Scratchbuilt 1/20 North American X-15
by Jerome Braure
|
|
The complete set of full-size pictures is here
Intro
This is my first scratchbuilt model and as I began, I wasn't sure this method would work. There are many things that I would do differently, if I had to start a new model of this kind. At first I planned to keep it extremely simple, no landing gear (I thought I would display it on a rod in flight configuration), no cockpit details, etc but once you start you can't stop... I also had very few documentation material, no book, no correct plan, the one I used is an inaccurate and magnified plan from the Internet. I omitted many details, it would have taken me ages to do everything.
The built
The fuselage is made out of hard foam, cut with a hot wire. It's very easy once you have the hardware: a voltage generator to heat the wire, some templates to have the right shape, and a good buddy to drive the other end of the wire through the foam.
|
The fuselage section templates
|
Pieces of hard foam
|
The fuselage after the cut
|
The wings were cut out of copper-coated fiberglass plates. Once the fuselage sections were cut, I glued them together and started sanding. Next came two layers of fiberglass to get some rigidity.
|
|
|
A lot of putty was needed for the canopy
|
|
Paint & markings
The paint is matt black Humbrol, two layers and matt varnish (applied after markings)
|
First layer of paint
|
|
|
|
The large 'USAF', 'NASA', etc. markings are all sprayed using masks. The smaller ones ('LOX JETT', 'FUEL VENT', etc.) are 'letrasets'. The remaining markings are simply handwritten with a pen, as I could not find anything more suitable.
|
|
Ready for getting some markings
The model shows a lot of rivets (that took me quite some time, although I'm no 'rivet counter'). They were done using silver paint and a pen (the kind that you dip in the ink)
|
|
The wheels
As said before I planned not to make the wheels but I finally changed my mind. The wheels were lathe turned, out of thick aluminum rods. That was quite a challenge, aluminum gets soft if you push too hard and the lathe's knife gets stuck in it (I broke some of them...) But the result is worth it - shiny rims. It took me several attempts before I got something looking like a wheel.
|
|
Two good and two messed up wheels..
|
|
|
The undercarriage
That was a tricky part, I had just a few pictures of it and had to invent pretty much. It's made of several layers of fiberglass plates. I had to add a little vertical rod at the aft to keep it balanced.
|
|
|
Getting dry, upside down
|
|
|
The ejection seat
Like the landing gear, it was not supposed to be done as I started the model. Since the Canopy was already done, I had to insert the seat (and the whole cockpit actually) in separated pieces through the windows. I know it's a crooked way to do... I won't do it again.
|
|
|
Finished model
I started the model almost a year ago, but had to do some month-long breaks. The model is 80 cm - 31.5 in. long.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
My old 1/32 F-16 looks quite small when placed next to the X-15
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pretty large bird, no?
References
|
Jerome Braure
|
