Special Hobby X-15A2

[BloorwestSiR]

Hi Dean,

 

I looked at your build and that is a great looking aircraft. The paint and weathering are fantastic. Thanks for giving me an idea of what this kit looks like especially with the tanks on it.

 

So, after some deliberations, I have decided to go the opposite route of our build leader Brian, and leave out the cockpit. With the canopy closed, it'll be very difficult to see anything in there and I'm going to mount the plane on one of the extra stands from my Tamiya Spitfire kits and build it wheels up. I'm also going to use some of the Spitfire's magnets to (hopefully) attach the external tanks with so that they're removeable.

 

That should still be within the rules of the GB right?

 

Carl

[BloorwestSiR]

Hi Maru,

 

Here's where I left off. I went ahead and closed up the gear bays. The nose gear doors were a bit of a challenge as they weren't a match to the opening in the fuselage so there are some gaps to fill in:

 

 

I then modified the stand bit that goes inside the Tamiya Spitfire slipper tank to fit the fuselage. I reinforced it with a bit (a lot?) of CA so it doesn't come undone:

 

 

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

I then added some sheet styrene to either side of the rear fuselage to act as a more positive shoulder for the upper fuselage piece to rest on:

 

 

There are some gaps on either side that I filled in with styrene strip and that helped reduce the amount of sanding as I didn't want to lose all the corrugated surface detail:

 

 

Here's the fuselage mounted on the Tamiya Spitfire stand:

 

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

That's where I left off. We had to do some renos to the house and as a result, I had to pack up the work bench and my stash:

 

 

That was 2 months ago but everything is done now. The good news is I have a hobby room now with separate ventilation and no worries about other stuff encroaching on it. I should be back up and running this month and will try to get some work on the X-15 done.

 

Carl