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Serkan Sen

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Posts posted by Serkan Sen

  1. 23 hours ago, The Podfather said:

    I'd be interested in your opinion on the new Elegoo printers - I've been thinking recently whether to dip a toe into the dark world of 3D printing myself.

    Actually I was very happy with Mars3 Pro but only reason having a new Mars 4 Ultra was having a higher resolution (18 micron instead of 35 micron).  I can strongly recommend Mars 4 (preferably Ultra) if you don't need larger print volume, otherwise Saturn 3 Ultra. There is no much difference in price but occupied size. The new Saturn 4 Ultra has been announced recently, but personally I wouldn't go with this because it has a new tilting vat mechanism that increases the risk of potential mechanical failure.

    • Like 1
  2. On 3/14/2024 at 11:30 AM, Alan P said:

    How is this build going, @Serkan Sen? Hope all is well with you.

    Thanks for asking @Alan P. I am well but due to many reasons (private, health and professional)  I had to make a little break. Now I am back to make progress in my builds. During this break I have bought two new 3d Elegoo printers; Mars 4 Ultra and Saturn 3 Ultra. Unfortunately they are still unboxed and waiting for home heating system replacement which is planned for next week. After then I will rearrange this area and deploy the printers.

     

    I have received many questions about the availability of closed nozzle feathers option during this build. I have recently updated the nozzle model to cover both options:

    3688.jpg

     

    Also I have added opened engine bay details on outer wing half. I will finish this task and post the images soon.

     

    Serkan

     

    • Like 1
  3. Very impressive start for 2024 Tony! I am also in big trouble printing the clear parts. Although the Blackbird and Oxcart clear parts are significantly smaller than Wasp I wasn't able to get clear parts printed nicely. I have used several clear 3d resin products without having an acceptable success.After printing the parts I soaked the parts in Future or clear epoxy resin, sprayed parts over with 2K clear coat, sanded the surfaces with 3k to 12k grit polishing papers, polished them with Tamiya polishing compounds. Each method has some pros and cons but none of them was perfect.

    My next try will be to print a canopy with proper base for casting, polish it as much as possible, use it as silicone mold master and cast the clear parts with PU or epoxy clear resin. Unfortunately for my project vacuform seems not to be an option.

    Serkan

    • Like 2
  4. 11 hours ago, The Podfather said:

    Last picture of the evening - started putting together the engine intakes into the Revell mouldings for the M21. The intakes are more parts courtesy of Serkan, they're beautifully printed, and fit together very accurately. Need to do a bit of surgery on all the parts for the final fit still.

    You can have a look my build to see in details how to fit the intake assy into Revell cowling:

    Serkan

  5. Good evening all,

     

    More progress on CAD modelling over the last couple of evenings:

    Although my plan for the next step was to finish the YF-12A missile bay doors and Lockheed C-2 ejection seat hardware, I suddenly decided to start modeling the SR-71. ( yes, you are right. Seat harness modelling is a boring task, therefore I am postponing it as much as possible).

    First of all, I started with the ferry nose (training nose with dead weights?) and the basic sections of front fuselage:

    3669.jpg

     

    It was not an easy job to model especially the rear fuselage sections with longer tail cone, but the result looks quite good to me. Also the inboard elevon"s root section has been reshaped due to new elongated tail cone:

    3668.jpg

     

    The patterns of SR-71's inboard wing upper surface corrugated skin panels are significantly different than the A-12 panels. Also the panels at fuselage-wing junction are much wider:

    3674.jpg

     

    The difference is minor on lower surface:

    3675.jpg

     

    Also the main wheel hubs are different:

    3676.jpg

     

    Here is the summary of all current models:

    3677.jpg

     

    3673.jpg

     

    Now I can start to model some of the forward fuselage details (hopefully before Silvester). But I need to do a survey on the nose cone variants (as far as I know there were three versions) in parallel.

     

    Serkan

     

     

    • Like 11
  6. 17 hours ago, Pajarito said:

    And now, judging by the evidence shared by Ph.D. @Serkan Sen, doubt raised his ugly head once again.

    Do you think it's doable to graft the forward fuselage of the Revell kit onto the Italeri Sled?

    I would strongly advise not to do that. It will be worthless effort in terms of time and money.  If you really want to do an intensive surgery then try to convert old Testors kit into Oxcart and build Revell kit as is despite of all known issues  (as I did).

    2885.jpg

    3037.jpg

    3036.jpg

     

    Serkan

    • Like 5
  7. Many thanks for your encouraging replies @billn53, @Fritag, @Alan P, @PeteH1969, @TheBaron, @Neffan , @Back in the Saddle, @Hoops, @Zorglub, @Courageous, @Iceman 29, @Gondor44 . I am doing my best to complete this huge project as soon as possible. But it seems that it won't be possible within next few years! At first glance I can list the following tasks to do;

    • A-12/TA-12/M-21 Ejection Seat (90% completed, the seat harness is missing)
    • YF-12A (95% completed)
    • Engine bay details (10%completed)
    • Engine details (20% completed)
    • SR-71A/B/C (modified chines, nose variants, new cockpit layouts, new ejection seat, long tail modification) (0%)
    • AG-330 Starter cart (90% completed)
    • Engine Dolly (70% completed)
    • D-21 Drone (90% completed)
    • Drone Dolly (0%)

    My plan is first to complete the YF-12A rear cockpit details and missile bay doors. After then I will work on the early ejection seat harness (which will be very hard work).

     

    YF-12A instrument panel model has been completed. It was really challenging task to find most appropriate reference pictures to create entire panel. Each YF-12A has some different panel layout than the other one. Also NASA did their own modifications both in forward and rear layouts. Here is the model I have created:

    3664.jpg 

     

    Next step is to finish cockpit tub layout.

     

    Serkan

    • Like 15
  8. Recently I received many questions about the correctness of the fuselage section. This question was always on my mind and I did checks in the past several times but without any documentation. I went through all these checks and I did the following comparisons.

    First of all I have compared the 1:72 and 1:48 Blackbird kits' fuselage sections. The bottom row shows the 3D printed fuselage sections:

    3660.jpg

     

    It is very interesting that  both Revell and Italeri kits in 1:72 scale have better cross section shape than 1:48 ones.

     

    The second check was the comparison of available reference pictures with the kit and 3D printed sections.

    3661.jpg

     

    The A-12 and YF-12A sections are exactly same on upper surface and have differences only on lower surface as expected:

    3659.jpg

     

    SR-71A and A-12 sections have differences on upper surface curvature. SR-71A has less concave surface than A-12 which is most probably to have more space for the chine located cameras:

    3663.jpg

     

    I have also compared new Revell Blackbird kit's section with above ones. It was really big surprise to see that Revell fuselage circular section was undersized:

    3662.jpg

     

    Therefore my conclusion is, without doing significant surgery/modifications on 1:48 Revell kit (for Italeri it is even worser) it is not possible to do A-12 conversion. For 1:72 conversion less effort is needed. For a pain-free A-12/TA-12/M-21 build fully 3D printed kit is the solution:

    3648.jpg

     

    Serkan

     

    • Like 13
  9. Yesterday evening I had a bit time to work on YF-12A front cockpit and here are some pictures of the result, As always I have started with the instrument panel layout I have found in operators manual and I have added each details one by one:

    3655.jpg

    3656.jpg

    3657.jpg

     

    After few hours search in internet and reference books I realised that there are some differences between the operational and NASA YF-12A instrument panels. NASA has removed all instrumentation which was part of interceptor mission. Here is the comparison of both instrument panels:

    3658.jpg

     

    Next step is to model YF-12A rear cockpit details.

     

    Serkan

    • Like 6
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