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This is my most recent build. I finished it up last month. This is the Revell 1/32 Bell X-1. The kit I used is mostly the old 1980s Revell kit molded in bright orange plastic. But, I messed up the wings when I was building it, so I replaced those with a set from the Revell of Germany kit that just got issued. I was also able to benefit from the new decal sheet RoG did for the re-release as it contains more accurate markings for 6062 than what the original sheet had.

 

The build is pretty much out of the box with nose weight added to keep it from being a tail sitter. I put the pilot figure in since I feel it needed one and it adds a nice touch to the plane. 

 

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I based the paint job on what Sam Shepherd as Yeager in "The Right Stuff" wore. The flight suit pants are a custom greenish khaki mix. The jacket is Tamiya red brown with the helmet being more a straight brown. As to exactly what helmet Yeager wore for the October 1947 Mach 1 flight is not entirely clear. The movie shows this leather football style helmet. Yeager's portrait photos for early 1948 magazine articles that reported on his breaking the sound barrier show it as more of a gold shade. But, when you put the pilot figure in the cockpit of the kit you can't see it anyway since the top of the head is obscured by the spine of the airplane. For the goggles I experimented with a coloring and washes that simulated skin and eyes under them then applied a smoke tint wash and a gloss coat to simulate them being obscured by the google glass.

 

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Under the windscreen you can't see much, but I can see enough.

 

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Revell's kit is pretty accurate although it doesn't have the mass balancers on the tail that 6062 had for most of its flights except for the last one when it appeared in the John Wayne film "Jet Pilot". I believe it had its tail swapped out for 6063's since elements of 6062's tail were still considered somewhat classified when the movie was made. The wing in the kit also appears to be the 11% wing used on 6063 and flown primarily by NACA pilots. 6062 had an 8% wing installed and that is mainly why the USAF's X-1 could go a little faster.

 

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I used Revell of Germany's kit decals for this build. It has the option of doing 6062 as it appeared in early or late guises (with the white tail and spine). You can also do it in up as how the aircraft appeared in January 1949 when Yeager did a ground takeoff in the plane and broke the sound barrier on the way up to about 20,000 feet. The paintjob used in 1949 was glossy and with white outlines on the aircraft name instead of silver.

 

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My interior color was SAC Bomber Green which is a very close approximation to the interior green used on other Bell aircraft such as the P-39, P-63 and the XP-59. The orange color I used was Tamiya TS-98 Pure Orange over Fine White primer. The Tamiya orange shade is glossy, but I flat coated it after decal application for the proper 1947 appearance. To my eye, the color is close, but I think it needs to be a little more yellow orange perhaps. I'm thinking Bell painted these planes in the same orange used on RP-63G Pinballs. Pure Orange is also available now in Tamiya's bottled lacquer line for those that wish to airbrush.

 

Fit of the kit was not bad for a 1980s vintage model kit. It is a good size and would make a nice project for a beginner to intermediate modeler with some kits under their belt looking for something to test their skill set. The most challenging bit I had was blending the wing seams into the fuselage while not obliterating raised panel detail in the process. I built this kit strictly out of the box which is why I didn't modify the horizontal stabilizers. This is something of a "boilerplate" build as it were to test techniques as my plans are to build a Pegasus 1/18 Bell X-1 in flight later this year in honor of the 75th anniversary of the breaking of the sound barrier.

I may do one more "test" with this model in seeing if I can simulate the white condensation frost on the belly of the plane around the LOX tank. A few years back I tried thinning Microscale Micro Gloss with Tamiya X-20A thinner instead of water and instead of it glossing the surface of the model, it turned into a white frost. While it was not a good result for my model at the time, it may work perfectly for this use. Wish me luck! 

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Awesome X-1 Jay! Another way I saw the frost from the LOX I got from a guy

that had built an X-1 was to make a mask...spray some clear...while it's wet 

he sprinkled baking soda in it and then sprayed the white over top. It dried 

bumpy like frost and then shot gloss over that. I want to try that on my 

X-15. My dad was  at Edwards from 1958-1964 and I met Chuck Yeager 

at the gun club there. He later gave my dad an autographed picture of 

him standing next to the X-1 to give to me. I still have it in a frame. 

Definitely a historic aircraft in an exciting time in aviation.

 

Cheers...Ron

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just saw this here, Jay ... and it looks Terrific! "Chuck" looks really good and is a nice addition to the model, whether we can see him or not!

All the viewer needs is an indication that he's in there and we're happy!  ;^ D

 

The window frames, did you mask and paint 'em or are they decal strips? Either way, THAT looks great too!

 

Pete

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On 2/7/2022 at 10:11 AM, K2Pete said:

I just saw this here, Jay ... and it looks Terrific! "Chuck" looks really good and is a nice addition to the model, whether we can see him or not!

All the viewer needs is an indication that he's in there and we're happy!  ;^ D

 

The window frames, did you mask and paint 'em or are they decal strips? Either way, THAT looks great too!

 

Pete

I masked and painted. But next time I will likely just mask and paint the lengthwise strips, then the crosswise strips on a second pass because it was tedious to do. I also had to do a bit of toothpick scraping to get black off some areas I didn't want it.

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