Legendary Blackbird - Part 1: A-12 Oxcart (Italeri Conversion)

[Serkan Sen]

I have started the new day first checking the length of A-12 on web.

 

From wiki A-12 Oxcart page:

 

Specifications (from A-12 Utility Flight Manual)

General characteristics

Crew: 1

Length: 101 ft 7 in (30.96 m)

Wingspan: 55 ft 7 in (16.94 m)

Height: 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)

 

30.96m is equivalent to 430mm in 1/72 scale: bull's-eye 🎯🎯🎯

 

Serkan

Edited October 1, 2019 by Serkan Sen

[Serkan Sen]

Next the NLG bay was moved by 6.15mm forward. The bay frame was removed from lower fuselage part:

 

The frame was shortened 6.15mm from forward part:

 

The frame was placed to new position and all wounded are were healed by putty... Also the nose section was filled with resin:

 

All excessive putty and resin were removed:

 

Here is the dry fit test and comparison with original kit part:

 

The upper and lower halves were put together to mark trim line for lower half nose area:

 

Next step is to reshape lower half nose.

 

Serkan

Edited October 1, 2019 by Serkan Sen

[Nikolay Polyakov]

Superb engineering, Serkan! 👍 It’s pleasure to watch your work an absolutely accurate measurements.

[Serkan Sen]

1 minute ago, Nikolay Polyakov said:

Superb engineering, Serkan! 👍 It’s pleasure to watch your work an absolutely accurate measurements.

Thanks Nikolay, I am doing my best to build these beautiful aircrafts as accurate as possible.

 

Serkan

 

[Brandy]

I can't add much to that. Lovely work and some useful techniques to store.....

 

Ian

[billn53]

Same here. The skills being displayed are outstanding and a great lesson in scale modeling. 

[Serkan Sen]

4 hours ago, Nikolay Polyakov said:

Superb engineering, Serkan! 👍 It’s pleasure to watch your work an absolutely accurate measurements.

 

4 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I can't add much to that. Lovely work and some useful techniques to store.....

 

Ian

 

3 hours ago, billn53 said:

Same here. The skills being displayed are outstanding and a great lesson in scale modeling. 

Thanks all of you. Without your support and encouragement such progress would not have been possible.

 

Serkan

[Serkan Sen]

The in-flight refueling port (IFR) has to be moved forward as well. Therefore I decided make temporary male and female molds from modeling clay:

 

And as usual I used PUR to create forms:

 

After few hours the resin parts were ready to work on them:

 

With a little efford the excessive resins and clay residuals were cleaned:

First casted IFR port has been resized (it was too wide) using 0.5mm plastic cards on both sides:

 

and glued on its place:

 

Also the insert for original IFR port was reshaped.

 

The new IFR area was reinforced from inside:

 

Here is the fit test of new nose and kit upper half:

 

and outside view:

 

Next step will be to reshape lower nose part profile...

 

Serkan

 

[Robert]

Excellent work you have performed here as you did with the Su-27. Are you going to recast the nosewheel bay for future use ?

 

Regards

Robert

[Serkan Sen]

2 hours ago, Robert said:

Excellent work you have performed here as you did with the Su-27. Are you going to recast the nosewheel bay for future use ?

 

Regards

Robert

Thanks Robert. After casting resin disaster I made a long break on my running Flanker projects (only "What if" Flankerstein is almost RFI.)

Yes I will duplicate the NLG bay for my other planned Blackbird projects. But I need to make the bay a little wider before duplicating it.

Serkan

 

[Serkan Sen]

Before reshaping nose lower surface I have decided to make an insert to close the rear seat opening. Again with the help of modeling clay I have made a reservoir to be filled by PUR.

 

And the resin was poured  into this bed. After few hours the resin was ready to shape.

First few photos right after casting;

Outside view:

 

Inside view:

 

From the above photos it looks a bit messy but the good thing working with PUR that it can be shaped with a sharp blade like cutting butter with knife. Also it does not stick to surface strong and the remaining rests can be simply peeled off.

 

After a bit sanding work (waiting 24 hours to let the resin part to cure enough for mechanical process) the result is as follows:

 

And together with other casted parts and rear fuselage:

 

I need to work on this part a little bit more but in overall it looks fine.

 

Serkan

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by Serkan Sen

[Robertone139]

On 10/1/2019 at 1:26 AM, Serkan Sen said:

I have started the new day first checking the length of A-12 on web.

 

From wiki A-12 Oxcart page:

 

Specifications (from A-12 Utility Flight Manual)

General characteristics

Crew: 1

Length: 101 ft 7 in (30.96 m)

Wingspan: 55 ft 7 in (16.94 m)

Height: 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)

 

30.96m is equivalent to 430mm in 1/72 scale: bull's-eye 🎯🎯🎯

 

Serkan

Need to make sure whether that total length includes the pitot probe.

[Pascal]

Stunning work Serkan.

 

The drawings / templates that you made, would be a great help for anyone trying to do the same conversion. Are you planning on selling your drawings ?

 

Sincerely

 

Pascal

 

 

[Serkan Sen]

8 hours ago, Pascal said:

Stunning work Serkan.

The drawings / templates that you made, would be a great help for anyone trying to do the same conversion. Are you planning on selling your drawings ?

Thanks Pascal. I am currently engaged completing this build as accurate as possible. I will make molds to duplicate the modified parts for my other planned Blackbird builds. I can make them available for other model enthusiasts in future.

 

Serkan

 

[Serkan Sen]

I was not happy with the canopy and windshield parts of Italeri SR-71 kit. I have spent a bit time to compare the front and rear canopy parts of three kits; Italeri SR-71A & YF-12 and Revell SR-71A...

 

The Italeri SR-71A canopy parts have incorrect window and frame shapes. The Revell parts have nice shapes but too wide and too long!..

 

The Italeri YF-12 canopy parts have the most accurate shapes as shown below.

Front canopy:

 

Rear canopy:

 

The Italeri YF-12 has also best windshield shape.

 

Three more parts to be modified and cloned ...🤔

 

Serkan

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by Serkan Sen

[Serkan Sen]

To have an idea how the model will look like, I have brought all the parts together:

 

I know, with all these masking tapes it does not look so nice but still gives some positive feedback  that the progress is on right direction.

 

More photos with close views will follow.

 

Serkan

Edited October 4, 2019 by Serkan Sen

[Andwil]

It’s going to look quite spectacular.

 

AW

[billn53]

Damn! This is moving along at a breakneck pace. 

[Serkan Sen]

The Italeri SR-71 kit instrument panel upper cover (honestly I don't know how it is called. Dash?, upper pad?) looks very primitive. I would like to improve this area although it is very small and when the windshield is installed there is nothing to see much.

 

I have search through the web and what I have found are these photos;

 

The above two reference photos are slightly different than each other.

 

Also from HS forum I have found (which is a great build in 1:48 scale) this one that shows the resin conversion parts from Kiwi models.

 

I think the pocket at the rear of center line should not be there. Can anyone help me to find which shape is correct for A-12?

 

Serkan

Edited October 5, 2019 by Serkan Sen

[Andwil]

3 hours ago, Serkan Sen said:

instrument panel upper cover (honestly I don't know how it is called. Dash?, upper pad?)

I would call it the instrument shroud or coaming.

 

AW

[Brandy]

It's usually referred to as the glare shield, as it's purpose is just that: keeping the sun's glare off the instruments. 

 

Ian

[Nikolay Polyakov]

6 hours ago, Serkan Sen said:

Can anyone help me to find which shape is correct for A-12?

At the moment I only can show you that picture:

 

Sorry Serkan, but the shroud isn’t so visible here... 😬

 

P.S. Found another one, looks more informative:

Edited October 5, 2019 by Nikolay Polyakov

[Serkan Sen]

2 hours ago, Nikolay Polyakov said:

P.S. Found another one, looks more informative:

Many thanks Nikolay. It is totally different than I have found (it seems that I had SR-71 shrouds rather than A-12)

 

Here is another A-12 shroud image I have recently found:

 

It is difficult to guesstimate the front part of shroud.

Serkan

[Nikolay Polyakov]

48 minutes ago, Serkan Sen said:

It is difficult to guesstimate the front part of shroud.

Please check this image.

[Serkan Sen]

Here is the port side of current model:

 

Also some test shots to compare with real aircraft:

 

In overall the model looks fine. Some improvements on nose chine is still required.

 

Serkan