31 inch BT80 X-15 for 29mm

I hate to be this guy, but the US Air Force and tail number fonts need some serious work. The smaller-scale ones are much closer (but no tail numbers.)

Otherwise looks great!

SteveNeill said:

Nowhere near finished and I only did a couple of passes with primer and paint to seal the wood grain. Decals are for a Frank Burke Dynasoar X-15 Boost glider that Sticker Shock sells. I have a bunch more to put on. I will have a special set made for this model that Mark is working on now.

I added panel lines just basic ones nowhere near scale accurate. I used flat black primer first then added the tape and sprayed semi gloss over the tape. Once removed it let nice crisp panel lines and they pop because they are flat.

Despite being sport scale she is looking the part and is a nice size.

More tomorrow.
View attachment 400573 View attachment 400574 View attachment 400575 View attachment 400576 View attachment 400577

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Steve, looking very, very nice! I was just looking at photos of the X-15 online. In one of them I saw something I'd never seen before. A sphere at the bottom of the tail. Do you know what is is or what it's for. Too small to be R2D2.

Greg Furtman said:

Steve, looking very, very nice! I was just looking at photos of the X-15 online. In one of them I saw something I'd never seen before. A sphere at the bottom of the tail. Do you know what is is or what it's for. Too small to be R2D2.

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I think that is the X-15A-2, which was modified to have the external tanks for liquid ammonia and liquid oxygen. Perhaps the forward red tanks are the ammonia, and the cylinder in the rear is the oxygen, just a guess on my part.

But I hope it is actually R2D2.

Edit: I'm wrong it is liquid Helium:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-052-DFRC.html

More info:
"Helium to pressurize the turbopump hydrogen peroxide supply tank and to supply pneumatic pressure for engine and propellant control is contained in four spherical tanks."

https://xtremeprototypes.com/en/X-1...al.html?EngineandPropellantControlHelium.html

Awesome looking I like the panel lines idea

This tells all about the X-15 progress and more.

Steve, nothing is loading

-Bob

Bruiser said:

Steve, nothing is loading

-Bob

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Bob, it works for me.

That's weird. It is not coming up my computer but it is on my phone. Sometimes my work computer won't load pictures or videos but that has never happened before when I've been TRF. They must have dialed up the restrictions on videos.

-Bob

SteveNeill said:

This tells all about the X-15 progress and more

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Nice video (worked for me). So many cool projects, I love your free flight airplanes.

Nice videos on your vimeo channel. Has there been a test launch of the larger version?

These kits go live next week on the website. Pre Orders are being filled this week. First round of 10 kits will include Sticker Shock decals and after that they are available directly from Mark on the Sticker Shock website.

Here's some pictures of the Rocket plane finished. Weather has prevented me from flying anything the last month. Lucerne dry lake bed is under water and snow and the ROC has suspended launches until further notice.

Are kits have been delayed by the holidays and waiting on backorder balsa and parts from or laser cutter. All parts are inbound and will arrive today and Friday. Thanks to all of you that have pre-ordered it helped us get all this going. Start up is always hard and costly but we are slowly getting the ball rolling thanks to all of you! View attachment 402487

Thanks for the update. I hope I'm in the first ten with the free Stickershock decals!

You are welcome. Remember you can always visit the FB page or our website as I weekly sometimes daily update about our status. Thank you!

Always check the news section for updates.
https://sngaero.wordpress.com/

Got some of the Laser cut parts from Chris yesterday. Although they should only take a day to get in the mail from Oakland the holiday hold up is still in the way. They took longer.

However for the first batch of parts ever from a guy that hasn't done airplane or rocket kits before these are perfect.

I have a ton of parts for the smaller X-15 and enough to send out 3 kits of the Grande. The 1/4 inch balsa for the remaining X-15 Grandes should reach the laser cutter today. Again so sorry for the delay but the holidays are the culprit.

In addition to all that I got my BT-80 tubes and 29mm engine mount tubes for the Grandes as well.

Well, I couldn't resist any longer and just ordered the big X-15 from SNG! Such a great looking bird that I am looking forward to putting it together!
Now I just wish I had a place to fly within a reasonable distance from me! I live in the middle of the six million acre Adirondack Park in upstate NY so not many places around here to launch and I have back troubles that prevent me from riding in a vehicle for any length of time.
But I can still build them and enjoy them anyway!

William Ellick said:

Well, I couldn't resist any longer and just ordered the big X-15 from SNG! Such a great looking bird that I am looking forward to putting it together!
Now I just wish I had a place to fly within a reasonable distance from me! I live in the middle of the six million acre Adirondack Park in upstate NY so not many places around here to launch and I have back troubles that prevent me from riding in a vehicle for any length of time.
But I can still build them and enjoy them anyway!

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Thank you so much William. I'm so sorry to hear about your back. I hope that you do get out to fly somehow some way!
All the best to you!
Steve

Important notice to all customers and future customers. If you send us an email and it bounces back because you have spam filters on your email account you won't hear back from us. You need to then communicate with us on The Rocketry Forum or our Facebook page.
In addition to that some of you have written to us for kit status reports. We post sometimes daily on the website under the latest news section. We post updates, pictures of our progress and everything you need to know are in the updates.
Here is a link to the exact page although it is listed in the menu of the home page and every page on our site.
https://sngaero.wordpress.com/latest-news/
Thank you for your attention to this notice.

The latest. And I'm not a happy camper.

As it turns out the wood was delivered to my laser cutter on the 30th of Dec. It was taken by a thief. All packages to my laser cutter will have to be signed for or picked up at the post office.

This seems to be the new norm these days and it has been getting worse. I'm reordering the wood now and having it sent again. This has cost us plenty making this first round of kits less than profitable. Lesson learned. We will not let this set us back or give up. If you order a kit you must tell us if you want it signed for.

Death to all porch pirates

That’s crazy! A balsa thief? You may also want to insurance the shipment.

Anyway I did place an order for the smaller X-15 kits. The Grande is out of my reach right now. If you could offer just the unique parts that you produce in your studio for the Grande and a template for the fins, that might be something to consider. I’m lucky to have a great local hobby store with a good selection of balsa/basswood.

Love it! Fortunately my balsa supplier felt bad about it and absorbed some of the loss for us and I now have a about 500 bucks worth of balsa inbound to the laser cutter who will sign for the delivery so I can save on the two gallons of rotten milk!

Nola! Thank you! Will fill the order tomorrow. I have plenty of X-15 parts on hand. It was the Grande that I have the shortage on.

The latest update on your kit status is...we have an order of balsa sent to our laser cutter on the 27th of Dec that is missing in the mail. Go figure. We are trying to find where it ended up.

In the meantime I have made a second purchase costing us a few hundred dollars again and we are having that sent to the laser cutter post haste. However it now turns out the balsa is backordered we need for the wings.

Some things should be so easy. Order balsa it gets shipped, laser cutter gets it two days later and cuts and sends back to us in 3 days. I fill your order. But there's a balsa shortage and the US mail screws up one more time.

Those are the facts. Your kits are all packed except for the laser cut balsa. One Grande X-15 goes out today. All three small X-15s ship today.

I may be able to ship another Grande tomorrow but I'll have to hand cut some of the parts.

These are going out in the order they were received. We have plenty of parts to fill small X-15 orders. It's the Grande that we are lacking 1/4 balsa for.

Kit status. All good news for you that have been so patient waiting for your kits.

Cris got the wood on Friday. He has now laser cut a bunch of parts to fill your orders and then some. We should have all the parts at SNG by Tuesday or Wednesday at the very latest.

We will be putting those parts in the boxes and shipping no later than Friday not unless an asteroid fits are studio the wait will be over!

Parts are being shipped as we speak I should have them by tomorrow or Wed. at the latest.

Working hard on these kits. So is my laser cutter.