Testors 1/48 SR-71 Blackbird

[airea]

Hi everybody,

I am fairly new to the hobby, it has been less than 2 years since my first build (a revell fa-18). Currently I have around 10 builds under my belt, mostly being 1/48 jets. I have learned a lot from these forums, I visit forums regulary, follow others' builds and I am learning new stuff everyday. This is my first WIP topic, so I will be more than happy to hear your comments and critiques.

I have always liked SR-71, it is an iconic aircraft with a mean appearence:) It was impossible to find Testors' 1/48 kit in my country, so I have ordered it to a friend returning from USA. At the beginning, I was just thinking of buildng it out of the box but while I was searching for some build threads on the net, I have seen Justin McCracken's amazing build topic in Aeroscale forums:

SR-71 Build

After seeing what he has done on the kit and how simply and clearly he has decribed what he has been doing, I have decided that I should take the challenge as a learning experience and try to mimic what Justin done in his build. From the start of the build, I should thank him for his very informative build.

Here is the box shot, as a WIP tradition:)

After opening the box and examining the sprues, I saw that the parts count is very low, the plastic is very soft to work on and there are a lot of flashes and ejector pin marks (or whatever they are called) everywhere. There are some "made in the USA" stickers on sprue bags and I guess this kit should have been manufactured or (tooled) in 80's, otherwise you would not be proud of the quality of the molding when compared to standarts of the most current kits:) After some months in the build process, I must say that this kit is about rescribing, dryfitting, sanding, filling, sanding again, filling again, and so on.

Anyhow, after seeing Justin's build, I decided to rescribe the whole kit, as it had fully raised panel lines. Rescrbing is something I have never done before, so I thought it would be a good learning experience with the soft plastic of the Testors' kit and very flat and easy surfaces of the model. However, at the beginning of the rescribing process, I was really frustrated; it took a lot of my time, I made lots of mistakes, cleaning the newly engraved line was total PITA, etc. But luckyly, I saw a rescribing tutorial on the net (I was not able to find it again), which was recommending to drop just a very small amount of extra thin cement for engraved lines in order to clean them. Capilary action is making the cement flow thru the lines and cleaning the residues. Wet sanding was also important.

These are the tools that I have used during the recribing process:

I don't have a rescriber, just doing it with a big needle that I found in my wife's sewing kit:) But I am very happy that I bought Verlinden's rescring template, these templates are must for this work I guess. For the mistakes, I used CA glue or Tamiya's white putty. After some weeks of rescribing, I have erased all raised lines and recribed the new lines. By the way, I also have a rivet maker and tried to make a few of rivets but it is a little difficult and I will return back to riveting when upper and lower fuselage parts are fixed.

These wing parts with diagonal lines have been the most difficult parts to recribe, or lets not say difficult but boring maybe:)

Rescribing is more or less completed, after completing landing gear bays, completing cockpit and joining fuselage halves, I will smoothen the surface with wet sanding.

Thank you for following....

[airea]

Hello again,

After completing rescribing work, I started dealing with the engines. The engines of the kit are very big, like the kit itself. Engines are of the size of a 1/48 f-16:)

Generally speaking, the fit of the kit is not good and this also applies for the engine nacelles. After rescribing the roundy surfaces of the nacelles, I have glued the two main parts of the nacelles and joined the afterburner cans (whatever they are called for SR-71).

As you see, a lot of putty and filling is required for joining the parts. Wet sanding took a lot of my time for a smooth surface. When engines are joined with the fuselage, I will be priming the whole kit and sanding for a better surface. But there are months to that I guess:) The front end of the nacell is a little delicate to work, you must be very careful not to sand more than needed loose the shape.

The conical thingy in front of the engine air intakes are completed but I will glue them later, during the painting process.

[Netz]

Nice start, If you might need any reference photo's I have an SR in the back yard...

I built one ages ago and remember allot of flexing that plagued me fill work, mainly it's in the main Fuselage,being so long and thin. Also a bit of Steel Wool will improve that final sanding you've done.

Curt

Edited December 22, 2013 by Netz

[airea]

Now it is time for the cockpit.

I will be keeping the canopy closed, so I dont want to add details to kit offerings. I just cleaned the parts and glued them with very basic painting and shading.

Here is the cockpit tub:

And the upper fuselage part containing instrument panels of the kit. As you see, the detail level of the kit is very poor but the panels will be barely visible from the cockpit glass.

Another poor part of the kit is the cockpit glass, which has a very bad molding and the transparancy is terrible. There were some molding errors on the clear plastic, I have cleaned them with different grades of sanding paper. Then I have polished it with tooth polish powder and Tamiya's polishing compound. Than gave the parts a future bath but still the parts' transparancy is not good. Anyhow, I will settle with what I have, I didnt want to loose too much time on that

I joined the canopy and filled the gaps with Tamiya's White putty. After joining the cockpit tub with the rest and closing the fuselage parts, I will prime and sand the part for a smoother finish.

Thanks...

Edited December 22, 2013 by airea

[airea]

Nice start, If you might need any reference photo's I have an SR in the back yard...

I built one ages ago and remember allot of flexing that plagued me fill work, mainly it's in the main Fuselage,being so long and thin. Also a bit of Steel Wool will improve that final sanding you've done.

Curt

Curt, thanks a lot for the offer. You are very lucky to see this iconic aircraft in real:)

I will sure apply you for reference photos. I am not really giving importance to absolute accuracy. But for some detail work, the real deal is the best to mimic, instead of just adding some scracthbuild parts in order to achieve a, say, busy landing gear bay:)

salih

[airea]

Hello again,

The landing gears and the gear bays of the kit are really very simple. I am not really addicted to accuracy but just for the sake of improving (in fact for learning scratchbuilding) my scrathcbuilding skills, I decided the copy what Justin has done in his build. First, I cut the kit's original landing gear bays, which was quite easy thanks to the soft plastic.

I started with the forward landing gear and its bay. I have scratchbuilt landing gear bay out of styrene sheets of 1 mm thickness. You can see a detailed description and dimensions for the bays here in Justin McCracken's build: Landing Gear Bays I have foiled inside walls of the bay but now I think this was not really necessary:)

The main landing gear bays have a corrugated structure in them, I did now have corrugated plastic sheets, so I just glued 0,5mm thick rectangular rods to a plain sheet with 1 mm spacing.

Now the fun part starts. I started adding some plumming inside the front landing gear bay. This is the real thing:

For the nitrogen tanks (or what ever they are in the real aircraft), I bought plastic balls from a local jewellery shop (five of them for 50 cents:)) and used my dremel like a lathe tool to sand their sides for the required shape.

Then started working on the other parts of the front gear and bay.

[airea]

Here is the final result. I will join front landing gear and its hydrolic actuator after glueing the bay to the main fuselage.

Of course, there will be priming, Alclad and detail painting sessions for the gear bays, once the fuselage is fully closed.

[airea]

I have started working on the main landing gears. First, I have added some plastic parts.

I am using soldering wire for plumming and very thin brass tubes for the things that are used for attached the hydrolic lines to the main structure. Cutting brass tubes to tiny parts was very difficult at the beginning but thanks to forums and previous disccussions, I learned to cut them but gently rolling the knife. Yes, the edge of the knife gets like a saw after a few cuts but a cheap modelling knife is not a big price for this process I guess. And you end up with a useless modelling knife but you get a small modelling saw in the end, since the edge is now acting like a saw:)

This is so far where I am today:

And these are my tools for scratchbuilding landing gears:

I was using modelling knives for detail works but I found out that razor blades (I dont know if they are still available in your countries) are way more sharper and cheaper than expensive modelling stuff. I pay 1 usd for five of them. They are great especially for foiling works.

salih

[VMFA314Knights]

I remember building this kit and doing lots of sanding and filling. Wow, you're doing a great job with this one.

This kit always attracts a lot of attention on the shelf (especially in 1/48!) as the aircraft still looks futuristic despite its age.

Cheers,

David

[daywalker]

You are off to an amazing start here, looking forward to following along with your build. I like your style of building, trying best to replicate missing details without going overboard and bogging down the build.

[rom]

hi!

impressive work so far!

,^)

the rendering of your plumbing work is perfect!

Romain

[toadwbg]

Amazing work! I built this kit back in the 80s when it was first released! I don't envy the putty work.....

My interest in the SR-71 has been rekindled as of late, I ordered the 1/72 Academy kit last week.

[Check Six]

Awesome start to a beautiful a/c !

[A-10 LOADER]

WOW, Airea if this is one of your first attempts at scratchbuilding I'd say your doing great. Very well done and very creative idea using the beads. Everything looks really good especially the gears. Keep up the great work.

Steve

[nicholassagan]

Wow. That's some damn fine detailing work you're doing...

[SERNAK]

Simply WOW !!!!

[nimrod77]

Looking good! I'm building the same thing at the moment. It's funny to see that you are tackling some of the short comings of the kit in the same way that I am.

Keep it coming!

[Jinxter13]

If anyone decides to do this kit hence forth, the instruction sheet is for reference, this thread is the blueprint. What you are doing is showing all how this kit should be built :worship: .

[mikkod]

Nice start! I remember when i opened this...my first reaction was "WTF"....

[nimrod77]

Nice start! I remember when i opened this...my first reaction was "WTF"....

I had the same reaction Mike 😃 Only game in town at 1/48 though....come on Tamiya! where's or new tool 1/48 Blackbird?

[airea]

Hello everybody, thank you all for your nice words, I am really encouraged more, being a novice modeller!

I am not having much modelling time lately, but I have more or less finished the landing gear wells. After the landing gear struts, the inner sides of the wells were a little easier to work for wiring and plumbing.

Because of the installation process that I am planning, I had to paint hydrolic actuators and oleo's with Alclad chrome. I did not have enamel gloss black available (in fact I had half a bottle of MM gloss enamel black but somehow it turned out to be something like dried puding:) I guess MM enamels are not durable over time, I am not planning to use them anymore, they have been a waste of money for me) so I used Tamiya acrylic flat black and then brushed future on it for a shiny surface. I am more or less satisfied with Alclad chrome job. There are lots of glue residues visible here and there after Alclad but nobody has macro lens sights and I dont think that anyone will notice them when everything is in place:) But now the question is: How am I going to mask Alclad chrome when painting the rest of the gear wells and struts with a different shade of Alclad? It is said that chrome is not getting on well with masking tapes, but I guess I dont have any other option other than tamiya masking tape.

Now it is time for installing the landing gear wells to the main body. I made a lot of dry fitting and sanding for finding the correct matching points for the parts but it will be a difficult task for me to attach the wells without damaging those delicate and tiny parts. I am planning to use a cage-like protective thing for the gears, for which I will be modifiying those plastic thingies that Pizza Hut puts in its pizza delivery boxes:) After gear wells, it will be the time for matching upper and lower fuselage bodies. There are some large gaps there. For the first time, I will be using strecthed sprue and home made plastic putty, which I have made using cellulose based thinner and sprue parts.

Thanks for following...

[Shaka HI]

Hello everybody, thank you all for your nice words, I am really encouraged more, being a novice modeller!

[..]

Thanks for following...

Novice modeler? You're being way too modest!

[nimrod77]

I am more or less satisfied with Alclad chrome job.

Love what you have done airea! Just a note though, the main colour of the landing gear on the black bid is more black than chrome. Have look here to see what I mean...

http://cs.finescale.com/mobile/forums/thread.aspx?ThreadID=111776

[airea]

Novice modeler? You're being way too modest!

Seriously, this is my first scratch building attemp, if you do not count a few small wiring jobs on my previous builds;) Thanks to Justin mc Cracken's great work in progress thread in Aeroscale, I was able to do this. He has a very nice and detailed build blog there. And on the other hand, when comparing what some experienced modellers do here, I really have a lot to learn;) I have not even made a camo paint yet on any aircraft;)

Edited January 11, 2014 by airea

[airea]

Love what you have done airea! Just a note though, the main colour of the landing gear on the black bid is more black than chrome. Have look here to see what I mean...

http://cs.finescale.com/mobile/forums/thread.aspx?ThreadID=111776

I used chrome only for the oleos ( or whatever those shiny parts in hydrolic actuators are called) but I have oversprayed it, covering some portions of the gear struts as well. And you are right, I am planning to paint the rest of the gear wells with a darker shade of Alclad, steel mixed with some burned metal maybe.

Edited January 11, 2014 by airea