B-70 Sneak Peek

[The Rat]

Got fed up with obsessing over this weeny little 1/300th scale Academy job, so I threw caution to the wind and finished it tonight. A bit rough, but got proper snarly when I sneezed and messed up the copilot's moustache.

It's going on ARC for Silly Week as soon as I cook up some sort of back story, but here's a look for all of you on the Prime Board!

[Arc3371]

Wonderful scheme!

[The Rat]

And they have a full size Dalek too...

Is it the pilot?    

[AeroplaneDriver]

Now that is beautiful!!!

 


Hard to believe it's almost time for another Silly Week already though...

[elmayerle]

Ohh, that one's a beauty, sir.

[Brian da Basher]

Absolutely gorgeous, Rat-San! My hat's off to you!!!

Did you paint the rudder stripes by hand?

Awesome work!!!

Brian da Basher

[cthulhu77]

Wonderful scheme, wish they never deviated from that one!

[The Rat]

Thanks guys! I started it years ago, just planning on being a quick build to hang from Derek's bedroom ceiling. Then the enforced exile began (long story) and it got left behind in storage.

The flight deck needed some work, the original had absolutely no step at all, so a bit of carving and some putty gave it a slightly more accurate contour. The yellow is Humbrol 8 and the blue is Gunze 45.

Did you paint the rudder stripes by hand? Brian da Basher

Sorta. I painted the white first and then laid down very thin strips of Tamiya masking tape. Pressed 'em down really tight and then painted the red, waited a few hours, and peeled the tape off to find that it had bled under. That's why I hate masking tape and rarely use it, good old Scotch brand is waaaaaaay better IMHO. That's what was used to mask the demarcation line between the yellow and blue and the results are clearly superior. So after watching one stabiliser get buggered I took a different approach with the second, I used the Tamiya tape again but this time I used a Staedtler marker to apply the red, same one I used for the meatball in the middle of the star.

Up close it looks very rough, but most of us know this formula by now;

cheap digicam + distance + monitor resolution = half decent work! 

I'll probably apply the tail numbers today (plum forgot 'em last night), take some more pics, and then submit it to ARC with this whiff-loaded back story:

During 30 years of service with NASA the XB-70 was used extensively in many roles. Beginning as a vehicle investigating the performance characteristics of high-speed flight by large aircraft, it contributed valuable information that proved critical to the eventual success of the first American SST, the Boeing Stratostar. Following that it became the first aircraft to launch a satellite when the McDonnell Douglas Loki streaked from its back and placed a military communications system into orbit. In a move which some saw as helping the competition, it spent time as a chase aircraft for the first three flights of the European HOTOL project, for which the crew were knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

It was decided that the airframe would be retired in 1996, but sentimentality kept it flying for one more year, when it acted as an ambassador for the 50th anniversary of the United States Air Force. For this it was painted in pre-war colors of blue and yellow, making it a striking subject at airshows around the world.

[noxioux]

Excellent!  Now we need one in T-birds colors. . .

[BadersBusCompany]

Nice job, I do like that early US scheme    

[Captain Canada]

Nice one, Rat !

Looking forward to silly week. Although they should change the name to 'normal week' and change the rest of the year to 'F-16/109 week'.......

 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Great idea & looks good!
 

[ysi_maniac]

Nice idea
       

[noxioux]

An old pre-adobe graphic design trick is to take a toothpick, or even (carefully) the back of an x-acto knife to the small places where you have a seam or overlap in your masking tape.  If you press those little pockets in at the edges, you can usually avoid any bleeding.  Unless you stab yourself in the thumb with the knife. . .

[The Rat]

Unless you stab yourself in the thumb with the knife. . .

Bah! Never happen. Now, where's that knife sharpener? (Cue Tony Hancock's 'The Blood Donor'   )