Blackbird M-21 + Drone - Italeri 1/72

[CedB]

Phil ( @HP42 ) has been very kind in giving me some kits to help with his stash reduction. This is the next one I'm going to attempt:

 

 

Gulp.

The kit gives three options but only one allows the drone to be included and I really want to include the drone, so it's going to be a non-black Blackbird, M-21 #60-6940 is on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight in Tukwila, WA.

 

The compulsory shots of the parts trees:

 

 

 

 

Missing bits from that tree are here:

 

 

… and the clear parts:

 

 

Here's the drone:

 

 

The transfer sheet:

 

 

There's a big sprue poking from the fuselage, not part of the subject I think:

 

 

I've ordered some high-altitude PJ Productions pilots used in Neil’s build and I'll be checking Mark's build and Bill's Academy build for the nice paint job.

 

Research? Of course. There's a lot about the type in Wikipedia which states that the drone was not the best idea. Here's why…

 

More once I have the Salamander matt coated.

[CT7567]

If you're stockpiling aftemarket for this build, you may want to check out an imminent release from Caracal Models. Their latest decals include a couple of Blackbird family sheets, as well as stencils.  The "early" set includes an M-21 so you can stick with your build plan.

 

http://www.caracalmodels.com/cd72088.html

 

(No affiliation with said company or their products other than having been a satisfied customer in the past)

[hendie]

omigod Ced.  I just can't keep up anymore.

 

ah... it's an Italeri.  It'll take you about two weeks just to list the errors and issues.

[Biggles87]

Made it on the first page! If I remember correctly Ced, the plastic is very brittle so extra care needed removing parts from the sprues.

 

John

[neil5208]

5 hours ago, CT7567 said:

If you're stockpiling aftemarket for this build, you may want to check out an imminent release from Caracal Models. Their latest decals include a couple of Blackbird family sheets, as well as stencils.  The "early" set includes an M-21 so you can stick with your build plan.

 

http://www.caracalmodels.com/cd72088.html

 

(No affiliation with said company or their products other than having been a satisfied customer in the past)

Intresting, would like to do an A12 

[giemme]

Ced, I know nothing of this specific kit, but it looks like you're in search of punishment... 

 

It's going to be fun, then

 

Ciao

[Antti_K]

Hello Ced,

 

I wonder if this kit is based on the same set of measurements as the Italeri's 1/48 scale offering. I built one maybe 10 years ago and it was interesting to say the least. Main measurements were OK but all surface details including camera bay doors and windows were pure fiction. Also the shape of the engine nacelles, belly and front fuselage were very bad. So lot's of patience, Milliput and styrene sheet were needed.

 

Looking forward for your findings and decisions😉

 

Cheers,

Antti

[neil5208]

Did the M21 have the lower fuselage windows for the cameras or where they not fitted?

[CedB]

7 hours ago, CT7567 said:

If you're stockpiling aftemarket for this build, you may want to check out an imminent release from Caracal Models. Their latest decals include a couple of Blackbird family sheets, as well as stencils.  The "early" set includes an M-21 so you can stick with your build plan.

 

http://www.caracalmodels.com/cd72088.html

 

(No affiliation with said company or their products other than having been a satisfied customer in the past)

Thanks CT - kit basher me so my AM is limited but they look nice  

5 hours ago, hendie said:

omigod Ced.  I just can't keep up anymore.

 

ah... it's an Italeri.  It'll take you about two weeks just to list the errors and issues.

 Not to worry hendie, just drop in when you can; you can skip over most of the posts and just look at the pictures if you're short of time!!

1 hour ago, Biggles87 said:

Made it on the first page! If I remember correctly Ced, the plastic is very brittle so extra care needed removing parts from the sprues.

 

John

Thanks John - care will be taken!  I should probably check the glues too then…

1 hour ago, neil5208 said:

Intresting, would like to do an A12 

Thanks Neil  If you make as good a job of it as you did your recent one, go for it! I've re-read your WiP this morning and will look out for problems, thanks!

43 minutes ago, giemme said:

Ced, I know nothing of this specific kit, but it looks like you're in search of punishment... 

 

It's going to be fun, then

 

Ciao

Thanks Giorgio  I hope it's not too painful!

19 minutes ago, Antti_K said:

Hello Ced,

 

I wonder if this kit is based on the same set of measurements as the Italeri's 1/48 scale offering. I built one maybe 10 years ago and it was interesting to say the least. Main measurements were OK but all surface details including camera bay doors and windows were pure fiction. Also the shape of the engine nacelles, belly and front fuselage were very bad. So lot's of patience, Milliput and styrene sheet were needed.

 

Looking forward for your findings and decisions😉

 

Cheers,

Antti

Thanks Antti  I'm not a 'precise' modeller to be honest and like to build the kit, as best I can, to show others how it goes together. I'm never going to enter a competition or anything; the results just get hung from my ceiling.

17 minutes ago, neil5208 said:

Did the M21 have the lower fuselage windows for the cameras or where they not fitted?

Thanks Neil  I think you're right - no camera windows? As you know the kit has holes here:

 

 

… but looking at the Seattle pictures on sr-71.org (a great reference site) they're not present. I'll fill 'em in, thanks.

 

 

The sprue in my last post has been Samurai'd off with the Platz and I've dry fitted the main parts:

 

 

 

Big innit?

As I joined the top and bottom together things were clicking. In my experience this means you have to give the parts some TLC and a bit of a wiggle and see if they settle down. Once they do, TAPE IT! I'm not going to glue anything just yet but I want to get a feel for the kit - pretty good so far.

 

As others have found the front is flexible and it's easy to get a gap:

 

 

Some soft music, gentle handling and perhaps some nice wine and that closes up though - to be watched as I progress.

Something else to be watched:

 

 

I bet that gets knocked off; what are the odds?

 

I've been doing so reference hunting this morning and found that the 'silver' bits on the scheme are in fact natural metal - I like that. The Wikipedia entry has an interesting note about the 'acquisition of Titanium':

 

"The airplane is 92% titanium inside and out. Back when they were building the airplane the United States didn't have the ore supplies – an ore called rutile ore. It's a very sandy soil and it's only found in very few parts of the world. The major supplier of the ore was the USSR. Working through Third World countries and bogus operations, they were able to get the rutile ore shipped to the United States to build the SR-71."

 

Sneaky - I like that too. I have some Tamiya X-32 Titanium Silver (left over from the Peacemaker build I think) so I may use that as a base and, of course, AK paste some variation.

You knew I would…

[Serkan Sen]

7 hours ago, CedB said:

The kit gives three options but only one allows the drone to be included and I really want to include the drone, so it's going to be a non-black Blackbird

Several years ago I got SR-71 and YF-12 from ebay as partially built. Definetely I will use this post as reference to complete my builds. But I have to finish ongoing several Flanker projects first.

 

Serkan

[Antti_K]

Now that you mentioned titanium Ced: you can give your Blackbird an titanium wash for some of the panel lines as the seams were flexible. For example the one in fuselage just in front of the wing leading edge. Natural metal is visible when the aircraft is on the ground. Cool isn't it!

 

Cheers,

Antti

[Fritag]

Ha.  I'm in on page 1 of a Ced thread.  Proud of myself.  Now, what are you building?  Oh.  SR71.  Awesome.

 

My missus was an RAF fighter controller back in the late 80's when the SR 71's flew out of Mildenhall (was Mildenhall wasn't it?).  The fighter controllers got notification of when the SR71 ops were on, and she used to watch them accelerate out of/decelerate back into UK airspace on the radar -  whilst they had their IFF turned on anyway.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Fritag

[Serkan Sen]

53 minutes ago, Antti_K said:

I wonder if this kit is based on the same set of measurements as the Italeri's 1/48 scale offering. I built one maybe 10 years ago and it was interesting to say the least.

I built same kit more than 20 years ago and it was not an easy build. During moving to new house this old plane was also damaged as some other big birds. I have launched a restoration process but the bird still waits as primed.

In terms of level of quality and details both 72 and 48 are same I would say.

 

Serkan

[Antti_K]

Good morning Fritag,

 

I was manning the position here in Finland looking at "Baltic Express" out of RAF Mildenhall on my radar screen. It was easy to recognize as the SR-71 gave a strong echo that was visible on every second turn or so. The Americans flew regularly as clock work (they were very precise on timing) so there never was any unpleasant surprises. A couple of times a SAAB J35 Draken was scrambled but nothing came of that; the QRA pilot was able to bring back a photo of little triangular object against dark blue background...

 

Cheers,

Antti

[Fritag]

Hi Antii

 

9 minutes ago, Antti_K said:

I was manning the position here in Finland looking at "Baltic Express" out of RAF Mildenhall on my radar screen. It was easy to recognize as the SR-71 gave a strong echo that was visible on every second turn or so. The Americans flew regularly as clock work (they were very precise on timing) so there never was any unpleasant surprises. A couple of times a SAAB J35 Draken was scrambled but nothing came of that; the QRA pilot was able to bring back a photo of little triangular object against dark blue background...

Ha.  So nothing stealthy about an SR71 then?

 

I like the thought of the QRA Draken, gamely trying to intercept an SR 71, and the pilot saying afterwards - look there it is....in the photo!  Look closer it's there I tell you.  Mind you the Draken had a pretty good service ceiling/speed didn't it?

 

Would the SR71 have been at operating speed/height as they came through Finnish Airspace?

 

Cheers

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

[CedB]

43 minutes ago, Serkan Sen said:

Several years ago I got SR-71 and YF-12 from ebay as partially built. Definetely I will use this post as reference to complete my builds. But I have to finish ongoing several Flanker projects first.

 

Serkan

Thanks Serkan  I'll try to document as many steps as I can.

42 minutes ago, Antti_K said:

Now that you mentioned titanium Ced: you can give your Blackbird an titanium wash for some of the panel lines as the seams were flexible. For example the one in fuselage just in front of the wing leading edge. Natural metal is visible when the aircraft is on the ground. Cool isn't it!

 

Cheers,

Antti

Thanks Antii, interesting idea!  

41 minutes ago, Fritag said:

Ha.  I'm in on page 1 of a Ced thread.  Proud of myself.  Now, what are you building?  Oh.  SR71.  Awesome.

 

My missus was an RAF fighter controller back in the late 80's when the SR 71's flew out of Mildenhall (was Mildenhall wasn't it?).  The fighter controllers got notification of when the SR71 ops were on, and she used to watch them accelerate out of/decelerate back into UK airspace on the radar -  whilst they had their IFF turned on anyway.

Well done Steve!  

Missus a Fighter Controller eh? Still controlling fighter (pilots) is she?  

38 minutes ago, Serkan Sen said:

I built same kit more than 20 years ago and it was not an easy build. During moving to new house this old plane was also damaged as some other big birds. I have launched a restoration process but the bird still waits as primed.

In terms of level of quality and details both 72 and 48 are same I would say.

 

Serkan

Sorry to hear about the damage Serkan but looking forward to the rebuild  

32 minutes ago, Antti_K said:

Good morning Fritag,

 

I was manning the position here in Finland looking at "Baltic Express" out of RAF Mildenhall on my radar screen. It was easy to recognize as the SR-71 gave a strong echo that was visible on every second turn or so. The Americans flew regularly as clock work (they were very precise on timing) so there never was any unpleasant surprises. A couple of times a SAAB J35 Draken was scrambled but nothing came of that; the QRA pilot was able to bring back a photo of little triangular object against dark blue background...

 

Cheers,

Antti

16 minutes ago, Fritag said:

Hi Antii

 

Ha.  So nothing stealthy about an SR71 then?

 

I like the thought of the QRA Draken, gamely trying to intercept an SR 71, and the pilot saying afterwards - look there it is....in the photo!  Look closer it's there I tell you.  Mind you the Draken had a pretty good service ceiling/speed didn't it?

 

Would the SR71 have been at operating speed/height as they came through Finnish Airspace?

 

Cheers

 

Steve

Wow, some great stories coming out here, thanks!

 

Fast, wasn't she? There's a great article about her Transatlantic speed record here.

The Concorde still holds the record for the fastest airliner crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, with a time of 2 hours, 52 minutes, 59 seconds, right from takeoff at London Heathrow International (LHR) to John F. Kennedy (JFK) in February of 1996.

The Blackbird, even with a slow down for a refuel, made the New York to London crossing in 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds and maintained an average speed of about 1807 miles per hour. Just about an hour less than what the Concorde would accomplish 22 years later.

 

I heard somewhere that when the crew had passed the London gate they pulled into a tight turn to return to the UK. The turn was completed somewhere over Germany…

[Antti_K]

Hey Steve,

 

no, not really a stealth. It was all about the closing angle; at certain angles the echo was weak and whenever the SR-71 was flying across the radar beam the echo was very strong. Of course on the next radar sweep the blip was centimeters away from it's last position on the screen (used china graph markers to plot). Some of the Draken pilots also told that SR-71 were very visible to  Draken's IR sensor.

 

SR-71s never violated Finnish air space. They were flying on extremely accurate tracks passing some very tight gaps (only a few NMs). When they were approaching their northernmost point they were decelerating  to be able to turn without height loss and when the nose pointed SW again they really opened up!

 

Draken wasn't actually capable of mach 2 but could climb up to FL600. The SR-71 was soaring some 20.000 feet above that... That little spec on the photo was visible without a magnifying glass but only just😉 From the Finnish Air Force perspective SR-71 missions gave an excellent chance to set the watches at various radar stations. USAF was following an exact time table every time!

 

Cheers,

Antti

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, Fritag said:

Would the SR71 have been at operating speed/height as they came through Finnish Airspace?

 

 

One of my favourite anecdotes was when an SR71 over the Atlantic asked UK area ATC (Shanwick?) for clearance to FL600 (or somewhere close!) - when cleared the crew replied 'Roger, descending to FL 600....!!!)

 

And if you've never heard this story, this video is worth 5 mins of anyone's life!

 

 

If you can get hold of Maj Shul's book grab it - unfortunately it goes for stupid money on flea bay, I sold mine a few years back for £150... not bad for a book that cost a fiver from a remainder store!

 

Crack on Ced, saw the jet that broke the transatlantic speed record at Farnboroughback in the day, been one of my favourites ever since!

 

Keith

[CedB]

Great story, thanks Antii  High flying she was - the Wiki entry has a picture from the cockpit 83,000' over the Atlantic.

 

I also have a new desktop picture - marvellous:

 

LockheedM21-D21
CIA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 

Thanks Keith - great video, great story and a great watch. "Aston three-zero we show you at 1,942 knots across the ground". Epic.  

 

 

Some progress this morning.

I've glued in the lower windows:

 

 

 

I can't see the front window on the reference shots so I'll fill/paint over that too.

 

I've also taken the drone to bits and cleaned up the pointy things:

 

 

 

'Clicks' together really well:

 

 

No problems so far with TET or tube glue. Fingers crossed.

[Antti_K]

44 minutes ago, CedB said:

Some progress this morning.

I've glued in the lower windows:

 

 

 

I can't see the front window on the reference shots so I'll fill/paint over that too.

 

 

Hello Ced,

 

you can paint those camera bay windows from the inside. As those were normal wet film cameras they required filters. Lockheed solved the problem by using tinted glass for the windows. On those SR-71s on detachment at RAF Mildenhall the windows were almost copper coloured. I used processed film and tin foil in my model to create the correct colour/opacity.

 

Normally a Synthetic Aperture Radar was carried in the nose compartment. I've seen only one photo of an SR-71 in Europe or Mediterranean carrying an oblique camera in the nose (window). The radar nose had clearly visible bulges on both sides of the nose (as in your kit) and the bottom was dark (coffee) brown.

 

Cheers,

Antti

Edited September 10, 2019 by Antti_K
changed the wording slightly

[keefr22]

56 minutes ago, CedB said:

"Aston three-zero we show you at 1,942 knots across the ground".

 

I loved his back seater's response of 'we show us nearer 2000'...!!

[Hamden]

 

Interesting subject, there is one on display in the American Air Museum building at Duxford.

Will take a seat and follow along

 

   Roger

[perdu]

I'm over here

 

Proper job, a jet thing

 

☺

[CedB]

39 minutes ago, Antti_K said:

Hello Ced,

 

you can paint those camera bay windows from the inside. As those were normal wet film cameras they required filters. Lockheed solved the problem by using tinted glass for the windows. On those SR-71s on detachment at RAF Mildenhall the windows were almost copper coloured. I used processed film and tin foil in my model to create the correct colour/opacity.

 

Normally a Synthetic Aperture Radar was carried in the nose compartment. I've seen only one photo of an SR-71 in Europe or Mediterranean carrying an oblique camera in the nose (window). The radar nose had clearly visible bulges on both sides of the nose (as in your kit) and the bottom was dark (coffee) brown.

 

Cheers,

Antti

Thanks Antii, more great information  As I'm doing a M-21 I'll probably just fill and spray them with the rest but great tip for SR-71 builders.

14 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

 

I loved his back seater's response of 'we show us nearer 2000'...!!

Me too

9 minutes ago, Hamden said:

 

Interesting subject, there is one on display in the American Air Museum building at Duxford.

Will take a seat and follow along

 

   Roger

There is indeed and there's a BM Walkaround on it here. Thanks Roger  

 

7 minutes ago, perdu said:

I'm over here

 

Proper job, a jet thing

 

☺

Hi Bill, nice to see you  

 

 

Right, let's see about those wheel bay doors…

 

 

Can you see that the doors have ridges on them inside? Also, note that one side is wider that the other. One way they fit like this:

 

 

Sits proud. The other way around they settle very well, as does the small door with the ridge at the back:

 

 

 

Nice. 

 

Fit of the main doors before fettling:

 

 

The small doors won't fit unless the hinges are cut off - here's a shot to show the nice internal detail:

 

 

You'll also notice what I call 'my Giorgio pickup tool' in that shot. I spent quite a lot on fancy stuff until he suggested putting some BlueTak on a stick! Works well and easily refreshed - thanks Giorgio  

With the hinges off and the step continued along the top:

 

 

… they all fit nicely, with a bit of care:

 

 

Right, those can all dry while I go back to the internals, my favourite bit  

[Biggles87]

Not quite an SR71 story but I worked at the  Preston Area Radar unit (based at  Manchester airport)  in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s when the TSR2 was being flight tested at Wharton. We were notified when they were using their supersonic corridor which ran NE between the IOM and the mainland towards Scotland and we also used to track them ( TSR2 + Lightning chase plane ) by marking the ‘blips’ with chinagraph pencil. The TSRS would pull away from the Lightning quite quickly and it’s radar  returns would become further apart, although not as much as Antti describes.

 

John