X-30 Supersonic Aircraft

[Scale-Master]

1988 Monogram kit of a fictional plane.    It's supposed to be able to fly at Mach 25.

This is four of the six parts of the plane.  (There are two more parts for the stand too.)  The fit was pretty good but there were a few shrink marks that had to be filled and a bunch of ejector pin spots too.

I shot it with Tamiya TS-100 as it is a close match to the color it was molded in, and the instructions show to use the plastic as one of the colors.

[Scale-Master]

I followed the painting instructions for the most part but used black in some of the places it called out dark blue.  (The box art has black/gray in those areas and it looks more believable.)

[Dave Van]

Cool!! I do not recall that kit and I ran a hobby shop in 1988!! 

[Can-Con]

4 minutes ago, Dave Van said:

Cool!! I do not recall that kit and I ran a hobby shop in 1988!! 

[Can-Con]

How big is this thing, Mark? 

I know it's 1/144. Looks to be about the length of a 707, is that about right?

[Dave Van]

Must have flown under my radar!!! We were a VERY NASCAR hobby shop in Charlotte but did carry all kinds of kits. Thx

[Scale-Master]

1 hour ago, Can-Con said:

How big is this thing, Mark? 

I know it's 1/144. Looks to be about the length of a 707, is that about right?

While it could be 1/144th scale, I think that is a misconception as the the stock number is coincidentally #1144.  There is no mention of scale on the box or instructions.

It's hard to figure the scale of a fictional subject with no known elements to scale off of, but judging from the windows (decals) I would guess it to about the same size an XB-70 Valkyrie. 

If so, that puts it closer to 1/200 scale.

 

[Scale-Master]

The kit decals were what one would expect considering the age and level of detail in the kit; not great and a bit out of registration, but at least decal solvent was mildly helpful on them.  However they do not react well with a hair dryer. 

The two red stripes on the underside refused to conform to the basic contours so I replaced them with Scale-Master silver decal stripes.

[Scale-Master]

I added more silver decal stripes for the color break on the tails too.