Ok, if you’ll indulge me, here’s another X-15 cardmodel build in 1/32nd scale. This is X-15-1, 66670, as it appeared on Neil Armstrong’s first flight, 1-18-31, on 30 November 1960. In all, Armstrong few the X-15s seven times and reached a top speed of Mach 5.74.
As with my other models, my starting point was Ken West’s card X-15A-2. A friend did the digital repainting necessary to change the markings. Then I did the cutting, modifying and scratchbuilding needed to turn the longer ‘A-2 into the shorter X-15 airframe. Doing the XLR11-powered X-15 required even more scratchbuilding, including a new and longer tail cone, the twin XLR11 motors and the different arrangement of the jettison tubes. There was also an additional vent tube on the rear starboard fuselage of 66670 during this period. I also had to fashion a nose boom.
As best I could determine from available research, on 1-18-31, 66670 carried what was by late 1960 fairly standard NASA markings, including the yellow NASA banner on the left side of the dorsal rudder only. But there were a couple of markings deviations on the early 66670. For one, the serial number on the dorsal stub was not in the standard Amarillo USAF font. It was in a much smaller, more rounded font. Secondly, while later X-15s would have the national roundels split lengthwise between the side tunnels and upper fuselage, roundels on the early X-15s were wholly on the side tunnels.
The nose boom is a toothpick sanded to shape with a shaped piece of wire super-glued on the front. Some references and photos show X-15s during this period with booms with black and white stripes, while others show red and white stripes. I could find no color photos showing the boom from Flight 1-18. But I did find a color photo of Armstrong, in street clothes, leaning against the nose of the aircraft and the stripes were black and white. Given that Armstrong’s second flight, just nine days later, was the first in which the nose boom was replaced by the Q-ball nose, I figured the photo was close enough in time to his first flight and went with black and white stripes.
I added weathering with silver markers (and other colors) and pastel chalks. Photos show paint worn off the tailcone, revealing a very shiny metallic finish. The tailcone wasn’t made of the Inconel alloy that the rest of the airframe was made of. I used chrome silver pens to represent the bare surface of the tailcone.
I’ve been wanting to add an earlier XLR11-powered X-15 to my collection of 1/32nd-scale card X-15s, and finally got around to building one. This is X-15-1, 66670, as it appeared on Neil Armstrong’s first flight, 1-18-31, on 30 November 1960.
My starting point was Ken West’s X-15A-2. It takes quite a bit of cutting, modifying and scratchbuilding to turn the longer ‘A-2 into the shorter X-15. Doing the XLR11-powered X-15 required even more scratchbuilding, including the twin XLR11 motors, the lengthened tailcone and the different arrangement of the jettison tubes. There was also an additional vent tube on the rear starboard fuselage of 66670 during this period. I also had to fashion a nose boom.
As best I could determine from available research, on 1-18-31, 66670 carried what was by late 1960 fairly standard NASA markings, including the yellow NASA banner on the left side of the dorsal rudder only. But there were a couple of markings deviations on the early 66670. For one, the serial number on the dorsal stub was not in the standard Amarillo USAF font. It was in a much smaller, more rounded font. Secondly, while later X-15s would have the national roundels split lengthwise between the side tunnels and upper fuselage, roundels on the early X-15s were wholly on the side tunnels.
A note on the nose boom…. Some references and photos show X-15s during this period with booms with black and white stripes, while others show red and white stripes. I could find no color photos showing the boom from Flight 1-18-31. But I did find a color photo of Armstrong, in street clothes, leaning against the nose of the aircraft and the stripes were black and white. Given that Armstrong’s second flight, just nine days later, was the first in which the nose boom was replaced by the Q-ball nose, I figured the photo was close enough in time to his first flight and went with black and white stripes.
I added weathering with silver markers (and other colors) and pastel chalks. Photos show paint worn off the tailcone, revealing a very shiny metallic finish. The tailcone wasn’t made of the Inconel alloy that the rest of the airframe was made of. I used chrome silver pens to represent the bare surface of the tailcone.
