thibaultron

The ejection seat and flight deck are now mostly painted.
 
I primed black and basecoated a haze gray:
I washed with black and rebasecoated gray on the flight deck.

After the rebasecoating:


I mixed my own orange for the ejection seat:
Then detailed it:
It now just needs installed after I highlight everything to bring out the gauges and other detail.
 

The interior of the B-58 is more colorful than I thought.  I had guessed dark gray and black, however the seat itself is an orange and cream color and the cockpit itself is a lighter gray with black gauges and trim.
The picture is courtesy of the National Air Force Museum.  It will be fun to paint.

Thank you very much!  I am making a stand.  I have an old plaque that I got at a yard sale.

looks really good     did it come with a stand or are you making one?

I built up the main landing gear bay doors from basswood that I carved to shape.  There are three pieces on each side.
 
I carved a piece to fill the main gap first:

Then I filled in the gap where the main gear would go:
Lastly, I made a piece to replace the ridge on each side:
 
This modification took about an hour total.
 
I am going to mount this model on a flight stand when it is done.

I modded the tail fins to make the bombs look more like the B-43 nuclear bombs that they are supposed to represent.

One of the fun side effects of my recent builds is that I am not afraid to just start cutting.  It may not come out perfect, but it will get done.
 
I used to be terrified to modify a kit too much, so this is significant for me.  I have learned a lot from this site.

This is a good kit for revisiting the past.  I had the Lindberg version that I started with my Dad, but never finished.
 
All gaps on the minor sub-assemblies are now filled and trimmed.

The cockpit is assembled and just needs painted now.  The control stick is also now glued in the correct position.

I discovered that the main landing gear doors are not designed to be shown closed and will not fit in that position so I am making replacement plugs that I will carve to shape.

 
So far, this has been a very fun build.

I have this in my stash bought it for the same reason to revisit childhood and my Dad he had a short stint in SAC mother hated it from what I heard.

decent size model............1:48.......especially if you compare it to your Vic     the finish is gonna be tough.......I wish I had an idea for ya.   but as Egilman said,  he's been look'in for the holy grail too  🔍  great start........look'in forward in seeing more  

A bunch of glued together sub-assemblies:

The next time I work on it, I’ll start filling gaps and assemble the flight deck.

As a kid I lived for a while on a large hobby farm that my parents owned west of Akron, Ohio.  One summer between 1960 and 1965 we began finding shredded Aluminum foil in one of our hay fields.  We later found that these B-58 Hustlers had been testing the Cleveland Area air defenses and dropping chaff on us.  Unfortunately I don’t remember actually seeing the planes.
 
Roger
 
 

Can I squeeze my chair in? Always fun to had in down here 😁.  I've never done a jet, even as a kid, WW2 was as far as I got.
This should be good Phil. 

Hi phil, great to see you joining in with all us plastic nuts, great subject also  - I have me chair at the ready like the others.
 
OC.

I too built this one as a kid, even though I think mine was possibly 1/72. It did not look as big in my memory as yours looks. It did have opening crew hatches at all three positions though! When I read the history on it in the instructions I had to go out and read everything I could about the plane. This was long before the day of internet research and I spent a lot of time in the library.

I too, build that model way back when they were actually flying.  One impressive aircraft though except for nukes it didn't have much it could be used for.  Where I lived as kid (Dayton, OH) we lived near the base there often one of those would come in for landing or take off.... what a sight to see.

WOW, a Hustler. I'm in, too. Four J-79s pushing that beast. That's a pair of F-4s or A-5s or 4 F-104s. Saw an operational one, many moons ago. Like EG says, the finish will be the icing on this cake.

Hi Phil...
 
I built this one when I was a kid. Been meaning to do another but not until I get the finish down.... There are many techniques for doing a Bare Metal Finish.... Polished Aluminum is one of the most difficult as my F-104 build demonstrated.......
 
Will be following closely, pulling up the comfy chair right now.... (in for the long run)
 
EG

Sometimes you just have to build a plastic model.
 
They are quick, fun and the possibilities are endless.
 
I bought this kit off a friend of mine a couple days ago when he said that he was selling it.  It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

I love 1/48 aircraft.  It is a good compromise scale, much like 1/72 for period ship models.  Even larger aircraft can be built at a reasonable size.
 
To get started, here is the box:

And what comes in the box:
This kit is huge and will be much fun.
 
The only trick will be the finish.  It looks like bare metal.  I am debating on using metallics or faux metallics.  In all reality I will probably try to pull off the faux metallics first.  I have had really good luck with that on previous models, such as my Delorean from Back To The Future.

Interesting, Safety Data Sheet says it’s 100% nitromethane. You may be able to buy 99% in hobby shops as radio control racing fuel, much cheaper by the litre than than a 60cc bottle if you need quantity.

 
Mark

You could try this.  https://www.caglue.com/US-1-bSuper-Solvent-2ozb-debonder-for-CA-glue-will-remove-super-glue_p_35.html.  I've built plastic model aircraft for years and found this product to be awesome.  It doesn't appear to be acetone based like most debonders and won't attack styrene plastics.  At least it never has on the many models I've built.  You you can fill things like wing seams with CA, wet a paper towel with this and rub the seam until smooth.  No damage to the plastic.
 
In your case, I think the severity will depend on how far the CA penetrated the wood.  With varnish already applied my guess would be minimally.  I would wipe the marks with this to remove the CA, light sand, and re-varnish those spots.  Just a thought.

Having finished the hull varnish, but ruining it with leaving marks of CA (Cyano Acrolytic) glue from your fingers. How do you get rid of the marks?

Inwales, Quarter Knees & Thwart frames
To bend the Inwales, I turned the boat upside down and traced the curve of the sheer strake, then wetted the inwale and bent it to the traced curve.  Then I glued them in per the instructions.  I used both transoms to draw a line on the inwale to get both the vertical and horizontal angle that I need to cut the inwale to.  This worked out very nicely and only required a small about of sanding to finish the fit to the transoms.
 


 
Then I glued the forward and aft quarter knees, they required a little sanding to get a good fit to the transoms.  I did try to get the same angle on both knees by measuring from the top of both transoms to the end of the knee, this worked well.

The Seat and Thwart Frames did not work out as well, I had the same problem with them as I did the Bottom Frames, that is getting the right angle to fit my boat.  I ended up with some gaps but I did not want to sand them two thin.  Also, the vertical placement was a challenge. I was not sure where the top of the frames should be.  Here again a scale drawing of the model would have been helpful.  Also, not sure what the ‘bevel’ was being talked about for ‘A’ and ‘B’ frames, a picture or drawing would have been helpful.

I bent the floor board cleats a little to much, so I just glued one half of the cleat to the haul and then I’ll glue the other side once the glue is set and I hope the bend relaxes a little.
 
Since my planks ended higher on the aft transom then the model was designed for, I had to draw a new curved line on the aft to cut to.  Then I whittled most the excess transom with a model knife and then finished up using sanding stick to get the final curve. Sorry the fwd transom pic is blurry.

 
 
 

have you tried taking photos outside, shame not to show your work off to its best ability

thanks Man!     ...you know,  I still haven't painted the rudder yet.............yea,  I know......  "what the hell are you waiting for?"     been kinda busy.....an a bout of 'da funk'.   I'd go to the table to get something done,  but I'd end up doing something else.....sometimes not modeling related.   the camera has been an issue too........can't seem to get this darn thing to take a good picture........piece of junk     I'll get there......don't give up  
 
there were problems with the kit itself.........subject being off.......decals......etc.  this is probably the best way to make sense of an ill fated model kit.........just change the kit subject!  

Received the missing parts from the kit today, so back to building.