Martin B-51 Master

[kerick]

I've been watching this one and I think it's a great job. Just my $0.02 the SEA scheme would be awesome. Carry on!

[PR19_Kit]

Logan did a bunch of profiles of the B-51 (which he called the Panther).  The oldest one I found was here, https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=20962.msg427933#msg427933.

Darn it, I'd forgotten those, thanks for the link. 

I've been back and saved all of Logan's B-51 profiles, lots of interesting add-ons there, and I'm pleased we both thought of re-engining the RAF ones with Avons. 

[sandiego89]

Good on the Ukrainians still cranking things out during the invasion.  They have some great releases.   I wish them well. 

[PR19_Kit]

Good on the Ukrainians still cranking things out during the invasion.  They have some great releases.   I wish them well. 

The wording on the box lid swung me to buying the XB-51. It was expensive, yes, but that was a telling point for me.

[rickshaw]

I recently received a Reskit Rocket Launcher set.  It included a nice little card, commemorating the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.  SWMBO snaffled it straight away for her collection rare and unusual stamps.   

[PR19_Kit]

I've started on the build for the B-51, and is it EVER complicated! Definitely one 'for the experienced 'modeller'! 

More details later, but I'm having all sorts of problems with one of M$'s DAMNED updates and large chunks of my fave software won't work any more, so I'm trying a few 'restores' to see if I can get it back to a working condition.

[Rick Lowe]

I've started on the build for the B-51, and is it EVER complicated! Definitely one 'for the experienced 'modeller'! 

More details later, but I'm having all sorts of problems with one of M$'s DAMNED updates and large chunks of my fave software won't work any more, so I'm trying a few 'restores' to see if I can get it back to a working condition.

If it's anything like the last 'update' at work, there will be a work-around that will allow you to use the old system.
For a limited time, until they delete it completely and leave you with the 'New and 'Improved'' version only...

[PR19_Kit]

If it's anything like the last 'update' at work, there will be a work-around that will allow you to use the old system.
For a limited time, until they delete it completely and leave you with the 'New and 'Improved'' version only...

Rumour has it that M$ are going to 'Update' Win10 users to Win11 in the next few years anyway, whether they want to or not. 

It's almost enough to make me switch to Linux!

On the modelling front, in normal times I'd be tempted to criticise Mikro Mir quite a bit for some the issues with the XB-51 kit, but considering they designed and produced this kit while they're being bombed and 'missiled' by the Russians it's a blooming MIRACLE that it even exists at all!

It suffers from the usual 'Eastern' malady of 2 dimensional sprue gates, where you have to cut them off the outside of the part AND on the mating faces. on the XB-51 they're only on parts that have mating faces, the parts without such have conventional spur gates. Go figure? The worst example is at the root of the fin, where you have to cut in almost THREE directions to remove them!




You'll notice the various bulkheads aren't parallel to each other, but apparently they're not meant to be, not that you'd know it from the pic only instruction sheet. The fuselage has a LARGE number of such bulkheads, only some of which are shown in this whole view pic.



That rear bulkhead, arrowed, has an 'intake vane and bullet' on the front face, none of which will be visible once it's all assembled, as does the rear bulkhead and jetpipe in the upper pic. And there's TWO of the front bulkhead mouldings in the kit, with two different part nos. just to add to the confusion. 

None of the large number of sprues, eight of them, have identification letters on them, and neither do any of the parts either, so the only way you have of figuring which part is which is by constant reference to the sprue diagrams in the instruction sheets. And there's TWO part 110s as well, but luckily they look nothing like each other, so there should be no confusion.

Lots more to go yet, but it's going to be one HECK of a model! 

[Rick Lowe]

I've used Linux; it seems quite user-friendly and they've configured it to look and act like M$.
The only caveat is that they seem to expect a basic level of computer literacy/competence which is a bit above the average Windoze user (myself included!).

[PR19_Kit]

LOTS of work on the  Master y'day, lots of FIDDLY Work too.

The build thread on Britmodeller picked up a lot of the same stuff that I did, but he missed one rather vital one. The B-51 had a bicycle undercarriage with two big main legs, one in front of the bomb-bay and one behind, with outriggers at the wing tips. The rear main leg could possibly take almost the entire weight, 26 tons or so, on the ONE leg during landing, so it's pretty hefty. This is MM's version of it.



The angled side frames mount to the equally angled 'roof' of the gear bay, and logic would say the angled end of the leg, arrowed, would too, but it doesn't. In fact it doesn't mount ANYWHERE, it's just suspended in  mid air, crazy! 



I've marked the angled end of the leg in red, and you can see it's about 1/4" clear of any support. Those side frames would have to support half the weight of the model and as they're only mounted in two tiny pins there's no chance they'll do that, specially as one of the pins on my kit had been short shot, so one side frame is just glued on!

Major engineering was called for so I sawed off the angled end of the leg and glued on a length of sprue and I'll trim to length when I glue the leg in place, sometime in the future.



Turning to the cockpit area, I've built one of the two ejection seats, and very nice they are too, each with 11 parts, some styrene and some PE, including seat harnesses!



I've decided that the Master will have a longer canopy so the Nav can at least see the sky (or make star shots with his sextant....) so I'll build the second seat as well, and I've added all the little side consoles for him too. Sorry this is a bit out focus but you can see them all scabbed onto the right hand wall.



There's some on the left side wall too, and while it doesn't really matter where the right ones go so long as they don't cover the window, the left ones HAVE to be in the correct position or they'll foul the many bulkheads. Don't ask me how I know this..................



And lastly for now, the pilot's cockpit itself, made from seven styrene parts and four PE ones. It's a really tight fit, and both the invisible rudder pedals and the PE panel are too wide to fit in the gap between the side consoles, needing some trimming before fitting.

But it'd be boring if it all fell together, wouldn't it? 



More later I'm sure.

[Gondor]

I think they are correct Kit



But I also think you did the right thing.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I can't for the life of me see how that worked. The ENTIRE landing force is taken through the two pins on either side of the main leg. In the RW they'd need to be pretty hefty, and scaled down versions just won't be strong enough in the plastic world.

Sometimes scale accuracy is no good, and that comes up time and time again with respect to landing gear pins, viz the Airfix TSR2 and Revell A400M. I write from experience of both!

Meanwhile, back on the work bench..........

I've started work on the forward engine pair, and the Masters had RR Avons instead of the GE J-47s, the Avon being lighter, shorter, smaller in diameter and more importantly, more powerful than the originals. The #2 engine had plenty of space in that big rear fuselage, and that's been done already, because I said said so, and it's MY model, OK? 

But #1 & #3 will need new cowlings, and taking advantage of the Avon's smaller size I chopped off the intake and exhaust ducts, and then filed and sanded them to a slightly different shape. Here's the before and after view of the interior.......



..... and also of the assemblies too.



Needless to say I'll be doing the mods to the other one as well.

[Rick Lowe]

Coming along well, Kit. 
Some nice details in that kit.

My .02 worth would be, don't cut the new support short - drill a hole in the roof of the bay for it to glue into, to make another point of structural rigidity.
Overengineering? Maybe, but 'Belt and Braces' and all that. Besides, 'If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing!'

[PR19_Kit]

My .02 worth would be, don't cut the new support short - drill a hole in the roof of the bay for it to glue into, to make another point of structural rigidity.
Overengineering? Maybe, but 'Belt and Braces' and all that. Besides, 'If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing!'

It's a difficult situation as the leg lines up exactly with the edge of the bulkhead of the retracted gear well. You can see it in the drawing that Alastair posted.

I trimmed the extended leg down a bit, but it wasn't easy as the two side brackets get in the way, and then cut a small part out of the edge of the  bulkhead so it matched the length of the leg when the side brackets sat down on their supports.

VERY fiddly!

[PR19_Kit]

I think they are correct Kit

Have you got an equivalent drawing for the forward leg too please Alastair?

I've manged to build it OK, but can't for the life of me figure out where it goes in the forward gear bay!