Time for an update...

The stack has been completed, including painting the nozzle I added onto the ET/core gunmetal gray. It looks pretty awesome. The SRB's were glued on with white glue, after removing the masking tape strip I put over the mounting lines before painting the ET Bauhaus Gold (foam yellow/brown). Once the SRB's were tacked well, I lightly filleted them to strengthen the joint between tubes, and cut eight dowels in quarter inch lengths with the ends at about a 45 degree angle, for SRB struts to strengthen the SRB joints. Once those were all dried, the shock cord was glued in and the ET/SRB core stack was complete.

I did a chunk of reading on the internet about the F-117 and their markings, as this kit just screams "Black Ops Top Secret Skunkworks" and I went back and forth on whether to decorate it in an Air Force skunkworks type motif or to go more "NASA-ish". After a quick check of my kit box, realizing I had another sheet of balsa left, I said, "Why not do BOTH!!!" SO, I've started construction on a second Lifting Body, to be painted in NASA livery with a black bottom, gunmetal leading edges, and white top with NASA markings.

Here are the money shots... OL JR

BTW I HATED the gloss black that I put on it the first time... looked like the thing had been dipped in roofing tar or old motor oil! SO I sanded it off back down nearly to primer, damp sanded it nice and smooth, and put a couple light coats of FLAT black on it, and it looks 1000% better!!!!! :P

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

On this one, I wanted a somewhat exotic, experimental look to it but something that was clearly operational in nature. After hunting on the internet awhile, I found some decals that had been scanned in from an F-117 that would work, so I saved them and moved them over to paint and did some 'tweaking' to get them to print out the right size, inverted the colors so they'd print 'negative' to go on the black background, and lightened them up from the proper medium gray (which wouldn't show up well at ALL at this scale on the flat black paint of the Lifting Body) to a white color so they'd be more 'visible'. The F-117 doesn't carry many markings, mainly an Air Force symbol on either side of the fuselage and the top of the left wing, a "squadron emblem" on each side just below the cockpit, and some of them I found pictured on the internet also had a SAC shield emblem on either side. I kinda liked that (used to LOVE how that looked on the B-52's) and so I went with it. The markings are all monochrome, white on black. The real markings are actually more of a gray on black. The Air Force emblem on the fuselage and wings are a bit unusual on the F-117 (and even COOLER looking YET on the F-22 Raptor-- check them out online at the Air Force picture gallery) and since I had the decals set for the 117, that's what I went with. I shrunk them appropriately, printed them out on plain paper (since I didn't have any decal film) and eh,voila, ready to cut decals. Not as pretty as waterslides, but acceptable.

For the cockpit windows, I printed out a copy of the shuttle wraps Foose4string was kind enough to share with me, which look awesome, but with their blueish tinge would NOT show up on the black background of the Lifting Body. So, back to square one. I didn't really want to shuttle shape either, as they're made to fit a different shape, and I really wanted something a little 'different' for this one. I cut some shapes out of typing paper and experimented a bit, and decided on equilateral triangles looking the best. Of course real aircraft/spacecraft windows will have round corners to prevent stress cracks, so I carefully trimmed the corners and did some placement experiments and finally decided on what I liked.

My hand cut 'micro windows' were all a tiny bit off from one another, so I had to do some experimenting to see how to make them more uniform. First I drew a 1 inch equilateral triangle and cut it to out with properly rounded corners, copied it several times, cut those out, and made a couple templates with the cut out triangles glued to a piece of black paper, and the paper stock they were cut from glued to the other end of the black paper, to make a 'pattern' that I could scan in and manipulate. Once it was scanned, I sent it over to paint to clean up the scan, and make the black black and the white white. I finally picked the best triangle and cut/pasted it to make a final print template, and printed it out. Once I cut the windows out on the workbench, I remembered I had some gold mylar that we got SOMEWHERE years ago, and I retrieved it and said "this will look AWESOME!" and decided to use it. Now, how to make the gold mylar into 'tinted windows'.... What I finally did was, cut a small strip of mylar about 2 inches wide and 4-5 inches long, and taped it down TIGHT to the cutting mat. Then, I lightly glued a piece of typing paper to the back of it with white glue for something stable I could cut through to cut the mylar. I cut out a window from my patterns and had the bright idea, since the things are less than 1/4 inch square (well, triangle) and truly hard to work with, I glued the window to a piece of balsa, cut it out to the window's shape, glued it to another piece of balsa scrap, and made a stamp that I could stamp the window shapes onto the paper glued to the mylar film. That way I could duplicate the windows as many times as I wanted and would be guaranteed that they'd be the same size/shape (depending on my cutting skills). SO, retrieving my ink pad, I carefully stamped about 8-10 windows on the mylar, and carefully cut them out with a NEW hobby knife blade, seperated them from the backing paper, applied white glue, and carefully placed them on the lifting body. There are two forward facing windows on either side of the cockpit, and two "docking windows" at the rear of the crew cabin facing upwards. I then cut out the 'decals' and ran a sharpie around the cut edge to make it blend better, and then used a bit of white glue to attach them to the lifting body in similar places to the F-117. I also added the tail numbers "007" to each side like an operational vehicle would likely have, and the "SAC shield" emblem below the cockpit on either side. I also cut out a small hexagonal "hatch" and a TINY hexagonal 'window' for the hatch, pretty 'shuttle like' and glued it to the side of the cockpit just behind the 'docking windows'. I think it turned out pretty well and would look ABSOLUTELY PERFECT if I actually had decal film! I've got all the files (though they're rough!) just need someone with the skill and equipment to actually print decals!

I took these shots basically before the glue was dry-- I need to go back and remove a few 'glue fuzzies' from the lifting body, but you get the idea... OL JR

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Here's the last of the glam shots, some without the flamefins, on the TOP SECRET Pad 34-Z at Area 102, which is TWICE as secret as Area 51! I could be shot just for showing you these!!!

Enjoy! OL JR

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Oops missed one! OL JR

Oh, yes, the Doc is exactly right... this kit DOES NOT come with any lifting body decals or decorations of any kind... not even paint suggestions, so it's a BLANK CANVAS, just waiting on YOUR imagination and skill to make it into something special! That, to me, just REALLY adds to the fun of the kit! I read too much Harry Turtledove alternative history anyway, so it's fun for me to think "what would have happened if..." say, Dyna-Soar had been built and was successful, and the Air Force built a follow on system, or the current shuttles had been replaced by a 'more advanced' design a few years ago, or a few years from now, or if the "Aurora Project" came into the light, etc.

With a little creative thinking and some internet research, YOU can come up with whatever 'backstory' you want to justify decorating it any way you want...

Have fun with it! OL JR

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Well, been working on and off on the NASA Lifting Body for the past week or so. Finished putting it together, hardened with CA, sanded, coated with Elmers Wood Filler, sanded 98% of it off, primed, sanded then damp sanded, got her all slick and smooth, and then painted her flat white, masked off the nose top and around the leading edges, and then painted them and the bottom flat black. Did a little wet sanding to blend the paint lines and smooth everything up real nice, and then brush painted some details on the lifting body, like black tiles around the nose area, RCS jets, OMS nozzle 'ports' on the rear, tiled leading edges on the fins, and payload bay doors... (TOTAL pain to paint by hand but I managed!)

While in Houston the other day, I dropped by the LHS and picked up a sheet of Trim Monokote in reflective metallic gold; looks like gold chrome, for about $2.50 for a 4 inch by 36 inch sheet. I trimmed about 1/2 inch strip off one end and proceeded to cut out the triangular windows for the crew cabin, and docking windows, and a TEENY TINY hatch window. I tried cutting the hexagonal hatch outline from black paper to glue on the side like the Air Force lifting body has, and because of it's EXTREMELY thin dimensions, that didn't work too well; it nearly dissolved when I gingerly put a bit of white glue on it to transfer it to the side of the LB. So, I broke out the fineliner pinstriping brush again and just CAREFULLY painted on the hexagonal hatch outline, with the hatch white (much like a shuttle) and then applied the tiny hexagonal window to the center of the hatch.

I printed off a copy of the shuttle wraps Craig Zicafoose was kind enough to send me, and carefully trimmed out the NASA meatball and US flag from the wrap printed on printer paper, and then using a light coat of white glue, applied them to the top of the lifting body in typical 'shuttle' positions.

Once she was all dry, I took her outside and set her up for pics. Enjoy!

BTW, NONE of these decorations come with the kit-- how you paint/decorate the lifting body is ENTIRELY up to you!

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Here's a few more shots... the last one is the NASA lifting body and the Air Force lifting body side by side...

I test glided the AF one the other day, with varied results... there was a slight wind so I'm not sure I was doing it right. I'm going to have to do some more experimenting but we got 9.5 inches of rain Saturday in about 8 hours, so it's going to be awhile before it's dry enough to do more testing...

This is REALLY fun kit to build and I'm looking forward to flying it! More when she takes to the skies... Til then, Enjoy! OL JR

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

That NASA glider is looking fantastic, can't wait for the flight report on it!

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Luke

Awesomely cool. I can't wait to see it fly.

Thanks guys... I'll report back later. I did a little testing on the AF stealth LB last week, with varied results, but there was a bit of wind and I'm not entirely sure I was launching it right (with the little rubber band hand launcher included in the kit). WE got 9.5 inches of rain in 8 hours Saturday, so it'll be awhile before it's dry enough outside to do more testing.

More later! OL JR

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!