Well, this one
fought me all the way. I’d wanted a model of the X-1 for my display case ever
since I built Yeager’s F-104 from The Right Stuff, but as the original
aircraft is so small, I thought a 1/32 scale version would be a decent sized
model. The only choice therefore, is the venerable Revell offering, which I
scoured Ebay for. The appropriate bargain duly presented itself, and the
suspiciously small parcel arrived in the post…turned out the vendor had
misread the box, and instead of 1/32 it was 1/72! Maybe, one day, perhaps.
Eventually I found the right item, and when I opened the box and was greeted
with a pile of bright orange plastic, my first thought was that it was aimed at
kids. Sunglasses were almost needed during the construction…
Anyway, I decided to rescribe the whole model (why do I keep doing
this to myself?) and use a microdrill to depict the few rivets visible, and
eventually had a pile of useable bits. I primed the cockpit parts, and my plan
for leaving them in grey primer was scuppered when internet research showed that
the interior was actually green. I used the interior green colour that I mixed
up for my Spitfire, and that seemed to go pretty well. I glossed, washed and
matt coated the interior, then used gloss in the instruments to simulate glass.
I couldn’t
remove the belts from the seat as they were moulded on, so I simply laid a
new set of PE belts on top of them. The moulded belts were so narrow, that
an exact fit over them was only to be found with a set of Luftwaffe WWII
belts! Whatever would Yeager say? The rear of the instrument panel is
visible through the cockpit, so all the wires trailing from the
instruments had to be added. This actually turned out to be a useful
addition, as the locating points for the sides of the panel are so poor,
that I had to use the wires I’d added as an extra attachment point
inside the nose cone. |
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I also had to create a
bulkhead from plastic card inside the rear fuselage ahead of the rocket engine
to avoid the see-through effect.
I glued several
.38 calibre bullets behind the cockpit to avoid tailsitting, as I didn’t
like the idea of using the naff clear support under the rear fuselage, and
after I closed up the fuselage, one of them came loose! I had visions of
it rattling around the inside and bashing the cockpit loose, so something
had to be done. I didn’t fancy opening the fuselage again, so in the end
I ladled white glue into the fuselage through the wing slots, and
manoeuvred the fuselage around until I was sure the loose bullet was
covered in it. |
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Then I had to stand the model on
its nose overnight to make sure the bullet reattached itself to the back of the
cockpit! Seems to have worked.
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Then the wings went on, and the
fit was abysmal. Big steps to be sanded down, filled and sanded again. Rescribe,
prime, repeat. Eventually the wing joints looked ok, so the whole thing was
primed with Halfords grey – another mistake. I mixed up a slightly
darker shade of orange than was called for in the painting guide, from Tamiya
acrylics, and started airbrushing. And carried on airbrushing until I ran out of
paint. The grey primer refused to be covered by a lighter shade, and I
eventually used two whole pots of orange on the model before it was anywhere
near even in colour. Then I left it in the airing cupboard for a week to harden
the paint, as I’ve been caught out with Tamiya gloss acrylics before. All to
no avail though, as the fuselage belly and the right wingtip both developed
marks where they had been in contact with the supporting surface! Sand, rescribe,
airbrush, curse. The panel lines I’d spent so long rescribing were in danger
of disappearing under the thicknesses of the paint.
Eventually, after more curing and
several coats of Johnson’s, the airframe was ready for decalling. I’d
already realised that the kit decals were wrong, showing the WWII style stars
and bars, and as I wanted to model the plane for the Mach 1 flight, I needed the
red flashes.
I’d planned to do
this with a combination of kit decals and decals from the spares box, but when I
applied the first of the national insignia, the white wasn’t any where near
opaque enough to cover the orange beneath. I decided to double up on the decals,
but every other decal on the sheet dissolved in water due to their age. I ended
up ordering a new decal sheet, which in retrospect was a good thing as it was
far superior to the kit sheet, more opaque and included all the decals for the
stencils too. Pity it cost about the same as I paid for the rest of the kit. I
used a wash in the control surfaces only, as having studied various photos of
the rear thing, virtually no panel lines are visible anywhere on the aircraft.
Being glossy and polished for speed precludes the need for heavy weathering.
More Johnson’s sealed the decals.
Then after adding an Alclad Steel
sprayed undercarriage and Alclad Aluminium pitots, the windscreen was unmasked,
the final detail painting was done, and the brightest object in my collection
entered my display case.
Dean
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