Gallery Key:  XB-30 mixed-propulsion bomber

My first Brickshelf posting, after over a decade of Lego creation.  The culmination of those years of building experience and a little inspiration from Brickshelf users too, this aircraft model displays probably my most sophisticated building techniques yet.  Stuff like mixed SOT/SNOT building, functional retractable landing gear, the "swept" leading edges (not "stepped"), the greatest degree of articulation and the greatest amount of internal and external features.  Try to not think about its mottled color, a consequence of my relatively small pool of Lego resources.

It is a model of a conceptual mid-'forties American medium bomber, of mostly conventional shoulder-wing configuration, powered by two R-4360 radial piston engines and two J-33 turbojets, the jets being mounted in the trailing edge of the piston engine nacelles.  For those of you really familiar with aviation history, you know that the Air Force designation B-30 was actually allocated to a Lockheed concept for a bomber version of their Constellation airliner.  Well, I used it anyway, because the Lockheed design was never anytyhing more than a study model too, and, um, I needed a number to put on this thing...

This list details the contents of each photo in the album in order of appearance.

b30-073:  Model shown in display configuration; no room anywhere to put it with its full wingspan.  Wings are detachable, the mechanism being detailed later.

b30-074:  Model as displayed, from another frontal angle.  Yes, it's not built with a complete color scheme; I simply don't have enough pieces to build something of this scale with color scheme in mind as well as shape and function, which are my first priority.  Here and there you will see bits where I could afford to build with color in mind.

b30-075:  View of tail, outer wings still detached.  Good view of stbd. jet exhaust and tail turret.  To make turret fully functional, able to slew left-to-right and up-and-down, required considerable trimming and modification of the suitable pieces I had.

b30-076:  Another view of tail turret.  Strips cut from a white vinyl decal were used to create framing for the gunner's canopy; this piece was actually made as a fighter canopy for an earlier MOC, but was just as suitable for the tail turret.

b30-078:  Starboard view of fwd. fuselage and stbd. engine.  The nose houses a radar, with four 20mm cannon behind it, two of which are visible here.  The aft-most pair, underneath the cockpit, are removable conformal gun-pack-type.  Again, vinyl decal strips created the windshield framing effect.  Note the large cannon pods on the belly, mounted to the bomb-bay doors.  I know no reasonable medium bomber of this era would have such things, but the pods, built for an earlier MOC aircraft, looked really cool and I wanted to use them anyway.

b30-079:  Closeup of stbd. radial engine and prop hub.  The angled rectangular opening below and behind the engine itself is a carburetor intake, while the large opening on the wing outboard of the engine nacelle is the turbocharger intercooler intake.  The propellers are a six-bladed contra-rotating type; again, modification of Lego parts was necessary to make them spin independently.  Above and behind the engine are the closed jet engine intake doors; more on that later.

b30-080:  Looking down the length of the airplane, now you can just see the jet air intakes above and behind the port engine opened.  The advantage of the doors is when the aircraft is cruising and requires minimum power, the jets are shut off and the doors cover the intakes to make the aircraft much more aerodynamically efficient.  For takeoff, bombing runs, or emergency maneuvers, the doors are opened and the jets run normally.  That's the idea, I mean.  Note also the dorsal remotely-operated turret, and the gunner's canopy at the base of the vertical fin.  This gunner controls both upper and lower gun turrets.

b30-081:  Detail shot showing one of the outer wing attachments.  Makes it easy to disassemble-reassemble; important when moving this heavy, delicate beast across country in a car.  And many other uses.

b30-082:  Fully assembled; view from forward and above.  Wingtip pods are fuel tanks; the long aerial trailing the starboard one is just for fun.

b30-083:  Fully assembled; view on front right quarter, from above.

b30-084:  View on aft right quarter from above.  Here you can see easily the "sweep" applied ot the leading and trailing edges of the wing, the first time I attempted it on a Lego aircraft.  Much much more convincing than the cruder "stepped" edges I traditionally used, which had the effect of "digitally" approximating an angled edge.

b30-085:  This shows the landing flaps and spoilers deployed.  Articulation of the flight control surfaces to this degree is also a first for me.  The ailerons, the red bits on the trailing edge, are also functional.  The two gray cylinders atop the engine nacelle are the piston engine exhausts, leaving the turbocharger.

b30-086:  Another view of the tail, showing the tail guns, elevators and rudder deflected.  The little round bit between them above the canopy is the housing for the tail gunner's targeting radar.

b30-087:  Looking at the underside of the model from behind the wing, where you can see the port-side main landing gear, the jet exhaust, and get an idea of the nacelle shape.

b30-088:  Closeup of the ventral turret, and the rear crew access hatch, opened.  Out of focus, but it was the best I got.

b30-089:  Detail of the port radial engine.  The little thingy on the top of the front of the engine cowling is the oil cooler intake.  Also another view of the opened jet intake doors.

b30-090:  Interior view, forward fuselage interior.  Side-by-side seating in the cockpit, followed by engineer's station, bombardier/radar officer's station, and navigator's station.  Just in front of the wing, the fwd. cabin meets the bomb bay crawl-over space.  (By the way, the hole next to the engineer's station was a crawl-space made for an earlier version, which had a glazed nose for the bombardier; this would be his access to it.

b30-091:  Closeup of forward crew access hatch, located under the radar officer's seat.  It opens to the forward landing gear bay, which the crew can climb through when the aircraft is parked, a la P-61.  A little oversized, being four studs wide, but sometimes you just gotta make do.

b30-092:  Another closeup of the radar officer's station with the fwd. hatch closed.  Atop it is his jump-seat, which is folded up for access to the hatch.

b30-093:  View of forward cabin, looking forward.  There is more interior, such as the crawl-space above the bomb bay, and the aft cabin which features the amidships gunner, two sleeping bunks, lavatory, and the crawl space under the tail to the tail gunner's compartment.  I just didn't bother to take a photo; not as interesting.

b30-094:  Closeup of cockpit canopy, giving a better idea of the look of the white vinyl decal strips used to give the effect of window framing.

b30-096:  View from straight on.  Notice the dihedral on the wings; using Technic parts, the outer sections are pinned inside the engine nacelle, and a little tab on the underside of the wing (you can see it in -087) props it up just enough to provide the slight upward angle (dihedral) that is appropriate for such an aircraft.  Otherwise, the model's heavy wings would simply droop, providing unintended and displeasing anhedral.

b30-097:  A view from the starboard front quarter, again showing the wing dihedral.

b30-204, b30-205:  Two views showing the port side of the aircraft at zero elevation.  Note the support under the tail; the fuselage is so heavy that the wing spars going through the middle of it, no matter how solidly built, are going to bow down.  This takes a little of the pressure off, and guards against the tail dropping.  (Takes a lot of ballast in the nose to make it sit on the nosewheel.)

b30-206:  View of the underside, showing off the extended landing gears, and a "clean" bomb bay.

b30-209:  Closeup of the starboard main landing gear, extended and in landing/takeoff configuration.

b30-211:  Starboard MLG, with the landing gear bay doors all opened for retraction.

b30-212:  Starboard MLG now retracted into the bay.

b30-214:  Starboard engine nacelle showing the landing gear bay doors fully closed.  Here again you can see the tab that props the outer wings up clearly.

b30-215:  Closeup of nose landing gear from port side, extended in takeoff/landing config.  The twin-wheel bogie is also steerable, just being a simple castor.

b30-217:  NLG now retracted into nose wheel bay.  Here you can also just see the underside of the fwd. crew access hatch.  Also note the LG bay doors; took me a really long time to come up with something that worked elegantly, looking something like such doors would really look open and closed, while being functional (hinged) AND allowing the wheels to fit between them.

b30-218:  Underside of nose showing the nosewheel bay doors closed, nose gear fully retracted.

b30-220:  Here is the aircraft in flight configuration (sans outer wings of course), its exterior completely "clean" with all doors closed.

b30-222:  Another flight-configuration view, from the underside and the rear.

b30-223:  View of open bomb bay door from starboard side.  Just the stbd.-side door is functional; ran out of the pieces I needed to make the hinges.  I wanted to make something that replicated the "snap-action" double-folding bomb bay doors used by most American bombers of the period and since, and still leave room inside the bay to put something in later.  These were the best I could come up with, however, approximating large single-piece doors that slide up and out from the bay.

b30-224:  Another view inside the bomb bay, looking down the length of the belly from the starboard side.  Note the roof of the bay coincides with the bottom of the wing spars that pass through the fuselage.