nimrod77 Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) Hi all, I have recently decided that I want to build one of testors infamous 1/48 SR-71 kits. The first thing I noticed is that he nose section seems to be the wrong shape. Does anyone have pictures of a real SR-71's nose from underneath or above showing the correct outline? I'm looking mainly for the ASARS-1 nose shape. Thanks guys ! Edited September 27, 2011 by nimrod77 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tricose Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Try calling Lockheed's Main Office in California. They are generally pretty helpful. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ReccePhreak Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 You should be able to find the info you need here: http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/sr-71~1.htm Larry Former SR-71 Sensor Tech Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted September 11, 2011 Author Share Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the info Recce Freak. I found the sensor noses and I notice that some had what look like RWR recievers on the nose. Is that normal for all the SR-71 Noses? The image below is of plans I downloaded from here. This one is the original image scaled to fit at the back (where the cockpit/nose section joins to the fuselage of the kit) This makes the chines on the kit too narrow. This one has the image skewed to fit the kit's chine profile. Makes the whole thing more narrow.. And here are the two composited together...The red shows the skewed image ontop of the original. The kits nose is at the bottom. And here is the kits nose shape overlaid on the original plans... odd isn't it... I think that I will probably fix the outline of the kits nose to suit the nose shown here.... well thats the plan anyway. Of course I'm not sure as to how accurate the plans are from skycorner either... Anyone tried this before? Any comments/ideas? Cheers, Nathan Edited September 11, 2011 by nimrod77 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ReccePhreak Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 You are correct about the RHAW bumps on the A-2 nose. The A-1 nose did not have them. It's been so long since I worked on the OBC and other SR-71 cameras, that I can't remember if both the SLAR & optical noses came in the A-2 style. I am sure they did though. Larry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MiG31 Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 I've wondered when the RHAW nose entered service. When building my Monogram SR-71 I had thought about finishing it as 961, the aircraft on display at the Cosmosphere, but I was unable to uncover any photos showing it with the indents. (I could have filled in the indents, but I wanted to leave them on as an added bit of character.) Eventually I opted to build 964, which was in service longer than 961, and had actually worn the indents and other modernizations. Was there a shape difference between the SLAR and OBC noses apart from the provision for the camera windows? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ReccePhreak Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Was there a shape difference between the SLAR and OBC noses apart from the provision for the camera windows? Only on the bottom of the nose, to accomodate the space needed for the OBC and its windows. Larry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Uncle Uncool Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Very interestin' thread, Nathan! I started tamperin' with the Testor/Italeri 1/48 Sled kit some time ago. Aside from the fact that the Testor/Italeri Sled is still the only game in town in 1/48, it's a nice kit as a base to build an impressive replica of the SR-71A; all the other versions I honestly ain't interested in. Unfortunately, the kit is plagued with flaws 'n' inaccuracies of varied 'n' diverse sorts. A month ago I found on Britmodeller yet another flaw I hadn't ever been aware of: Scroll down to post #37 Regardin' the height of the fuselage in the cockpit area Hope it helps. As for this kit, so far I had realised 'bout the misalignment of the nose landin' gear well with respect of the longitudinal axis of the fuselage, too shallow nose wheel well, the wrong shape of the nose, the narrow chines, the wrong shape of the windshield, the awful bulge around the main landin' gear wells, the wrong wheels, afterburner cans 'n' exhausts, 'n' the slots on the wing/fuselage section bein' too deep. :wacko: This is not to talk 'bout the need to get an aftermarket cockpit 'n' rescribe all panels. Fortunately, most of these issues are easily fixed. However, fixin' the nose 'n' chines is quite challengin' indeed! Just wanted to ask ya with regard to the ASARS-1 nose: is it the one in the picture ya posted; the one havin' the Habu drawin' 'n' RHAW bumps on it...? Can't seem to quite understand yer plans either; would ya explain 'em to me a tad better, please? Thanks, bloke! Cheers there, Unc² Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Griffin Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Very informative thread. Just found a box of the YF-12 at fair price and compared with the SR-71 clear parts. The YF-12 ones looks much closer to the real deal, in shapes. Not a specialist, but are the windshield and front canopy not supposed to be ( almost ) the same ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MiG31 Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Not a specialist, but are the windshield and front canopy not supposed to be ( almost ) the same ? I wish I could remember the source, but I recall reading that they are, indeed, identical. I suspect the same is true for the A-12, as well. It was that knowledge that led me to use the Italeri YF-12 cockpit section for my Monogram SR-71 build. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 I have done a little bit of work tonight on creating a new nose for my Blackbird. I started with this... Transferred and cut out those shapes on 1mm thick plasticard, then glued it all together and filled the voids with miliput. It has turned out like this... The real profile I'm trying to achieve... Don't get too excited, I'm still not sure if it is going to come out how I want. If it works, you guys will be the first to know :) Cheers! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Uncle Uncool Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Lookin' good, Nathan! Ya goin' to shape "them" RHAW bumps later? Cheers, mate Unc² Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Diamondback Six Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Per the books I've read (which is everything I've been able to lay hands on over my entire life) on the Blackbirds, F-12 cockpit was raised a few inches for better visibility as a look-down shoot-down interceptor. Trivial note, as far as I've seen no -B had nose RHAWS--I know it's not related to your build, but just thought if a B-builder stumbled in they might want to know. Almost makes me think the Testor kit is trying to be an M-21 or A-12T, except that all A-12/M-21 variants had triangular nose-chines with almost no curve in their plan-view. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Griffin Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Should be a little higher on the YF-12 than SR-71? But always the same ( basically ) canopy ? If so, it would be a shame to butcher a perfectly good YF-12 in 1/48, just for the clear parts ( SR-71 ones are too wrong to look good, a correction canopy set is really missing here...) The card squeleton and milliput, sounds like a good solution! Remembers me a home vacform experiment, with almost the same process: You see the idea.... :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MiG31 Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Per the books I've read (which is everything I've been able to lay hands on over my entire life) on the Blackbirds, F-12 cockpit was raised a few inches for better visibility as a look-down shoot-down interceptor. I suspect it had more to do with making room for the enormous radar unit in the nose. Should be a little higher on the YF-12 than SR-71? Yes, but by how much I cannot say. I can say, however, that for my 1:72 build I had little difficulty getting it to fit in the SR-71 forward fuselage. (The hardest part was fairing it in on either side.) I'm planning a similar approach with an A-12 model, using the entire nose section of the Italeri SR-71 grafted onto the Monogram kit. The nose will still need to be shortened (and I suspect that would have to be done for converting the 1:48 SR-71 into an A-12), but I think it lends itself well to the Oxcart's nose layout. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Diamondback Six Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 YF and planned F-12B both had the raised 'pit--not sure if it was front only or both.<br> Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 Lookin' good, Nathan! Ya goin' to shape "them" RHAW bumps later? Cheers, mate Unc² That's the plan Unc. Still sanding and finishing the nose, then I'll worry about the RAWS ant. If anyone is up to the challenge of a corrected vac form canopy, I'd be in! Cheers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Should be a little higher on the YF-12 than SR-71? But always the same ( basically ) canopy ? More than likely the same basic canopy to keep things equal on the parts line. I don't know if visibility was the real reason why the canopy was moved up on the YF-12, but it seems the primary culprit was the AN/ASG-18 radar as its housing resulted in a bit broader round cross section to the front of the plane and that seems to be what causes the YF-12 cockpit to sit higher (the nose gear bay sits at about the same level, so below the nose it doesn't look like the shapes were altered much except for the missile bays. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted September 19, 2011 Author Share Posted September 19, 2011 (edited) Ok, I've done some sanding and playing around with the shapes and come up with this so far... And here you can see how it will blend in with the fuselage... I've tried to make it as easy as possible to attach without modifying the fuselage. Although I do believe that, as unc's post pointed out, that the cockpit is too low down and doesn't give the correct profile I'm not going to try and fix that at the moment or I will be here forever correcting. Main reason is though that I'm not exactly sure how to fix it! Any way, if anyone has any tips as to how this nose should be changed to make it more accurate let me know. Cheers, Nathan Edited September 19, 2011 by nimrod77 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted September 19, 2011 Author Share Posted September 19, 2011 Another question for the Blackbird Guru's, do all blackbirds have these scoops? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sergei Galicky, Russia Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Good work, nimrod77! How about a resin copy nose SR-71? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MiG31 Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Another question for the Blackbird Guru's, do all blackbirds have these scoops? I'm not entirely certain, but my understanding is that they started to appear in the late 1970s. The "big-tail" aircraft, 959, has them. Aircraft 961, which was retired in 1977, does not. I suspect they appeared around the same time as the RHAWS indents, though they do not appear to be interconnected. According to this page, they're related to the ECM suite. They look like scoops, but they're solid objects. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 You are correct about the RHAW bumps on the A-2 nose. The A-1 nose did not have them. It's been so long since I worked on the OBC and other SR-71 cameras, that I can't remember if both the SLAR & optical noses came in the A-2 style. I am sure they did though. Larry Hey Larry, Was the A-1 nose the plain sharp edged nose, and the A-2 essentially the same shape, except for the RWR receivers? If I used the nose I have made as is now, would that be accurate for an A-1 nose? Thanks mate! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Diamondback Six Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 (edited) Wait a minute, are we talking SR-71A-1/SR-71A-2, or A-12/SR-71? A-12 was IIRC primarily optical, one huge camera behind the pilot in what became the GIB's hole. Edited September 21, 2011 by Diamondback Six Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ReccePhreak Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 (edited) Hey Larry, Was the A-1 nose the plain sharp edged nose, and the A-2 essentially the same shape, except for the RWR receivers? If I used the nose I have made as is now, would that be accurate for an A-1 nose? Thanks mate! The nose you are making would be an A-1 nose, unless you add the RWR bumps. Note that there was an "optical" A-1 nose, as well as a SLAR A-1 nose. Same for the A-2 noses. The nose you made would be an "A-1" SLAR nose. Larry Interesting tidbit: The noses were attached to the main airframe with only 4 latches, about 1" wide, clamping onto pins less than 1/4" in diameter! Edited September 21, 2011 by ReccePhreak Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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