Martin B-51 Master - SORTED!

[Rick Lowe]

Feel your pain, for what it's worth... 

[PR19_Kit]

Where the HELL do I get a spare main wheel for an XB-51?         

The wheels on this blasted model just do NOT want to stick onto the model, but I've managed to get three of them on with copious amounts of superglue and jigging them in place with large blobs of Blu Tak, but the 4th one would NOT stay in place, and it fell off as soon as I took the Blu Tak jig away.

And then it vanished off to some other space/time continuum and I can't find it ANYwhere!!!!!     

[PR19_Kit]

After hours of searching, moving furniture etc. I found the missing wheel, hiding under my earphones! 

So now it's glued in place, and I've managed to get the gear doors on as well, and what a pain THEY were! There's no lugs to hold them in position so they're just glued edge to edge! I can't see them staying on too well on the show circuit in future.



I've got to get the wing tip balancer wheels on now and you can bet they'll need some trimming to length to ensure they stay in contact with the ground, and they'll be pretty fragile as well too, I'm sure.

After that it's just the nav lights, refuelling probe (yes, really) and the BOMB. That's being painted right now.

Oh yeah, the decals of course. Most of them are drawn up but I have to test them for fit with paper copies and then print them.

[Rick Lowe]

Kit, I usually use a couple of strips of aluminum can as attachments - I run them from the doors into the wells, and call them hinges.
They give a lot more support, and the little they will be visible I can live with.
Or one strip running along the hinge line would work too.

[philp]

I really haven't heard anyone have anything good to say about this kit other than, nice subject.

I think I will continue to hold off on buying one for myself though I really want to do one in SEA camo.

You might want to mount this thing on a base with a mirror to show off the bomb.  Might make it a bit easier to get it to all the shows.

[PR19_Kit]

I really haven't heard anyone have anything good to say about this kit other than, nice subject.

I'm certainly not finding it easy to build. I'll give them kudos for actually doing it while the Russians were invading their country, but they didn't make life easy for themselves (or me....) by making it so complex, with ZILLIONS of tiny parts, most of which I've left off as a) I couldn't even hold them, and b) they'd be unlikely to be seen anyway.

I'll surely be glad when it's done, which hopefully is not too far away now.

[zenrat]

Kit, I usually use a couple of strips of aluminum can as attachments - I run them from the doors into the wells, and call them hinges.
They give a lot more support, and the little they will be visible I can live with.
Or one strip running along the hinge line would work too.

Excellent suggestion Rick.  They would even stand up to getting kicked and pushed back into position a few times.   I might use this idea. 

[NARSES2]

Kit, I usually use a couple of strips of aluminum can as attachments - I run them from the doors into the wells, and call them hinges.
They give a lot more support, and the little they will be visible I can live with.
Or one strip running along the hinge line would work too.

Excellent suggestion Rick.  They would even stand up to getting kicked and pushed back into position a few times.   I might use this idea. 

It is indeed 

[Rick Lowe]

Kit, I usually use a couple of strips of aluminum can as attachments - I run them from the doors into the wells, and call them hinges.
They give a lot more support, and the little they will be visible I can live with.
Or one strip running along the hinge line would work too.

Excellent suggestion Rick.  They would even stand up to getting kicked and pushed back into position a few times.   I might use this idea. 

It is indeed 

Happy to help. 

[frank2056]

Great build so far, Kit despite the Mikro-Mir-eness.

 think Mikro-Mir and their customers would be well served if they outsourced their molding to the companies that do ICM's and Miniart's molding. Also, invest more time in test building a kit.

[Rick Lowe]

Also, invest more time in test building a kit.

You'd have thought that actually building a test-shot would be a given, right?

[frank2056]

You'd think so... but Kit's AW-52 build and to a lesser extent, this one makes me wonder. I gave up on their NIAI-1 "Fanera-2" and used the parts for spares, but other kits have been buildable.

[NARSES2]

Also, invest more time in test building a kit.

You'd have thought that actually building a test-shot would be a given, right?

You would indeed, but I struggle with a few companies' attitutes to test builds. 

[PR19_Kit]

You'd think so... but Kit's AW-52 build and to a lesser extent, this one makes me wonder. I gave up on their NIAI-1 "Fanera-2" and used the parts for spares, but other kits have been
buildable.

Thanks for the reminder Frank, I should really dig the AW52 out and get back on it again. 

[Rick Lowe]

Also, invest more time in test building a kit.

You'd have thought that actually building a test-shot would be a given, right?

You would indeed, but I struggle with a few companies' attitutes to test builds. 

"We'll fix it for the re-release..."