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Northrop XB-35 'Flying Wing' & Bell X1

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  • Member since
    August 2014
Northrop XB-35 'Flying Wing' & Bell X1
Posted by Ozmac on Friday, August 22, 2014 11:47 PM

As the last of my catch up postings since joining the forum this week, both these planes belong here as  'military' planes, as they most certainly weren't civilian.

First the Flying Wing, the Northrop XB-35.

This is a Cyber Model kit in 1/200 scale, and a very nice kit is was to build, very easy until it got to those very long, thin decals around the perimeter of those amazing wings. I built the kit with the wheels up, as it looks like an ugly duckling in gumboots with the wheels down. Here's it's pictured as it is in my study, hanging from fishing line from the underside of a bookshelf (along with several other planes).

One of my sidelines is diorama making, and for the last few years I have been making dioramas of my diecast cars and bikes (bought, not built) in Photoshop, and so it was easy as pie to do a "flying" diorama of the XB-35 over Boulder Dam. I suspect it wouldn't have been allowed to fly over the dam, being an experimental plane, but it did fly over the Mojave Desert, which is nearby, and I just loved Boulder Dam when I visited the USA in 2011, so I chose that interesting setting for my imagined dio.

Next, the Bell X1, a 1/72 kit by Tamiya, and what a nice quality kit that was, probably the nicest one I have built so far. Everything fitted together so well. Like so many other models, this one is displayed flying (not quite at the speed of sound) in my study, but it reminds me that as a kid when I wanted to draw a rocket or a plane, it always looked like the X1

  • Member since
    February 2011
  • From: St louis
Posted by Raualduke on Friday, August 22, 2014 11:56 PM

Built the x1 years ago,and it's stil on my shelf. Don't think it was tamiya though. Begs the question, did they include the sawed  off broom stick?

  • Member since
    November 2009
  • From: Twin Cities of Minnesota
Posted by Don Stauffer on Saturday, August 23, 2014 10:40 AM

One of the X-1s was operated by NACA and painted white with NACA logo.  I guess that version could be considered a civil aircraft.  I intend to build that version from one of the X-1 kits I have.

Don Stauffer in Minnesota

  • Member since
    February 2007
  • From: Brunswick, Ohio
Posted by Buckeye on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 11:24 AM

Nice builds!  The XB-35 does look pretty clunky with the gear down.

Mike

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