Hey, folks, just browsin' through my old photos and I stumbled upon a well forgotten model - one of my all time favs - BELL X-1A.
This is the Special Hobby, 1/72 model, built around 2008-2009. It's almost straight forward build, the only problem is the canopy's bad fit to the fuselage.
I have also X-1B version somewhere in the stash, waiting for the Record Breaker Campaign to start.
If you have any comments or questions I'll be more than happy to answer them.

P.S: Still searching for the WIP photos... Gotta organize better...







Моre photos - Bell X-1A set.

Great work on the panels. I might not have noticed the canopy if you hadn't mentioned it. Hope you find and share the WIP stuff. I have the Tamiya X-1 waiting on me to gather the courage to do a see thru fuselage.

A beautiful piece of modeling indeed! I really enjoy the X-plane subjects. You did the Bell proud. Thanks for sharing it with us. Russell

Thank you, Mark and Russell!
The early aviation and the X-planes are my favorites too! Just wanna have them all... Will need a bigger closet!
Mark, I managed to find the WIP photos and will post them tomorrow with more explanations about the build. Stay tuned and for good night and as a little tease:

Nice panel work!
Looking forward to seeing your work at the P&RB Campaign!

Thank you, Richard!
Here some more detail about the build:

Seat belts are PE from the kit, primed and painted with Agama Linen (don't remember the number).


Black leather insulation in the cockpit is made with kitchen foil.



Model was primer with a can spray Mr. Surfacer 1500, polished with various sand papers, polishing sticks and Tamiya polishing compound. All the metal shades are from Agama Metal Paste, rubbed with a polishing head for a Dremel. One interesting thing I didn't expected - part ot the main wheel wells is made of plywood. So I just applied the technique described here in Aeroscale to imitate wooden texture.


The next time consuming task was masking as you can see from the photos.

So that's it - you can find more photos on Bell X-1A set.

Thanks for watching!

Very nice work and a very interesting subject.

Thank you, Kevin!
I really like this plane. Let's hope I'll start the X-1B version soon, now that I have almost all of the Alcad aluminum colours.

Very nicely done. I prefer this to the orange one.

Shame about its predecessor...

"In 1944, design work was considered 90% complete and Miles was told to go ahead with the construction of three prototype M.52s. Later that year, the Air Ministry signed an agreement with the United States to exchange high-speed research and data. Miles Chief Aerodynamicist Dennis Bancroft stated that the Bell Aircraft company was given access to the drawings and research on the M.52,[11] but the U.S. reneged on the agreement and no data was forthcoming in return.[12] Unknown to Miles, Bell had already started construction of a rocket-powered supersonic design of their own, but with a conventional tail were battling the problem of control.[13] A variable-incidence tail appeared to be the most promising solution; the Miles and RAE tests supported this.[14] Later, following conversion of the tail, pilot Chuck Yeager verified it experimentally, and all subsequent supersonic aircraft would either have an all-moving tailplane or a delta wing."[15]

The beginnings of England's 30 year pogrom against it's own aerospace industry...

Thanks, Richard, for your words!
That's part of the aviation history I didn't knew. May be it's a pogrom, but at least it gave the modelers some of the most unusual designs ever.