I have built many Cyber Model kits in the past year and I believe that they are getting better. This kit of the XB-70A is a real beauty. I might add that the scale is a little off from the standard but I can see the reasoning. The XB-70 is a truly huge aircraft.

One of the highlights of my stay in Columbus for the Nationals was a visit to the USAF Museum in Dayton. I had been there before, but I really wanted to see the XB-70 again and take some detail shots. At the time I didn’t know that a kit of this aircraft was coming out. I have one in 1/144 and one in 1/72 but they are just too big. This scale worked out just fine for my shelves.

Now, on to the kit. It’s molded in standard grey plastic. I would have preferred it in white to make painting easier. There are not too many parts and it was a very simple build. The landing gear is a work of art considering the small scale. One must remember that the tires were silver, not black. I believe that there was aluminium in the rubber for strength in high speed landings. I painted them steel and dry brushed them with silver.

All of the other parts were primed with Duplicolor automotive white primer. I then sprayed with Duplicolor white. Assembly was pretty straightforward. A nice touch was the complete cockpit with decal instruments. It’s just too bad that none of it can be seen once the fuselage is closed up. I loved the way that the cockpit just slid into a slot on the forward section of the fuselage which was a tube. Nice engineering on Cyber Hobby’s part.

The second section of the fuselage plugged onto the nose, leaving a little gap that needed filling and this piece needed some trimming to fit onto the top of the huge wing. Not really a big problem, but it did need some filler to look right.

Once the wings, fuselage and tailplanes were in place, I just plugged in the wingtips and the fit was perfect. The kit gives both the straight wingtips and the drooped ones to show as in the supersonic configuration.

I would like to note that there is a hole in the bottom of the big wing to put the model in a flying configuration with a stand. However, no stand is included. I filled mine in, since it was going to sit on the ground. As a reminder, put a lot of weight in the nose so it doesn’t become a tail dragger.

You are given two windscreens, one in the drooped mode and one raised as in the supersonic mode. This part was a thorn in my side as I couldn’t get it to slot into place. I just cut off the side window tabs and filled in later with thinned white glue.

The landing gear and doors fit perfectly and look just great.

As is standard with Cyber Hobby, the decals are by Cartograf and are terrific. The only problems I found was that they stick on contact, so it is advisable to keep them wet and use a setting solution. I also found one of the craziest things with these decals and that was that the USAF decal was broken down into separate letters. This made it a chore lining them up, especially since they stuck on contact. Mine came out OK but I think I just got lucky.

The only other complaint I had was with the weak instructions. They were better than the last few kits, but not ideal. I really would have liked the colors called out, especially when you have such strange things as silver tires.

Would I recommend this kit? YES!! I loved the details, the fit of the parts (except the windscreen) and the scale. I know I’m going to buy and build all the 1/200 kits that Cyber Hobby offers.

I wish to thank Cyber Hobby and Dragon Models USA for the sample and IPMS/USA for giving me this kit to review.