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

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.

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. 

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

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.

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 ! ! 

 

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 ! ! 

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.

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.

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.

 

Looking great. Good luck with the repaint on the elevons

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.

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

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."

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

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.

Fantastic work on the pods.  

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.

  

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.

Awesome job so far!!

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.

WOW that looks awesome! 

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

Your Friend Toshi

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

All of the engine pods are finished.

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

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

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

[quote user="JohnnyK"]

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

[/quote

Looks awesome JK. 

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