After a long and painful build, I have finally finished this thing off! Let me just say this is the worst kit I have ever worked on! Such a shame as I was really excited to do this one, I think the XL is a magnificent looking aircraft, and is open to many "what if" builds.
I believe the kit is made up of a majority of Kinetic sprues? Anyway the parts are bad fitting, lots of flash and the instructions are absolutely shocking, wrong number call outs, or not showing any number call outs, poor angles for some steps leave you guessing where things actually sit. I really only enjoyed this one when I got to paint stage and all the grief of the build was behind me.
On the plus side you are given 5 options with this kit-
The original version (Grey with blue spine and white and red tail)
Nasa's version which is quite striking (black over grey)
2 fictional USAF schemes
and a fictional Israeli scheme.
The decals are Cartograf and are great quality.
Would I build another? Yes I would despite the grief of the build, I do love this aircraft and would like to do a "what if" RAAF build.
I had all intentions of doing a USAF version, but the longer I looked at the options, the more that Israeli 3 tone camo appealed to me.
Anyway here it is, I am happy with the result, having known what it took to get here!
Weapons are probably wrong for an Israeli aircraft, but it is a fictional aircraft.
I used AK and Gunze acrylics for the 3 tone camo, and Vallejo Light Ghost grey for underneath. Gunze Mr metalizer stainless and dark iron on burner can. Flory dark dirt wash and Mig satin varnish.
