1/130 Heller X-15 "At the edge of space"

[ralf]

Hello Everyone,

I want to show you one of my recent builds. In the last few months I hadn't much time to spare for my bigger real space projects like the Apollo LUT and I also wanted to finish some other non real space models. I therefore decided to build something quick. After browsing through my stash I found the old Heller 1/130 X-15 kit.

Now to the kit itself. It's an old kit from the late 60s not much details here. In fact there are no surface details at all and it's in the odd Heller scale of 1/130. The kit goes together reasonably well but I needed a bit of filler here and there. The decals went on with no problems (I heard some horror stories from other Heller kits) but they are very thick. So thick that you can still see the corner of the decals even after drowning them in decal setter and softener and dipping the model in future.

Since the model isn't the most detailed in the world I thought of a little vignette for displaying it properly. After browsing through some literature I found some artwork from NASA Dryden showing the X-15 entering space. I used this picture as the idea for the display.

And here is my version of the Heller X-15 at the edge of space:

I used a high res high altitude picture from the Edwards Airforce base area as a backdrop for my model. This was a relatively quick and easy project and I think for such an old kit it turned out rather nice. I also think that a inflight display is a nice way to make something out of an old kit without much details.

Tell me what you think and thanks for looking.

Cheers Ralf

[Hotdog]

Very nice work Ralf! Big fan of the X-15. Question: did you ever consider scratch-building some fuel tanks to go on that puppy, just to mix it up?

[ralf]

Hello Hotdog,

well not on this build. I've watched the X-15 Hypersonic Research At The Edge Of Space Nasa film on youtube and on those flights there weren't any fuel tanks either. That was one of my inspritations for this build apart from the books on the X-15 . And I wanted to keep it simple and quick. I still have the Special Hobby 1/48 version in my stash and then I will probably add the tanks.

Edited October 7, 2013 by ralf

[SpitfireGuy]

Nice build Ralf. I like the contrail effect a lot.

As to the aux fuel tanks these were only carried by the X-15A-2 the rebuilt #2 airframe which had the fusalage lengthen by 29 inches and the fuel tanks added in order to obtain the high speeds envisioned for the X-15. The tanks provided only seconds more burn and were designed to jettison as the airframe passed through mach 2.5.

Airframes 1& 3 which were the space flown X-15's never carried the tanks and had the shorter fusalage.

The tanks would be entirely appropriate for the special hobby kit as this depicts the X-15A-2.

Zach

Edited October 8, 2013 by SpitfireGuy