In 2009, much to everyone’s surprise, Special Hobby released a new 1/32 scale X-15 A2 kit (No. 32022). I thought this was a bold move on Special Hobby’s part, as this highly-experimental aircraft is largely unknown and seldom modeled. But what the who, life is good.
The North American X-15 was the last in a line of manned rocket-powered research aircraft designed in the 1950s to explore ever-faster and higher flight regimes. Computers, as we know them now, were not around, and the only way to investigate the unknown was to go there. The X-15 was developed in 1954, and attained unheard of speeds — 4,550 mph or Mach 6.72 — and also set an unofficial altitude record for manned flight of 354,200 feet, or just over 67 miles. The only manned aircraft to exceed this record are the space shuttle orbiters.
The kit
Opening the kit box, I was quickly surprised at the few number of parts. There were 74 injection-molded parts, and my first impression was mixed, as some parts were well engineered and flash free, while other parts and subassemblies were crude, thick, and basically unusable. What caught my eye was a large bag of resin goodies and photo-etched metal.
The fuselage interior was completely free of ejector-pin marks, which is unusually rare, and had me wondering, “How’d they do that?” As I planned to build this sled as a cutaway project, this would help me greatly. On the other hand, the kit had no locators on any of the parts. With one eyebrow raised, I continued with caution.
Construction
As with all cut-away projects, I looked at the interior spaces, tanks, and equipment in references to determine the areas to be cut out using a rotary tool and router bit. After hacking huge holes in the kit parts, I planned out all the numerous fuel tanks, engine, pumps, equipment bays, and scratchbuilt all of the interior parts. I cut the bulkheads, left wig panel, and stab from sheet plastic and shaped stock. All the subassembly parts were painted and set aside.
I painted all interior areas aluminum, as NASA did not use any type of zinc primer in the X-15. The kit’s cockpit was very basic, and I scratchbuilt a new one using the kit’s photo-etched metal control panel and reference photos as guides. A comprehensive session of test-fitting, installing parts, wiring, and plumbing produced a nice fit within the fuselage halves.
The nose-wheel bay fit to the upper fuselage half, but its fit to the lower fuselage left much to be desired. At this point, I threw the instructions away. The aft landing gear with skids simply mounted into little holes that would never support the weight of the model. Not a problem for me because mine would be mounted to aluminum tubing.
Color options
There are none! X-15 aircraft were painted semigloss black. The kit had tons of decals, and any modeler who has ever placed decals on a black surface will have had to deal with the “silvering monster,” even on a gloss surface. My mouth dries up just thinking about it. But I, like every modeler, had a bag of tricks.
I masked the interior spaces and sprayed the airframe Testors Flat Black from a spray can. Then I lightly dry-brushed everything with Gunship Gray and airbrushed Tamiya Clear over everything. Obviously, that would be too shiny by itself. But it was the perfect surface for the decals.
Now, I found the decals awkward to work with. They didn’t slide well on the model and were brittle, breaking apart when adjusted. So, as you can imagine, decaling was ... intense. After they were down and dry, I sealed them under Tamiya Clear lacquer from the spray can, which produced the perfect semigloss appearance.
The masks came off the interior spaces and I touched up a few spots. Then all of the cutaway edges were lined with gloss red. All in all, I was happy with the results, not completely, but it was my best effort, so I moved on.
The last bits
Once I got past the difficult step of mounting the aft landing gear, the rest of the subassemblies went on painlessly. The bird I modeled had a nose probe, so I fabricated one from sanded, tapered plastic dowel. The aft top and bottom fin parts in the kit were total junk, so I scratchbuilt new ones using a few kit parts. The aft kit resin rocket nozzle was a gem! The only other major items to install were the wings, stabs, canopy, and nose gear.
Conclusion
Firstly, Special Hobby’s confidence in this kit is evident in its willingness to release a limited run of such an unusual aircraft. Overall, I equally was impressed with aspects of the kit parts and dumbfounded with the total lack of quality with other parts. The instructions drove me crazy. In any case, once the model was finished, it certainly had the right look about it. This kit was designed only for the expert modelers amongst us, and I’m not in that league.
Editor’s note: Dan Jayne was a long-time contributor to FineScale Modeler, and there were many stories he wrote that remain in our archives that were not published before his death. We offer these now, only lightly edited, to maintain his voice and sense of humor.