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1/72 Italeri SR-71 Blackbird


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Thank you all for the support.

All of this was easy, real work will start soon. Because fit on this kit is horrible,so it will be challenge to make it seamless without destroying

all that panels and rivets. And not to fill rivets with primer an paint. Also, to correct front / nose will not be easy,some serious work needs to be done. Plus all the rest.

But,one step at the time,let's hope for the best :)

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Working a little on vertical stabilizers...

On the right,you can see original kit part,no details,wrong,so I correct it,as you can see on the left.

It's not perfect,but for 1/72 it will pass :)/>

pic of stabilizers

:) like twins :)

btw. what's that tool you are using for rivets?

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Working a little...

Start to battle ventilation plates,which on original kit looks bad.

lC1WKNi.jpg

After 2 evenings,I manage to cut all of the main plates. It will be replaced by the Eduard PE.

Must say,very hard work,because Eduard PE have different dimensions,so I need to cut extremly precise,so PE plate fill fit 'perfectly'

and ,let's hope so, no seams will be evident on the edges after painting. (hope a little fill and sand will help)

On the image,you can see cut work

ORRr0Bw.jpg

Also,I decide not to rebuild rear wheel well,as many does on they builds, because I think it will look ok when I done all the work with it.

rqc1mAm.jpg

For now,I just play with ribbed floor that missing on the kit,after more work,it will be ok.

28Gjn1d.jpg

I done Defensive Electronics Sensors,those 2 little bulges. It look pretty messy now,more work to do in this region.

Also,you can see I fill the front camera window,it's seamless now, as I decide to do CAPRE nose,which don't carry the camera.

YQuY5Y3.jpg

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Dad bought me this kit when I was about 12 and I thought it was awesome, but what you're doing really is awesomely awesome! You've done a superb job with all the scribing. I may have to do this once I've practiced my skills a bit more.

Bravo, and please keep sharing your great work.

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Start to work on exhaust.

On the kit,exhaust is wrong, because is to shallow ,have '2D' rings,not much details... so I need to correct this.

Image of the stock exhaust

ynV7xE8.jpg

First,removed those 2D rings ,and make bigger hole,as you can see on the right piece

jYAnHll.jpg

Then,I need to create deeper space,because first ring starts more inside then on the original kit.

Use some plastic tubes,and add mesh to create some details inside the tubes.

4ndc7a2.jpg

After that,need to make rings. Fiddly job must say, in 1/72 everything is so small,and it's hard to make descent shape od wires,spaces,gluing all that...

yJ9U91N.jpg

It will look loke this (just a dry fit)

That's all for now, I will continue to work on this and update when it's done.

gvFFnGb.jpg

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Start to work on exhaust.

On the kit,exhaust is wrong, because is to shallow ,have '2D' rings,not much details... so I need to correct this.

Image of the stock exhaust

ynV7xE8.jpg

First,removed those 2D rings ,and make bigger hole,as you can see on the right piece

jYAnHll.jpg

Then,I need to create deeper space,because first ring starts more inside then on the original kit.

Use some plastic tubes,and add mesh to create some details inside the tubes.

4ndc7a2.jpg

After that,need to make rings. Fiddly job must say, in 1/72 everything is so small,and it's hard to make descent shape od wires,spaces,gluing all that...

yJ9U91N.jpg

It will look loke this (just a dry fit)

That's all for now, I will continue to work on this and update when it's done.

gvFFnGb.jpg

WOW, just WOW!!!!!!

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Very nice work on your SR-71. I was "married" to the real thing for 12 years from Jun 1965 until May 1977, so I am quite familiar with it. Your modifications to the details are VERY good, especially the enlargement of the nose chines. Increasing the length of the afterburner chamber is a very valid change. Every plastic kit I have looked at did this wrong. The OOC cameras are a panoramic type and were carried on all stateside training and operational missions for several years until the nose mounted OBC panoramic camera was perfected. The OOC used 70mm film with a 13" focal length and the OBC used 5" film and originally a 24" focal length, later 30". The OBC gave horizon to horizon coverage on one camera and 2 to 3 times the resolution. Some missions with the SLAR or Capre nose went back to using the OOC to get panoramic coverage. The TROC or Terrain Objective Camera was located in the C bay immediately in front of the nose landing gear bay. It had a 6" focal length using 11" wide film and was used only for accurately tracking exactly where the plane was flying. It was useless for intelligence purposes. Moving the TEOC and OOC camera windows to the rear of the compartment instead of the middle is correct as is the TEOC windows being square and OOC rectangular. Another change that you might want to consider concerns the tertiary doors, those rectangular openings at the end of the afterburners that go all the way around the engine nacelle. They were hydraulically actuated and the bottom ones drooped to the closed position when on the ground with no hydraulic power applied.

Keep up the great work,

Darwin

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Thank you Darwin!

I was able to see your comments when others building this bird,and find it very helpfull. Please continue to follow this build and be free

to point at any mistake I do. And I will try to correct it.

The kit is 1/72,not accurate at all, proportions are wrong, but with a little help from all of you, I will try to do much as I can.

To achieve 100% accuracy we need new tooled kit, but I hope I can make decent bird from this also.

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Following along with this incredible build. Those burner cans and flame holders are amazing. I built the 1/48 big brother to this kit and know the fit issues involved. Did nothing to fix anything other than to scribe panel lines. You are doing and amazing job thus far. Oh, and I made the mistake of closing up the inflight refueling door and found out later that when hydraulic pressure bled off, this fell to the open position. :bandhead2:/>

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Nothing fancy,just a few work details...

As you can see,I cut the all 4 elevons ,they will be in down position,representing parked airplane.

Lots of work to make it descent after cutting...

FtU6w6s.jpg

Second,worked on fuel intake,as originaly was poor. Still need to add another part inside the hole.

QmKK7IX.jpg

And add some rivet details on exhaust,just like on the real plane. Kit parts are completly flat.

JeQBPkY.jpg

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Nice detailing! I wish I did those for my build months ago :bandhead2:

Nothing fancy,just a few work details...

And add some rivet details on exhaust,just like on the real plane. Kit parts are completly flat.

Did you use Archer's rivets? If so, which sheet did you use?

Cheers,

Mario

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