North American XB-70 in 1:400 Scale by JC Wings
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Modified: September 2024
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In an age of very samey twinjets it is amazing that in recent years in 400 scale there has been an explosion of new mould creation featuring unusual and historic aircraft types. A lot of this has come via JC Wings, who are seemingly willing to produce some really obscure aircraft types even when they have relatively limited release potential. The XB-70 Valkyrie certainly falls into that category as only two aircraft were ever built! It's appearance in 400 scale is a major surprise and JC Wings have kindly provided me with some photos of the 400 scale mould sample.
I think the 1950s and 60s produced the most interesting and unusual range of military aircraft ever. Nowhere illustrated this more than the US and their long-range bombers. The pace of technical change was huge so that even though the B-52 had only entered service in 1954 in 1955 the USAF was looking at a radical new supersonic design merging the payload and range of the BUFF with the speed of the spectacular looking Convair B-58 Hustler.
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US Air Force, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Ultimately, the development of SAMs (able to shoot down even supersonic bombers) and ICBMs (a better delivery platform for the nukes) removed the need for the XB-70 and the bomber side of the program was shelved in 1961. That didn't however stop two examples from being produced for test purposes, one of which was spectacularly lost in a mid-air collision in 1966 with an F-104 Starfighter, just after a close formation photoshoot.
Below: The F-104 explodes moments after impacting one of the XB-70s vertical stabilisers.
U.S. Air Force photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The first flight in September 1964, introduced one of the all time coolest looking aircraft to have been built, but the flight history of the Valkyrie was short with the final flight being made on February 4, 1969. Nonetheless, the test data gathered played a role in the later development of the B-1 Lancer.
JC Wings Sample
There's no denying the XB-70 is a seriously weird looking aircraft, but also a seriously impressively cool looking one too. The JC mould sample demonstrates this well and the fuselage shape looks good. One issue that is obvious though is the length of the nosegear, which on the sample looks too short. It gives the aircraft a nosedown attitude, when in photos the tip of the nose is always higher than the engine exhausts. The tyres should certainly always be beneath the nosegear door lower margin.
A quick bit of photo modification by me and you can see how much better the sample looks:
The XB-70 has quite an unusual nose, even for a supersonic aircraft. From above it has a wide flat look and large rectangular cockpit windows. The sample captures the cockpit region and nose shape well, at least until you get to the tip where the probe is much too large and thick, and the join point of it to the nosecone makes the nose itself not pointy enough. This could do with some work, but may be difficult to define better at this scale.
NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Once again, lengthening the nosegear improves the accuracy and look of the sample quite a lot.
RELEASE OPTIONS
AV-1 / 20001 First Flight Clrs
USAF, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
AV-1 / 20001 - After 3rd Test Flight with Missing Paint
AV-1 / 20001 NASA
AV-2 / 20207
SUMMARY
I've just been getting into military models in 400 scale so this is a very welcome release. From these photos the mould looks great in most areas but has two areas to work on still for me:
1. Lengthen nosegear leg to remove incorrect nose-down angle and move tyre under the gear door
2. Refine nose point and make the nose mounted probe smaller
1. Lengthen nosegear leg to remove incorrect nose-down angle and move tyre under the gear door
2. Refine nose point and make the nose mounted probe smaller
The Valkyrie always looked a little ungainly on the ground, so it would be fabulous to see a gear up version with the wings drooped too:
