On the downhill roll now having finished paint and most of the decals. Feels really good to have it behind, although my fear now is doing something stupid like dropping it while putting on the finishing touches. Its happened to me before!











Paint is some Tamiya Pure White spray which I had squirreled away from prying EPA eyes. It was decanted and thinned and sprayed through my Paasche H in a couple of light coats. Oils were thinned with Turpenoid to wash some of the panel lines. The ones near the tail and under the nacelles seemed to show the most in photos, so thats where the darker washes went, progressively lightening the wash as the work fanned out from there. The underside of the engine nacelle had quite a bit of hydraulic fluid staining on the airplane when NASA flew it, so the panel lines were first sprayed with a mixture of clear gloss, yellow, and brown which was heavily thinned, followed with oil paint streaking. Some pastels were also used to simulate tire smoke stains near the wheel wells.







This is the AMT kit so the decals left something to be desired thick and matte finished so only the big USAFs and the double red engine stripes were used. Everything else was scrounged from the spare decal collection. I was originally going to use the NASA tail bands from the kit but noticed on many photos that the lettering was sloped the opposite way on the right side, so some custom ones were printed up by my friend Greg Drawbaugh and applied over yellow painted stripes. Thanks, man! Jennings Heilig later pointed out that the airplane actually carried the lettering both ways (at different times), so if you use the kit decal you would still be correct.



When the last few decals are on itll be lightly sprayed with thinned half and half Testors Dullcoat and Glosscoat to knock the shine down a little. Then come the landing gear and exhausts and other fiddly bits to finish things up.

Note: yes the desk is messy. Some people have a problem with this, but I believe that one can have a clean desk, or enjoy building models, but not both. So there.

Thanks for looking!


Jeff

Congratulations on such a fine job. Having done that kit, I know a little about it, and I must say that your's is simply fabulous.

Jeff

Especially inthe light of the kit--This is the 1/72 AMT kit -right?


GREAT WORK!

Steve

I'm still really glad they produced it. The B-70 design is truly beautiful, so I guess we can be thankful for what we have, eh?

Thanks for your comments!

Jeff

A great job you did there, it looks stunning! In particular the paint finish, it looks immaculate. Can't wait to see the final pictures, with gear and everything. I really like the XB-70, too bad that 1:72 isn't my scale...but 1:48 would be next to impossible to build/handle/store/display.

I've done. Made it nice and BIG, so now I can do just about any airplane in 1/72 and it'll fit (well, maybe not a C-5).

Jeff

That is almost three feet worth of full on kick-*** modeling right there, Jeff... were I to see this at a show, I would immediately take anything I had in that category back out to the car. What a fantastic piece of work this is turning out to be!

Lynn

"History is not 'was', it 'is'." - William Faulkner

Jeff

I always love the look of this elegant supersonic bomber. Yours is very very well done, excellent paint job, I like much the finish.

Serge Dompierre

posts have been truly inspiring, too, BTW.

Merci monsieur!

Jeff

I built one of those in 1/144th scale a long time ago and it was a challenge then. I managed to get this 1/72 scale kit for 20$ at a clearence sale and I don't know when I will build it. But you are making me itch for it. Great work on yours, very inspiring.

Jeff

That is just stunning!

Standing ovation!

It's guys like you, and builds like this that make the rest of us strive for a higher standard Jeff, pat yourself on the back, and take a bow...

We stole the eagle from the Air Force, the anchor from the Navy, and the rope from the Army.
On the seventh day while God rested, we overran his perimeter, stole the globe, and we've been running the whole show ever since.

Semper Fi, Don

Jeff

Charles

Just handling this thing while painting and decaling is a challenge.

Thanks for the complement, Charles!

Jeff

Charles

We stole the eagle from the Air Force, the anchor from the Navy, and the rope from the Army.
On the seventh day while God rested, we overran his perimeter, stole the globe, and we've been running the whole show ever since.

Semper Fi, Don

I hope mine turns out half as nice.

Have you ever gone to Dayton to see the real one? I have and it is an impressive sight to behold.. It was in the second hanger section when I saw it. Behind the B-52 and B-47. I didn't see it at first... As I walked past the B-52 (on it's wheels but up on piers about 10ft high) it was blocking immediate view of the B-70... As I cleared the tailend of the B-52, I looked up and there it was.. IT was on the groud and I STILL had to look up to see it.. Damned awesome plane..

Cheers,
Dave

and drove up to the AF Museum for the day. At that time the XB-70 was in the experimental aircraft hangar on the other side of the base. We only had about 45 minutes in those hangars before our bus returned to the main museum, but I "accidentally" missed it and had to stay there til the next bus arrived. I was in heaven.

Thanks for the nice comments, Dave!



Jeff

Jeff

You put a lot of work into that kit. It turned out great.

Quite a spectacular model Jeff !!!! simply that !!!!
All my best compliments !!!!

Alberto

Alberto Accumolli

G.M.B. BRANZACK

the canopy blending and framing. Excellent. Panel line highlighting is great too. Love all the little extra decals you got on it.

Now all you need is a spare room for it.

I hope to some day build my F-108 Rapier and get it in formation w/ my Valkyrie that is gear up on a clear rod stand.

That is looking awesome! Looking forward to seeing it complete. Thanks for sharing. "Q"

Matt Quiroz
Centennial IPMS
Colorado Springs, CO.

Great job, really nice paint

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Jeff

Very nice work. White? How smooth is that!
Tom