Bell X-1, Glamorous Glennis

Bryn Crandell
Watching with interest.

Michael Phillips
Count me in too! I have seen this built a few times and it has me wanting to get this kit too. Looking forward to following your progress.

Peter Jenssen
Got another half hour in after work yesterday.
That's pretty much all parts off the sprues and cleaned up. Dryfitting. Body halves are slightly warped, only a couple of mm, not enough to cause problems. (though some locator pins could have helped here)
Cockpit interior turned out a bit dark. considering lightening it. Maybe.

Peter Jenssen
Glued the cockpit parts into the port side.
I had some minor fit issues but nothing bad.
Thought I'd better close up before the glue dries so the parts have some mobility to fit better.
Started glueing. Got a nagging feeling I forgot something. No, all parts are in place, joystick and instrument panel can go in later. Continuing glueing. Uneasily. Then it dawns on me! -Noseweight!!
Phew, that was close! 🙂

Peter Jenssen
Only got just under half an hours work in on this one. Still, it's getting there.
(For some reason the picture rotates after upload..?)

Peter Jenssen
Hmm..
Well, while the fuselage halves go together quite nicely, panel lines also line up perfectly, -not so much with the wings and stabs symmetry port/starboard. This would have benefited from some adjustments;
The starboard stab is about 1/5 mm lower than the port.
If I had noticed this immediately, I would have lined the fuselage halves up using the stab slots and preferred to do the sanding of the fuselage instead. It is really only noticeable in certain angles, so I will leave it.
Even more subtle is that one wing is just under 1/5 mm forward of the other.
This one I didn't notice until I was sanding the wing roots.
There's a panel line that on one side is decidedly in front of the wing, but on the other, just about cuts through the wing root..

Peter Jenssen
Put the canopy paint mask on.
Really good quality with a great fit.
To be honest though, quite a bit of fiddly work. Probably better to put
on thin black decal strips than a mask and paint.

Martin Oostrom
You call this fiddly. I've got the 1/72 tamiya in my stash. Can I reserve a straightjacket?
Your build looks quite ok. Keep it up 👍

Peter Jenssen
🙂
Thanks,
I can't. imagine putting this paint mask on in 1/72!
The window frames are quite thin, so it needs to be exactly adjusted to look right, -and there are 19 panes to align with each other! :-D

Martin Oostrom
The worst part is I have to cut my mask by my self. I couldnt find aftermarket ones in my shops

Peter Jenssen
If I had to do that, I'd probably mask the crosswise lines first, paint, remove. Then the lengthwise lines after.
Or use liquid mask.
There were two tiny triangles of glass on this model that didn't have a mask for them. I suspect they were too small; about 1 mm's side..
I just put a tiny drop of liquid mask in each, which then flows to perfectly cover the pane..

Michael Phillips
You are moving right along! Really looking forward to seeing it with the orange applied. Great work so far!

Peter Jenssen
Thanks!
Well, here's a bit of orange! 🙂

Michael Phillips
Haha, ask and I shall receive! That really looks great, love the color.

Peter Jenssen
First time I use MrColor on larger surfaces.
Man, this is a racecar of paints!
If you get it just right, you can actually handle the model while airbrushing it.
Paint dries within seconds of hitting the surface!
(unfortunately, I got a pass or two when it dried in the air between the airbrush and the model. Not sticky dry, but completely dry, which was good since it landed as a layer of orange dry dust that could be easily dusted off with a quick wipe 🙂)

Peter Jenssen
Started decalling..

Clifford Keesler
Looking very nice.

Peter Jenssen
Thanks
Just discovered the glue in the paint mask tape is quite a bit stronger than the glue in the Tamiya masking tape...
🙁

Clifford Keesler
Bummer.

Peter Jenssen
Thanks,
here's another shot of the inside where you can see the tiny triangle window I nearly missed. There's no mask for this one.
(Apologies for the rotated image.
It looks fine on the phone, it looks fine in the album upload page after uploading it.
However, when looking at it in the album, it is rotated. )

Peter Jenssen
-Also it looks fuzzier. There were some flaws I could see in the original that are blurred out now. May redo later when I get off the phone and onto a computer..

Peter Jenssen
That's better..
Canopy from the inside..
Decalling is complete now, sorry, no pic yet..

Martin Oostrom
Peter, she's a beauty

Peter Jenssen
Thanks!
here's a picture after decalling, and another picture of the cockpit. That orange colour is funny when in bright light.. It goes more mango colour..

Peter Jenssen
Finished!

Mats Bengtsson
Very nice Mach Buster 👍 Well done Peter

Peter Mollenhauer
Beautiful!

Martin R.
Beautifully built!

Michael Phillips
Absolutely beautiful Peter!

Christian Ristits
Very nice, congrats!

Peter Jenssen
Thanks guys, now just have to decide what's next.. 🙂

Martin Oostrom
May I suggest a Draken?

Peter Jenssen
You're reading my mind, I actually opened a Draken box and the Aires detail set to scope things out.
However, then I had a glance at V-2 rocket/Hanomag/Meillerwagen kit and it kind of seems a logical next after a rocketplane... 16 spruebags in that one! :-o

Clifford Keesler
Very nice job.