Bell X-1

Painting the inside of the cockpit and some parts of the nose wheel. 

Chuck came dismembered so I had to put him together 😉 

Glueing the wings. 

Part of the cockpit, wheels and engine. The tyres on the main wheels of the original plane have diagonal grooves, but I didn't dare to have a go at it to not ruin the wheels. 

Two side probes and central pitot head. 

Painting of the control yoke. 

Chuck in his seat. 

Reaction motors rocket engine. 

Notice the serious gap between fuselage and exhaust. Also the exhaust nozzles should be conical towards the inside. The small exhaust pipe on the lower left is missing. 

So I added one from a scratch piece. 

Luckily there is a decal for the instrument panel. 

Some putty on the wing edges as they didn't close nicely after glueing. 

This kit is a "tail sitter" and a little transparant support post is provided. But I didn't want to use it because it looks silly. Alternatively you can put a 20g weight. (why can't manufacturers make this proper or provide the weight themselves ?). 

Fixed the lead weight with a hot glue gun. 

Because the rear of the instrument panel is visible through the canopy I decided to add the wiring that connects to the gauges. 

Dry fitting the cockpit area. 

Assembly of the main fuselage. 

Ready for the wings and tailplanes. 

Balancing act. 

Still some more sanding to do ... 

Primer coat. 

First colour coating. I used only the Tamiya X-6 but this was too yellowish. 

I bought clear red X-27 and gave it a 1:8 mixture spray. Much better now ! 

Masking of the canopy. 

Clear gloss coat before decalling. 

Decals on. Remark : in the decal instructions the old USAF logo is placed on the upper side of the right wing. This should be on the top of the left wing (box art and prototype model show correct location). Also the "2" of registration number 6062 should have a split of the upper curvature. 

Still some minor additions (probes) and final coat to protect the decals. 

Final product.