Updating the old Monogram B-58 (1:48): part 1. tail gun in 3D
Hi everyone!
The Hustler is one of my favourite airplane. Beautiful, menacing and a real symbol of the meaninless of the cold war. The Monogram kit is really old but still the best B-58 and I don't think that someone come out a new one in this scale. It's a typical Monogram kit of the era, simple, effective but lacks detail and in some terms a bear to build (especially if you want to make it in the proper NMF livery). I started mine many years ago and it's still on the workbench as I jump in and out of the build depends on the mojo I can collect for it. One of the cause of the delay is that I continously see things I can improve. I scratched an interior (which I wanted to make reproduceable so it became more complicated than originally planned), new intakes (which are completely omitted by the kit) and so on. The last thing I made so far is the tail gun. I really don't like the kit's approach for this part as the details and the shape is totally wrong, soft and the prominent 20mm gatling gun (General Electric T-171E-3 later known much better as the m61 Vulcan - if you like it more with a less lousy manner) looks like a plastic rod. I considered to schratchbuild the part but the perfect rounded shapes and complex surface made it a challenge so I put off the idea. Recently I started to play with 3D modeling (I know I know this is the end of the world) and it seemed like a perfect practicing example. I scratchbuilt entire kits earlier but 3D is a different animal - my modeller past helps but it's not that easy. Anyway my friends at SBS Model came to rescue as they printed the part for me which in fact fit perfectly onto the Monoram kit so well that they started selling it and became my first 3D designed update part that which has been in production! Hope you like it. Next time I will introduce the interior or the intakes - which will be ready first. Cheers!
You've gotten excellent results with the 3D.
Thank you! This quality - at least in my case - isn't possible handmade.
Hmmm... I have one of these somewhere in the kit dungeon...
Nice superdetailing, Gábor!
I have built this kit, some 15 years ago...totally OOB and, as far as I remember, I painted the bombs wrongly (gonna have to check...)
Seeing your improvements, I might attempt to retrofit some of them in my finished model, as it is a nice model (like you said), but lacks in some areas.
Nice work! Do you have a build blog somewhere? I would love to follow your progress with the B-58 so that I may refer to it when I get around to building mine.
Hi! Currently no but I plan to make one - to make myself a push to finish it sometime.