nicely11b

Well, it's been a while since I've put some time into the X-1, but after a long hiatus, I've finally put some more glue to plastic. So without further ado, here is some of the progress. I finished sanding and rescribing the panel lines, though I messed up on one half. You don't notice it unless you look at the kit from the bottom, so I may just leave it as is. I mounted my scratchbuilt exhaust in the tail with a combination of sticky putty, PVA glue and Tamiya thin cement. I was going to remove the sticky putty but it really helps to stabilize the exhaust in the fuselage so I left it in there. This kit is a tail-sitter, so I added a lot of led fishing weights behind the cockpit. The cockpit itself doesn't fit very well in the fuselage so there will be a small gap inside the hatch. It shouldn't be too noticeable, though, once the panel and canopy are installed. I glued the fuselage halves together with Tamiya thin cement. I'll have to fill a little bit of a gap that runs along the spine and belly, but it isn't too bad and should fill nicely. So there you have it, for now. Sorry that it has been so long for those of you who were following the build. Hopefully you won't have much of a wait for the rest of the build now. As always, thanks for looking!

Well, I've finally had a little bit of time to put some work into Glennis. The exhaust section is dry fit, and it looks decent. I was a little worried that the pipes wouldn't be symmetrical, but just eye-balling it, it looks ok. I thinned down the skin around the port side of the exhaust and I'll be adding the vent pipe after everything is together. It's too small for me to try to put it on now. I also got some of the plumbing put into the wheel wells. I'm planning to add a few more little things, but you're not going to see it, and I have nothing to go by, so I'm just adding some stuff for the fun of it. I plan to either find some AM wheels or try to scratch some as the kit wheels are a bit sad. So not much, but it's progress. Thanks for checking in!

Only a few little things, Nic. I've gotten the plumbing put together for in the main wheel wells, just need to get them put into the fuselage halves. I haven't had a whole lot of time the last week or two. I'm hoping that I can get some stuff done by this weekend.

Oh, man, this is awesome...

Yes, Mike, they were 90* with the bulkhead, at least from what I can see. If they're not, they are close enough for me. So I plan to stick some tube through there and have a support on the inside that will keep the tubes straight. I'm guessing that is either a vent or maybe a drain for the fuel? Not 100% sure on it, and none of my reference material says anything about it. So that's what we're gonna go with

Ya, Kev, I was pretty disappointed as well. It don't look like they changed anything, with regard to the fit, of the tail. I actually did trace the inside of the fuselage halves. Then used a scriber and very slowly got a line started. Just did one half at a time and kept a little stock on the styrene and ground it to shape. Are you planning to display the motor, or did you just want to be able to have a good fit? I'm thinking that instead of casting the motor, I might cast the entire exhaust section once I get it built. There are some deep panel lines, here: that would be a good place to cut and replace that section. We'll see how it goes when I get that far. Thanks, Harv!

Little bit of an update today. My casting supplies finally came so I started getting things ready for that. I dry fit the motor in the fuselage and found that, though they made some new pieces when they re-released the kit, the motor still doesn't fit at all. So I'm scratching a new section for the motor. I traced the insides of the fuselage halves onto some sheet styrene and cut it out. Some contouring with my dremel tool and the styrene fits pretty well. I used some sticky tack to hold the styrene in the fuselage while test fitting. These two pics show the size difference in the motor and the new piece. There was an asbestos covering on the exterior of the motor, so this will help to hide any gaps in the new piece and the fuselage. So that's where she sits now. I'll have to pick me up some brass tube for the motor, then hopefully I'll be able to finish building the motor exterior and get casting.

Thanks, Peter! Haha, ya it's in there, Tim. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it though. My instructions are a little different than the ones Kevin showed but they still call for the stick to be in a slot beside the seat. On another note, would anyone be interested in any of the parts that I'm building for this? I've wanted to get into casting, and I'll be casting a motor for Kevin, but would there be any interest for stuff I'm scratching since there are no AM kits, that I'm aware of, for the X-1?

Ohh that is nice. I remember reading something like that not too long ago. I wish I would have thought about it before doing this. Might have to strip this and retry it. Or just order my other kit and swap panels. Hmm... Oh, my casting supplies will be on their way today so hopefully I'll have a motor for you in the next few weeks.

I finally have a little bit of an update today. I did a little bit of the cockpit painting with Vallejo acrylics. I normally don't use acrylics, but I bought a cheap gravity-feed airbrush and figured I would try it out with something that is easy to clean up. Painted the panel flat black and the interior is medium green. From everything that I've read, the interior should have been interior green, but Vallejo's medium green matched the color photos that I have much better than interior green. By accident, I found a nice little trick for detailing the panel. While holding the panel with a pair of tweezers to test fit, some of the paint rubbed off the bezels of the panel. So instead of drybrushing, I rubbed the teeth of the tweezers, lightly, over all of the bezels. I think it looks a lot better and gave me more control of the effect. The kit decal for the panel looks terrible. I'll still be doing some detailing on the panel and a wash, but this is where it stands now. I began some scratch-building on the hatch. The kit hatch has no detail at all and it's way too thin. This is the only reference photo I have so I'm basing everything on it. I started by sanding the inside of the hatch smooth and added some sheet styrene to thicken the door. I bent some wire for the handles and cut some sheet styrene for the latching mechanism. This is the very first scratch-building that I have ever done and I'm really happy with how its turned out so far. The latch would look a lot better with some PE, but I have no idea how to make my own photoetch. I also don't have a lot of stock to work with so I gotta make do with what I have. Any tips would be very much appreciated though!

That tail looks like someone got a shrink ray and miniaturized a real B-25. Just an unbelievable job so far!

This is unbelievable, Brian! I can't wait to see this when it's finished. I've been taking notes to try this myself.

That prop is beautiful Great work!

Really nice work on those tanks!

Your scratchbuilding in the 'pit is unbelievable. Great work so far. I'll happily be following this one