Serkan Sen

What about coating the molds with 2K auto clear varnish? "Varnish polyurethane two-component (2K) that is used for the permanent glossy sealing of painted surfaces. Is specially designed for final finishing of parts and repairs. This product has a long-lasting resistance to moisture and chemicals." As far as I remember I used that method for 1:72 vacform canopies with good results in the past. Serkan

I use this PVC clear sheet to cut the Blackbird windows. The PVC sheet is equipped with a peel-off protective film on both sides to prevent scratches. I don't know whether they can be used for vacforming. But maybe such material can solve that problem: https://www.ebay.de/itm/395249729042 Serkan

Very eye catching model. Congratulations! Serkan

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you liked the build. You're absolutely right about the scale; Here are withsome other Blackbird models to give a better sense of its size. 1:72 M-21 is on top of 1:32 YF-12A: Here are left to right 1:32 YF-12A, 1:48 A-12 and again 1:72 YF-12A together: Serkan

I had to do similar modifications to bring my old Hasegawa Foxbat to correct shape. Great work! Congratulations. Serkan

I have created a RFI topic to present my build here: It will be updated when the engine model is done. Serkan

Hi Modellers, I would like to present my 1:32 scale Lockheed YF-12A build. I've put together some initial photos of the full aircraft and a few detail shots. Please note, the engine model is not yet finished. I plan to add more photos to this post once the engines are complete. You can find WIP here: Hope you enjoy the preview! Cheers, Serkan

Many thanks @tony.t, @LorenSharp for your kind words. I gave my best to finish this huge model as good as possible. Here are few photos of the transportation phase and from the exhibition: During first day my younger daughter accompanied me. During the second day all family members were there... Serkan

Many thanks @Alan P and @Screech for your kind words. Yes this is a huge model with a length of 100cm!.. Currently at home there is no place to display such a big aircraft. The safest area is the heating room in the basement 🙃 The cockpit tub surrounding frames were painted to steel/Titanium and the ejections seats to light gray. The seat cushion and belts were painted to khaki green: And finally the canopies and windshield were placed and the aircraft was ready to display in the modellers exhibition (although the engine was not ready to install): Serkan

The main and nose wheels and bay doors were assembled: The engine bay inner structure was buffed with cotton swap. Also the nacelle camera pod support holes were opened: Now the work on lower surface finished: Serkan

The AIM-47 Falcon parts assembled together. The decal artwork for no step marking was resized and printed to decal paper. The missiles were painted to white. The missile markings were printed as well: Here is the model with all decals placed: Serkan

The walkway and no step marking artwork was first printed to Oramask paper using laser printer to check their size and shape: Next step is to resize the markings and print them to decal paper. Serkan

Basic stencils and insignia decals were printed with ALPS MD-5500 printer and then precut was made with Silhouette plotter-cutter: Next is the walkway/no step markings. Serkan

As always I did, the windshield and canopy parts were printed using clear resin. But the polished and gloss varnish coated parts were not crystal clear enough. This was not so bad in 1:72 and partially 1:48 scales but in 1:32 scale was not sufficient: Therefore the windows were removed from windshield and canopy frames and the notches were added around the window frames to hold the clear parts without glue: Once the test with white 0.3mm polystyrene card was successful, all clear parts were precut using plotter-cutter: And here is the last check before painting the canopy and windshield frames: After painting the parts and cutting all windows using 0.5mm hard PVC clear sheet with protection film on both sides here is the result: Although it was not really necessary, the clear parts were glued from inside to make them more stable: Next will be the decals. Serkan

Many thanks dear Norbert. It was also a pleasure for me to be there with you and many other model enthusiasts not only from Germany but also from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Austria. I didn't forget my promise. I will start to make a test print in 1:144 scale as soon as possible 😉 Please don't hesitate to give your likes Steve. I need them as much as possible to reach the next level in this forum. 😁 Many thanks Colin. The result looks very beautiful and impressive and very huge! As you already saw from Norbert's post the model was mostly completed and presented in Lübeck Modellers Exhibition two weeks ago. I was really focused on finishing this project as much as possible to keep my promise to Iwailo from Lübeck Modeller Club. Therefore I had not much time to post the progress report. But I would like to present the steps I did during last two months. Firstly the fuselage halves were brought together and the joint area was painted to black: Just to give an idea how big the model is, here is 1:72 M-21 on top of 1:32 YF-12A which looks like a D-21 on M-21: The panels lines were preshaded with dark gray and a mist layer of black was applied on top. Finally all surface was coated with Vallejo PU Gloss Varnish: 48 hours later (to let the gloss coat fully cured) dark gray Tamiya panel line wash was done. This was very long (and boring) process. There I got significant help from my daughters. It took around two hours to wash all panels: After letting few hours to dry the panel wash, the entire aircraft was wiped off with soft cloth lighly moistened with turpentine and sealed with light coat of gloss varnish: Next will be the canopies and windshield. Serkan