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Armory 1/72 XB-70 Engine Exhaust Nozzles

By Mike Whye

If you have an 1/72 XB-70 kit, originally made by AMT/ERTL and now by Italeri, and you have looked for some after-market parts, you've learned that you may have a better chance to see a real XB-70 fly over your house than to find more than a couple aftermarket offerings. The first aftermarket item that I've seen until recently was Scale Aircraft Conversion's white metal landing gear which some might regard as a better way to hold up such a large assembled model than the plastic landing gear in the kit.

A second aftermarket item recently surfaced--Armory's limited edition 1/72 photo-etched XB-70 engine exhaust nozzles.  Armory is an aftermarket manufacturer about which I know just a little.  In the Ukraine and Russia, it has concentrated mostly on resin and photo-etched aftermarket items for Soviet and Russian-built armor and military vehicle kits.  It has also created some items primarily for Russian and Soviet aircraft such as bombs and rockets although it also markets items for other kits such as tracks for a U.S. M24 Chaffee, 1/72 cockpit details for a Ta-152, 1/72 M134 miniguns and 1/48 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff missiles.

Apparently Armory decided the XB-70 kit needed some refinement which is about time considering the kit came out many moons ago and could use some help. I like cockpit interiors although I suppose improving this kit's interior isn't worth the money since it can hardly be seen once the clear windshield is glued in place.  Maybe Armory feels the same way and decided to improve an area that can be readily seen--the exhaust nozzles of those six big engines which drove the real plane to Mach 3.

You get a photo-etched sheet of 42 pieces, most relating to the engine nozzles.

Each engine has a double set of afterburner rings and interior and exterior portions of the nozzles.  After assembling these and cutting away the lip at the rear of the kit's engine nozzles which are on Kit Part #39, the engine bulkhead, you can slide the photo-etched nozzles into place.  They look far better than the nozzles supplied with the kit. 

Although I have not assembled any of Armory's engine exhaust nozzles, I'd at least think about using the kit's engine exhaust nozzles--Kit Part #40--as forms to wrap the photo-etched nozzles around when assembling them.

Beside the engine nozzles, Armory provides a few other details that fit in the model's rear near the engine nozzles and atop what look like vents at the forward fuselage and atop the wings.

With this kit, every little detail helps so consider buying Armory's 1/72 XB-70 exhaust nozzle photo-etch kit, # peA7210. It comes with a set of instructions on how to form the pieces for the nozzles and how to place the vents.

Thank you to Armory for the review set of exhausts.