ghodges Posted February 3, 2025 Report Posted February 3, 2025 This is the very rare 1/48 CollectAire resin kit of the RB-66C Destroyer. It was one of CA's last releases and one of their best kits, with resin surfaces resembling injection plastic, a hollow molded fuselage, and complete cockpit detailing. It has sturdy metal landing gear, drooped slats, and optional position speed brakes. It also includes the later "EB" tail so a Vietnam era Destroyer can be built instead of the '50s era bomber I chose to do. The fuselage was cast with cockpit side console detailing included. Note that the small windows have been filled with UV cured clear resin to make them. All 3 crew stations are very well represented as well as the avionics on the walls of the lower entry well. The kit includes a staircase to display the well open. As an interesting aside.... most of the detailing on the faces of all the black boxes and consoles were made using bits from my old HodgePodge generic cockpit PE detail set! 🙂 The cockpit engineering is well done and fits nicely, even if a bit snug and with limited ability to see the 2 rear seats. Note the lead fishing weights superglued into the nose just to be sure of avoiding a tail sitter. The only real construction issue was that there was a severe step on the left side of the tail fin after the top half was added. It was eliminated by first rolling out a thin sheet of ApoxySculp and then applying it on the bottom half of the fin to fill it out so the step was gone. This is how it looked after sanding and reopening the tail plane locator slot. The model was so big it was primed and painted in 2 stages.... first holding it by the wings in order to paint the fuselage and then holding it by the fuselage the next day to paint the wings. The model was primed with Gloss Black Enamel and the NMF was done with AK Extreme Metal Aluminum and Duraluminum. The thin black wing walks were masked and painted, as were the red sashes on the engines. The only thing left to paint here in this pic was the OD antiglare panel on the nose. Most of the markings came from the kit decal sheet, except for a couple that shattered and had to be replaced with spares. On to the finished pics! This is 2nd of these I've built since it was issued; but I'd sold the 1rst one many years ago not realizing how hard (and expensive) it would be to get another one. I'm very happy to have this rare 1/48 jet bomber from the late 50's/early '60s back on my shelf again! Questions, critiques, and comments welcome as always! Gil 1
Ron Bell Posted February 4, 2025 Report Posted February 4, 2025 Stunning work and finish as usual. You should write up a sort of "how to" for working with resin kits you've done so many. There are articles about plastic and vacuform, but not resin. 1
Mark Deliduka Posted February 5, 2025 Report Posted February 5, 2025 Once again, you've made another incredible masterpiece! That is stunning indeed!
MarkYoungCrewChief Posted March 20, 2025 Report Posted March 20, 2025 As always, another piece of exceptional work. You amaze me.
Recommended Posts