Special Hobby 1/32 X-15-A2

By Ken Friend

Building a model of an X-15 should be one of those weekend wonders, right? A little glue, spray it flat black, and put it on the shelf...unless it is one of the CMK/Special Hobby kits...more like 8 weeks and a complete loss of eyesight! Just kidding of course....

I wanted something to fill out my North American Aviation collection. I already had a P-51D, P-82C, F-86F, and an F-100D; all in 1/32 scale. Then it dawned on me that the X-15 was also NAA. I bought the Special Hobby kit with the tanks and "ground dolly". Evidently this kit has had several iterations and continual improvement. It is a great kit, but not for the faint of heart or someone not willing to use tweezers. I was thinking "injection molded" when I bought it. However, it is a "limited run" injection molded kit. As such there are 167 injection molded parts, 82 beautiful resin parts, 52 photo-etched parts, and 142 decals. After overcoming a few glitches with the instructions I must say that this was one of the most "entertaining" builds I have ever done...


© Ken Friend 2013

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This article was published on Friday, January 18 2013; Last modified on Wednesday, May 15 2013