YB-49 Flying Wing

I've been always fascinated by flying wings. Jack Northrop's systematic approach to flying wings captured my attention and of course, inspired me to model the whole series. The YB-49 epitomized the development of the flying wing. Ahead of its time and buried by political decisions, the YB-49 never reached production but surely established the basis for ALL flying wing designs we see today.
I'm using the Italeri YB-49 (1280) 1/72 replica. In reality is a reboxing of the old ERTL molds but the plastic is better and thicker. Nevertheless, the fit and level of detail is far from actual plastic kit manufacturing. That means a lot of extra work...a lot. And the whole thing had a natural metal finish.
The kit has a low part count and very smooth surfaces, but the actual YB-49 prototypes were derived from the XB-35 airframes already available and surfaces have stress markings everywhere. So, wrinkled surfaces with natural metal finish is an interesting challenge.
Given the size and weight of the completed model, I decided to throw in a white metal landing gear set from SAC to support the whole thing.