Final Update--1/48 Monogram B-58 Hustler in Bare Metal Foil WIP

Yay! Count me in as an observer on this one. One of my favorite models as a kid. I stood by this record setting B-58 a couple of years ago in Dayton Ohio USAF museum. What a craft!

Max

Hodakamax

Yay! Count me in as an observer on this one. One of my favorite models as a kid. I stood by this record setting B-58 a couple of years ago in Dayton Ohio USAF museum. What a craft!

Max

 

I definitely want too see this build finished. I built that same kit back in 86 or 87. I thought it was an awesome plane. I just don't remember those swirl marks. . Then again look how long ago it was. :-)

I thought it was an awesome kit for the time althought I just did a staight up build, no paint or anything. Couldn't afford it it and paint was expensive compared to the kit at the time. All I had available were the tiny Testor's enamel jars. 

Pretty sure your kit will look amazing when you're done with the foil and updated details. 

JohnnyK

 

 

Hodakamax

Yay! Count me in as an observer on this one. One of my favorite models as a kid. I stood by this record setting B-58 a couple of years ago in Dayton Ohio USAF museum. What a craft!

Max

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the combo nuk bomb/fuel tank under the fuselage. The orange thing on the floor is the ejection pod. What is the huge airplane located to the left of the B-58? Is that a B-36?

 

 

Yep, and hundreds more. What a place. Don't miss this place. Put it on your list!

There are composite fairings at the front and rear of the landing gear fairings on the top surface of the wings. They are a medium gray.

OOH I'm in on this one for sure.  I have a 1/72 Testors/Italieri kit in the stash just waiting for the inspiration.

GMorrison

There are composite fairings at the front and rear of the landing gear fairings on the top surface of the wings. They are a medium gray.

 

I started by working on the cockpit. I painted the interior of the cockpit a light gray and the seat's cushion is a red color per photos on the Internet. The kit did not provide any way of detailing the gauges so I used some left over PE gauges from my recent B-29 build. They are not accurate, but they look good. The funny looking plastic that is in front of the cockpit is the color of the plastic that the model is made of. It is similar to a metalflake silver. There is supposed to be a clamshell ejection case that surrounds the seat. Unfortunetly it was missing from the kit. No big loss.

I am looking forward to this build. I like the delta wing aircraft, F-102, F-106, B-58. The amount of foil would also be an intersting figure to have. The Record setting B-58 in the USAF Museum has an intersting history to go along with the record setting flight. Anyone know who the pilot was?   

While the filler putty dries on the wings of the B-24J I'll return to the B-58.

Per GMorrison's advice, the composite fairings at the front and rear of the landing gear are painted a light gray color on the actual plane. I painted them with Testors' Metallizer Aluminum from a rettle can. I did not buff them because I wanted a matt finish. After the paint dried I sealed it with Testors' Clear Flat. The moveable portions of the wings were also a flat gray color on the actual plane. How about those swirl marks in the plastic Can you imagine how this model would have looked if it wasn't painted??

The landing gear bays on the B-58 were painted with either a white of aluminum paint. I chose an aluminum color. The bays were kept relatively clean, but the did get dustu, so I used a rust wash to simulate dust.

Okay, here we go again. The wing sectiions were warped!!! First the B-29, then the B-24J an now the B-58 Once again I used clamps and my architect's scale to solve the problem. Due to the large size of the wing I had to glue one side and then the other side.

While the glue dries it is back to the B-24J.

Time to work on the engine pods.

The afterburnner detailing of the Monogram kit is not very good so I purchsed a resin detailing kit from Fishermodels. The quality of the detailing is outstanding.

I finished the outside of the nozzel with Bare Metal Foil that was darkened with Jax Aluminum Blackener. The interior was painted white and barkened by drybrushing with blkack paint.

On the left is the nozzel and on the right is the flame holder?

The nozzel is glued into the flame holder.

This what it looks like when looking down the completed exhaust pipe. Four of these need to be made.

It's time to see if the model is a tail-sitter and determine how much weight is required.

I taped the model together, and sure enough, it is a tail-sitter. 

There isn't much room in front of the cockpit due to the front landing gear bay, so I'll put the weight behind the pilot. I kept adding lead shot into a small plastic bag until the nose sat down. Then I added a littlr bit more for good luck. Nothing worse than finishing a model and have the thing sit on it's tail.  I'll glue the bag into the fuselage before I assemble the fuselage. 

Tuning in to watch this one moving forward. That cockpit is incredible!!

If you have trouble getting all the weight in, you could spread it out.  Some in the nose, some in the front of the fuel tank and some in the front half of the forward jets as well as behind the pilot.  Great job so far.  Would love to know your method of rescribing.

route62

If you have trouble getting all the weight in, you could spread it out.  Some in the nose, some in the front of the fuel tank and some in the front half of the forward jets as well as behind the pilot.  Great job so far.  Would love to know your method of rescribing.

 

I found a couple of issues when joining the two fuselage halves.

One issue is regarding the locating pins. Ther are super small and there are not enough of them to keep the two halves of the fuselage properly alaigned. Plus, they are easy to break off.

The second issue is that the two halves of the fuselage do not properly alaign which makes for a nasty joint. This is a well known problem with this kit. 

Sanding the lower half would have been a long, tedious job, and would have ruined the curved shape of the fuselage. To solve the problem I glued a strip of plastic to the lower half of the fuselage to force the two halves into alaignment.

The joint is now perfectly alaigned.

I glued and clamped the two halves of the fulelage together after installing the small side windows and nose weight. 

I decided to work on the nose landing gear while the glue on the fuselage was curing. I painted the gear Testors' aluminum and weathered it with black and rust wash.

While looking through my spare parts box I found a set of P.E. radiator hose clamps that I used on my 1/12 scale Ford GT. I thought that they would look good as pipe clamps on the landing gear. So I added brake lines and used the hose clamps as pipe clamps.

To be honest, filling the fuselage joints on these older Monogram/Revell kits is becoming a real pain. 

The joint was pretty tight, so I used Mr. Hobby's Mr. Dissolved Putty. 

I sanded and added putty twice and the fuselage joint looks really good. But, is it perfect and ready for foil??? The only way to know for sure is to test the joint. I apply thin strips of foil to the joint. Any imperfections in the joint are immedietly visible. I mark the fuselage with a black marker, remove the foil, and add more putty. After the putty is sanded I'll test the joint again.

It may save you some time and a little money by testing the joints with a silver sharpie instead of the foil. Works for me.

Jay Jay

It may save you some time and a little money by testing the joints with a silver sharpie instead of the foil. Works for me.

 

If you dont mind a little critique, with all the great work you are doing, the hose clamps look out of scale and out of place.  Aircraft brake line clamps typically do not wrap around the entire strut.  The struts on a B-58 are pretty big around and hose clamps like that would cause binding issues with all the moving parts found on most aircraft struts.

Brake lines, wires and other pipes on aircraft tend to be clamped individually or in pairs with isolated clamps.  On 1/48 scale a simple way to simulate this is to take black electrical tape cut into 1/16 inch strips or thinner and wrap the tape around the brake line in several places and then glue the brake line to the strut.  

Aircraft clamps are usually metal clamps with rubber isolators to keep vibration to a minimum and the black tape simulates this pretty well. 

If you want to get really fancy, take masking tape, use a sharpie and color the tape black. Then take a very fine tip silver color pen or sharpie and run a line up the tape where you colored it black.  Then cut the tape into thin stripes where there is a little black showing on each side of the silver line.  Wrap this around the brake line and glue in place.  Now you have simulated both the metal clamp and the rubber isolator.  

You could also use a thin line of bare metal foil wrapped around the brake line to simulate clamps or even apply a thin strip to the black color tape and then trim into thin strips with black peeking on each side of the silver foil.

route62

If you dont mind a little critique, with all the great work you are doing, the hose clamps look out of scale and out of place.  Aircraft brake line clamps typically do not wrap around the entire strut.  The struts on a B-58 are pretty big around and hose clamps like that would cause binding issues with all the moving parts found on most aircraft struts.

 

Have to agree, most brake and other fluid piping are secured with adel clamps with rubber inserts to avoid rubbing a hole in the line with normal vibration.  Also allows a little movement so the line won't work harden crack over time.

On the other hand, the pit, tailpipes and gear leg are some nice work.

I can’t wait for the B-58 to get it’s BMF.  Every thing looks fantastic.

Your friend, Toshi.  

Toshi

I can’t wait for the B-58 to get it’s BMF.  Every thing looks fantastic.

Your friend, Toshi.  

 

Thanks for the kind words.

Regarding the posts about the brake lines. You are both correct regarding the adel clamps. The odd thing is that I looked at a photo of a B-58 front landing gear and it looks like stainless steel 'hose" clamps were used to secure the brake lines. They also extended around the strut. This is where I got the idea to use hose clamps on my landing gear. There may be a rubber bushing between the hose clamp and the brake line? If you look below the bottom red arrow you can see an adel clamp. Maybe the hose clamps were added in the field???

This is a photo of the B-58 front landing gear next to the front landing gear of my B-29. The tires on the B-58 landing gears were only 22" in diameter and inflated to 220 p.s.i. The hose clamps on the B-58 landing gear may be a little bit too wide, but I think that they look okay.

In your pic, those do look like your standard hose clamp, or a band clamp of some sort, probably right in a field mod to secure a line in a longer run where it was unsupported.

Scale-wise, yeah, a little wide, but you work with what you have, I withdraw my nit-pick.  You are the only one you have to make happy, and you're doing another nice build.

I stand corrected.

Route62 and Goldhammer,

Please, keep the comments coming!! I am a retired architect with 45 years of having my projects reviewed and critiqued, usually by a group of people.  That is the life of an architect. It makes a person grow up real fast.   I am not offended by review comments. That is how a person learns.

The seams on the fuselage fave been filled and sanded many times The nose was painted white and black. After the paint dried I sealed the paint with Testors flat.

This phot compares the B-58 with the B-24J that I am also building. The fuselage of the B-24 looks like a box compared to the steamlined B-58.

I started the foiling process on the wing. When the foiling is finished I will add rivets. There were certain areas of the real airplanes' wing that were painted an aluminum color. I painted those areas of wing with Testor's Metallizer Aluminum. The paint was sealed with Testors' flat.

Many publications indicate that this planes wings and fuselage did not have rivets and that all of the wing and fuselage panels were glued to the frame of the aircraft. That is only partially correct. Flush rivets, similar to those used on modern commercial aircraft were used on the B-58, espicially along panel edges. If you enlarge the above photos the rivets are clearly seen.

It's interseting to compare the fuselage of the B-58 with the fuselage of the B-24. The B-24 has thousands of rivets visible and the fuselage panels are all dented. 

It's time to glue the fuselage to the wings.

There is a problem with the seam between the fuselage and the wing. This is a well documented issue.

The only solution is to get out the big old clamp. 

After the glue has set and the clamp was removed the seam has been reduced. After a little bit of putty the seam will disappear.

Just checking in on you and the Hustler project. All is looking well!

Maxie

Hodakamax

Just checking in on you and the Hustler project. All is looking well!

Maxie

 

John

I did some more reaserch regarding the Hustler's skin. 

The skin was made of two sheets of aluminum bonded to a phenol resin core. The front wall of an Apple store is made of a similar material. These panels are light in weight yet they are perfectly flat and very strong.

Here is a picture of a Hustler during construction. Look at all the stuff laying on the wing, including a sidewalk broom. Pretty low-tech. Not a robot to be seen.  Note the corrugated wing spars. The skin of the plane was not rivited to the spars as I had previously thought. Instead, the panels were screwed to the spars with titanium screws.  

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now I have a few dilemmas that are delaying the building of this model.

First issue: I need to duplicate the appearance of the dark colored metal on the engine pods. I think that the panels are made of titanium. Does anyone have an idea for duplicating the color of titanium?

Second issue: This is a photo of the underside of the Hustler's wing. Note the lines of screws. They are subtle in appearance yet very visible. I can't use my rivet wheel because all that does is poke holes in the metal foil. I'll need to think of something ekse.

Third issue: Eventhough I clamped the fuselage to the wing, the seam between the two is still too big. I guess that I could use filler, but that joint would be difficult to sand. Plus, I'm not sure that I like the way the graining in the foil looks. 

Okay folks, I have just about had it with this  model! I read numerous reviews of this model before I started and they all mentioned alaignment pins that don't line up with their holes, serious fit issues with the fuselage/wing seam, fuselage/tail seam and wing/engine pylon seams. Boy were they correct. For every step forward, I take two steps back. 

This is the seam between the tail section (left) and the fuselage (right). Filler putty will not fix this problem.

So, I am putting this model aside for a while until I finish the B-24J. 

---Restart Date June 30, 2019---

I recently saw the box of my B-58 gathering dust on a shelf. I took it down and decided to try to fix the problem with the bad seam at the tail.

The seam that I am referring to is located where the tail joins to the fuselage (arrow).

The only way to fix this problem is to do a lot of sanding. I pulled out my sanding stick and went to work. 

This plastic is pretty hard, so its going to take some time to finish the sanding. The plastic in the area where I will be sanding is thick (blue arrow), so there is no worry about sanding through the plastic. I'm also going to sand the ledge (red arrow) so that I can rotate the tail. 

Things are looking up.  Sand, sand, sand.

Sand, sand, sand!! Finally, The seam is acceptable. Rotating the tail helped a lot. Luckly, this seam is on the underside of the model.

Next up is finishing the engines. This looks like it is not going to be easy. The dark panels appear to be titanium, which is a difficult metal to duplicate with paint.

It isn't just the old kits that have serious fit issues. I'm currently working on two aircraft kits - one from China (released 2015) and one from the Czech Republic (released 2011) - and both have nasty steps between major parts. And I'm pretty sure the Chinese kit, at least, was produced using the latest design and molding technologies.

Fantastic work going on this beast. The seam issue topside can be taken care of using PPP. Fill the gap with this putty and let it set 20 minutes then run a couple of water damp Q Tips to smooth out the join with no sanding. PPP can be easily removed with water even if cured. 

As to the darker titanium paint, I would go with one of the Alclad or Extreme Metal shades.

JohnnyK

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up is finishing the engines. This looks like it is not going to be easy. The dark panels appear to be titanium, which is a difficult metal to duplicate with paint.

 

 

 

For Titanium I mix a little black into Testors Steel (enamel color).  It works pretty well for me.

Don -- I'll give your suggestion for titanium a try.

Plasticjunkie -- I'll buy some PPP and see how it works. I don't have any of it in my bag of tricks.

Tom --  It's too bad that some model manufactures don't take the extra time to make kits that  fit together correctly. Tamyia, on the other hand,  seems to always get their kits to fit together near perfect.

Kdryan -- Following are some photos of a F-104 that I did a couple of years ago that is finished in Bare Metal Foil.

I have no idea how that plane was able to fly, considering its small wings.

JohnnyK

Next up is finishing the engines. This looks like it is not going to be easy. The dark panels appear to be titanium, which is a difficult metal to duplicate with paint.

 

 

 

[quote user="JohnnyK"

I have no idea how that plane was able to fly, considering its small wings.

[/quote]

I guess pure thrust otherwise it was a rock without it.

Not to get off track, the F-104 had wing loading of 105 lb/sf. Thats high, but not atypical for light supersonic aircraft. I think the F-15 has slightly higher.

The Starfighter did rely on complicated BCS systems, those are maintenance issues. And yes, it crashed a lot.

[quote user="plasticjunkie"]

[quote user="JohnnyK"

I have no idea how that plane was able to fly, considering its small wings.

[/quote]

I guess pure thrust otherwise it was a rock without it. [/quote]

Just a place to hang the roll rate actuators and a couple of either fuel tanks or Sidwinders

This how I am going to make the stainless steel finish on the engine cowling. This will sound insane, but I stumbled upon this last year and it really works.

First I painted the cowling with Testors' Metalizer Aluminum Plate. I'll let that cure for a day then overpaint it with Testors' Metalizer Titanium. After a day of curing, I will remove the titanium paint with enamel thinner. Nuts huh The enamel thinner removes the titanium paint but not the aluminum paint. Why? I have no idea. The result is that the aluminum paint ts stained a dull gray.

Insane, yes. Typical solution for a modeler, sure!

I should also mention that those elevons dropped in the vicinity of the outlets are SST as well.

https://saemobilus.sae.org/content/620545

This morning I painted over the Metalizer luminum with Metalizer Titanium.

The Testors' Metalizer Titanium is a strange paint because it goes on very rough in texture. I'll let it dry for a few hours and then remove it with enamel thinner.

Sir, as always.  Your builds WIP are fantastic!

Your Friend’s, Ezra & Toshi

This is the result after I removed the Testors' Metalizer Titanium  with Testors' Enamel Thinner. It looks pretty darn close to the real engine cowling in the bottom photo. I like the results. Next, I'll add some washes of different colors. After that comes the Bare Metal foil. There are four engines, so this will take a bit of time. The Metalizer Aluminum under coat and the Metalizer Titanium are both lacquer paints, so I do not understand how an enamel thinner could dissolve a lacquer paint. Also, why did the enamel thinner dissolve the Titanium paint, but not the aluminum paint. 

Excellent! Johnny did you see my comment abt the elevons? They probably fit into your production line for SST there.

GMorrison

Excellent! Johnny did you see my comment abt the elevons? They probably fit into your production line for SST there.

 

JohnnyK

This is the result after I removed the Testors' Metalizer Titanium  with Testors' Enamel Thinner. It looks pretty darn close to the real engine cowling in the bottom photo. I like the results. Next, I'll add some washes of different colors. After that comes the Bare Metal foil. There are four engines, so this will take a bit of time. The Metalizer Aluminum under coat and the Metalizer Titanium are both lacquer paints, so I do not understand how an enamel thinner could dissolve a lacquer paint. Also, why did the enamel thinner dissolve the Titanium paint, but not the aluminum paint. 

 

 

Insane is an understatement but how in the heck that works is beyond me. The thinner should have lifted both colors but it didn’t. Well just learned another trick here. I must say it looks great!

JK you just gave me food for thought for my next nmf subject using your method to get a weathered looking finish.  

I am not really sure what happened with the two paints. I am going to paint a sample of Metalizer Aluminum next to a sample of Metalizer Titanium on my test hog. After they dry, I'll wipe them with Testots' enamel thinner and report back regarding my fingings.

G

JohnnyK

I am not really sure what happened with the two paints. I am going to paint a sample of Metalizer Aluminum next to a sample of Metalizer Titanium on my test hog. After they dry, I'll wipe them with Testots' enamel thinner and report back regarding my fingings.

 

Second time I have to post this. The previous one vanished after selecting “submit reply”. Don’t you love this “improved” site upgrade? 

Please let us know your findings. I would try this now but we will be out of town for a couple of days. I plan to try your method on a test mule next week after returning.

plasticjunkie

G

 

JohnnyK

I am not really sure what happened with the two paints. I am going to paint a sample of Metalizer Aluminum next to a sample of Metalizer Titanium on my test hog. After they dry, I'll wipe them with Testots' enamel thinner and report back regarding my fingings.

 

 

 

Second time I have to post this. The previous one vanished after selecting “submit reply”. Don’t you love this “improved” site upgrade? 

Please let us know your findings. I would try this now but we will be out of town for a couple of days. I plan to try your method on a test mule next week after returning.

 

The paint sample on the left is Testors' Metalizer Aluminum, in the middle is Metalizer Titanium over Metalizer Aluminum, on the right is just Metalizer Titanium. All these paints are lacquer paints.

This is result after I wiped the painted areas with Testors' Enamel Thinner. All three samples look about the same. I did not remove all of the paint and the final appearance can be altered depending on how much paint is removed. I still do not undertand why an enamel thinner would remove lacquer paint. 

Thanks for posting your findings. I too find it odd the thinner  removing one and not the other. 

The first engine pod is finished. Only three more to go.

[quote user="JohnnyK"]

The first engine pod is finished. Only three more to go.

[/quote

Looks awesome JK. 

I just finished engine pod #2. This build has slowed down because I am remodeling the house powder room. 

Engine pod #3 is finisned, and the powder room remodeling is still not finished.

All of the engine pods are finished.

The pods are pretty big, especially when compared to an F-86.

Truly outstanding! Seeing this almost makes me want to tackle NMF again, almost. Looking forward to the next update

You have a hand of platinum!  Everything you touch turns to NMF.  Your never ceases to surprise me.

Your Friend Toshi

WOW that looks awesome! 

Hey guys, thanks for the very nice words. Now that the remodeling of the Powder Room is finished I'll have more time to finish the B-58. It's going to be one big metal mother when it's finished 

This is a close-up of the engine pods. They all look just a little different, which is probably how the real pods looked. The trick of wiping Testors' Metalizer Titanium lacqure paint with Testors' enamel thinner really results in a nice finish. Per GMorrison's suggestion, I'll use the same technique on the elevons. The contrast between the dark elevons and the BMF should look great.

Awesome job so far!!

It's the best Hustler model I've ever seen.

I spent a bunch of time on mine with the crew seats/ ejection capsules.

The ones on the model aren't too nice, but you can find good photos of those as displayed in museums.

GMorrison

It's the best Hustler model I've ever seen.

I spent a bunch of time on mine with the crew seats/ ejection capsules.

The ones on the model aren't too nice, but you can find good photos of those as displayed in museums.

  

Fantastic work on the pods.  

I started to add foil to the fuselage and screw marks to the wings. I found a spar drawing on the Internet that I used as a guide for locating the screw marks. The aluminum panels were fastened to the spars with titanium screws instead of rivets.

Wow my eyes hurt just thinking about all those screws , looking so tasty!

This is how I add screws or rivets to my foiled models.

First, I find a guide on the Internet showing rivet locations and spacing. 

Second, I mark the spacing of the rivet rows on Post-It notes (these Post-It Notes can be used in a number of locations on both wings). The rows must be equally spaced. The Post It notes are then placed on the model. Note that the first mark is on a pane line and the paper is perpendicular to the panel line.

Third, I mark the rivet spacing onto the model using a marker pen. 

Fourth, I lineup the edge of my high school lettering guide with the first set of marks.

Fifth, I run my RB Productions' rivet tool along the edge of the lettering guide.

The final results are equally spaced, straight and parallel lines of rivets or screws. It takes a while, but the results are nice.

Now, I wonder what Freud would think of this. "Dude, that is not normal, you must be out of your mind. Let me study you for a while. First, let's discuss your mother."

Excellent tutorial on rivet spacing and application, very informative and fascinating. Now get off the couch and back to plastic bashing  looking forward to the next update

The top side is finished. However, I do not like the way the elevons look. I think that I'll repaint them in Testors' Metalizer Titanium and the wipe it off with enamel thinner, the same technique that I used on the engine pods. The problem is that I need to be careful so that the masking tape does not remove the foil.

This a photo of the flip side. I'll foil that side after I repaint the elevons.

Looking great. Good luck with the repaint on the elevons

Jay Jay

You might want to try Post-it-Notes to mask the elivons. Way less sticky on them than tape so they are less prone to mess with the foil.

 

Let's talk about the B-58's bombs. One Mk 53, 9 megaton nuke was hung under the fuselage and four Mk 43, 1 megaton nukes were hung under the wings.

The B-58 did not have a bomb bay, so all the bombs had to be hung under the plane. The B-58 also could not hold sufficient fuel inside the wings and inside the fuselage behind the crew, so a large drop tank was required. The solution was to build a combo 4,000 gal. drop tank and bomb (lower item in photo). This thing was huge when comparing it to an F-86.  The 43 Megaton bomb (middle item in photo) was inserted inside the fuel tank. The plane would initially run on the drop tank and then drop it when it was out of fuel. The bomb was then dropped when the time came. An interesting, if not strange,  solution.

Four Mk 43 bombs are included with the kit. A large, deep seem shows up after the two sides of the bombs are assembled. This would require a lot of filler and sanding to fix the seam. Plus, there would probably be flat spots on the round bomb after the sanding was finished. I didn't want to go through with all of that work on four bombs, so I decided to buy resin bombs from Eduards. 

The Eduards bombs have a bunch of parts: Main bomb body, bomb nose, four seperate fins, lifting hooks and decals. I don't know which is worse, fixing the kit's bombs or assembling the Eduards bombs. I think that the Eduards bombs will produce a better result, so I'll go with those.

Here is a view of the Mk 53 and Mk 43 bombs.

On the right side of the picture a crane is lowering the Mk53 bomb into the drop tank.

Hello JohnnyK !

      Listen,I have read the posts, looked at the W.I.P photos and everything .You mention one with three crew hatches and a button for the Bomb. I believe that one was the First Monogram ever marketed. I have two.One is in the shop getting slowly foiled.

     Now as to the comparisons,I don't know what to compare it to. Does anyone make it in 1/48 or 1/72? If so it seems that they all goof. I have Monogram's large B-24 .Oy whatta mess.Talk about bad fitting parts!. On your tail piece .This is what I did. I took the inside block area an added strips until the wing sat at the right level to the unit.

    When I built my first one there wasn't a product on the market to fill in stuff.Of course I didn't know then you could use 3-M Glazing and smoothing putty! Yes, a full blown Automotive product!.

    I do have to say,You have done an awesome job ! ! 

Tanker - Builder

Hello JohnnyK !

      Listen,I have read the posts, looked at the W.I.P photos and everything .You mention one with three crew hatches and a button for the Bomb. I believe that one was the First Monogram ever marketed. I have two.One is in the shop getting slowly foiled.

     Now as to the comparisons,I don't know what to compare it to. Does anyone make it in 1/48 or 1/72? If so it seems that they all goof. I have Monogram's large B-24 .Oy whatta mess.Talk about bad fitting parts!. On your tail piece .This is what I did. I took the inside block area an added strips until the wing sat at the right level to the unit.

    When I built my first one there wasn't a product on the market to fill in stuff.Of course I didn't know then you could use 3-M Glazing and smoothing putty! Yes, a full blown Automotive product!.

    I do have to say,You have done an awesome job ! ! 

 

So I decided to repaint the elevons. I masked off the foiled areas adjacent to the elevons with Post-it-Notes. Then I taped plastic wrap to the Post it Notes. The elevons were sprayed with Testors' Metalizer Titanium lacqure paint.

After the Metalizer paint dried for a day I removed it with a paper towel and Testors' Enamel Thinner. I don't know why, but the enamel thinner dissolves the lacqure paint in no time flat. 

This is a photo before I repainted the elevons. I really like the way the elevons look after they were repainted. They provide a nice contrast to the foil.

This is a photo of a B-58 in flight. The elevons are pretty dark.

Never realized just how big that tank and those bombs were ! Looks like the repaint was a success! Looking gr8

Yep, the drop tank/bomb unit was just goofy big. That's why the landing gear were so long. The front gear had a bad habit of breaking during a hard landing. 

Well, the foiling of the fuselage and main wing is finally finished (the yellow tape protects the white paint from getting chipped). I can't believe how long the foiling took. 

However, I'm not finished with the foiling. I need to finish the foiling of the tail.

great to follow a build before I tackle mine... As for the colour of the panels I have found that if you use bare metal foil for the aluminium panels then for varying darker panels use thin foil from kitchen foil roll or sweet wrappers that are boiled in water with egg shell the foil darkens to almost black. It depends on how long it's left in the water....then it's applied with foil adhesive. It's a bit more long winded but you'll get the darker effect your after.

Thanks again for taking the time to demonstrate and advise.... Coco

Now that I finished s couple of outside tasks (restain the deck deck and replace rotted wooden mailbox post) I can get back to finishing the B-58. 

I decided to test how the engine pylons attach to the wings. Monogram once again demonstrates their lack of proper engineering. There are two tiny pegs on the engine pylons and two oversized holes in the wings. The result is that there is no positive way to hold the engines in place while the cement cures. Really Monogram--the engines are really heavy and those little pegs don't work. A nice long mortise and tenon solution would have worked better. It's time to crank up the brain cells to find a soultion.

Hey, I've got a roten mailbox post too! Mine is a gang of about six of them, rural style. Can't get the neighbors interested in pitching in.

I think your engine attachment fix may well be exactly what you said.

I bought the wood post on-line. It is made of cedar and is unassembled. I repainted the mailbox and the address plate. Digging with a post-hole digger was a real pain. The first 12" was topsoil and was easy, then came 16" of gray/tan clay. After the post was in place I added supports to keep it plumb and filled the hole with concrete. How is it possible that a small bag of concrete is soooooooooo heavy???

JohnnyK

Now that I finished s couple of outside tasks (restain the deck deck and replace rotted wooden mailbox post) I can get back to finishing the B-58. 

I decided to test how the engine pylons attach to the wings. Monogram once again demonstrates their lack of proper engineering. There are two tiny pegs on the engine pylons and two oversized holes in the wings. The result is that there is no positive way to hold the engines in place while the cement cures. Really Monogram--the engines are really heavy and those little pegs don't work. A nice long mortise and tenon solution would have worked better. It's time to crank up the brain cells to find a soultion.

 

 

Oh come on, Johnny!  We all know duct tape will be the solution----use your head man!!

If duck tape worked for Apollo 13, it should work for me 

I'm going to use nails and a staple to fix how the engine pylons are attached to the wings.

Regarding the inner engines, I drilled holes in the wings and in the engine pylons. I then super glued a short section of a nail into the holes in the pylons. The nails will be super glued into the holes in the wings and provide a strong attachment.

This is a dry fit (no glue) of the engine to the wing. The fit between the nail and the hole in the wing is tight enough to hold the engine in place.

I used the same technique for the engine on the opposite wing. 

The outside engines needed a different solution. The wing is very thin at the location of the outer engine, just two sheets of plastic in thickness, so I could not drill a hole. Instead, I made a slot in the plastic and glued a piece of the metal staple into the slot. A hole was drilled into the engine pylon which fits over the staple to provide a strong attachment.

Brilliant work !

The tail has been glued onto the fuselage. Now it's starting to look like an airplane.

After the glue cures for a couple of days, I'll attack the joint between  the tail and the fuselage. In the meantime I'll do some work on the rack mounted nukes.

Or a giant aluminum lawn dart!

Best Hustler build I've ever seen. 

What rack mounted nukes?

The original B-58 had a huge combo fuel drop tank/nuke bomb hung under the fuselage. Later versions had four additioinal B-43, 1 megaton, nukes hung under the wing adjacent to the fuselage. Usually the engine pods blocked the view of the four nukes. This photo shows the additional four nukes painted in white.

The Eduard resim bombs are an easy build. No seams to deal with. The decals are a nice touch.

The resin bombs do not include mounting pins, so I used brass roda to mount the bombs to the underwing racks.

The resin bombs look really sweet

The final subassembly is the main landing gear.

The cross section of the main wing was so shallow that a traditional landing gear system would not fit. So the solution was eight, 22 inch diameter tires inflated to 240 psi. The wheels that held the tires were designed to remain intact in case all of the tires exploded upon landing. 

Excluding the front landing gear tires, there are 18 main landing gear tires and wheels that need to be painted. Major pain in the butt.

Eight of the wheels/tires are attached to a subframe which in turn connects to the main landing gear struts.

This photo compares a set of B-58 tires/wheels to the main landing gear of a B-24.

That looks wheely tiring to do,looking great

Yep, it was wheely tiring!!!

I used Perfect Plastic Putty to fill the seam between the tail and the fuselage. It worked really well.

I'll be using Caracal decals that I purchased when I bought the B-58 model from e-bay last year. 

The decals are really nice quality decals. The carrier film is very clear. I'll apply the tail decals after the kit is finished so I don't accidently scratch them while I'm installing the engines and bomb racks. By the way, The mounting lugs on the bomb racke are way smaller that the slots in the wings. Plus, the curve of the bomb racks do not match the curve of the wings. That means more wasted time dealing with Monogram's poor engineering.

After a lot of sanding, the bomb racks (green arrows) were finally attached to the fuselage.The brass pins (red arrows) will be used to attach the bombs to the bomb racks.

This is what the bombs look like when dry fitted to the racks.

This is the BIG BOMB after it is dry fitted to the fuselage. 

I used Bare Metal Foil to finish the canopy frames. There are no pre-cut masks available and I was concerned that I would screw up the canopy if I hand-painted the frames.

Canopy turned out great.  That centerline tank is huge!

EDIT:  interesting read on the centerline pod...more than a fuel tank.

http://randolphbrewercom.fatcow.com/b58/history_offensive.php

JohnnyK

The original B-58 had a huge combo fuel drop tank/nuke bomb hung under the fuselage. Later versions had four additioinal B-43, 1 megaton, nukes hung under the wing adjacent to the fuselage. Usually the engine pods blocked the view of the four nukes. This photo shows the additional four nukes painted in white.

 

Well, smack me with a loaf of French bread. IIRC, the instructions for that beast say you can do one or the other, not both; the bombs and the big tank. Guess I know which way I’ll go now! 

That is the only photo that I  have been able to find showing a B-58 loaded with all five bombs. I think that the plane looks more menacing that way.

This is a usefull tool when working on an upside-down aircraft. It is a foam block that is used by model shipbuilders. It securly holds an upside-down aircraft in a flat position. 

I glued the outside engines to the wings and used a clamp to hold them in place.

The outside seam between the engine and the wing is pretty good.

However, the inside seams are really bad, bad, bad. I'll have to use some PPP to fill the seam.

The engines have been attached to the wings and the sems between th pylons and the wings have been filled. 

The last thing to do is to install the landing gear. That should take no time.

Ha, ha! Each of the two  main landing gear is made up of 10 parts??? 

Finally, I am almost finished. The landing gear have been installed. Monogram did a nice job with the landing gear.

How about those inboard engines sticking out in front of the wing and mounted to those long pylons. Very cool. 

The few things left to do are install the canopy, install the pitot tube, install the tail gun and do some paint and foil touch-ups.

Scary nice!

Someone needs to write a history of the program.

Here it is, Bill.  Starts with the XF-92.

Looks realistic .I should know.I flew the F-100D in those days.I have seen the B-58  in the air.Google 1/72 scale B-58 Hustler.Then look for my photo under finescale modeler .Silver ic my code name and you will see my 1:72 scale Italerie B-58.