I will be building the Monogram B-58 Hustler in conjunction with Building a Monogram B-24J http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/178234.aspx . I usually do not build more than one model at a time, but I figure that I could finish these two kits faster if I built them at thye same time. Both will be finished in Bare Metal Foil. I will also be keeping track of the time spent on these models. I would like to know how much time it takes to finish them in BMF.
The B-58 could travel at over 1,000 MPH. It had a 60 degree swept main wing and it carried a nuclear bomb in a pod under the fuselage. Four additional nuclear bombs could be hung under the wings. The pod also included an external fuel tank. The idea was that the plane could fly to Russa using it's external fuel tank. After the "BOMB" was dropped, the plane could fly home using it's internal fuel tanks along with inflight refuling. The crew sat in "eject pods" that would allow the crew to safetly eject while the plane was traveling at supersonic speeds. The crew sat three in a row and could not visually see each other. There was no room to stand up and a string was used to pass notes and small objects between crew members. A bottle was used to relieve themselves. You have to love the four engines hanging under the wings!!! They look like F-86 airplanes without the wings. That thing must have been really loud.
The copyright on the kit is 1985. It has raised panel lines and the parts are finished in a really strange silver color. I suppose that the ide was that the model would not need to be painted?? However, the plastic has really strange swirl marks on it. It would look really odd if it was not painted.
I did not like the lack of detal that Monogram provided for the engines, so I purchased intake and exhaust resin detail kits from Fisher.
The first thing that I did was to remove the raised panel lines. The actual airplane had laminated panels and no rivets. Notice the swirl lines.
Next were the tires. Theses are small and a real pain to paint. The tires on the left combine with the tires on the right to produce eight finished tires/wheels. The actual plane had 21 inch tires that were inflated to 240 PSI. In case a tire exploded on landing, the plane could safetly land on the metal wheels!!!!