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Italeri /AMT XB-70A Valkyrie


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Little bit more 'afore I go away, this took rather a long time to blend........................ ...and it still needs a bit of work as you can see !!.The intakes were the same, needing quite a bit of contouring.... :analintruder:

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A lot more done next week hopefully as the time for sploshing on paint gets ever closer !!

Melchie......

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Andy, have you used Mr. Dissolved Putty on this one? Or, on builds you've used it on in the past have you had any trouble with it? On the last two builds I've done I used it exclusively as a filler, & it was brilliant to use, left it a day before sanding down, & then another day before priming, the first build with Tamiya matt white & the second Halfords matt black. They both looked absolutely fine under the primer so I then sprayed them with Games Workshop Mithral silver & chainmail (my new favourite NMF finishes!), & a couple of hours later, in both cases some of the fuselage join line has become visible again! And on the second one, I noticed today that one of the wing joints is becoming visible. It's as if the stuff is still drying out under the paint. I've had witness lines appear under paint before, but it was always when using paint with a 'hot' solvent, not something gentle like GW acrylics!

Cheers

Keef

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Hi Keef, yup I've used a mix of Mr Dis Putty , Mr Surfacer 500 and 1000 and good old Zap -A Gap + accelerator......(not all at once you understand....that would be silly :whistle: !!),

And yes I have noticed this problem ,the Dissolve putty shrinks over 24 hours but can produce gaps, (actually air bubbles caused by the drying chemical reaction )!!I find the best way is to apply small amounts over time with a cocktail stick and to wipe the joint with your finger tip immediately .It IS a pain but the finish is superb as long as you leave it well alone between applications.

The blemish here is caused by the cockpit being too large and the wrong shapre for the fuselage, (thought I'd nailed it............. until the primer went on .... :jump_fire: ).

Cheers,

Andy

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Just to prove things are moving, the VG wingtips are now Alcladded and the forward fuselage blemishes ironed out !!!, next step more panel hint lines and then coat of Klear and Promodeller dirt to blend everything nicely in,

Fuselage will be the next major piece to be painted....

Cheers,

ACH Melchett...

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Andy, all is forgiven..., I do hope they used only minimal force and applied plenty of Savlon and embalming fluid after administration........... ,I know these chaps get carried away at times :analintruder: !!...........mind you I haven't ruled out the idea of SEA at some point, (hope this news doesn't render your suffering pointless !!! :whistle: )

Melchie...

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I may be posting something that a number of you may have seen, but there are some interesting schemes here

XB-70 What if

Not meant to hijack.

There does look to be an idea on what the SEA camo could have looked like.

Edited for fixing a rushed posting

Edited by Av8fan
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Entertaining stuff as always! An XB-70 GB would indeed tempt! (now there's a display for Telford, we might need an entire hall :evil_laugh: )

Speaking of whiffers though... I have terrible luck with spraying white, and a metal finish wouldn't quite do it for me... but in a fit of madness I was thinking...

high altitude... high speed... possible recon?

What about finishing one in black? Like the SR-71?

Of course I've just seen that exact thing on the what-if schemes just linked. That only makes the madness stronger!

:elephant::analintruder:

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Thanks chaps , AV8 yep I' saw these schemes some time ago , they are indeed interesting, especially as Ollie mentions 'Air Force One', (think you would have to add some windows to the fuselage area to carry it off!).

Stebos old fruit, it did cross my mind to do an RS in black, though to me it would need several shades including very dark blue, plus a bit of weathering to work to stop it looking rather bland.

I chose NMF for several reasons, mainly that this is the scheme depicted in most of the available SAC/ North American ads I have, ( and I wish to keep as near to the script as possible here), I also have a lot of spare SAC sashes,( from some KC-97 sets) and unit badges ( B52/B58) plus some quality Superscale USAF and 'Stars and bars' decals which are just crying out to be used and I want to try and follow on the logic of the Hustler, B-52 and B-47 period schemes.

A GB would be a sight !!! :analintruder:

Anyhoo .on we go.... :pilot:

Melchie..

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  • 2 weeks later...

All Righty then,I thought the best way to tackle the paint job would be to break it up into sections starting with the nose, upper fuselage, tails , etc. Over the past couple of days I've managed to do the nose section and part way along the upper fuselage (as well as mowed the lawn and washed the car!!). I've used 5 different shades of Alclad namely, duralumin, dull aluminium, dark aluminium, magnesium and semi matt aluminium (plus a couple of mixes of all the above, there's a bit of Hot metal violet in there too!)) finished off with a light mist of Tamiya smoke to blend the tones in a bit.

Next stage will be the underside which will be semi-gloss white, then the upper wings and rear engine bay areas and intake throats...

Then the fun bit, mild weathering and decalling !!.

All jolly good fun it is too :analintruder: ...(.in between trying to finish 3 other time consuming projects!! :violin: )

Cheers now, I can see light at the end of a very long tunnel.....

Mad, bad,..... mostly mad Melchie....

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These pics are a bit clearer using flash.The smoke mist has yet to go on to dumb down the contrast a bit. The final coats will be done using Vallejo semi matt, (definately my favourite varnish).

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Um...............yes!! :blush: .hate to think how much actually,, bought a lot of the stuff at the Waddington show but erm.......not sure if it's enough though ,as certain members of a small fishing smack famously said, whilst eyeing up a certain Great white shark.. .............................'We need a bigger boat ' :whistle:

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Easier yes..but everyone does a white one :winkgrin: .a compromise !,it's going to be white underneath, similar to the early SAC BUFF's and Stratojets. Just doing the canards, then will start on the underside. )I'd rather airbrush Alclad over white than other way around).

Ta Keef me old mucka... ;)

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Well it's getting there in spits and spurts. Still a fair bit of cleaning up here and there. Next step will be magnesium in the exhaust area and in the intake throat, after that Klear coat, decalling ( fun bit, as I have pinched decals from all over the place :wicked: ), weathering of some panel lines and final Vallejo satin clear coat.........then I can have a rest....................oh hang on maybe I should finish the Rapier to go with it ?, or the, or how about!!.......... :banghead:

Pics are a bit rushed I'm afraid , will do much better ones when it's nearer completion..

:cheers:

Excuse the masking tape over the elevons, these will be painted to match the outboard ones very soon.

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All that white :coolio: , soon to be toned down with dark metal areas and Promodeller light washes....and of course lots and lots of stencils... :hypnotised: .

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Just for fun, for anyone who doesn't know just how huge this thing is, here's my YF-12A, ( a big aircraft itself) alongside for comparison....

Great isn't it. For a while the Valk was the heaviest aircraft in the world at 500,000lb all-up. Not bad for something that could go at Mach 3 eh!

PS. looking great!

Al

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