Finally ordered the decals I needed for this, and decided to get started. I purchased this kit off eBay last year some time. I’m not going to do the red, white, and blue scheme. Hence the reason I needed regular decals for it.
I can’t imagine the 1/48, this thing is huge right out of the box.
Not much to the cockpit. I’m sure it won’t really be seen once the windscreen is on anyway.
Lots of ALCM halves to be glued together.
After only a few steps I have an airplane.
I also started working on the seams of the bombs. The fit is pretty terrible. The plane itself is going to require a lot of attention at the seams as well.
One odd thing I also noticed is that the panel lines on the wings are recessed, where as they are raised on the fuselage. Weird. If I had tons more practice, and a scribing tool I would sand them down and redo them, but I know I will screw that up so I’m leaving them alone.
This one could take me a while. The weather is finally starting to take a hopefully final turn for the better, and spring cleaning is overdue. So I’ll be working on this on rainy, cruddy days, lol.
Keyda, looking good so far. I remember building that kit and the fit was a challenge. The arrangement with the ALCMs never went operational and the bomb bay configuration on the kit is the pre-production arrangement. A little bit of scribing would fix that and give something closer to the production configuration, if you were so inclined. Regardless, looking so good so far. Have fun.
I got a little bit of time in on this yesterday. Probably won’t be able to get back at it for a while. Weather is going to be nice, and I’ve started spring cleaning.
There is going to be a mountain of seam work to do on this. I’m not looking forward to it, lol.
Would be funny if you could take all the ALCM hardpoints and stick multiple bomb racks on each hard point just think about the number of bombs that could be carried externally and internally.
I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed this before. Now mind you I had the option of 7 different markings with the decals I purchased. I’m not even sure how I landed up picking the ones I did, but anyway, I kept thinking about how I seen a B-1 for the first time in person at our airshow in 2015. I decided to take a look at the pictures I took of it that day. I only managed to snap two shots of it.
Here’s the first one I was looking at. I couldn’t help but notice how the logo on the side looked very much like the dark knight logo I just put on my B-1 earlier.[:O]
No way, I must be seeing things. Could it be the same plane I saw in 2015?! rumage through the rest of the photos hoping I can see one of the tail!
It’s the same one![:O][:D] I zoomed in on the tail and was able to make out 073. I had no idea it was the same one until now. I’m rather excited about it, lol.
Back in 85 I got to go to Dyess AFB as a Civil Air Patrol cadet. We actually got to go aboard B1-B #4, which they had taken position of that week. Talk about making an impression on a 15 year old kid. I got to go back a couple of years ago as a Senior Member chaperoning a bunch of cadets. There are now flight lines full of B1-Bs with combat experienced pilots. We actually had an instructor talk to us about how he had saved the lives of ground personal with these creatures of the air…
I love what you’ve done here, it looks great. And yes the 1/48 is HUUUUGE. I seem to recall that the 1/48 B1 is the largest kit produced in 1/48 scale which is saying something. But, this 1/72 looks much more managable. I may have to pic one up in this scale.
[:D] Great job on the B-1, Keyda! I finished the same one maybe six or seven months ago. You’re right in that some of those seams really tested one’s modeling skills, but it was worth it. My youngest daughter (age 9 at the time) wanted it hanging in her room. She was a great driving factor in getting through the model and doing a good job on it.
Yeah, I know no operational B-1 carried the ALCMs externally but, my goodness!, who doesn’t like seeing the big B-1 with all that freedom hanging off the bottom?!? I dressed mine up just a teensy bit by printing out a whole slew of “U.S. AIR FORCE” decals on my home printer and applying those to the missiles.
The model was a bit of a bear but nothing some average modeling skills couldn’t overcome. In the end, you’re definitely rewarded with a good-looking good-sized model of the B-1. Congrats on yours!
modelcrazy, it does dwarf the Skymaster just a little bit, lol.
echolmberg, The seams were a bit daunting, but I managed to get through most of it in the better part of a day, and it did turn out to be a good looking example! Yea I couldn’t resist gluing all the ACLM’s on. Most of my models aren’t accurate either, lol. I just like the way it looks!
In addition to being able to admire a smooth looking paint job you gave me a great idea! Ive been trying to figure out how to display a large model like your B1 and I never thought of the corner shelf. Now I’ve got a weekend project…
