Hi Mike,
Yep, whatever you did, seems to have done the trick!

Could it be Halloween??

Bigkev

Hi All,

Just like to put some pictures on here of Southwell Show kindly forwarded by Cyril.

More pictures of kits on display can be seen on the Model Blog page. Lots of Tanks, armoured stuff, Cyril reallylikes that sort of thing.

Anyway, here are some of our stand and crew.

Bigkev 

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Hi All,

Well things have continued at a pace since my last installment.I have now managed to get the wing tips and tailplanes in place. Not too much of a problem here apart from the wing hinges which need a bit of refining to get a smooth fit, and the outer panels which needed a bit of glue and talc treatment on the leading edge points to sharpen them up.

The cockpit canopy is a little short and a bit shallow, so I have added a shim of card (20 thou) to the cockpit sills and coaming. This was then sanded until a smooth transition and matching of the fuselage top was achieved, with canopy.

The kits pitot tube is not very straight and a bit fragile, so I have use a pin to replace it, drilling out a hole to accept it and inserting it into hole and glueing it in position to correct length. I then built up nose with glue and talc and sanded to shapewhen hard. Result, a nice strong and sharp point to kit. Trouble is its like a great big dart, so I'll have to make sure I don't get harpooned!! 

At this point all wheels were sanded to shape, undercarriage legs trimmed and seam lines tidied up, engine nozzles and splitter plates tidied up, cockpit instrument panel and seats cleaned up. Undercarriage doors,..... nose okay after much thinning, but main ones will need replacing with new moulded from card items as they are too thick but curved around two edges.

All parts primed in Vallejo Acrylic Grey ready for detail painting.

Pictures attached.

Bigkev    

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Hi All,

well now you can see the intakes have been painted deep eonough inside. I finally decided on 'steel' as a colour as pictures show the interior of the intakes to be metallic in colour.

Once dry I masked the outer edges of the painted section off to get a nice sharp line when it comes around to the white finish. As you can see I have attached the upper fuselage now and it was suprisingly quite a good fit despite all the angles involved. However a mismatch at the rear of this became apparent, not the kits fault but mine, after pinching it too hard as the superglue dried. If I had packed out the inside with scrap it would not have happened, ho hum!

Using my trusty glue and talc filler I quickly addressed this problem, about 1/2 hour max from filling to final shape.

Finally I dry fitted the engine body component, and all appears to line up pretty well. But before I can glue the part to the wing/fuselage I needed to add the engine mounting plate, which was a sinch.

Next installment will see fuselage and body together, nose probe, wing joints and outer panels attached. Have done a few pics of the progress so far today.

Be good till next time

Bigkev 

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Okay, its hands up time!

I've made a blob with the description. Its not a 'Rockwell' XB-70 Valkyrie,  it should have said.........................

NORTH AMERICAN XB-70 VALKYRIE,

sorry to all those who looked and said he's wrong!

On with the build,

Bigkev

Hi All,

Well now the dust has settled from my last project, its time to start the next.

I am going to make another Anigrand Resin kit, this time a Rockwell XB-70 Valkyrie again in 1/144th.

This is a big aircraft even in 1/144th. The kit looks quite easy to assemble (famous last words?) and has a choice of canopies and a very nice decal(transfer) sheet.

Moulded in pale yellow resin and clear resin for canopies. Kit shows much better panel lines than the Beriev ( Progress 1), being sharp, and not too deep. The wings are butt joining along the centre line so a possible weak spot, so I have drilled holes along the mating edges, inserted some brass tube to give rigidity and to aid alignment

Thats it for now,

Have attached some pics, so you can see kit contents, and work on Brass tubes so far.

Bigkev


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Hi Dave,

Awww Shucks................. I'm blushing now!

Kev

Well Guys,

Finished at Last!  Finally got the last bits added, painted, and the model decalled.

The undercarraige was a swine to get all the wheels to make contact with the ground at same time took a lot of adjusting, but I got there. Also the instructions show the main undercarraige bogie back to front on assembly. Had to check on 'Seawings', a website dedicated to flying boats, seaplanes and ekranoplans to be sure. On the walk around section there are some great photo's of this machine in a rather sorry looking state at Monino in Russia. This section answered my question easily.

The decals went on well, though I might just give the whole thing another coat of satin varnish to seal them and make them appear less glossy. An enjoyable project, quite easy to build except from the areas noted throughout build, but an unusual looking machine nonetheless. Another 'oddity' is my next build???

Enjoy the pics

Kev

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