B70 Bomber Aircraft (Re-Issue)

In the '60s, experimental aviation merged with the infant plastic model industry to provide flights of high Mach fancy for young modelers... Like its speedy stablemates, the SR-71 and X-15, the XB-70 redefined the state of aeronautical engineering, but it was all but ignored by model makers. The ancient Lindberg oddball 1/180 scale (chosen to allow the model to fit in the standard box) for a while was the only injected kit available, and it certainly shows its age in the detail, overall shape and molding. The parts count is low (44 total), detail is lacking, and the fit is OK. Its major flaws are that the wing/fuselage intersection is wrong, and that the forward fuselage sports a noticeably shortened slab sided fuselage and distortion the distinctive shape of the airplane's nose. The model's only positive attribute is that it occupies less than half the display shelf real estate of the later monster AMT/ERTL 1/72 version that is 36 inches long(!).