XB-70 Valkerie

by Helmut Scherer

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Here are some photos of my latest project, a North American XB-70 Valkyrie in 1/48 scale.

Only two prototypes were built. The aircraft 20001 still survives in the USAF museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in the USA. The second plane was lost in a fatal midair collision with Jo Walkers F-104 in June 1965. My model represents the No1 plane.

A friend of mine made the fuselage and wings using a glassfibre method.

I assisted him with all the reference material, such as plan, books and all the other stuff.

The crew ladder is completely scratchbuilt, assisted by only a few photographs.

It was a lot of work to build the model, because it is over 4 feet long and you have to handle it - you need always need to turn it!

All the markings are masked and airbrushed. Only the tiny stencils are decals.

After the first coat of primer, I sprayed the entire model in gloss white (two components enamel). After 4 weeks of drying I polished all surfaces to a high gloss finish.

After applying the markings with airbrush I sprayed the model again with a clear cote (two components enamel) but only with a 90% gloss. Now I removed and sanded down all the tiny dots of dust etc. and polished it again.

It looks great!

After building a KC-97 and my XC-99 this is my third big bird. I love it! My Globemaster II is still under construction...


 

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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2003 by Helmut Scherer
Page Created 05 February, 2003
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

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