Hello all this is my first post here. I have had this kit in my stash for a while now and since I have alot of free time now I figure I would stop starring at it and build it. When I first retired from working on B-1’s the desire to work on a model kit of the thing was not very appealing. Well a year has past and I miss the ol girl, so I figured this is as close as I am going to get to working on her again.
After looking at the kit and reading up on others that have tackled it I knew I was going to be in for a rather complex build for a kit with such few parts. The kit for the most part looks like a B-1B, however it is based more on the prototype B-1B ship#2001. Alot of corrections are to be done to get it to look right. Since the only recessed panel lines seem to be on the wings I figured I would start there.
I wanted to build her in the slats/flaps extended configuration. So I removed the flaps and slats from the wings
I filled the void where the slats were removed with cut strips of styrene that were layered.
I then sanded the styrene to the correct shape and marked where the slat tracks and slat actuators would be located.
some puttying and sanding will be required to get all the wrinkles out.
I am currently working on the flaps and flap tracks and will post more on this build as it progresses.
Thanks all for reviewing my post. Your comments are much appreciated ! Here is a rough product of the flaps. I used the cutout portion of the kit ans added styrene to complete the actual flaps and I-beam stock for the flap tracks. I heated up the I beams to bend them into shape to give the flap assemblies the drop.
I cut away the overwing fairing one side so I could have it in the open position propped up. I am still figuring out how to build the seals for this.I also started to etch the panels with an Xacto knife but gave up and ordered the tamiya panel scribbing tool and the micromark panel tool. Will continue panel scribing once they arrive.
The underside will take quite a bit of time to correct. So far I have just covered up the massive weapons bay. I will scribe in the forward and intermediate weapons bay and shorten the aft bay. Along with eliminating the test camera and ECS Vents.
A 1/32 scale would be pretty sweet ! I have the 1/48 scale in the stash. Sadly I have nowhere that I can store it without it getting in the way. Currently I am trying my hand at scratch building the exhaust nozzles. Thanks for your comments all, it is motivating me to press on .
Started fiddling with scratch building the engine nozzles. I used the stock nozzles as a size template. This is a “rough draft” so I could get a feel for what kind of work I was in for as well as any changes or improvements I could do. this took 30 mins and a bunch of styrene along with some swear words.
In the meantime a whole lot of putty and sanding is going on with the kit…
Looks like you’re going to turn this into a blinder (or was it blackjack) - scratch work is going to make it stand out! I made this kit a few years ago, pretty much OOB & it went together quite well without much trouble at all. I was too eager to get it done & left the landing gear until last without any dry fitting & ended up having trouble with the front gear - do a dry fit in the well to save yourself possible problems.
Well after a busy week I finally got some time to work on the kit. I have gotten the re-scribing of the panel lines complete. I still have some low spots to sand out once the putty cures.
After scouring the internet, I finally got a break and came across the “Dakota BackBone” decals by Two Bobs. Since the stock decals that come with the kit are not accurate at all.
So after replacing an exhaust manifold on my vehicle I sat down and started to work on this kit again. I reconstructed the tail radome to a more accurate shape. I did this by taking measurements from the kit radome and apllying them to a template I build out of styrene. I then used the template to create a mold that I could cast a new radome.
Here is the rough cast of the radome created from epoxy. Some putty and sanding will be in order for a proper fit…
