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SR-71 Blackbird, Blue ?


BikKit

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Hi e8n2,

The kit was built in 1992 for a Hungarian modelling publication. It was fun to build it. As far as I remember it was the Hasegawa kit, of course in 72nd. Will have to look in the archive for the original article I did.

 

Back in those days little detail information was available to make any corrections to the kit. I was more interested in adding missing details, probes, hand painting the stencils visible on photos, adding the sealing around the windshield and the windows on the canopy as well as trying to do the Blackbird Black colours.

 

Since the main wheel bays had to be open a new bay was scratch built based on some available photos. (At the IAT there was no chance to get good photos of the bay only some close ups of the legs and wheels.) Some resin copies were cast and one of them used for the kit. A cockpit set was also planned but there was no time to finish the upgrades before deadline for the article.

The star tracker window is missing the actual window. I never returned to the kit. It was built only for the article and since the aim of the article was to illustrate some paint techniques I did not go back and finish the kit, it was put in long term storage. I liked the build and it was fun. The resin bits were for my own entertainment and to add just a bit of detail to the kit. The resin parts were never sold commercially. Back in 1992 it was the most I wanted out of this kit.

With all the information available now I would go into more details when making a master for the resin parts. But today there are people who scan the original aircraft and make an almost 100% replica in CAD. Lets hope a kit will surface with all that detail!

 

Best regards

Gabor

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I was stationed at Beale AFB from 9-77 to 6-80, where I worked on both the SR-71 and the U-2C & U-2R aircraft optical sensors. ALL the SR-71 aircraft I worked on or saw were BLACK. I didn't hold my FS595A fandeck up to the aircraft, to verify what color they were, I just know what I saw. ^_^

 

Larry

Edited by ReccePhreak
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10 hours ago, ya-gabor said:

Hi e8n2,

The kit was built in 1992 for a Hungarian modelling publication. It was fun to build it. As far as I remember it was the Hasegawa kit, of course in 72nd. Will have to look in the archive for the original article I did.

 

 

 

Back in those days little detail information was available to make any corrections to the kit. I was more interested in adding missing details, probes, hand painting the stencils visible on photos, adding the sealing around the windshield and the windows on the canopy as well as trying to do the Blackbird Black colours.

 

 

 

Since the main wheel bays had to be open a new bay was scratch built based on some available photos. (At the IAT there was no chance to get good photos of the bay only some close ups of the legs and wheels.) Some resin copies were cast and one of them used for the kit. A cockpit set was also planned but there was no time to finish the upgrades before deadline for the article.

 

The star tracker window is missing the actual window. I never returned to the kit. It was built only for the article and since the aim of the article was to illustrate some paint techniques I did not go back and finish the kit, it was put in long term storage. I liked the build and it was fun. The resin bits were for my own entertainment and to add just a bit of detail to the kit. The resin parts were never sold commercially. Back in 1992 it was the most I wanted out of this kit.

 

With all the information available now I would go into more details when making a master for the resin parts. But today there are people who scan the original aircraft and make an almost 100% replica in CAD. Lets hope a kit will surface with all that detail!

 

 

 

Best regards

 

Gabor

 

That is the kit I also have.  It has been traveling with me for a few decades now still waiting to get built.  If you saw the tail art photos I had a link to in a previous post, I will be doing mine as 979, "Nighthawk".  The female crew chief posing with the artwork as A1C Pam Englebrecht, a very nice person.

Later,

Dave

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Never had seen the original, but in Munson's "Fighters, attack and training aircraft in service" (Blandford Press, mid 60s) there's the YF-12A pictured in some midnight blue overall. Something like a cross between RAF WW2 roundel blue and USN post-war dark sea blue. But this isn't the SR-71 though...

Cheers

Michael

 

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