1/48 RoG B-58 Hustler

[Skyraider Maniac]

Greetings!

This is my first group build, and really my first time doing in progress pics. So this should be fun! For this GB I'll be building RoG's B-58, painting it in a SEA paint scheme. As the title states, I'm doing this OOB, with some re-scribing along the way. Input will also be welcomed!

Anyways, here's what I'll be working with:

This is a view of all the main parts - I admit this is a pretty good sized model in 1/48 - I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Thats it for now, enough to wet the appetite . I'll post more pictures after I get some work done on it tonight.

Thanks! And enjoy!

Justin

Edited February 21, 2010 by Skyraider Maniac

[richter111]

It's a great kit!

I will be watching your build up.

Mike Grant makes excellent decals for it, I have a set and they are awesome!

http://www.mikegrantdecals.com/

[Skyraider Maniac]

As promised, progress pictures from this afternoon!

I began with the tail -

It's assembled, just not painted yet - that will happen tomorrow.

As for my thoughts on the model so far - the RoG directions can be pretty vauge (at least to me) at times, so that doesn't help much. The plastic the kit is made from actually kinda sucks in my opinion - not one of RoG better molds. I don't know if that's by design, or they just got lazy on this one; but I do know they type of plastic used is not like their Thud kit, or their He 162 kit. It reminds me of the old Monogram F-80C kit that has horrible plastic and requires lots of putty. Only difference is, I can use my normal glue on this - the F-80 I have to use my crazy glue. Aside from that, I think it's a pretty decent kit.

The next item I worked on was the cockpit -

Not a bad cockpit - but this is where the directions where a wee bit vauge, as far as the assembly of the instrument panels was concerned. The exact squareness of the panels was left questionable from the directions - if I were to do it again, I would probably fit them on the cockpit base first, rather than go by the directions on that particular part.

Certainly looks cramped for a bomber that size.

Next is the exhaust cans -

I only worked on one because I wanted to scribe it out and see how it looked. So this is what it looked like (in progression) -

This is it when it's finished being scribed -

And finally, after sanding, it's been given a flat black basecoat -

I'll add some MM metalizers to it tomorrow. I decided to scibe it out a bit after seeing the great void of detail on the cans, I'll follow suite with the other three tomorrow - so they'll look just like this one.

And finally, I worked on the Fuel Tank/Bomb pod that runs down the center of the Hustler -

After gluing -

And after sanding and puttying. I will say this much - it's not as bad with putty as that F-80 (gee whiz, I had to use half a tube on it so far.... )

Like the tail section - it'll get it's first basecoat tomorrow when I get back from church.

Well, thats it for now, stay tuned! B)

[HOLMES]

Justin,

One of MY favorites is the HUSTLER....So of course I will stay tuned...Looking good and WOW!! I am sure it will look

STUNNING as you progress...

HOLMES B)

[MarkW]

Moving along nicely!

Does your camera have a macro mode, or a way to shut off the flash? It is really hard to see what you are trying to show between the flash washout and focus issues.

[Rodney]

Good start. It'll be cool to see a B-58!

Rodney

[doupnik]

Looking forward to following your build, have one in the stash. Big fan of the B-58 going back to the small one I built in the 70's with the drop tank that would drop, good times.

Nice choice of the SEA scheme, should look nice.

mason

[caudleryan]

I'm building one, too. One thing to watch out for is the lower nose attachment. I had a very bad step.

RYAN.

[Skyraider Maniac]

Fella's,

Thanks for the comments and input!

Ric, those decals look awesome, thanks for the link!

Mark, as far as the camera goes, i'm having to use my b l a c k b e r r y as my camera since my Canon has a cracked LCD screen. Until I can get it fixed thats all I have. I will do what I can, though, to improve the picture quality!

Ryan, Thanks for the heads up! I'll be paying close attention when it comes time for that.

As far as an update is concerned - I'll get that taken care of when I get home (still at church at the moment, waiting on another fella cause I carpooled tonight). I've decided to hold off on spraying a basecoat on the outside surfaces until I can do some riveting (which will be done later this week, I'm hoping to be finished with that by Wednesday), and do some more rescribing. Got some progress done on the burner cans, and the cockpit; and the interior of the upper fuselage half.

Here's a good question, and I can't quite make my mind up on it (so opinion would be helpful), is whether or not to do the landing gear up or down - I could go either way; I'm just thinking in terms of hanging it from the ceilling (most likely thats where it will wind up). I guess the better question would be, does the landing gear hold up? or does it get pretty weak? Cause if it has a tendency to bend and break, I ought do it with the gear bays closed; but if it's pretty sturdy, It may be worth while to keep the gear extended.

Thats really the only thing perplexing me at the moment.

Tell me what ya'll think!

Thanks!

Justin

Edited February 22, 2010 by Skyraider Maniac

[caudleryan]

They're pretty sturdy. If you want to make sure, Scale Aircraft Conversions have a metal landing gear set for the 1/48 Hustler.

RYAN.

P.S.- take a look at Lone Star Models update and detail sets for it, too. Highly reccomended!

[Skyraider Maniac]

OK - Update!

So I didn't get to posting those pics last night like I had anticipated - got home and wound up talking to the wife till way late (shes' deployed and so we're at a 10 hour time difference); so she of course comes first before pictures O:-) !

So I'll pick up where I left off, in addition to all the stuff I got done yesterday, additionally I added the fuselage windows; glued the upper fuselage to the upper wing, got some more work accomplished on the Pilot's seat; did some minor work on the lower fuselage, finished scribing and sanding the other 3 exhaust cans; did more work to the cockpit (still need to do some detailing now), and put together a nuke (1 of 4). So now for pictures.

Here's all that I've got finished as of today

I'll take it all in order, starting with the exhaust cans.

In this picture, you can see the difference between the scribed can against the default can. I think the scribing helped a lot, and will show up even better once I'm finished adding the paint layers.

The Scribed can is on the left, the original one is on the right

And where I'm at currently, can wise -

Next, we'll move on to the cockpit and pilot's seat (I'd say ejection seat, but that wouldn't be correct seeing as they used ejection pods for high-speed escape).

Cockpit first. Cockpit received a black base coat; I'll detail the dials, put drops of crazy glue on them for the "glass", and then paint the light gray around the panel. I may wind up getting the resin "3 cockpit" pit, so we may wind up going through this again relatively soon if I do.

So here's what I've got so far:

Notice the grey part - the throttle controls - That was a PAIN IN THE BUTT to install! grrrr

Even with tweezers I couldn't get that part to sit right. after fiddlin' around with it for 15 minutes, finally got it to stick. Here's another look -

Moving on, the seat! here's whats done on that, showing the individual parts -

This has been relatively easy going. I still have some painting to do on the seat, but I anticipate being finished with it tomorrow.

Here's the seat (as the "base")

I still have to paint some stuff Insignia Red, and a few other things that i can't recall off the top of my head; but lets continue -

Next, this is the seat with what I'm assuming is the escape pod door/hatch added -

and a side profile -

Moving on - the next two are relatively brief as there's really not all that much to say about them.

The nuke - pretty easy, nothing complicated, just a simple external store - I have 3 more to make. I honestly think they look pretty stylish, but thats just me.

Here's what it looks like -

I'll have to finish this in a second post - way too much for one :-)

[Skyraider Maniac]

So anyway, second part of the update...

The other really simple part I did was the lower fuselage - all I've accomplished here is adding the pitot tube.

Finally, The upper fuselage/upper wing assembly.

I've gotten a good bit done on the upper fuselage; Painted the inside and the outer cockpit in Tamiya neutral gray acrylic. After that, I let it dry overnight and then added the other cockpit windows. Then, I glued the upper fuselage to the upper wing. That went pretty well, except I wound up with some gaps from sanding down certain parts where it was originally connected to the sprue. Corrected it with green putty. And thats pretty much it.

Here's the pictures -

Outer portion of the cockpit painted (it's a little hard to tell from the pic, but there is a different color grey near the dash [for lack of better term])

Inside painted, windows added -

Upper fuselage and upper wing glued together; gaps puttied -

Well, that’s it for now - more work on it tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Justin

Edited February 23, 2010 by Skyraider Maniac

[Skyraider Maniac]

They're pretty sturdy. If you want to make sure, Scale Aircraft Conversions have a metal landing gear set for the 1/48 Hustler.

RYAN.

P.S.- take a look at Lone Star Models update and detail sets for it, too. Highly reccomended!

Ryan,

Thanks for the heads up! Those certainly look great. Anyone reading this have either the metal landing gear or the 3 stage pit they would be willing to part with? PM me if you do!

Thanks!

Justin

[richter111]

Don't forget to sand off the double dent next to the cockpit, it is not present on the real thing. The word I have heard is that someone dropped a tool in the mold at the factory, and the double bump was the result

[Skyraider Maniac]

Don't forget to sand off the double dent next to the cockpit, it is not present on the real thing. The word I have heard is that someone dropped a tool in the mold at the factory, and the double bump was the result

Wow; as soon as I read this I went and looked (though, in hindsite I could have just scrolled up and seen them clear as day...), dang! I hadn't noticed that before

For being a big proponent for situational awareness...that sure got me! lol.

I'll take care of that when I get back to work on it; thanks for the heads up Ric!

[Skyraider Maniac]

Evening update - got some rescribing done on the upper fuselage/upper wing areas, getting rid of the raised panel lines - I'll post pics Wendesday or Thursday.

[mkimages]

You seem to be off to a good start. Ought to be a spectacular addition to your collection. Looking forward to seeing it come together.

[Skyraider Maniac]

UPDATE FOR 25 FEB 2010

OK! So it's been a couple days, and as promised, I have pictures!

I've only been working on scribing and riveting, and that has certainly kept me busy. I've done most, if not all of it freehand. Since this is my first time doing a full on rescribing job, removing the raised panel lines and such, if anyone has any tips or advice they're more than welcomed to share it!

So here's the tools I've been working with!

Riveter and Scriber

And the progress as of today -

So - I started out scribing and puttying the upper fuselage, here's how things progressed -

And shots of the nose -

Had to putty a lot cause either I made the cut too deep - or my hand slipped and went a direction I hadn't intended.

Here's some views of the the scribing job on the lower fuselage and the lower part of the nose.

Lower Fuselage -

And the Lower part of the nose (which has, by far, been the easiest to scribe) -

If you look closely, you can tell where I've used the riveter on the lower nose section. The others you can't tell so much, but this one shows up pretty well.

It's difficult using that riveter on this super hard plastic :D

And thats pretty much it for today - like I said, advice and comments are welcomed. During some dry fitting of the lower wing to the upper wing today, I noticed that the tail section (which I'll start scribing tomorrow) doesn't quite fit right against the Lower fuselage/wing. It's off by just enough - so I may wind up doing quite a bit of puttying and sanding there. That'll certainly be interesting when we get to that point. Definitley don't want a funky looking underside!

I did notice something interesting that has nothing to do with the build per say, and that is that the lower wing, on the inside, is stamped Monogram. Just thought was interesting since it's a RoG kit. (I'm guessing it's probably because it's still part of the original mold - thats' just my thought though)

Well, Goodnight! and stay tuned! :P

Edited February 26, 2010 by Skyraider Maniac

[MarkW]

Are you freehand scribing? Some of the line depths look uneven. This metallic gray plastic can be terrible to work with.

[Skyraider Maniac]

Are you freehand scribing? Some of the line depths look uneven. This metallic gray plastic can be terrible to work with.

Yeppers - hence the reason there's green putty all over it - the bottow portion of the wing/lower fuselage will get the same treatment tonight. And you are 100% correct - the metallic gray is a pain to use. I'm glad no one else utilizes it (that I know of anyway). It's the same crap that my F-80 is molded with, and thats like trying build models using concrete. :lol:

What will be most "fun", is this tail section that clearly has alignment issues from the mold. I percieve a lot of sanding and putty work when it comes time to connect the two.

Edited February 27, 2010 by Skyraider Maniac

[Neo]

Yeppers - hence the reason there's green putty all over it - the bottow portion of the wing/lower fuselage will get the same treatment tonight. And you are 100% correct - the metallic gray is a pain to use. I'm glad no one else utilizes it (that I know of anyway). It's the same crap that my F-80 is molded with, and thats like trying build models using concrete. :lol:

What will be most "fun", is this tail section that clearly has alignment issues from the mold. I percieve a lot of sanding and putty work when it comes time to connect the two.

see that why I no longer buil Revell models .. they lost me at the F4 blue angel what a paint in my @#@#@ Ive got a 1970 F4 corsair on my work bench right now and it seem to be having an issue wit my glue .. it just wont stick ... after im done with the 2 revells in my stash there wont be no more :) (sarcatic emotion)

any ways im still very intrigued by this b-58 cant wait to see it done

Keet up the work

Cheers

Neo

[Skyraider Maniac]

see that why I no longer buil Revell models .. they lost me at the F4 blue angel what a paint in my @#@#@ Ive got a 1970 F4 corsair on my work bench right now and it seem to be having an issue wit my glue .. it just wont stick ... after im done with the 2 revells in my stash there wont be no more (sarcatic emotion)

Thats with their older kits - the newer ones don't have that problem from what I've experienced. Just the old Monogram/Revell kits from the 70's and 80's using that thick, silvery/greyish, crappy plastic. This kit is the same; but it makes me wonder a bit because this one in particular, though it's RoG, still has the monogram/made in the USA stamp on the inside of the bottom wing; plus the copyright + mg on one of the stabilizers of the lower wing. So I'm a bit confused - anyone know if the Revell USA re-pops are the same way or not? I'd be curious to find out.

Anyway, as far as an update is concerned; no pics to upload tonight, and maybe not till Thursday - this week is a bit busy so I may not have as much time to work on it. As of Saturday - the tail section is about finished - it's finished with the rescribing, and has a base coat. The Cockpit/Pilot's seat has recieved some much needed paint - though I don't know how detailed the actual cockpit will get since it won't be seen from the outside since I'm doing closed cockpit - the seat on the other hand will get a few more painted details before it will be done. The Fuselage/upper wing/lower wing are all finished with the rescribing, they just need their basecoats. I'm still pondering on the "gear up/gear down" decision; not quite made up my mind, though I ought to do it sooner than later cause that will determine the next course of action with this fella. If gear is down, it'll take longer assembling the major pieces; if I just do closed bays - then I can skip a big portion of that. I have a little bit of time to think on it, so I'll dwell on that a little more before I make a decision.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Till next time

[caudleryan]

Bumparoo! How's the Hustler going?

[caudleryan]

Another bump!

RYAN.

[Skyraider Maniac]

WHAT A DELAY! It just dawned on me today that the hustler has been rather.....forgotten more or less (seeing as the last time I wrote something was 2 months ago...); but between getting the house ready for my wifes return from her deployment and her actual return, MW2 map pack and the new Splinter Cell release, I've been rather busy..... But now that things are back to normal, I'm back on track with the Hustler. I've gotten the cockpit mostly finished, and I'll post pictures of that here NLT week's end. Got a new work desk for my modelling, which will help greatly (way better than the makeshift one I've been using for the last year). I'll spend tomorrow morning fitting and drilling it for prep as a workstation, and then back to work full swing on the hustler. YAY!

On the hustler, I've decided to go gear up - I'm planning on hanging it from the ceilling when finished; so seeing how I don't like my "flying" aircraft to have their gear down while "flying" (seriously, who flies around with their gear down all the time?), I figured that was the best way to go. Hopefully, if I get this knocked out in time (end of the week, or first part of next week at the latest, I hope....), I can get started on that A-6E. So we'll see......

More to come! Cheers!

Justin

P.S. Ryan, thanks for the bumps