The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Looking good PW. I've built this kit (a few years ago) and remember it as being fairly straightforward, just the undercarriage was a bit vague/fiddly. I also pressed too hard on the canopy while gluing it and it crazed. Yours is looking good!

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate your comments.

Here's where I may have to leave-off for the night. The paint isn't drying fast enough (even with my attempts to accelerate it somewhat by using my wife's hair dryer - with her permission, of course ) so I cannot paint some additional areas. I'm not certain I will be able to finish this in time owing to paint issues.

That looks really neat! I hope the paint dries in time for you to continue as planned

That is looking terrific. Literally watching the paint dry, eh? Frustrating.

David

We all have our fingers crossed that the paint will dry in time.

Checking in now I am back into internet country again. Looking quite nice.

Drat! Even getting up early didn't save me. I stopped to take my DNF pic with a couple of minutes to go, but there are so many decals left to apply that I have at least another 30 minutes to go. Then the wooden base, which I painted yesterday afternoon, is still sticky. So here's where I finished:





A Blitzbau is certainly an interesting experience and is one I am glad to have participated in. My thanks to everyone who commented and kept me at it. Special thanks to my spouse who allowed me the use of her hair dryer (without which I couldn't have gotten as far as I did).

A valiant effort despite the DNF; an x-acting build (see what I did there ) and so nearly a blitz classic

Great attempt. Really looks sweet.

Nice looking build. I know the disappointment of not finishing but still try to participate in each Blitzbau because of what I learn each time and ironically, the boost it gives to my confidence, even though I rarely finish on time!
Here's to us both finishing on time in the next one brother!
(I recommend Tamiya paints to save waiting for drying time - I sprayed three different colours on my build and then applied decals all in the space of 2 hours.)

Cheers
Al.

Well done on a brilliant attempt, there is no shame in a DNF it’s the taking part that counts.

I look forward to seeing it finished.

Regards Splash

Nice clean and tidy build! Nice choice in kit!

A valiant attempt and a good looking result. I look forward to seeing it finished

David

You guys are awesome. Thank you very much for the kind words and I will certainly do this again.

I kid you not, you get your money's worth in stencil decals for this kit. The decals are beautifully done, but are very thin and don't take well to lots of fiddling into place. The model itself is completed but not the stand. I hope to finish that up this week and will post pics when completed.

I do have a question about something I would like to do (if I can) with this model that I think would look kind of cool. In the last couple of pics you can (barely) see a section of the fuselage that is metallic silver (just behind the cockpit). This is the fuel tank for the X-1A and, during flight, the tank would get so cold that it would ice-up as you see here:



I'm wondering if you know of a way to replicate this look? Or, and there is a big part of me sating this will probably be the case, do you think this is overkill and will wreck what I've done so far?

Thanks again.

If the paint is enamel and well and truly dry, I don't see why you can't mask it and paint that section a lighter silver. If the paint is acrylic, despite the fact that it should be OK, I wouldn't mask it - I've pulled up well cured acrylic that had been applied over primer and it would be a shame to do that to your paint job. Of, course, any decals you have put in that area will almost certainly lift off with the masking tape.

Or just tell yourself that your depicting the flight phase after the tank emptied and the fuselage skin warmed up :-)

David