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Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird....finished


MarkSH

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Hi @neil5208

 

For the most part I am following the kit lines. I know having looked at a build on ARC that there are some accuracy issues but didn't want to get overly into correction. I have however made the vertical tails more like the ARC modellers efforts purely because I thought they looked much better.

 

Even following the kit lines the re-scribing and riveting is taking me an age!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

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Hi Mark - I'll follow along if I may as I have one in the stash.

Great start! I love the cockpit and those pilots' visors - nice touch :) 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Evening all,

 

Its all been a bit work centric at the moment and with a week long training course away in Lincoln next week I'm not going to get anything done for a while.

 

I have made a little progress with the assembly of the SR-71 but that in its self has shown the poor fit of the kit to its maximum. I mitigated the issues by doing a staged gluing of the four major parts, and indeed I glued the cockpit section to the aft top part first rather than follow the instructions, this gave me a much better join on the more visible top surface than trying to fettle the join when all the other pieces were glued together:

 

40722405253_72f2f72445_b.jpg

All the top surface re-scribing and riveting is complete, the  top and bottom halves have been mated. The engineering of the kit means that the joins are all on the bottom surface, thank heavens for small mercies.

 

40722404933_6c87c1d338_b.jpg

It actually looks worse than it is, there are a couple of gaps but I have used Sprue Goo to fill them as I will need to re-instate some of the scribed lines and riveting and sprue goo, once properly dry is easier to work with than filler. I have packed out the lower fuselage just aft of the main gear bays with cemented thick plastic card so that I have something to drill into for the in-flight display mount. There are a couple of areas that still need work with regard to the re-scribing and riveting. I decided to paint the camera windows black on the inside, there's no detail to be seen anyway.

 

That's all for a while,

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Evening all,

 

A little progress with this one:

 

40877065503_5662cba97a_b.jpg

Major assembly complete, cleaned up, masked and primed.

 

40877065393_153df114a1_b.jpg

 

40877065263_6054d38f36_b.jpg

A quick test fit of the 3 part aftermarket pitot set....very small and delicate and will be put on at the very end!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 24/04/2019 at 20:17, MarkSH said:

All the top surface re-scribing and riveting is complete, the  top and bottom halves have been mated.

Excellent job, Mark!

 

On 14/05/2019 at 20:51, MarkSH said:

A quick test fit of the 3 part aftermarket pitot set....very small and delicate and will be put on at the very end!

Looks great! 👍

 

Thanks for sharing the progress with us.

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  • MarkSH changed the title to Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird....Back in black

Evening all,

 

I'm still plodding on with the Blackbird, and she is now back in black. I pre-shaded using pure black and covered that with my own mix of a dark blue/grey and then highlighted the upper most surfaces with an even lighter blue:

 

48014708517_8a25f64cfa_b.jpg

 

48014708642_83d203d2d4_b.jpg

The underside is the same all bar the lightest shade.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

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Not many seem to be able to pull of an interesting black finish, this is well on the way mark, great job, but , beware the gloss and matt coats ruining your good work

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening all,

 

I have finished applying the decals to the Blackbird, and despite not being overly confident about the decal sheet I am very happy to report that bar some expected silvering on the black surface they behaved impeccably:

 

48099425596_5086cc975b_b.jpg

Lots of glaring white and red decals on and around camera ports and vents on the underside, hopefully a matt/satin coat and an oil paint filter and weathering will help to 'knock' them back a bit.

 

48099425496_17f3c07193_b.jpg

Not so bad on the top side, but again hopefully the post application seal and weathering will blend them in and make them look less fresh.

 

48099425401_d5a1e4014b_b.jpg

I was a little concerned about how they would behave over the numerous corrugations on the airframe, but with a generous application of Sol/Set they settled down nicely. It should be noted that I am not at all happy with my gloss coat, if you can call it that, It was my first outing with Alclad II Aqua Gloss and it may well be my last also.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

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Wow, very impressive work it looks awesome, you are doing the SR-71 justice! Aqua gloss I have found needs quite a wet layer after an initial 'biting' layer in order to get a proper shine, maybe not the absolute highest gloss varnish out there but it sure is tough for further weathering etc...

 

David 

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Hi all,

 

Just spent a little time preparing and testing out the display stand for the Blackbird:

 

48112998281_305f25a1f6_b.jpg

 

48112998226_a2c7b0cae4_b.jpg

A cheapo MDF plinth and some 10x3 mm Aluminium strip from eBay and there you go.

 

I actually think I'll leave the kit on the stand for the remainder of the build. I just need to cover the plinth and arm and it'll make the weathering process easier with less handling required.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

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well done Mark she looks awesome, and great posed like that, well done. :thumbsup:

 

I think posed like that shows her best angles, gosh she was a lovely looking aircraft. :wub:

 

Thanks for joining us, I hope you enjoyed the build, it was a pleasure to have you along.

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Evening all,

 

I'm calling time on the Blackbird now, I am lagging way behind on a couple of other GB's so time to move on.

 

I'm happy that I now have a representation of such an iconic and still stunning looking aircraft in my collection, however its not a great kit with well documented shape issues so that in conjunction with my ham-fisted efforts with the gloss coat and the silvering on the decals and once again solvent bloom on the clear parts has left me feeling a little.....well...Meh!

 

Anyway, Italeri 1/72, out of the box bar the pilots and pitot set, weathered with oil paints and various shades Tamiya weathering master.

 

Some slightly less rubbish pictures for the gallery will have to wait for the weekend and some decent lighting but here are a couple of shots of the weathered article:

 

48128283523_01b64fc7d4_b.jpg

 

48128286283_9ab4f57c1b_b.jpg

 

Many thanks to the hosts for the GB and the opportunity to finally get around to building one of my favourites.....but I'm definitely keeping my eye on the progress of the new 1/48 kit!!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

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  • MarkSH changed the title to Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird....finished

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