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Jimmy Zed
20 articles

Bell X-1 Revell 1/32

January 13, 2023 · in Aviation · 24 · 597

You know when you are trolling around the net, casting for kits and get a few nibbles, then one keeps nibbling and finally bites? That was this one. At first when i looked at it, it seemed to basic. A rebox of the original '88 kit with new artwork and decals, only 51 pieces. I kept it as an open tab alongside several others and that bright orange rocket just kept on biting on the line, so i decided to pull it in.

To keep with sparseness of the kit she got zero weathering, just a touch of preshading under the 10/1 Tamiya Orange/Red colour. The rear of the gauge panel was empty so some pieces of sprue and wire filled out that void and some wiring detail added inside. Besides that she is oob and clean. Minimal filler was needed for the upper and lower fuselage seams.

A nice quick christmas build that stands out in the cabinet and even with her non swept wings, that bullet shape looks amazingly fast amongst my props. One can only imagine the feeling Chuck would have had sitting in this whilst slung under the belly of a B29 waiting to ignite and shoot across the sky. Incredible stuff.

Reader reactions:
10  Awesome

12 additional images. Click to enlarge.


24 responses

  1. A beautiful build!

  2. That is one pretty bird, Jimmy. Nicely done!
    Using the computer screen as the back drop is a very cool idea and the outcome looks great.

  3. Hey cool build. Lovely finish with a tricky colour 🙂

  4. Really cool, Jimmy, looks like you had a good Christmas.

  5. Well done, Jimmy (@hetstaine). This one called to me also, but I have the original release. I still have big plans for the build. The interior looks great, and the exterior paint is perfect.

  6. That's a very under-rated kit. It's "like a bikini" (enough to cover the subject).

    Very nice result.

  7. A wonderful result, Jimmy!

  8. Beautiful job, this is a great looking X-1!

  9. Excellent result, Jimmy @hetstaine
    To me your pictures do look great this way, more than sufficient lighting I would say.

  10. Nice looking build. Makes me want to build one myself.

  11. That is so cool Jimmy @hetstaine! 😎 It's great to see one of those Revell kits built; I started on one probably close to 30 years ago now and never made much headway. Seeing your beautiful example gives me hope...someday! 😉 😁

  12. G'day Jimmy (@hetstaine),
    It's good to see you are still building great models.
    It looks fantastic.
    Liked!

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