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Hi all,

Here's my latest project. The infamous Testors 1/48 SR-71.

lockheed-sr-71-blackbird-1-48-testors-aircraft-model-kit-7584.jpg

Ive started out with the TD cockpit and I am finding that the side walls don't really fit the tubs very well. They tend to hold it out of position. I have done a bit of work on the front walls to get them to fit in and look similar to the real deal. More work to come as you can see.

DSC00528.jpg

DSC00520.jpg

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DSC00521.jpg

The real deal..

SR-71Cockpit1336.JPG

The RSO's cockpit is worse for fit....

DSC00513.jpg

DSC00514.jpg

DSC00515.jpg

Has anyone had the same problems with fitting the sidewalls?

More to come....

Edited by nimrod77
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A story from an SR-71 Pilot

We trained for a year, flying out of Beale AFB in California, Kadena Airbase in Okinawa, and RAF Mildenhall in England. On a typical training mission, we would take off near Sacramento, refuel over Nevada, accelerate into Montana, obtain high Mach over Colorado, turn right over New Mexico, speed across the Los Angeles Basin, run up the West Coast, turn right at Seattle, then return to Beale. Total flight time: two hours and 40 minutes.

One day, high above Arizona, we were monitoring the radio traffic of all the mortal airplanes below is. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed.

“Ninety knots,†ATC replied.

A twin Bonanza soon made the same request.

“One-twenty on the ground,†was the reply.

To our surprise, a Navy F-18 came over the radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was.

“Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,†ATC responded.

The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walter’s mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace.

In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, “Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.†We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast.

I believe this story came from Brian Shul's book, "Why I Fly"

Please continue ;)

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We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast.

:woot.gif:BWAHAHAHAHAHA...!!! :rofl:

Noooiiiceee one, Mikko! :thumbsup: 'N' it oughta have been a looooooong way to the coast. Nay any more Navy fighter jocks wantin' to show off, huh? :lol: Great story; thanks for sharin.'

Cheers now,

Unc²

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  • 4 weeks later...

Whats up with this?

Sorry about ot ;) one story more :

As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I'm most often asked is "How fast would that SR-71 fly?" I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend. It's an interesting question, given the aircraft's proclivity for speed, but there really isnt one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute. Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual high speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Lets just say that the plane truly loved speed and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadnt previously seen.

So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, what was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird? This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and relayed the following.

I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England, with my back-seater, Walt Watson; we were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain when we received a radio transmission from home base. As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 fly-past. The air cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach. No problem, we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial refueling over the North Sea, we proceeded to find the small airfield.

Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze. Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing. Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze. We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from 325 knots we were at. With the gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable. Walt said we were practically over the fieldyet; there was nothing in my windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in hopes of picking up anything that looked like a field. Meanwhile, below, the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower in order to get a prime view of the fly-past. It was a quiet, still day with no wind and partial gray overcast. Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us but in the overcast and haze, I couldnt see it. The longer we continued to peer out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the awaiting cadets heard nothing. I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart stopped and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full forward. At this point we werent really flying, but were falling in a slight bank. Just at the moment that both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was) the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower. Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face as the plane leveled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass.

Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident. We didnt say a word for those next 14 minutes. After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was reaching for our wings. Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 fly-past he had ever seen, especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadets hats were blown off and the sight of the plan form of the plane in full afterburner dropping right in front of them was unbelievable. Walt and I both understood the concept of breathtaking very well that morning, and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low approach.

As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there-we hadnt spoken a word since the pass. Finally, Walter looked at me and said, One hundred fifty-six knots. What did you see? Trying to find my voice, I stammered, One hundred fifty-two. We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, Dont ever do that to me again! And I never did.

A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officers club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 fly-past that he had seen one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling off the tower and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows. Noticing our HABU patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just shook his head and said, It was probably just a routine low approach; theyre pretty impressive in that plane. Impressive indeed.

Little did I realize after relaying this experience to my audience that day that it would become one of the most popular and most requested stories. Its ironic that people are interested in how slow the worlds fastest jet can fly. Regardless of your speed, however, its always a good idea to keep that cross-check up…and keep your Mach up, too.Told by Brian Shul, Retired SR-71 Pilot

Edited by mikkod
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Hi all,

Here's my latest project. The infamous Testors 1/48 SR-71.

...

Has anyone had the same problems with fitting the sidewalls?

More to come....

In a word,

YES!! :bandhead2:

So I feel your pain, but I am making progress, the beast is almost ready for the first coat of primer. It will not be perfect, but I figure that the model is just so impressive on account of size and subject that nobody will be looking to see whether there are any imperfections (there are!) hidden by the black paintwork, and it is going nowhere near any competitions.

I've been fascinated by the Blackbird since my friend, we were both aged 10, built the old Revell 1/72 YF12A. A few years later I saw it at Farnborough in 1974 and biked to Mildenhall (near where I lived) the next day to see it fly in there. Impressive is too inadequate a word.

So stick with it Sir, look forward to seeing the end result.

Edited by MikeC
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I don´t know what it is, but all the Kits in my store seams to be a little show of horror .

I took a C-130 , 1:72 Italeri Kit and did a EC -130 V. Puhhhh Horror

In the moment I´m in a fight with a 1:48 V-22 Italeri Kit and its Horror

2 years ago I bought the testors SR-71 with true detail cockpit, and nozzles and wheels and I´m afraid to start it.

But thanks god I got a lot more of sh... in my store.

I´ll be following you to learn how to handle this kit.

Looking forward

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I also have a few of these kits to build in my stash, so this thread will be well worth watching.

Shaping up nicely so far !

Have you any thoughts about correcting the kit's infamous 'belly-bulge' ?

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Nimrod, very nice project. I have two of these kit waiting to be build. So, you keep up the good work cause I'll be following this one closely ;)

Mikkod, I'm happy to see that you really enjoy those stories by Brian. I will have to mention to him that he is famous among modeling communities as well. He loves models. In fact, when he was here at Beale he movies with a box full of models from Holloman AFB. So, he's really into these things as well. BTW, the name of his book is Sleddriver not Why I Fly.

Oh, you left out that after tower told them that they were doing 1,982 knots Walter responded that our equipment shows that we are doing 2,010 knots. To which the controller replied, you have a better equipment then us! :)

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Hey all,

As promised here are some pics of what I have been doing.

I have modified the RSO's IP to more accurately represent what the real deal looks like. Not 100% but better IMHO.

DSC00530.jpg

Like this one... kinda

http://www.sr-71.org/photogallery/blackbird/simulator/index.php?img=sr-71simulator-12.jpg

I have also chopped the sidewalls down on both cockpits to make the IP's and tubs fit in better.

DSC00532.jpg

The RSO's cockpit tub has had a bulkhead added to get the revised IP to fit better. The whole cockpit tub has tilted down at the front to give better clearance. It takes the pressure off the IP to hold the entire assembly in place, putting it back on the tub instead.

DSC00531.jpg

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Now, on to the promised dreaded Testors belly bulge (no not my belly bulge, the kits <_< )

Here's a before pic showing the dip in the belly.

DSC00541.jpg

As you can see there is quite a pronounced dip down at the front of the main wheel well. My thoughts were that the kit itself isn't incorrectly moulded, it simply doesn't have enough support underneath. My solution was two fold. In the centre of the belly, between the main wheel wells, I have built a supporting structure (blukhead) to raise the centre section up and level it out.

I have also added tabs on the sides of the lower fuse at the front of the main wheel well to level this area out. hopefully the pics clarify things :)

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And now after...

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I have also started scratching a new Nose wheel well as the kit one was WAAAYYYYY to shallow.

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Thanks to archybean for the help on the wheel well dimensions and pics

More to come as I get time to do it :)

Cheers guys!

Edited by nimrod77
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Well done on squeezing those tubs in there Nimrod and neat work on the gear bay too. :thumbsup:

The Blackbird is an outstanding airframe and this looks like being an outstanding build. Keep up the good work.

Also, thanks for sharing that slow-speed pass story mikkod, that was a smashing read. :D

The guys who flew these birds are something else. :worship:

:cheers:

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Indeed Nimrod's is the best (nose-)job that I've seen done on this kit.

A cracking job, sir !

Looking again at that belly......... there are lots of photos around that seem to show that the profile of the underside of the fuselage is basically a straight line from the back of the radome to where it starts to taper for the tail-cone. Is this assumption correct ?

( I hope these links are within the rules? )

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l20rc2ZZ1j1qzbcsao1_500.jpg

http://www.cloud9photography.us/Military-Aviation-9/Lockheed-SR-71-Blackbird/SR-71-00005-Lockheed-SR-71/385634230_v52Vx-L.jpg

http://www.airteamimages.com/pics/42/42929_800.jpg

Keith

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  • 1 month later...

Hey Guys,

I have done a little more, mostly to the cockpit.

I added some shiming around the back of the Pilots cockpit tub to make the fit better and added a bulkhead at the front, as I did with the RSO's cockpit. This helps with the fit of the side walls and IP. I also added a little wiring to avionics boxes in there :)

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I also decided that the True Details side walls were no good. So I had a go at making my own. The Vertical plasticard is there to cover a hole that appeared when I added the front bulkhead. It also has the added bonus of strengthening the front fuselage..

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I also found that the IP's centre console didn't line up with the tubs centre, so I have cut it off in preparation...

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More to come...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, I've done some more on the Nose wheel well and finished it...

DSC00730.jpg

And I've fitted it up onto the lower forward fuselage..

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I've added some detail to the nose strut. I've added landing and taxi lights along with the nose wheel steering actuator (well a sembelance of it anyway)

DSC00734.jpg

DSC00735.jpg

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I've fitted the ducktail to the back of the fuselage and added some plasticard for strengh...

DSC00753.jpg

I have been playing with the CE Exhausts that I was GIVEN (!). I've thined down the edge near the blow in doors of the tail feathers as instructed by the .. ummm... instructions :)

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And dry fitted the assembly together..

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Much better than the kit!!

They don't seem to be able to be fitted after assembling the nacells, and when they are dry fitted, they don't seem to line up flush with the top of the nacell. Has anyone had any experience with these?.....

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