Legendary Blackbird - Part 0: Genesis... (3D Printing)

[Serkan Sen]

11 hours ago, Sirius90 said:

Hi. Great detailed work of the legendary aircraft. Perhaps these reference photos might be of use to you. Taken at the Legends of Flight museum at Dallas Love Field airport. The J-58.

Many thanks for all these detailed photos. They will definitely help me a lot to add all the details to my draft model:

 

Of course the photos of the engine bay details of the fixed inner wing side will be greatly appreciated 🙂. The outer wing half model was finished:

 

Serkan

[David H]

21 hours ago, Sirius90 said:

Hi. Great detailed work of the legendary aircraft. Perhaps these reference photos might be of use to you. Taken at the Legends of Flight museum at Dallas Love Field airport. The J-58. 

And from looking at the thing it looks like its almost all Titanium. Not sure about the fluid lines. I heard a tour guide say the engines had fuel- and hydraulically- driven mechanical computers but i wonder if he meant the FCU- Fuel Control Units.

[Sirius90]

Hi. Yes, there were labels on the engine, the pulley and belt is part of the mechanical fuel distribution. Next time I’m back in the US I will get more photos. They’ve also got an Apollo capsule there, F-8, EA-6B, early F-16 prototype, lots of engines and prop aircraft. If someone can guide me I can upload them to the right forum location, I don’t want to clog up this particular subject forum. 
 

All of the main exhibits and engines are free to walk up to, they just politely ask to not touch. Recommended museum. 
 

Simon 

[Serkan Sen]

Finally I finished the SR-71A forward cockpit and instrument panel modelling. Here are some images of the model:

 

And more images including the SR-1 ejection seat and rails:

 

Next step is to model aft cockpit details.

Serkan

 

[Serkan Sen]

Finally the rear cockpit modelling has been finished. It took a bit time but the result is very eye catching:

 

And again the images including the SR-1 ejection seat and rails:

 

Here are both cockpit details added to front fuselage assembly:

 

I will work on different SR-71A noses and hopefully till end of this year everything will be completed.

 

Next step is to make a test print to see if all details are printable.

 

Serkan

[PeteH1969]

Have you sorted out a method to produce the glazing and canopies in an affordable manner?

 

Looking very good.

 

Pete 

[Serkan Sen]

3 hours ago, PeteH1969 said:

Have you sorted out a method to produce the glazing and canopies in an affordable manner?

Looking very good.

Pete 

Many thanks Pete.

Printing canopies is always the biggest problem. There are some methods I found in Web but I have recently done the following: after printing the canopy parts  I have placed the magnetic print plate on a kitchen paper towel and let the remaining resin to drain for 48 hours without washing the parts with IPA. After then I removed each printed part from print plate and carefully cured them under UV light only for 120-180 seconds to avoid having yellowish clear parts. The result was enough good for little Blackbird canopy. But I am not sure if this works for larger ones like F-16 single piece canopy.

Serkan

[scautomoton]

look into vac forming, its really not that difficult. you can buy a small former on The Bay for ~£45. Then you just need some PETG sheet, an oven and a vacuum cleaner. Simply print your mould with clearance of 0.5mm for the formed sheet. Give the mould a good sanding and polish and its good to go. That's how I did the canopies for the AW.169 I printed.

[Serkan Sen]

On 12/3/2024 at 8:45 AM, Serkan Sen said:

I will work on different SR-71A noses and hopefully till end of this year everything will be completed.

After a very intensive two weeks work on four different SR-71A noses here are the finished models:

 

Next step is to print all these nose cones to check the level of details.

 

Serkan