keavdog
That's a beauty. Just did a 1/72 x-15 and it pales compared to yours. I've never done a card/paper model and I too would like to see a WIP. Tremendous results.
Thanks. There are some amazing card modelers out there. I've been at it a couple of decades and I'm still learning. That said, the X-15 lends itself well to cardmodeling -- the shapes are pretty basic. It takes some work to turn the X-15A-2 into the shorter X-15, though. Involves some judicious cutting and scratchbuilding.
There is also a lot of research involved. Among the three airframes, markings could change from flight to flight. For example, when lots of folks model 66670, they usually stick roundels on the rear fuselage. A popular set of decals (no longer available) showed them on every version. But from what I can find, 66670 lacked roundels on the rear fuselage as early as November 1960, and so far, I've only found one dated photo after that (of Forrest Petersen's Flight 1-25-44 on 10 January 1962) showing 66670 with roundels on the rear fuselage. All the other photos I've found show no roundels. I'm more than happy to be corrected on that, though.
It is much the same with the yellow NASA banner on the dorsal rudder. The banner didn't appear until the first NASA flight, Joe Walker's Flight 1-3-8 on 25 March 1960. After that, it could appear on both sides or just one side. (Some experts believe it appeared on just one side because at the time, NASA and the USAF were alternating flights.) Wings had the same issues; they could have the roundels and USAF above and below, or just the roundel, or (as with this model) nothing at all.
X-15-3, 66672, seems to be the only one of the three airframes that carried the "standard" markings on the fuselage and tail throughout its lifetime. Markings came and went on the wings, though.
One of the issues was the paint. As speeds got higher, the ground crew complained that the heat turned the paint to "goop." Eventually, they just stopped replacing most of the markings that burned off. By the time 66670 flew the program's 199th and last flight, aside from the various warning markings, it carried only the yellow NASA dart on the nose, U.S. AIR FORCE on the side tunnels and 66670 on the dorsal rudder stub.