Yogi's X-37B

[dhanners]

After building a couple of ship models with part counts in the hundreds, I decided I wanted to get back into space stuff with something relatively easy and few parts. I noticed Yogi's X-37B and thought, "Hey, that'd be cool to build, and not many parts. It'd be an easy afternoon build."

Then I went a little gonzo.

I decided to try and model the heat tiles, and figured a way to do that would be to make a brick pattern using the "Draw" function in Word, then glue it over the kit parts. I used white for the lines, and I think it came out way too bright. Next time around, I'll make the lines grayer.

And, since I was gluing paper onto the model, I figured I'd cover the rest of it, too, using a textured gray paper for the sides and a textured white paper for the top, to better replicate the insulation blankets on the actual vehicle. Of course the downside to this is that I covered the markings on the fuselage.

I used a different pattern (again using Word's Draw) to make the pieces I glued to the leading edges of the wings. I scratchbuilt a new nozzle, as well as the cone-shaped thingie that is at the base of the nozzle that I've seen in photos of the X-37B.

By the way -- did we ever get a response from Boeing or the DOD concerning why the engine is offset to the right?

I might have another go at this model since I'm not real happy with the way my build turned out. After building a couple of ships, my space-building skills are still a bit rusty....

[Retired_for_now]

Sweet mods! I like the way you smoothed the chine (bottom edge) with the overlay.

No official answer, but the underground seems to be clustering around the "two engine mounts available" but only the right hand one used for the initial mission. No requirement for high thrust (though it seems to me the total delta-v available would be the same regardless, just take twice as long to get there with one engine).

While you're at it, the nose tiling is an interesting challenge:


I did something like this on an early version but decided it looked out of place without tiling the entire bottom.

Yogi

Status on launch fairing - still have one more conic piece to draw, then the prototype to finish.

[dhanners]

I do think I'm going to have another go at this model. After building this one, I got some ideas for a few structural modifications that may allow me to avoid some of the defects I introduced into the model while building it.