taggart

Very nice work , i do like the mustang . Put off building them myself in those type of paint schemes due to the amount of masking involved .

Thanks for the interest guys , some more progress today , sanded the plastic strip back and done the first round of puttying on the joins , will get a coat of primer on tomorrow and see the state of play with the gaps . I don't think this is going to be a fast build due to the amount of fill/sand fill/sand that is going to be needed . Not many parts in the kit but plenty of fiddling and dealing with the resulting gaps . It seems a lot worse than most kits i've built due i think to the size of thing . I'm working from the worst areas to the not so bad in terns of fit so it should get less troublesome as i get towards the front end of the beast .

Thanks general , you posted that up just as was adding the next photo .

I've also started work on the neck , only glued the front at the moment as i will need to splay out the back to get a better fit to the wing area . Removed to two lugs that were inside the front of this as they were a click type fitting to take the front part . Once pushed together it would never come apart again . I'm using the excellent build of this aircraft by general melchett on this forum as my guide on what not to do , should have looked at it before i glued the wings though

Thanks for the welcome guys , this may be a long term project ! Put the photo of the underside in the last post , i'll take one of the top later to show the main bracing i had to add due to not reading the instructions at all Here's a shot of the belly pan (?) as it stands , i sanded down the mating surface of the two pieces that fit onto the main moulding and removed the vanes to be replaced with thinner ones cut from some plastic card . I've filled and sanded this area and need to remove about 2mm from the front end and sand to a sharp edge before a coat of primer to see how it's come out .

I can only seem to get one photo per post so please forgive the multiple postings . This is the state of the main wings at the moment , made a BIG mistake by glueing the top and bottom halfs together then trying to join the left and right hand sides to each other . Should have glued the top together first and then added the underside . Hence the bracing and bodging that will not be seen once the rear part of the neck is fitted . The gaps were pretty large so i have filled them in with various thickness of plastic strip , the thickest is 1mm , will sand these back and fill what's left . Trying to use as little filler as i can due to the flex of the wings .

Hi all , after far too long lurking on this forum i've decided to offer up a WIP . First up a shot to show just how big this kit is , finished it will be just under 31" long .

Looks very good , i know the airline builders rate the Halfords white . I'm planning on using the same on mine, might need more than one can though !

That is a picture of the wings , only got this far at the moment . They are just under 21" long and the whole beast comes in at around 31" when built . I've got no idea where it's going to be put if it ever gets to the stage where it is finished though .

Looks good , i've just started the Italeri 1/72nd on of these and it's huge ! Looks like your kit went together well without the fit issues of the larger scale kit . At least you will have somewhere to display yours

The Range do them in packs of 3 or 4 for around £4.00 , good quality for the money i'd say . Use them a lot myself and they don't drop bristles either

I have been using a product called Bio Strip 20 for a while now and it's amazing stuff . Strips back to bare plastic , even takes off Alclad primer , in one go . It's a fairly thick liquid that you just cover whatever needs to be stripped , leave for and hour and rinse/lightly scrub under a warm running tap . It's reusable as well , just brush off the reisdue back into the tub before you rinse .Looks like it's had no effect until you rinse it off though but it has got me out of trouble a few times .

Thanks for the very detailed reply Space Ranger , i'll look into getting some of the one you recommend . I'm currently using the Revell Plasto and find i need to apply it at least twice as i get some small air pockets in the filler when i sand it back . Probably down to me more than the product though !

As you have found out acetone disolves plastic Stu , i swear by Bio Strip 20 for taking paint off . It's brilliant stuff , slap a bit on , leave for around an hour and wash . It looks like it's had no affect on the paint but when you rinse it under warm water hey presto . It's reusable as well .

Very good advice gents , on a similar topic (fillers) . I've bought myself a XB-70 in 1/72nd scale and will be needing to do some serious filling work . I've been reading about the 3M acyrilic putty and it seems that the blue is the one mostly used but i can only find the red and green versions for sale here in the UK , has anyone used either of these two and how do they compair to the blue ?

Outstanding work , this sort of stuff is way beyond my skill level . I have enough trouble putting a kit together without making all the parts first .

Not into the larger scale stuff myself but that is one stunning build sir , i've had trouble with the Vallejo primers myself so i know how you felt . The stuff is just rubbish , once it's on you can't sand it if you need to without it just peeling off . There paints are wonderfull though .

I've just checked the two kits that i have and both of the canopy parts are perfect in both kits . I must be one of the lucky ones judging by what's been written here . Both of my kits were bought from Hannants first release batch .

My plan is to spray the triangles back on Bob as it will be a titanium finish on the A-12 . Got another kit sitting here that will be built as the SR-71 so i will be looking at this build to see how it's done . They look like a quick build in the box , hardly any parts to the kit .

I'm building one of these myself at the moment as an A-12 , didn't want to go down the black route really . I'm having no end of trouble with the joins underneath though , shouldn't worry about them as they will never be seen anyway . I hope it turns out half as good as yours , the finish is stunning . They do still look like an aircraft from the future . I seem to remember reading somewhere that you should never paint anything either black or white , just close to those colours .

Thanks Dan , i think i will pass on it and keep looking .

I've found a YF-12 kit on ebay made by AHM but i can't come up with any info on whether it's worth trying to get hold off , can anyone please enlighten me as to if this kits any good ?

Great work again Dan , those resin nose conversions look like a lot of work to get them right .

Thanks for the replies , from looking at the link the Italeri kit is more like the A-12 than the SR-71 . None of them come out too well on there and the Acadamy kit is decribed as " a write off " ! Think i will go with the Italeri version and try and build it as an A-12 after a bit more reseach . I know that the drone was not carried on the SR-71 though so it might be more accurate on the A-12 single seater . I see that the stunning models built by danimalmagic on here all used the Italeri kit as a base and the kiwi resin nose conversion to backdate the kit to the A-12 , they look like a lot of work to fit and fix so i might try without . Found a build on another forum where it's been done by cutting and shutting the kit .