Sal has finished already, and I have just opened the box...

I will be doing the U.S.A.F BELL X-1 from Tamiya in 1/72. For the sake of this campaign I will be painting the "Glamorous Glennis" that was the first one to record supersonic flight, at Mach 1.06 peak speed.

Carlos.
Good Luck with the model,plenty of time until finish date.

Carlos,

I am excited to see your progress on that one as I recently got one from hobbylinc japan (tamiya kits are so cheap there).

Anyway, here is another small progress update of the old Testors Ryan NYP. I have painted it using testors spray metallic silver and started decaling. Unfortunately, none of the decals from scalemaster matchup perfectly with their engraved locations (did I mention how annoying these are?). If one area was perfectly lined up another would be way too far off, so I settled mostly for just a tad bit off everywhere on the fuselage decals...



Since I knew about this problem ahead of time I decided to add the wing ID stencils one letter or number at a time to make sure they lined up better (still didn't work out perfectly because the letters aren't even the right size in all cases.

I am quite proud of the jig I came up with to hold the model sideways while the fuselage decals settled using only a pair of tweezers, a tamiya paint stand, and some tape.

Van, I am afraid I am not the most experience modeller around, and certainly not the most patient...

I dabbled in it as a kid but really only picked it up seriously myself back in October of last year.

A small update of the X-1. I have finish with the interior. The yellow-green is a bit too green but I got carried away.

I am very happy with the cockpit but not with the photo. I promise I won't use the mobile for the next update.

Nice job!

The Ryan NYP is finished ahead of schedule! Not sure if I am happy enough with the photos to submit for the campaign gallery but here are some quick shots of the finished model.

Good job Van.
Please post photos when you get a chance.

Due to a recent misadventure concerning a bottle of glue and my F4D, I found myself without an entry for this campaign. Until now. I just got the Dragon 1/144 X-3 Stiletto. Will this work for this campaign The X-3 did pave the way for such aircraft as the F-104 and it proved the theory that given enough power, even a brick can fly. Happy Gluig, JT

Go for it.
Move the glue away from the kit!

Thanks, Richard. I now have the Tenex VERY secure. One good thing about the X-3 kit is you have two models- just in case. Just call me Mr. Bumble Fingers, JT

I've got some primer on Voyager now and it looks a lot cleaner.

That beast is coming along nicely, Jessica. It's a wonder what you can do with bad kits. JT

I managed to get some paint on the X-15.

Cheers Rob.


PS I think it's about time this campaign became official.

Me To!

Voyager is wearing white primer now. The tape masks off a portion of the bottoms of the wings, because they were only half-painted in the interest of weight savings. I'll let this cure and then apply the gloss white.

This is what I get for rushing. While the Kitmaker hamsters were on strike I had a paint incompatibility problem on Voyager's left wing. It seems that the primer coats were not entirely completely cured, and the top coat attacked them.


So out with the sandpaper and filler to try and salvage the mess.

And this morning's white primer reveals that it's looking better.

I'll need to leave it to cure longer this time.

Jessica,
Ouch!
I had the same problem with the Lockheed Vega for the getter done/hanger queen campaign, Tamiya red spraypaint over old (well cured) tamiya acrylic red mist coat crazed just like that as well.

The white is still on the jet vers and I might, might, might get to spray the red and blue/black mix on mine next weeek. (school vacation up here in the NE US)

keep calm and paint again?

Mike

Keep calm and work on other parts
Amodel's moulding does not lend much to calmness. Here's a propeller

It's supposed to look like this
There's nothing to be done but to get carving

Then ruthlessly chop the blades off and re-install them feathered

The rear propeller was completely different so I had to raid the spares box. I ended up re-profiling an old Airfix Ford Trimotor prop

Hi Jessica
Nice save with the paint!
Really hard to imagine flying that small craft around the world.
What happened to the web site?

Staff_jim says that there was a power outage at the data centre the Kitmaker server lives in. Then once they turned the power back on there were other strange software problems that kept the site offline until Staff_jim did a lot of fiddly work to bring it back.

I, for one, give Jim much kudos and ice cream cones. Lord, yesterday I was starting to go through withdrawals JT

Hi, all. Some progrss on the X-3. I hope to have all done by this weekend. Is it just me or does this somwhat resemble Wonder Woman's "invisiplane"? JT

I've got the decals on. The forward stripe on the right pod twisted itself when I wasn't looking

Now we can see the unmasked undersides

And the sanded-away wing tip