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WIP - Monogram 1/48 B-58 Hustler in foil


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This is a Monogram 1/48 scale B-58 that I purchased on e-bay. Included in the kit was a set of  aftermarket Scale Aircraft Conversions metal landing gear . I think that the previous owner of the kit gave up before the kit was started. This kit is dated 1986, so you can just imagine what kind of nasty tricks will pop up and bite me on the nose😱

 

 

I started this build in March of last year. A month later I was so fed up with the kit that I put the kit on to the Shelf of Doom due to some insanely poor engineering issues regarding how the tail assembly joins the fuselage. In June of this year  I sprinkled the kit with holy water and started building it again. It's now coming along nicely, but very slow. This my eight foiled airplane. My previous foiled builds were a P-38L, P-47, P-51, F-86, F-104, B-24J and B-29. After the B-58 will be a B-25 gun ship. All are 1/48 scale.

The B-58 model has raised panel lines and it is molded in a weird silver plastic. The idea was that this model would not need to be painted. I think that this is the third version of this kit. The first version had a button that dropped The Bomb. The second version has opening hatches for all three crewmen. This one has an opening hatch only for the pilot.

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Notice that the box states, "molded in silver".

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Notice the wavy lines in the silver plastic. This would be one weird looking model if it wasn't painted. This photo was taken after I used a wash on the gear housing.

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I purchased engine update kits from Fisher, a cockpit upgrade kit from Eduard and a metal pitot tube from Master Reality in Miniature.

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I started with the cockpit. The kit's cockpit lacked a lot of detail but the Eduard's upgrade kit fixed that problem. Eduard makes nice upgrade kits.

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Next, I decided to attack the four rather large engine pods. The upgrade kit includes an intake fan for the front and exhaust nozzles.

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I couldn't find good photos of the nozzle of a B-58, so I used a photo of the nozzle of an F-16 as reference. First I painted the outside of the nozzle black and used a black wash on the inside. Next I applied Bare Metal Foil to each nozzle  petal individually 😵 . The turbine fan was weathered with a black wash and the tip of the engine shaft was painted blue. This process took a while to do on four engines.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Johnny_K
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Two types of nozzles were used on the engines, one was smooth and the other had petals like an F-16. Neither nozzle was painted, they turned gray with use. The dark colored panels on the engine pods and elevons were a special heat resistant stainless steel alloy that appeared dark in color, almost the color of Titanium. Based on the photos that I have looked at, there appears to be a number of different versions of the engine pods. FYI, I am not finished with weathering the engine nozzles.

 

 

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Weights need to be added to the nose of this plane to prevent it from sitting its tale. I don'y like to estimate the amount of weight, so I taped the entire model together and started adding weight to the nose of the plane until it sat on its nose.

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The cockpit was glued into the lower fuselage and weights were added in front of the

cockpit.

 

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The side windows were installed prior to glueing the two fuselage parts together

 

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The top of the fuselage was clamped to the bottom of the fuselage. A rubber band holds the nose together.  That thing above the fuselage is a combination fuel tank and "Bomb". We'll get into that later.

 

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Tape was also used in an attempt to align the top and bottom of the fuselage. Monogram did not provide enough alignment  pins.

 

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Due to a lack of alignment pins, the fuselage required  filler. Multiple sandings and layers of Mr. Dissolved Putty were required.

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I used scraps of Bare Metal Foil to test the seam. The seam on the left need more putty and sanding.

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The nose was painted after the seam was sanded smooth.

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The engine pods were glued together while the putty on the fuselage seams dried. The pods are pretty big when compared with an F-86.

 

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Clamps, clamps and more clamps were required to get a tight seam between the two halves of the engine pods.

 

Edited by Johnny_K
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This is a good photo of the aircraft's main wing. Note the two areas of the wing that are not made of aluminum panels. Also, the elevons are a different color than the wing. They were made of a high temperature stainless steel alloy because they were in the jet wash of the inboard engines. 

 

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I used Testors' Metallizer Aluminum for the painted areas. I did not buff the paint because I wanted a dull finish. After the paint dried I sealed it with Testors' Metallizer Sealer.

 

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On the underside I painted the wheel wells a silver color and lightly washed the wheel wells with a rust colored wash to simulate dust.

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I glued the top and bottom of the wing together and used my architect's scale and clamps to remove the obvious warp in the wing. I used the same technique on my B-29 and B-24 wings.

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7 hours ago, Johnny_K said:

I glued the top and bottom of the wing together and used my architect's scale and clamps to remove the obvious warp in the wing.

 

Where can one find clamps like that? I've not seen them around.

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7 hours ago, Johnny_K said:

3PtTHbT.jpg

This is a good photo of the aircraft's main wing. Note the two areas of the wing that are not made of aluminum panels. Also, the elevons are a different color than the wing. They were made of a high temperature stainless steel alloy because they were in the jet wash of the inboard engines. 

 

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I used Testors' Metallizer Aluminum for the painted areas. I did not buff the paint because I wanted a dull finish. After the paint dried I sealed it with Testors' Metallizer Sealer.

 

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On the underside I painted the wheel wells a silver color and lightly washed the wheel wells with a rust colored wash to simulate dust.

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I glued the top and bottom of the wing together and used my architect's scale and clamps to remove the obvious warp in the wing. I used the same technique on my B-29 and B-24 wings.

 

I bought those clamps years ago in a Ace Hardware bargain bin for two bucks each.  Amazon has those clamps: https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-6-Inch-Ratchet-Spreader-39180/dp/B000NY4UDQ/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=ratchet+clamps&qid=1565821880&s=gateway&sr=8-4

Edited by Johnny_K
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I used the ratchet clamp, architect's scale and rubber bands to straighten out the big warp on a B-29 and B-24 wing. The triangular shape of the architect's scale works great in straightening the warp because it is super stiff and will not bend.

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27 minutes ago, Johnny_K said:

 

I bought those clamps years ago in a Ace Hardware bargain bin for two bucks each.  Amazon has those clamps: https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-6-Inch-Ratchet-Spreader-39180/dp/B000NY4UDQ/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=ratchet+clamps&qid=1565821880&s=gateway&sr=8-4

 

Thanks, ordered some (different brand) from Harbor Freight. Will see how they work out. Saved the ones you posted to my Amazon "hobby list". Don't know why I couldn't find these before. Probably looking in the wrong place :dontknow:

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On ‎8‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 9:13 AM, Johnny_K said:

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Two types of nozzles were used on the engines, one was smooth and the other had petals like an F-16. Neither nozzle was painted, they turned gray with use. The dark colored panels on the engine pods and elevons were a special heat resistant stainless steel alloy that appeared dark in color, almost the color of Titanium. Based on the photos that I have looked at, there appears to be a number of different versions of the engine pods. FYI, I am not finished with weathering the engine nozzles.

 

 

Nice progress on your build.   If I'm not mistaken, all B-58's used the J-79 engines with afterburners.   the pic at the top of your reference is, I believe, the display at Pima Air and Space Museum, sans engines.   There is another pic in the walkaround section of ARCAIR that shows from the rear and you can see all the way to the shock cones.   

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Keep up the good work.

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Drifterdon and Warthog60, thanks for following my post! That's a great photo of the underside of the aircraft.

 

There seems to be only eight of these aircraft left. Seven are still in pretty good shape.

 

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One at Edwards is in really bad shape. Some one should put this poor aircraft out of it's misery.

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After the glue dried I removed the clamps. This is one big wing!!

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The next step is to glue the wing to the fuselage. The fit of the seam is poor resulting in a large open joint. This is a well documented problem with this kit.

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The best solution is get out "THE BIG CLAMP". Enough pressure is required to close the open seam but not so much to crack the plastic.

 

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Now that's better. I can deal with that. Note that I started adding Bare Metal Foil to the model.

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There is a nasty seam at the front of the wing adjacent to the fuselage that needs to be fixed.

 

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There are more seams that need fixing on the underside of the model. Monogram must have been in a hurry to get this model on the dealer's shelves. This kind of stuff shouldn't happen. 

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Time to finish the four engine pods.

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This is the look that I am trying to achieve. The front of the pod will be easy to duplicate using Bare Metal Foil. The rear of the pod will be more difficult to duplicate.

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My first attempt was to use a combination of Testors' Metallizer Aluminum and Titanium. I didn't like how the Titanium looked, so I attempted to use an enamel wash to lighten up the color of the Titanium. I figured that an enamel wash shouldn't affect the lacquer Metallizer paint. Boy was I wrong.

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The enamel wash dissolved the lacquer paint. However, I did like the final effect.

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I decided to paint the rear of the engine pod with the Testors' Titanium Metallizer paint anf then remove it with an enamel thinner. The final finish closely matches the real aircraft's engine pod. 

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I was able to vary the color of pod's panels by using a water based wash.

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Here are the four engine pods. I think that they look pretty good.

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Here are the pods in comparison to an F-86. 

 

 

 

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On 8/10/2019 at 10:59 PM, Johnny_K said:

I couldn't find good photos of the nozzle of a B-58, so I used a photo of the nozzle of an F-16 as reference.

Hello @Johnny_K! Maybe I’m late, but here’s the great build with a some portions of research:  Convair B-58 Hustler 1/72.

 

Your progress is amazing, now the Hustler takes its shape! It seems like you’re a very skilled. Keep up the good work; I’m following with an interest... :thumbsup:

 

P.S. The foiled wings looks superb!

Edited by Nikolay Polyakov
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Excellent work thus far, I have one languishing on the bench to get back to with most of the Fisher upgrades. Those sets are excellent, hope he gets back on his feet soon!

Anyway, one question? Why didn't you post this in the works in progress?

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1 hour ago, markiii said:

Excellent work thus far, I have one languishing on the bench to get back to with most of the Fisher upgrades. Those sets are excellent, hope he gets back on his feet soon!

Anyway, one question? Why didn't you post this in the works in progress?

 

Ooops!! You are correct, this should be in the "In Progress Pics". I'll ask the moderator to move it.

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