ALF18 Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 Awesome mods to make this kit way more accurate! I have one to build; I use the aircraft as an example in an advanced aerodynamics class, and having the model will add a nice touch, but there is NO way it will be anything close to the way this beauty is turning out. The hardest part for you must be finding refs and other info, given the closed and secretive nature of the program over the years. I really enjoyed the Habu stories as well. The groundspeed check is something I must admit to having done myself (in a CF-5 when two buddies were flying a Tutor and struggling against a headwind) - but one of those true stories actually involved a Blackbird reference. One afternoon we were flying in a Tutor (the same aircraft as the Snowbirds), between Reno Nevada and NAS Alameda in the San Francisco Bay area. We were shorter on fuel than usual, with about 140 kts of wind on the nose, so we climbed up to 43,000 feet to try and find a layer where the jet stream was not quite as strong as it was in the mid 30-thousand foot ranges. Our fuel consumption was almost nil, but our groundspeed was not stellar either. In the hope of getting the best possible estimate of fuel remaining at Alameda, we asked for a groundspeed check (no such readout in the old Tutor). On the flight plan, the Tutor's code was "T-114", which obviously was Greek to the controller. The controller said "Cobra 54, you're grounding 183 kts..." and he kind of trailed off, before adding "ah, just what IS a T-114 anyway?" in his Southern drawl. My fellow instructor was very fast to reply. He motioned to me not to respond, clicked the mic, and said "you know the SR-71?". The controller responded uncertainly "yeah...", to which my friend said "well, it's NOTHING like that". The controller couldn't stop laughing as he handed us off to the next Centre controller. I don't know if any Blackbirds might have been on the same UHF frequency at the time, but I hope they appreciated the tribute. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted October 31, 2013 Author Share Posted October 31, 2013 Lol, Nice story Alf:-) yes reference is one of the issues with this build, but between some excellent books, the internet and some extremely helpful people here on ARC I am happy to say I'm getting there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jinxter13 Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 Looooooking very good I mine is still, in storage and if so that it is not crushed all to hades. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wolfgun33 Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 Really nice work on scratch building all the details. Very impressive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 Wow, very interesting subject and some masterful scratchbuilding skills! :thumbsup:/>/>/>/>/> Marcel Don't know about masterful Marcel. Your skills far exceed mine, but I try :)/>/>/>/> I have been working on the main wheel well and undercarriage and it's coming along nicely I think. I have rebuilt the main gear as they were pretty malnourished. I rebuilt the upper trunnion, filled the ejector pin marks with discs of punched styrene, rebuilt the torque links and replaced the axel with brass rod to make fitment of the wheels easier along with stronger. This is all the parts I have built so far for the undercarriage. Here is the wheel well and heat shields offered up to the MWW as a test fit (I know that one is in backwards :wasntme:/>/>/>/> ). I have started to plumb the wheel well using thick wire to re-produce the ECS ducting that runs along the front. The "Heat Wrap" is made from Tamiya tape, and the clamps are created with Milo tin foil. This is what it looks like all together so far. and with the old wheel well beside it.. I still have to finish plumbing the wheel well, and finish detailing the gear legs, but I've made a good dent in all that I want to do. More to come. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PetarB Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 This is all rather epic. Well done sir, well done! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pappy121 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 G'day Nathan, This is starting to take shape, looking really good, Pappy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesniF-16 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Wow that looks amazing! The actuators and the scissors links really turned out nice :clap2:/> /Jesse Quote Link to post Share on other sites
airea Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Wow that is simpy amazing. When comparing it to what I have done, you have made a very clean work especially on wheel wells, struts and actuators. How did you scratch build them so cleanly? Do you have a CNC machine;) Hats off sir;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Devilleader501 Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Holly cow I didn't know anyone made the SR-71 in 1/48. You Sir are doing this thing justice. Very nice scratch building. That thing is huge. I built the 1/72 version but it's tiny compared to yours. Great job man. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JMan Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 AWESOME, wheel well! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
66misos Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Hi nimrod77, fantastic build. I have the same kit, but still waiting for his time in the box, some 10+ years. Your thread is very helpfull how-to manual. Do you plan to scratch build also engines? Were those triangular RAM areas on the wing edges covered by metal or were they exposed having slightly different color in comparison to surrounding metal areas? Regards, 66misos Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 Hey 66Mios Do you plan to scratch build also engines? Nope. She'll be all buttoned up ready for flight so no point in expending all that extra work. I do have the CE Exhausts which add a lot to the engines. Were those triangular RAM areas on the wing edges covered by metal or were they exposed having slightly different color in comparison to surrounding metal areas? AFAIK if you mean the saw tooth edges on the wings, they were metal and flush with the surrounding surface. The Chines that ran from the wing roots to the detachable nose section was composite (I'm assuming carbon fibre). HTH, Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 Hi Guys, I've done a little more on the Blackbird... I've painted the main gear and started plumbing them. One thing I noticed on the scissor links, at the front there was a bracket that held the braided hydraulic lines shown here. My first thought was to create them out of plasticard. The problem with this was that they were extremely fragile and any movement of the lines or gear would cause them to break off, not to mention that they looked rubbish. I thought that brass etch would be a much better solution. SO after a bit of looking around in the old spares box I found some leftover brass from some Flightpath F-111 ladders. The outer part of the rung was the right width, it just needed to be trimmed to the correct length and bent to shape. This is the end result... I'm very happy with them and I believe they will be much stronger (not to mention better looking). During this time I also built up and added the door connection, Hydraulic.... um... things :) as seen here along with the finished bracket. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 I've also attempted to simulate the insulation applied to the wheel heat shields in the main wheel wells. I used a blob of Procreate epoxy putty, which I rolled out flat whist sandwiched between some baking paper to prevent it sticking. Once that was done, I wrapped it around my heat shields and then, once trimmed, I rolled the still soft putty around on my desk. Over any little bits and bobs left lying around to create the stressed look I can see in pictures. You can see the end result in the picture below, one finished, and one waiting for the same treatment. I pulled the cockpit out and detail painted that too to have a break from wheel wells and under carriage.. I did add a landing gear control handle, and a yellow and black handle in the upper left corner of the fwd cockpit too... Aft cockpit.. Thats it for this update. Thanks for checking in! :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ace Combat Zero Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 How exactly do you paint those buttons so precisely Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 (edited) How exactly do you paint those buttons so precisely Hi Ace, nothing magical mate. I use a 000 Sable artists brush and a tooth pick loaded with only a very small amount of paint. I did dry brush the whole assembly first to highlight the raised areas so I could pick them out easily. HTH Edited January 26, 2014 by nimrod77 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Awesome skills Nimrod, very impressive work so far. This should be quite the beauty when she's all finished. Looking forward to your next update. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
airea Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Impressive and very clean scatch building, I really envy you;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted January 23, 2014 Author Share Posted January 23, 2014 Thanks for the comments guys. I've painted up the wheel heat shields and I'm pretty happy with how they came out.... I hope that they look somewhat like this, once they are weathered of course.. I decided that after all the work I've put into the main gear that the nose gear needed some love too. I removed the simplified drag strut from the back the the associated door mechanism and scratched up some new ones in a combination of copper tube and plastic stock. I had already added the landing and taxi lights from MV lenses previously. The real thing looks like this.. Kit part before.. and after.. And the door. The kit part was REALLY thick. If it was that thick in real life you could use it as a BBQ plate! I built the new one by heating some thin sheet in hot water whist being taped to my large hobby knife. Once I removed it it had a good amount of curve to it. Kit.. Mine.. Sorry about the quality of the photos. I'm only using my crappy phone camera. Thanks for dropping in again guys :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted December 30, 2014 Author Share Posted December 30, 2014 Hi all! Once again I resurrect my Blackbird build after finally getting some down time over Christmas. The main gear are finished.. You can see the amazing detail that is on these wheels from Fisher models. Main wheel well plumbing installed... looking aft And fwd.. Wheel cans test fitted.. and weathered.. Actuator cross braces installed with the actuators test fitted.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted December 30, 2014 Author Share Posted December 30, 2014 And the wheel well finished apart from a little bit of painting/detail on the actuators to allow movement for now.. I have installed her main wheel well. The gear are still loose in there (they can move as if they were retracting/extending) to allow me to align them once she is standing on her own feet. Something else I started AGES ago was the TEOC cameras for the side recce bays.. This bird has EYES!! I'll polish those windows before masking and painting them. As a side note, does anyone know what the inside of the recce bays look like? Are they heat shielded (blankets) like the nose wheel well is?? Speaking of nose wheel wells I have added the heat shielding to the front and started a little detail painting.. The heat shield ribs were created by laying little strips of solder onto some aluminum foil. These were glued down with some white glue and then the whole lot glued into the wheel well... More to come over the holidays!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Viper316 Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Glad to see you back at it! Looks fantastic. Rod Quote Link to post Share on other sites
KRI76 Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Spectacular work! /Kristian Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted December 30, 2014 Author Share Posted December 30, 2014 Thanks guys! Gonna try and get this bad boy done over the holidays. Cockpit install next then I can button her up! I'm still waiting patiently for Master to drop his SR-71 Pitot probe before I finish off the nose I built. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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