1/72 North American X-15A2

Gallery Article by Gene A. "Gene-o" DiGennaro Jr. on May 22 2014

 

The North American X-15 was built as a result of a joint USAF-NASA program to investigate hypersonic aircraft operated at near space altitudes. Made of Inconel, the X-15 was dropped from a B-52 and could fly at Mach 6 and over 200,000 ft. Neil Armstrong was an X-15 pilot before joining the astronaut corps. The second X-15 built was modified to the X-15A2 standard and it first flew in 1964. The modifications included the characteristic drop tanks, a helium tank at the base of the tail, and a lengthened fuselage. It was this vehicle that William "Pete" Knight flew to a top speed of 4520mph. 

 

Click on images below to see larger images

The kit used is the Revell 2003 re-issue of the old 1980s Monogram model. It was built mostly right out of the box save for a few details. Because I wanted to depict an inflight X-15, I added an extension of the lower ventral fin. This was done by removing the tail and rudder from an aborted Monogram X-15 I had for years. It was grafted onto the lower fin. In addition, I took the standing pilot figure and cut him up (poor guy!) to fit in the cockpit. It was pretty gruesome surgery as I had to cut off his legs and shorten his torso! Last thing to do was to open up the port side cockpit window. Monogram had chosen to mold the model using the shutter that was in place when the X-15 was flown with ablative paint.

Initially my model was painted Krylon gloss black right out of the rattle can. The paint was thick which helped tone down the raised panel lines, an unintentional benefit! Then, using NASA's Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center's online photo gallery, I selectively brush painted different panels. They were painted with an acrylic grimy/metallic black with just a hint of rust color mixed in. The drop tanks were rattle can painted Testor Chrome Silver and the seams were picked out using a silver Sharpie pen. A standard coat of Future made the model ready for decalling. The nicely printed Revell decals went on without issue. Once the decals were on, I airbrushed an acrylic flat finish. While the flat coat was still tacky, I rubbed in some gunmetal colored eye shadow along the panel lines. I also used a brownish rust color eye shadow that I streaked length wise along the entire model to simulate oxidized heat treated Inconel. An additional flat coat sealed the weathering. This was a fun and easy model to build!

Gene-o

Click on images below to see larger images

 

      

Photos and text © by Gene A. "Gene-o" DiGennaro Jr.