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Jay Chladek

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Everything posted by Jay Chladek

  1. Jay Chladek
    No worries. About the only one who is likely to get the shaft on this is Rick Sternbach since he went ahead and did an aftermarket decal sheet for the upcoming kit and had a production run done. They just weren't released yet pending the kit coming out. Hopefully there are enough customers with Semroc and Apogee 1/70 Saturn Vs out there to make purchases should the Dragon kit be well and truly toast. I think it will eventually come out, but it could be awhile with things on the international fronts getting a bit "interesting".
  2. Jay Chladek
    To my knowledge, this kit hasn't even been issued in the Asian market at all. It does appear that Platz is offering some of the previously issued Dragon kits, but I don't anticipate they will issue a kit this large given they tend to stick with small scale subjects.
  3. Jay Chladek
    Your next LM after this should be the proposed AAP Apollo Telescope Mount intended for the original wet lab configuration Skylab. Beautiful work as always.
  4. Jay Chladek
    Ambitious project, but you have made an excellent start. Nice idea using Airfix nozzles.
  5. Jay Chladek
    Not yet. I don't expect it until March or April at the earliest. But if it does come out earlier, more power to us!
  6. Jay Chladek
    Another project I finished at the beginning of 2020. This was my last build of that year before Covid locked everything down. This is an out of the box build of Dragon's 1/144 SR-71 kit. All things considered, it is an excellent kit and I was able to finish it in under 10 hours. Some people knock the shape of this kit, but overall, I think it is a better representation of the SR-71 in this scale than the LS/Arii kit. Shape-wise, I believe Dragon copied and pantagraphed down the Hasegawa kit while adding some minor panel line detail as the two kits are eerily similar, down to the rudimentary co
  7. Jay Chladek
    I started work on this build in 2020 and finished the final clear coat about 10 months ago. This is the Minicraft/Entex/G Mark B-1A kit in 1/144 scale. This kit and the smaller 1/280ish "Sky Giants" B-1 from Academy are the only proper B-1A kits done in any scale as far as I know with the supersonic cruise intakes, wing gloves and the escape capsule. This model represents B-1A #74-0159, which was the second B-1 built and flown after it was used as a static test airframe. When the B-1 program was restarted by the Reagan administration in 1981, this aircraft and #76-0174 (the fourth
  8. Jay Chladek
    I won't be starting right away since I have a Revell 1/48 Blackbird on my workbench currently. But, I do want to try my hand at doing a 1/72 F-16B in Edwards Test Pilot School markings and this GB seems like the perfect excuse to build it.
  9. Jay Chladek
    Work continues. Originally in my review I didn't believe that Revell had represented the "pinch in" areas around the aft bypass doors properly on the kit. Here it is as visible on the SAC Museum jet: And here it is on the bottom of the nacelles: But as it turns out, Revell did make an attempt to represent these pinch in areas as there is a bit of a profile change on the nacelles. Unfortunately, due to how Revell represented the open doors, they do need some work to improve them since the dividers between the doors don't extend all the way into
  10. Jay Chladek
    I saw my first Revell of Germany SR-71 in the wild today at the local Hobbytown in La Vista, NE. Due to the pricing of their supplier they were only able to mark down to $115 and with tax in my state that brings it to about $124 or so.
  11. Jay Chladek
    Where does one sign up for this GB?
  12. Jay Chladek
    Very interesting. Sales tax which many sites are having to charge now will also add to the costs. Once again though, nice to have options. I do hope the Revell USA release of the kit is a less expensive alternative when it hits, but who knows exactly how long that will take. I know they are promising first quarter 2022, but there is still the possibility for supply chain issues.
  13. Jay Chladek
    Priced at about $99.99 plus shipping, which I figure will be close to $20 just because of the physical size of the box and weight of the contents. Aviation Megastore is where I got mine from in Europe for about $124.00 via Paypal after all was said and done. Very cool to have a stateside source though at least.
  14. Jay Chladek
    I have begun a Work in Progress thread on my build. You can follow along here: Work is progressing a little slowly at first, but it will gain speed as I go on. I started my work on the engine nacelles first instead of the cockpit and fuselage.
  15. Jay Chladek
    Next I moved to the engine exhausts. The flame holder area of the J58 engines is rather large and hollow, plus it takes up about a third of the length of the engine itself. To help simplify construction of this area and help prevent an exposed seam that would need to be dealt with on the inside, Revell molded the flame buckets as one piece tubes with a slight taper to them which gives them a forced perspective. The rings of the flame holders are molded as a separate piece which glues on at the front. The exhaust nozzle at the rear is also molded separately. You get four of these assemblies in
  16. Jay Chladek
    I've been slowly working on the new Revell SR-71 kit. Not because it is a bad kit, just because I am trying to take my time to ensure I don't mess it up given how expensive the kit is. Plus I am trying some things with it that are a little different from standard "out of the box" faire in order to help give some hints to you guys to help potentially improve your building experience. Rather than starting with the fuselage, I decided to start with the engine nacelles. The Squadron SR-71 Walk-Around book by James Goodall provides some nice references for the engine intern
  17. Jay Chladek
    Beautiful views Habu. All of them are golden. Now if only I could find shots of the SR-71B/C rear cockpits. That is one build I would like to do in the not too distant future. I'll be starting a WIP topic on my model very soon. Work had been rather slow, but I am advancing more quickly since yesterday.
  18. Jay Chladek
    Dayum! Which plane had that happen?
  19. Jay Chladek
    Please do, especially the noses!
  20. Jay Chladek
    Just to let you know, in the Research Corner I have added pictures of the SR-71 on display at the SAC Museum near Ashland, NE. This is the plane I referenced for my review.
  21. Jay Chladek
    Agreed. Serkan is VERY gifted. He does some very nice stuff!
  22. Jay Chladek
    Time for pictures of the J58 engine. These are important if you plan to build and display the ones in the Revell of Germany kit (the Revell USA kit will not have the exposed engines). The large tubes on the outside of the engine are air bypass tubes that operate primarily when the aircraft is at supersonic speeds as I understand it. The big feature most modelers will be curious about though is the flame bucket area (my term, I have no idea what the official term is). The inside is starts out sort of flat white, but it gets a little bit discolored over time. The coating material I think is cera
  23. Jay Chladek
    Honestly, I don't think so. The geometry is rather different between the two kits. Oh sure, with time and effort you probably could, but based on how much cutting and sizing up you would need to do (x2 because you have to build two of them) it would be a major buzz kill. Plus, there is a lofting bulkhead in the back side of each engine nacelle to help support how well things align when the housings are built. If you cut too much material out of those, it could be a mess. Honestly though, I don't think you need to go that crazy. Revell's approach of going with a forced perspective c
  24. Jay Chladek
    Now here's a focus on the landing gear struts and tires. The gear struts are a dark color, perhaps pretty close to a light (metallic) gunmetal shade with some bright silver bits for brake lines, attachment brackets, and the oleo areas. A modeler could really go to town with dry brushing here. The main tires have are impregnated with aluminum powder in the rubber to give them a silvery look. The main tires are simple rubber black. This particular aircraft was flown into Offutt AFB when it was retired in 1990. So the tire wear should be accurate, albeit maybe a little worn for a takeoff since th
  25. Jay Chladek
    Next, we look at the engine nacelles just underneath the tails. One thing I noticed is the nacelles feature a bit of a "pinch in" just before the air bypass door sections before the cross section flairs out again. I'm not sure if this boat tailing or "coke bottling" was due to area rule or something else. But it is uniform around both engines it looks like. It is very subtle, so I wouldn't bother adding it to a 1/144 or 1/72 model, but it could potentially be added to a model in 1/48 scale if one is careful. The profile change is most visible on the bottom of the nacelles where the shape blend
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