Yet another build of Ken West's X-15

[nighthawk78]

Looking good, keep it coming.
NH78

[evilfer]

Thanks for answers. Vermin King and Richkat, I had already cut all the circles except the last three, so I went ahead with the ones I had. In case this is useful to anyone, the circles that I had most problems with were 4b and 5a (and a bit as well 5b and 6a).

I used a combination of Richkat method of hole-in-the-middle (thanks), and sometimes a different assembly method, which I mentioned before but is explained in the pic attached . This method makes assembly and matching the edges of fuselage segments very easy for me. However, I've found that it's also easy to put too much pressure on the edges and bend them a little.

Additionally, I used the grey areas (which will be covered by the chines and rudders) to make adjustments, this helped. I also put superglue on these areas, hopefully to strengthen the structure. In close view, the end result is what you'd imagine as the offspring of an X-15 and a potato . Luckily there'll be plenty of other things to look at at the rear of the model...

[HMCS]

Originally Posted by richkat

I cut the formers big and sanded them to fit, I rolled the fuselage and glued then pushed in the formers. I also cut a hole big enough for my finger in the center so i could pull them out to the very edge of each section. You can also stand the section on end and reaching through with a rod and tap the former even with the end of the section..........Rich

Great tip! Thanks!

[evilfer]

Chines completed. They took me very long, but have been a lot of fun. The fitting is excellent (even in my build :D), and it's really a pleasure to assemble them carefully with as most precision as possible.

Following the instructions, I started with the front section of each chine, glued it to the plane, and then added the rear section of the chine. For the rear section, I used the white star for alignment. This required me to cut small bits of the rear section, to make it match the edge of the front section. From one chine I had to cut about 1/4 of a mm, but for the other it was about 1.5mm, not so good. I think if I built the plane again, I'd glue first the rear section of the chines to the plane, then the front.

I attached a picture of the assembly of one rear section, mostly because it's not exactly as in Billy's thread. I use cereal box cardboard 'sticks' to fix the seams and strengthen the outer edges of the chine. I think this works pretty well.

In short, the thing is starting to look like the X-15, and will start with rudders and elevators soon!

[richkat]

Hey it's looking great!
I built the entire chine then attached it as a unit at one time.
Little bit of trouble to line up that way but it worked.......Rich

[richkat]

Like I said in my first post, I enlarged mine to 1/24, but I also played around with about a 1/10 enlargement, tested a few body panels on a 4.5" cardboard tube I have. Think maybe a large RC boost-glider might be possible. Also thinking of a white ablative version (1/24), but don't know if it would easier to recolor or just paint (like the full scale X-15) it white. Or should I paint it pink then white? X-15 has always been my favorite plane. Looking forward to seeing yours finished.......Rich

[evilfer]

Originally Posted by richkat

Hey it's looking great!
I built the entire chine then attached it as a unit at one time.
Little bit of trouble to line up that way but it worked.......Rich

I think there's enough space in the front end of the chine to make adjustments, the key thing is the star. In my case, by cutting a bit from the chine's rear section to align the star, I messed a bit the 'S' in the right chine. So I'd like to test your method.

Originally Posted by richkat

Like I said in my first post, I enlarged mine to 1/24, but I also played around with about a 1/10 enlargement, tested a few body panels on a 4.5" cardboard tube I have. Think maybe a large RC boost-glider might be possible. Also thinking of a white ablative version (1/24), but don't know if it would easier to recolor or just paint (like the full scale X-15) it white. Or should I paint it pink then white? X-15 has always been my favorite plane. Looking forward to seeing yours finished.......Rich

1/10 - 1.5m! - must be really impressive. In white coating I guess you lose some details, but it looks just so beautiful! And they used the ablative coating for the speed record flight, right? I just revisited this X-15 NASA book, and read about the ablator, very interesting. As I understand the X-15 programme's research on ablative coatings was not successful; this is quite unfortunate as it could have had a huge impact on the Space Shuttle programme.

About the glide RC, I read somewhere that the X-15 has a glide ratio of 4:1. Would it change much for a 1/10 model? I imagine that'd make a challenging model to fly. Then again, I guess not everyone could fly a real X-15 :D.

[HMCS]

Rich you could open up the file in a vector program and delete the black,.. And retain the rest of the detail,.. I enlarged my for a 4" mailing tube

[richkat]

Originally Posted by HMCS

Rich you could open up the file in a vector program and delete the black,.. And retain the rest of the detail,.. I enlarged my for a 4" mailing tube

I thought of that but I'm not very good at that stuff. Was kind of hoping Ken might do a white one! But I just might paint one.....Rich

[HMCS]

The one I enlarged I only built the canopy,.. But I made mine blank then primered it etc,.. Still built very good,.. One day ill build the whole thing and donate to either fantasy of flight or some science place here in Orlando