[dhanners]

I may finally be X-15’d out. After finishing No. 11, I had wanted to do at least a couple more — one of Neil Armstrong’s missions and one with the landing gear down. Then I came across a photo of Armstrong standing next to his X-15 after a flight. One model could take care of both my wishes.

The photo was from 9 December 1960, after Armstrong’s second flight in an X-15. It was X-15-1, 66670, and it was the vehicle’s first flight with the “Q-Ball” nose instead of an instrumentation boom.

At the time, 66670 had the yellow NASA tail band on both sides of the rudder and the serial number in a small font on both sides of the vertical stabilizer. One of the key features of the photo of Armstrong is the frost on the fuselage from the liquid oxygen tank. I replicated it with a white paint marker.

I used a private repaint by Yukonjohn, resized to 1/72nd scale. I scratchbuilt the landing gear and actuators inside the speed brakes. I used resized parts from Ken West’s X-15A-2 as templates for new parts for the rear skids, and I used the forward wheels from Cardist’s pink X-15A-2. I scratchbuilt the XLR-11s.

Yet again, I need to thank Yukonjohn and Henry Yuen for their great work.