1/72 Testors B-2A Spirit

Gallery Article by John Morrey on Oct 12 2009

 

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.
And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee." - Samuel L Jackson, Pulp Fiction - stencilled on the bulkhead of the B-2 entry stairwell.
 

This is the 1/72 Testors kit, and my attempt to recreate one of the most mystical and fascinating aircraft that has ever taken to the skies. The story started 2 years ago when I saw this kit for sale at a model show (minus some parts) at a knock-down price that I couldn't refuse - after all, how many of these do you see every day? One really can't talk about the Testors B-2 kit without mention of John Vojtech's incredible US Nationals winning entry that proved to everyone that few kits are 'unbuildable' - well with this inspiration behind me I ran home with the kit and set to work on what would become ultimately a long (but enjoyable) task. 

No doubt about it , out of the box this is a big model. This plane is WIDE, lengthwise the B-2 is only a few feet longer than an F-15, but the wingspan is immense, and on a 1/72 scale model it is wider than most doorways in my house - I probably don't need to draw you a picture of how I discovered this.. 

The rotary bomb bays would be a large focal point of the finished model, the Testors kit only models one bomb bay open, so the other needs to be carefully cut out and built up. Luckily a fellow forum member supplied me with some invaluable spare parts including the missing cockpit glass from my bargain purchase as well as another entire lower fuselage - I was able to graft the bomb bay blank 'box' from this onto my kit, creating 2 bomb bay openings which I could set about detailing with plastic card.

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The cockpit back wall was extended to meet the bomb bay wall, in here various scratchbuilt detail was added like the entry hatch, life support equipment as well as the rear hatch ladder. The Eduard photoetch set helped with the control panels and MFDs, I also scratchbuilt the corridor leadingg down to the entry hatch, obviously it was fital to temporarily plug this during the final sanding and painting phase ! 

I scratchbuilt an engine from plastic card and another ballpoint pen - Neil Burkil from Paragon miniatures very kindly came to my assistance by casting multiple copies for me which I then installed into their recessed positions - this was of course extended backwards with styrene card to allow space for the engine assemblies. Auxiliary intlets were cut out and styrene card detail added to busy them up.

The CSRLs (Combined Strategic Rotary Launchers) were made from the shafts of 2 ball point pens, lots of lead wire and plastic card used to fabricate the various detail, and 16 small plastic dowels inserted at equal spacing to hold the 16 JDAMS which came from the Golden Dragon set (2 in fact!)  The Excellent Eduard set contains details  to improve the Bomb bay door ribs as well as the swing down perforated paddles that disrupt the airflow as the payload drops. 

 The kit landing gear was improved with lead wire and adhesive foil, the wheels rescribed with the correct tread pattern. 

All control surfaces dropped and reposition, the 'beaver tail' was cut out of the fuselage and dropped as well, all of these surfaces needed filling with plastic card before re-attaching to the model, the real aircraft hides its mechanism completely to the fit had to be precise. 

The crew entry ladder was entirely scratchbuilt.

The aircraft was masked and sprayed with various shades of gunship grey to create the RAM effect, the excellent Begemot decal set used for the markings, and Eduard RBF tags added for that final touch. 

I hope you like the final result, whilst the kit is widely criticised as being unbuildable and poor,  it actually gives a very accurate representation of the B-2's distinctive and quite complex shape, it was produced at a time when info on the Bomber was extremely scarce and unknown, so Testors need congratulating for at least being the only people to manufacture the B-2 in 1/72, even if it is devoid of a lot of detail, even if you do need to stock up on CA glue and sandpaper!

John Morrey

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Photos and text © by John Morrey