Woody_ Posted January 30, 2016 Author Share Posted January 30, 2016 No Archer rivets on this build,just ordinary pin work. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Nice work Woody, keep it up. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChippyWho Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 It's making me perspire just reading this! You're breaking one heck of a trail here, Sir. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 More progress... Must say,with this one,my patience was on the edge. I strongly advise to think twice before decide to go with PE vent plates. It was really PITA, because first you need to cut the holes,try to make it perfect as you can,so PE parts fits ok. In reality, no matter how you think you did great job, when you actually glue the PE plates,you become aware how you got wrong. You need to place it right,bend it right,glue precisly so you don't fill grilles with glue,etc. Anyway,after few hours,and ruined skinny stick (because you sand PE,glue and plastic) , I somehow did it. It looks worse than actually is,there are no gaps,but glue. It seems pretty smooth on touch. But,how it actually looks,we will see one day,when I put a coat of primer. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JMan Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Woody fantastic job blending those grills and vents. I am not big on 1/72 scale, but do you happen to know if they makes those for the Testors 1/48 scale Blackbird? Either way, your making this thing look more beautiful every update, keep it up! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 Thank you. As I'm aware,there is no PE sets for 1/48 at the moment. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted February 2, 2016 Author Share Posted February 2, 2016 Start to make changes on tertiary doors. When parked,no hydraulics,so bottom tertiary doors are closed (gravity) :) To achive that,I need to cut the original part and add doors. At the moment it looks like this. Still need to scribe it,so doors will be represented instead of flat surface. Finnaly I closed top and bottom halfs. Only rear segment. What a nightmare :) No matter how I tried to dry fitting it, the fit is horrible. I will say it again, this SR-71 kits are rubbish. We really need some new tooled kit. But, as from start of the build, I need to correct it. Lots of work in front of me,to fill the gaps, sand it, again rescribe and rerivet it. Should be fun :) In pictures doesn't look so bad,but believe me, in reality is horrible :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mikkod Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 Nice save :) Looking good. Did you make "jig" under those mesh? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted February 3, 2016 Author Share Posted February 3, 2016 jig ?! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted February 3, 2016 Author Share Posted February 3, 2016 Here you can see working on filling the gaps. I do it by inserting styrene rolls and styrene filler (styrene pieces mixed with Tamiya Extra Thin). Then lots of sanding. At this stage is pretty ok,but as you can see,more work needs to be done to achive seamless area, and also,repairs to ruined scribed details and rivets. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mikkod Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 jig ?! I did mean is there edges under the mesh? Or just glued into place :) Bad word choice... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
polybebber Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Stunning build :thumbsup: Lothar Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 About PE vents... On the kit this vents looks bad, poor molding and filled. So, Eduard provides ,among else, PE plates to upgrade the look of the kit. But, Eduard PE are bigger,so you need to completly remove plastic,and with lot of effort try to make the holes the same dimensions as PE parts. In reality,this is a nightmare. Becuase you also need to bend it,and make all fit. If your question was,are some sort of support under the PE plates ,to put it on,answer is no. They are holding just with sides. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChippyWho Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 About PE vents... On the kit this vents looks bad, poor molding and filled. So, Eduard provides ,among else, PE plates to upgrade the look of the kit. But, Eduard PE are bigger,so you need to completly remove plastic,and with lot of effort try to make the holes the same dimensions as PE parts. In reality,this is a nightmare. Becuase you also need to bend it,and make all fit. If your question was,are some sort of support under the PE plates ,to put it on,answer is no. They are holding just with sides. This is the deal with most p/e 'surface' items (vents, grills, etc.) -Eduard et al supply an object that their instructions apparently would have you shape around the target panel curvature, then attach on top of the plastic. Have a look at a photo of a Hornet (for example), and these things are more often than not flush with the surrounding area -duhhh! :blink: To deal with this effectively, you need to do what you did here and rebate the p/e bit into the surface. And get it the same shape! What fun. Now, AMUR Reaver (with whom I have no connection) have a much better approach for most subjects, and provide the entire panel with the vents incorporated -I hate to think how much plastic you would have to remove to achieve this with the SR-71, and you'd likely end up with a model that was mostly brass, but it would still be preferable to all that faff!!! I really hope Eduard and others will consider adopting this solution in all scales; it may make their products a bit more expensive but the reduced work and extra *WOW* factor would surely be worth it...? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 PE work will always be fiddly,but IMHO vents are the worse case scenario. As you suggested,I will also love more if the whole panel was provided,it be easier that way. But, with SR-71,apsolutly everything you do is complicated :) Seam lines,rivets,gaps,fit issues,reshaping,etc. If you want relativly accurate model,you need to mentaly be prepared to lots of work,lots of issues,and need to have tons of patience. Looking at some other builds, when people have new tooled model,lots of resin,accurate bluprints, I feel like I stuck in 19th century with my build :) It will never look good as Kinetic SU-33 ,because I don't have CAD lines and rivets, shape ,etc. I need all of that done by hand. But,I hope in the end,if everything goes well, I will be proud of it,because of ammount of work involved. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChippyWho Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 I believe this project will be absolutely stunning!!! The Italeri kit is probably the least inaccurate of a rather uninspiring lot in this scale; sadly mine was cannibalised for various black plastic 'shapes' (don't ask!) because every time I looked in the box it made me sad... If only I had the spheres to tackle the thing at the level you're doing, erm, well, quite honestly it wouldn't be a fraction as good! (I still have the Academy 'History' boxing someplace -maybe one sunny day!) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yardbird78 Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Very nice work on the SR-71. The level of detail and error correction is tremendous. I am looking forward to more of this project. Darwin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Major Walt Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Like everyone else I am amazed by what you are doing. You are doing the work of an engineer not only building the kit but fixing inaccuracies as well. I would never even be able to come close to what you've already done. Walt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chek Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 I'd guess from the number of views that many of us might have one of these kits and have been waiting to see if or how it can be made better. Terrific work so far. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 (edited) So much work,but really not much to show you. Spend lots of time to blend those vents more, so again sanding,repair lines,rivets... I think I done all rivets 10 times,again and again :)/> And still more to come. But,let me show you few things I'm working on. First,end of the plane , as you can see,when I cut those elevons,stuck with large gaps. So I need to fill this. Used plastic plates and styrene filler. This is ok for now,but still need to do cosmetic work on this,and redo panel lines and rivets. (did I mention reriveting hundred times) :)/> And just to mention, I also did that fuel dump at the end. Will insert 2 plates inside later. This ugly things are back exhaust,hope will hide it inside soon :)/> This perspective show you how it acctually looks. Did some painting and I think it's simular to real thing. Used Radome Tan with white,and then playing with pigments. Rotor was painted with AK Interactive Pale Burnt Metal,and weathered with Tamiya pigment sets, blue,oil stains,titanium... Closer look (ignore front edge,it will not be visible) Now, some tricky subject. As I will do this model with canopy closed (it looks better that way) , I will not bother with cockpit,simply because you will not be able to see anything throug those tiny 1/72 windows. I'm not one of ''but I will know it's inside'' guys, for me that's completly waist of time and energy. It's just my opinion and way I think,so please don't take much of it,you who share different point of view. So, I did just basic interior, using Edurad PE (whole cockpit is PE), and some scratch building on it,and on seats. Btw,Eduard set is not painted,just bare brass. This is just dry fitted ,or to be correct,just thrown inside :)/> , still need to do wash and small details. Edited February 9, 2016 by Woody_ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
janman Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 Stunning work so far! Until this (and some googling yesterday) I did not realize how off the current SR-71 kits are. For instance, I really thought the Hase kit is the best of the bunch, while it really isn't. And they all are ancient with raised panel lines! Anyway, will be following this closely. Great work with the PE vents. Always pain in the butt. The cockpit looks sweet too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted February 13, 2016 Author Share Posted February 13, 2016 Cockpit is closed now. Cut the masking tape for windows,and tried to fit glass,what a nightmare. Nothing fits, so lots of reparations,sanding... First stage finnish,still lot of work to make this descent. Also,did my own glass plates for TEOC ,because kit ones are wrong shape. And you can see 2 more went plates,from Eduard PE. Work in progress with TEOC, shaped front,painted (first stage) and added mirrors. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted February 14, 2016 Share Posted February 14, 2016 Wow Woody, some really cool things going on here, nice work. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Major Walt Posted February 14, 2016 Share Posted February 14, 2016 This is the best SR-71 build I have seen. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Woody_ Posted February 14, 2016 Author Share Posted February 14, 2016 (edited) Thank you for the kind words. Just a small update, exhaust,my interpretation of it. Used Model Master Exhaust and Titanium,then brown pigments,and little Mr Color Dark Iron. Still need to do a little corrections,but overall,that's it. Edited February 14, 2016 by Woody_ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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