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1/72 Tamiya Bell X-1


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A couple of years ago, I found this musicvideo with some scenes from the movie"The Right Stuff":

This really inspired me to get the Tamiya kit.

I thought I'll try this kit as my first speedbuild. There is not much visible in the inside of this aircraft, so it should be quick to build and be ready for priming by tomorrow evening.

XS-1_1.jpg

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I closed the fuselage last night and let it dry over night. I had to apply some Mr. Surfacer to the seams on the top and bottom of the fuselage this morning.

While that was drying, I've rebuilt the pitot tube with surgical stainless steel tubing.

XS-1_4.jpg

Edited by Lancer512
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The windshield was too thin at the bottom resulting in a step at the front. I simply made some shims out of 0.25mm styrene to get the canopy higher and used some liquid styrene filler to get rid of the now created gap in the front.

XS-1_6.jpg

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As the kit comes with two transparent and two opaque canopies, I simply abussed one of the opaque canopies as a paint maks for the cockpit and blended in the cockpit frame. You can see the white styrene shim I've made between the canopy and fuselage. The access hatch was installed with white tack on the inside before the canopy was temporarily atached with some PVA glue. I will use a mixture of 90% Revell's orange and 10% red.

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The model was then primed with white Badger Stynylrez primer, resulting in a seamless and scratch-free surface.

XS-1_8.jpg

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Finally some color! I found a wooden rod that had a tight fit in the nose gear bay. This rod which served me to hold the model.

The enamel paint mix sprayed excellent. I used my special trick by using 1 Component Hardening Thinner, which resulted in a dust dry surface within less than 30 minutes. Never before was airbrushing a model this much fun!

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Oh, the nose pitot tube is the plastic one from the kit. It is just stuck in there to seal the fuselage and I will replace it with the stainless steel tube after I'm done gloss coating.

XS-1_11.jpg

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Thanks, Zac. He may not have been the first person to break the sound barrier, but he sure was the first one to do that with two broken ribs.

The paint could have been just a notch more shiny, but it will be clear coated, anyway. The finish is already perfect for decals.

I am still not sure if I shall gloss coat it, or spray on clear laquer. That would result in a mirror-like finish.

Anyway, I did the small parts today with AK Xtreme Metal Duraluminium. The metallic paint is so highly reflective, it appears different depending on the angle how you look at it. The wheel wells, landing gear parts and gear doors were are all painted at the same time with the same color. I still have to find a suitable color for the nose gear oleo strut.

XS-1_12.jpg

Edited by Lancer512
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Sernak,

depending whom you believe, british Spitfires have reached or broken the sound barrier while in a dive, and there are claims that the XF-86 unofficially did it on October 1st, 1947.

Hi Lancer512,

That's a quite interesting perspective!

Have you read what you're mentioning in a book or, on Wikipedia?

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Applied the decals this morning. They were very fragile and I had to puzzle a few of them together.

The white on the national insignia is not very opaque but that was expected.

This picture was taken just a few minutes ago after I covered the complete model with a clay weathering wash. This is going to be good!

XS-1_13.jpg

30 Minutes later it looks like this:

XS-1_15.jpg

Edited by Lancer512
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I applied two coats of Tamiya X-22 and allowed everything to dry for 12 hours during the night.

Then I unmasked the canopy and removed the hatch.

In case you wonder about the canopy, the sprue with the canopies is included twice: molded in gray and clear. I used the gray canopy as a mask, which will be discarded. I did not bother to appy a third clear coat to get it more shiny because I am not sure if the X-22 will get shinier and I am not taking the chance of getting contamination into the additional coat. The canopy frame and the seal for the hatch will be painted black. The exessive framing on the canopy will be done with strips of black decal film and then dipped in Future.

XS-1_17.jpg

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Thnak you, John!

Well, I am in the final stages. The landing gear is installed and is currently drying.

In the meanwhile I decalled the canopy in two steps with 0.8mm (.032") black stripes: First, I made the longitudinal stripes and let them settle down with Mico Sol. Then I did the same to the stripes running across. The excess length of the decals was carefully sanded off and the canopy was then dipped in Future.

XS-1_18.jpg

Edited by Lancer512
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DONE!

The canopy was attached with Kristal Klear and will dry clear as it's name implies.

XS-1_19.jpg

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I will post more pictures in the Display Case when everything is safe to handle.

Edit: Click HERE for the final pictures in the display case.

Edited by Lancer512
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