Posted June 14 Posted June 14 A good choice from what I think of as Hasegawas golden age. I built one when it came out, a nice kit as I recall (long gone though)
Pappy Posted June 14 Author Posted June 14 22 hours ago, modelling minion said: Oh yes, what a great choice and the perfect companion for your F-20. I always liked the look of the X-29,it would look right at home in Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica. Very interested to see what you can do with this one Pappy. 16 hours ago, 81-er said: Welcome back, Pappy! Nice to see the X-29 here, I vividly remember one of the heros flying one of these in the Ring Raiders tv show/toy line back when I was a lad James Thanks fellas, the X-29 certainly looked futuristic and I think embodied the spirit of the eighties when everything was possible and too much was not enough! 46 minutes ago, Mr T said: A good choice from what I think of as Hasegawas golden age. I built one when it came out, a nice kit as I recall (long gone though) I agree, this was the big H's peak. Although a a simple kit it still captures the rakish lines very well. I didn't have any drama finding a kit, I bought mine new a couple of days ago and only paid $15, but then again Has kits tend to be a little cheaper in Oz that the UK G'day people, I could not find a whole lot of reference pics of the X-29 cockpit so I decided to add a little wiring detail It is completely spurious so if anyone has any ideas about copying, just remember it is completely imaginary! Luckily, the avionics bay is mostly hidden by the seat . There is a detail set available but it costs more than the kit and even if I wanted to buy it the GB would be over by the time it got here. Besides it was more fun to just add the detail myself The sidewalls are completely bereft of detail. Since the forward fuselage is a modified F-5A, I added some detail based on an F-5 cockpit cheers, Pappy 10
modelling minion Posted June 14 Posted June 14 Off to a cracking start mate and spurious or not the extra details look very good indeed. 1
Pappy Posted June 15 Author Posted June 15 (edited) 19 hours ago, modelling minion said: Off to a cracking start mate and spurious or not the extra details look very good indeed. 11 hours ago, 81-er said: That's all very nicely done! James Cheers fellas, most of it won't be seen, there will just be some flashes of colour G'day people, I threw some paint at it quickly. I used the kit decals, they look pretty crisp and effective in this scale. As I mentioned earlier, most of the added details will be hidden behind the seat There was no point going nuts so once all that was done it was time to close up the fuselage. cheers, Pappy Edited June 15 by Pappy 10
modelling minion Posted June 15 Posted June 15 Looks even better with some paint on the cockpit and the kit decals actually look good, very nice work.
81-er Posted June 15 Posted June 15 It does look good with the paint on, and those decals are really nice. I had to double check it was 1/72 and not 1/48 with the clarity on them! James
Pappy Posted June 16 Author Posted June 16 (edited) 18 hours ago, modelling minion said: Looks even better with some paint on the cockpit and the kit decals actually look good, very nice work. 12 hours ago, 81-er said: It does look good with the paint on, and those decals are really nice. I had to double check it was 1/72 and not 1/48 with the clarity on them! James Thanks fellas. The paint looks pretty crude when viewed at the Macro level but it does look better when viewed normally. G'day people, Not much done today. I want to let the fuselage to set for a few days to avoid the possibility of ghost seams during clean up, which can be hard to spot due to the kit's glossy white plastic. Still, some progress was made. I have cleaned up the wing parts. These are a single part affair, welll almost. Each wing just needs the addition of a large actuator fairing to complete each assembly. I nearly caught myself out as although they look identical they are in fact handed. I had removed these to clean up the sprue attchment points and was just about to apply glue when I noticed that the rear ends were slightly differently shaped to allow clearance for the flaperons to move, so remember kids - always read the destructions cheers, Pappy Edited June 16 by Pappy 8
modelling minion Posted June 16 Posted June 16 Its all progress mate and vital to finish the model. Read the instructions eh, I will have to give it a go. 😉 3
Pappy Posted June 20 Author Posted June 20 (edited) On 6/16/2025 at 5:27 PM, modelling minion said: Its all progress mate and vital to finish the model. Read the instructions eh, I will have to give it a go. 😉 True dat G'day people, Worked on the seat today. Like many systems on the X-29¬, the designers adapted available hardware to save time and cost. The seat used in the X-29A was a MB GRQ-7A, a variant of the seat used by the F-104 and also retrofited to some F-5s. The kit seat is a fair representatiomn but it can be improved. Originally I was just goint to box in the rear of the MBA as I have done here. I have another X-29 kit that I started a long time ago. I dug this older kit to try and re-start it. As that kit will be built in-flight. I was not going to do too much to detail the seat. For this build however, it will be posed with the canopy open and so adding a little more detail was called for as it would be visible. I began by removing the sides of the seat bucket and scratching new ones. Thye two sides are not symmetrical as the r/h side has the Pilot services, Oxy bottle and the MOR handle. The harness was added using a set designed for the F-104 seat (not the OEM C-2) and adapted to fit The GRQ-7A did not have the overhead initiation handles, but the headbox did have a pair of canopy breakers so these were added to rge headbox Some comparison pics Hopefully I get to paint the seat tomozz, cheers, Pappy Edited June 20 by Pappy 9 1
modelling minion Posted June 20 Posted June 20 Can't argue with that, that has to be the best scratch detailed ejector seat I've seen in any scale let alone 1/72. Absolutely superb work mate.👍
Pappy Posted June 22 Author Posted June 22 On 6/20/2025 at 5:49 PM, Parabat said: Wow... that's a seat! Thanks On 6/21/2025 at 6:50 AM, modelling minion said: Can't argue with that, that has to be the best scratch detailed ejector seat I've seen in any scale let alone 1/72. Absolutely superb work mate.👍 Thanks Craig, I really appreciate that but it is just some basic skills combined with some scrap bits of lead foil and styrene. It is basically what we used to do before all that wondrous resin and 3d printed stuff was available. Still, I have paid for aftermarket seats that left me somewhat underwhelmed plus I had a lot of fun doing the job myself so pretty happy with how it turned out. G'day people, I managed to get the seats tarted up The basic seat on the left only had a few straps added as it will be installed into a kit that will be modelled in-flight so no need to go nuts Plus a cheeky dry=fit just because cheers, Pappy 9
81-er Posted June 23 Posted June 23 That seat is amazing, Pappy! So nicely & neatly executed, top work James
Pappy Posted July 6 Author Posted July 6 On 6/22/2025 at 7:32 PM, modelling minion said: That looks really good, fits very nicely. On 6/23/2025 at 8:39 PM, 81-er said: That seat is amazing, Pappy! So nicely & neatly executed, top work James Thank you very much. G'day people, I managed to get some bench time today so I spent some time adding some detail to the very empty MWW. The MWW is very visible so the effort would not be wasted. I found some walkaround pics and based my efforts on these but rather took 'inspiration' rather than attempting to replicate every nut and bolt cheers, Pappy 7
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now