Fantastic Plastic 1/144 Nuclear Bomber

[LSP_Kevin]

I didn't originally plan to do a build thread for this one - just bang it out and get it done. However, it's starting drag out a little, and a build thread is the perfect way to bolster my enthusiasm and motivation, and stop yet another kit heading to the SoD!

 

Here's the kit artwork:

 

 

This company's name must be ironic, since all their kits are resin - this one included. You can find it on their website, in the Retired Kits section.

 

The kit itself was passed to me a year or two back by Ray, and is pretty crude. The main 'wing' section is a single piece of resin, roughly 36cm long. Apart from that, there's really only about a dozen or so additional resin pieces (fins, engine nozzles, crew pod), and a small sheet of decals by JBOT.

 

The main wing features an odd mix of raised and recessed panel lines, and I decided to rescribe the lot. Being a bit rusty, I was way too heavy-handed, and now it looks like a Matchbox kit! A few of the lines aren't exactly straight, either. But hey, this is meant to be a fun build, so I'm not overly bothered.

 

Here's where I'm at with it so far:

 

 

In addition to the less-than-stellar rescribe, this thing has had a ton of surface prep and repairs. Even before that, though, I had to straighten a warp out of the long end, and replace a broken-off section at the rear tip of the short end. I used a piece of spare resin from another kit for that.

 

The resin itself is rather brittle, and also has a tendency to repel the primer in places - partly my fault, since I didn't bother to clean the parts prior.

 

The crew pod, which attaches to the long end of the main wing, is the worst part of this kit. It comes in 3 pieces - front and rear halves, plus a solid clear-resin canopy. The rear portion of the pod itself was incredibly poorly moulded, and didn't match up to the front section at all. I drilled and pinned the halves together, and then did my best to make it all work with Milliput. I had to remove the ventral and dorsal fins, along with the rear stepped feature.

 

Here's what it currently looks like:

 

 

The prominent groove is where it attaches to the the main wing. The black section is actually the clear resin canopy. It looks black in the photo because I 'painted' its mating surfaces with a Sharpie, but it's actually clear(ish) from the sides:

 

 

I'll blend it in, polish it up, and then mask it off for painting.

 

I've also rebuilt the stepped feature at the rear:

 

 

It's a little crude compared to the original, but at least it's properly round and has no mismatched mould seam running through it. I still have to add some scratch-built fins before I'm finished with it.

 

The plan is to stick it on a base via a brass tube, but I haven't yet found the right base. I'm hoping it'll look passable once all the multi-panelled NMF is laid down.

 

I can only hope that this company's kits are much better than this these days, as they have some really interested subjects!

 

Kev

[The Madhatter]

I really like some of their kits and have been tempted to get the heli-carrier kit but just can't quite bring myself to spend that much money on it. I'm sad I didn't get the Prometheus kit when it was out.  

This looks like a fun kit and I hope it renewes your mojo !

[Out2gtcha]

Neat! I didn't even know there was a Northrop flying wing design like this.

 

Looking forward to more Kev!

[LSP_Kevin]

1 minute ago, The Madhatter said:

This looks like a fun kit and I hope it renewes your mojo !

 

I hoped it would too, but then the work started to set in. Still, I'm enjoying it so far, and I can feel myself settling back in to the groove.

 

Kev

[chrish]

A cool design...Millenium Falcon-ish with the pod on one side.

now I gotta go take a look at their site (never heard of before now)

great work!

[LSP_Kevin]

A quick question, if I may! The instructions and kit build-up on the website show the wing insignia to be parallel with the leading edge of the wing, more or less. However, the diagram below from the website shows them being perpendicular to the centreline:

 

 

Which is likely to be more probable, had this particular design ever been built?

 

Kev

 

 

[Nessus]

2 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

I didn't originally plan to do a build thread for this one - just bang it out and get it done. However, it's starting drag out a little, and a build thread is the perfect way to bolster my enthusiasm and motivation, and stop yet another kit heading to the SoD!

 

Here's the kit artwork:

 

 

This company's name must be ironic, since all their kits are resin - this one included. You can find it on their website, in the Retired Kits section.

 

 

Just some background on the company, it is owned by Allen Ury, and originally the site was purely a collection of images of kits that Allen had collected (and for the most part built) over a long history as a modeller with comments on the source material, availability and rarity. If you look around there is some ultra rare stuff in there, including some of the Revell kits from Dune! Several years ago, Allen got into the model producing business, and yes, all of them are resin. Some are made by Anigrand Craftworks, others are contracted out.

 

The subjects can tend to be somewhat obscure, but its the only place you will find kits from movies like Avatar or the Bubble Fighter from Lost in Space. More recently I believe the masters are 3D printed.

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks for the info, Brendan. I do follow their Facebook page, and like Madhatter, have been tempted by their Helicarrier, among others. My kit dates back to 2007, and I believe it's one of their earliest - so I guess getting on for 15 years in the kit production business.

 

Just trying to sort out a base now...

 

Kev

[LSP_K2]

While I haven't checked in depth, most of the web images I just looked at, seem to show the insignia perpendicular to the central axis of the air-frame.

[LSP_Ron]

One would think if it were built, the markings would be applied like planes of the period like SAC B-52's, B-36's, B-47's etc with the roundel parallel to the trailing edge of the wing.

[LSP_Kevin]

2 minutes ago, LSP_Ron said:

One would think if it were built, the markings would be applied like planes of the period like SAC B-52's, B-36's, B-47's etc with the roundel parallel to the trailing edge of the wing.

 

That's probably how I'll do it, Ron, since the perpendicular orientation just looks weird to me.

 

Kev

[Basta]

Well there really was a Northrop flying wing, the YB-47, which many hint was derailed by Boeing dirty tricks, and served as the inspiration for the Northrop Grumman B2, and clearly it served as the model for this pretty amusing nuclear powered what if. 

 

I'd just follow those markings. 

[LSP_Kevin]

Well, I guess it's historically accurate - but it just looks so odd!

 

I've been working on the base, and wanted to nail down how this was going to work before proceeding with the build, as I needed to know what modifications I might need to make to the main wing in order to accommodate it. I'm still not certain about that, but I at least have a starting point:

 

 

I started with a heavy glass base from a broken paper towel holder, and found a suitable image online to lay over the top. Unfortunately I managed to get a bit of the spray adhesive on the printed side, which has damaged the print slightly, but I'm not going to worry about it for the purposes of this build. I'm going to use a short length of brass tubing to mount the model on, so the hole in the middle is sized to suit. The actual hole in the glass base is much larger, so I've glued a plastic card reinforcement under the paper in the hole, and will backfill it with epoxy putty to keep the brass tube in place. Before that, I need to coat the paper with some gloss sealant.

 

 

I'm still not sure how to secure the tube to the model yet. I can either drill a hole and fix it in, hoping that it'll be strong enough to hold and withstand any shear forces, or fashion some kind of mounting plate, and work out how to secure the tube to it instead. I don't have any soldering tools or skills, so that latter option may not be feasible with glue alone.

 

I'll need to decide soon, as the painting stage can't commence until I've sorted that out!

 

Kev

[D Bellis]

Fun fact: "Stratigic Command" was created in 1992. If you're going for 'period correctness', the USAF predecessor was "Stratigic Air Command" between 1947 and 1992. 

 

HTH,

D

[LSP_K2]

1 hour ago, Basta said:

Well there really was a Northrop flying wing, the YB-47, which many hint was derailed by Boeing dirty tricks, and served as the inspiration for the Northrop Grumman B2, and clearly it served as the model for this pretty amusing nuclear powered what if. 

 

I'd just follow those markings.

 

Bingo. In this Osprey book on the flying wings, all show the insignia as depicted above; perpendicular to the air-frame centerline, for both prop and jet versions.