Hello again friends, I'm back with another 1/144 kit that doesn't get much attention, partly because it started it's life as a snap together kit, and on the other hand it has some issues that we steer away from as spoiled modellers.

This is the only B-2 model available in 1/144, Testors made one in 1/72 and there is also the Dragon kit in 1/200. Because I'm slowly building on my 1/144 fleet and space is valuable, I chose the Revell kit.

The kit consists of few parts, but dry fitting already shows the weakness of it: large gap between upper and lower fuselage, raised panel lines, wings are not straight but drooped. Decals only for the testplane.

I was willing to fill the gaps and rescribe the panel lines, but straigthening the wings would require much more work, so I left them as they are. I focused on getting a smooth surface instead and did some good old sanding sessions, which finally got me something that was acceptable.

The cockpit is very simple, but I messed it up because water and dust from sanding got behind the clear parts. So I chose to darken them with Tamiya smoke X-19 followed by a few coats of Future/Klear.

Now painting was next, so I searched for pictures, but I was a bit unsure of the colors. Black or grey, every picture has got a different colortone, but someone on rec.models.scale helped me out:

"All B-2's are Gunship Gray overall (FS 36118). The black leading and trailing edges were incorporated only on the flight test airplanes. The markings and stencils are done in a darker shade of gray. The apparent inconsistencies you see in the finish are due partly to the material of the surface underneath the paint and partly to the reflectivity caused by the shapes of the parts." (quote from AV8R Jim)

Because the decals are for a testplane, I painted the leading and trailing edges black. I had to mix up some grey paint myself, hope it's not too far off for gunship gray. But now the model looked plain and boring, so I used some artistic freedom to paint some area's in a different greytone to enhance the effect of the reflectivity and dust/wear.

The decals for all the walkways were rather good, I expected silvering, but it didn't happen. Too bad there seems to be no other decals available, even with the latest campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I finished it off with some washes and dirtying up the white inner wheelwells.

Conclusion: a model with work and not up to today's standard, but the only game in town in 1/144. From what I've read from the Testors kit, that one seems not easier to build and I don't have information about the Dragon kit.

Thanks to the fine folks on rec.models.scale for the info, I will be back with something else if the modelling Gods are willing,

Erik

Visit my site on : http://users.pandora.be/erik.wauters/