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"If Looks Could Kill" |
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The "Queen of Bombers" has taken a while for her systems to mature but now few aircraft can equal her ability to deliver weapons on target, on time,
in any weather... and SURVIVE. |
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The B-1's lean Radar Cross Section is the first defence in keeping 422,000 lbs. (maximum low-level operating weight) hidden from hostile radar. |
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Four G.E. F101-GE-102 turbofans rated at 30,780 lb. each (with afterburning) ensure that even if detected it might be impossible to intercept. The B-1 can penetrate at mach 0.92 at 200 ft. above the ground! |
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| "Trilogy of Terror" sports a bright colored three-headed dragon port and starboard, standard SAC badge, and the 96th Falcon head holding a bomb in it's beak under the DSO's window with the motto "Sempre L'Ora." |
| Update: Apparently this aircraft was later renamed "Texas Armor" and was believed to be in service with the 7th Bomb Sq. at Dyess AFB (at the time of writing). |
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| Aircraft of the 96th aircraft proudly wore the Texas Lone Star flag with a super-imposed long horn skull on the tail. |
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| The B-1 is easily one of the most elegant airframes ever to belong to a heavy bomber. |
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| Here's a great shot of the huge single-piece tailplanes |
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| A peek into the forward weapons bay reveals a full load of devastating ALCM's. |
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Kit: Monogram #5605
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Scale: 1/72 |
Review: This a an old Monogram kit with fine raised panel lines and fit ranging from fair to good. The cockpit tinted glass is really cool. The kit includes three crew members (two seated and one egressing the ladder) that are pretty good. At least a bizillion ALCM's are included if you want to use the external missile mounts.
To see Under-Construction photos CLICK HERE. |
| Decals: SuperScale Sheet # 72-577 and homemade decals for: no-step lines, refueling spider web, weapons bay outlines. These decals were sketched on paper over the model, scanned in, traced and cleaned up in Macromedia Freehand, output to film, and used to create rub-down dry-transfers (Matros). It sounds like a lot of trouble because it is! |
| After Market Parts: True Details Aces II Ejection Seats #72406. See cockpit interior CLICK HERE. |
Customizing: Where should I begin?... First thing was to remove whatever the optical-turret looking thing Monogram put just forward of the front weapons bay and apply Squadron putty to fill that hole along with all of the mounting holes for the external ALCM's.
Next I cut out the windows for the rear cabin (all B-1B's had the windows added) and later filled them with clear 3-minute epoxy. I then cut the seats out of the one-piece molded interior and replaced them with resin Aces II seats. I added lots of cockpit framing, boxes and wiring based half on research and half on make believe. I wanted my weapons bay doors all the way open (originally the Lancer's doors were designed to open only partially for rotary ALCM launch) so I had to trim down and sand off all the extended parts of the door arms. I made my own instrument probes, aerials, vortice generators, etc. out of sheet plastic.
The tailpipes that come with the kit don't have the correct turkey feathers so I carved them out to look a little more like the real thing. The feathers are removed on all modern B-1's so there's lots of work to do either way. |
| Cost: I paid $30.00 for this kit at the 1996 Squadron Scalefest. Considering I have never seen another one since then, it was a bargain. |
| Awards: This model won First place at 1998 Squadron Scalefest - 1/72 multi-crew jet aircraft division. |
