HI all .. Well i decided to make a start on the B-1 and yes it is very large indeed , i read up on this kit before i started so i had a good idea what i had let myself in for , there is a lot of filing and sanding to do with this kit and some of the parts have warped slightly .. so far i have built up the undercarriage and put the cockpit section together . one thing i didnt like with this kit is that the wings do not swing together so i have decided to remedy this with a simple bell crank and push rod arrangement ( stolen from my RC knowledge ) however in order to do this the center bomb bay had to be closed to allow room , it has taken a while to set it right but it works well .. ill post some pics soon ..

I heard several hooror sotires about this bones model

Please upload a few pictures of that system you will makie for the wings, I have the intention of building a boen as well one day

The horror stories you have heard are true im afraid , the it is very bad and there are a lot of gaps .. however if you are prepared to put in the time and effort this kit will build into a very impressive model for you collection.. heres few pics of the swing wing mechanism i made .. i have glued all the major sections together now and it all works fine

Dave
Interesting work in the wings......!!!!
In 1/48 the B-1 is LARGE!!!!!!!!!!!
I still waiting a decent B1 in 1/72..

Yep, its large and that is part of the attraction. There is a company called Sanger that is promissing a B-52 in 1/48 scale.

Unfortunately that promise is frozen on their website for sevral years now and I wonder if that company is still in business.

But imagine, a b- 52 in 1/48

Wow that would be quite something !! A B-52 in 1/48 would be over a meter long and have a wing span of around 117 cm !! Where would we put one of thos ?? haha

ID Models did a Buff in 1/32 back in the day. I remember a feature in Fine Scale Modeler Magazine which had the builder holding it across his body at an angle just so the wingspan didn't completely overwhelm him. Even then the lower wingtip was almost on the ground. The fuselage itself was more than 15 cm (6 in) wide.

Then to top it off, he built a monstrous table top diorama to display it on.

Such enormous things seem quite possible if you manage to combine different techniques:

Vac form for the big parts,
resin and metal for the details,
and a good scriber for the panel lines

This Sanger company seems to have done quite a few of these projects but their site seems totally dead so maybe/probably the company has gone

Their site was last updated Sunday.

Cheers Rob.

Yes Dave I can imagine....... but my wife kill me too!!!!!!!!

Hi Dave



That is seriously neat! Did you happen to take any more shots of how you made it? - a Swing Wing Mechanism feature article could be a lot of help to other modellers for years to come...

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan thanks for the comment.. unfortunately i didnt take any other pictures .. however i have all the materials to make another mechanism .. maybe i could just build one up as an example , take plenty of pictures and use the two pictures of the B1 as well and also describe how to do it ?

Yesyesyes, that would be very nice

ok ill do that .. just one thing tho where do i post it ??

Send it to me and I'll take care of making it look pretty and posting it.

ok . do i send it as a private msg ?

E-mail to jessica(dot)cooper(at)aeroscale(dot)co(dot)uk.
You can find e-mail addresses for all the staff on our "About Us" link at the top of the page.

Ok thanks Jess

OK well i think its time for an update .. Iv been busy with the Bone doing lots of filling and sanding , finally its starting to look good , all the sections are together and smooth i have also built up the engine nacelles and given everything a coat of primer

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Wow Dave, that Bone is looking nice. As other have said that is nice work and idea on the swing wing mech. I'll have to remember that myself. The only thing so far I've learned is cut into the part that connects the wing with fuselage so the wing can be removed or inserted without any problems. Keep up the good work.

Mike

Thanks Mike Yeah its starting to come along now , iv just got the landing gear in for this i used Epoxy resin for a firm hold and let it set over night as it has to take a fair bit of weight iv had to put 80 grams in her nose alone just to stop her tail sitting and its only just enough , shes got her final coat of paint on too just need to do all the small bits and bobs and put the decals on ,, ill be doing a How Too for the swing wing mech i just want to get the model finished first and get xmass out of the way then ill be getting onto it

what a monster! I almost bought one of these second-hand a couple weeks ago but chickened out. glad to see someone is brave enough to tackle it

yeah it was quite a challenge but well worth it , it now sits on the top shelf in my room and takes up the whole space
you should get one if you can