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Legendary Blackbird - Part 2: M-21 Mothersip with D-21 Tagboard (Italeri Conversion)


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I see you like my avatar. Poor Pip died last year but he did live to 22 and had quite the life. I had him from a kitten when he and his mother turned up in my garden. She became our pet once we had tamed her.

Edited by Marklo
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47 minutes ago, Marklo said:

I see you like my avatar. Poor Pip died last year but he did live to 22 and had quite the life. I had him from a kitten when he and his mother turned up in my garden. She became our pet once we had tamed her.

I am sorry to hear that. My little kitten Fluffy is 7 months old British Long Hair...

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Dear Serkan

 

The air data probes on the D-21 drone were only fitted when the drone was air launched from B-52’s. The few pictures of the M21 and D21 combination show no probes.

 

The D21 intake lip needs building up with super glue after the top and bottom go together and should be filed to a sharp edge.

 

Regards Toby

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On 2/12/2020 at 5:40 PM, Planebuilder62 said:

Dear Serkan

 

The air data probes on the D-21 drone were only fitted when the drone was air launched from B-52’s. The few pictures of the M21 and D21 combination show no probes.

 

The D21 intake lip needs building up with super glue after the top and bottom go together and should be filed to a sharp edge.

 

Regards Toby

Hi Toby,

Thanks for pointing this important detail. I will do all these changes during drone detailing. I will add both nose and tail cones in my build.

Regards

Serkan

 

1450.jpg

Edited by Serkan Sen
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I’ll tag along for this one. 
 

FWIW, I’ll be coming face to face with the M21 in real life this August as I’m heading out to Seattle to visit a dear friend who used to be heavily involved in the aviation industry. His company also built the stands and recreated the rail the D21 sits on on the M21 airframe as part of getting the airframe ready for exhibiting at the Museum of Flight. He’s crawled all over that bird and sat in the pilots seat. Envy is not the word...

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Here are the reference photos I found on web for D21 nose and tail cones:

 

768px-M-21_Rear.jpg

1450.jpg

 

Based on above pictures I did below drawing to visualize side and top views of drone with covers:

1439.jpg

 

The panel lines in above drawing is most probably not fully correct but my aim was to see how D-21 looks like with covers. Also I will use it to shape these parts.

 

Serkan

 

Edited by Serkan Sen
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I have started first scribing the Tagboard panel lines. To position the steel ruler on model surface I have used double sided tailor tape:

1440.jpg

 

Before placing it on painted kit surface it is better to stick it to hand to make tape less tacky. The good part is the tape is very cheap compared to Dymo tape. But for highly curved or cylindrical surfaces Dyma tape is still the best solution.

 

Now I am ready to scribe the panel lines. I have sanded the primed surface very lightly down to remove raised panel lines and use their traces for scribing.

1441.jpg

 

The kit surface quality is very poor probably releasing the injected part before enough cooling, but this is not a problem for this build, because all the panel lines will be scribed and the surface will be sanded with fine grit paper (1000-1500).

1442.jpg

1443.jpg

 

Serkan

Edited by Serkan Sen
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I was out of the forum for a while and skipped a lot - you’re going fast, Serkan! Really fast. And it’s a pleasure to read all these stories here. 🙂 More cats, please! 😻
 

15 hours ago, March said:

He’s crawled all over that bird and sat in the pilots seat. Envy is not the word...

I can imagine how you felt when he’s talked about it... 😬

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To build nose and tail cones I have found two donors from spare parts box:

1444.jpg

 

To build nose cone I have used an old F-101 fuel tank, and for tail cone a F-4 fuel tank (most probably more than 40 years old):

1447.jpg

 

The result looks pretty good:

1445.jpg

1446.jpg

 

Next is to finalise tail cone details.

 

Serkan

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All the panel lines of lower and upper halves were scribed with the same method used for drone:

1451.jpg

1452.jpg

1453.jpg

 

Next step will be adding front and rear cockpit details and glue both halves together. The front cockpit was already modified in Part1. The similar modification will be done for rear cockpit as well.

 

Serkan

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On 14/02/2020 at 16:38, Serkan Sen said:

To build nose cone I have used an old F-101 fuel tank

We love Voodoos here! 😊

 

Excellent progress so far, Serkan! It would be nice if you’re casted the cones as a separate parts - to have an option for display D-21 in operating configuration.

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Thanks Nikolay. Yes I have made the parts separately to be able to cast them. I have already coated the drone and cones with primer and tomorrow I can share some photos.

 

I have 4 drones left from various projects. Displaying drones with and without cones won't be a problem 😁

 

Serkan

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The Tagboard was coated with primer:

1461.jpg

1462.jpg

 

The mothership and drone with cones looks very nice:

1463.jpg

1464.jpg

 

The kit cockpit parts were also coated with primer and painted in black. Today I will complete cockpit details and glue the fuselage halves together.

1460.jpg

 

Serkan

Edited by Serkan Sen
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The rudder panel lines were scribed and the surface was sanded down to remove casting imperfections:

1467.jpg

 

During A-12 build I didn't noticed that the nose wheel bay was overlapping with original kit cockpit tub.

1468.jpg

 

Therefore the rear part of kit cockpit tub was shortened around 5mm. Also the front part was slightly sanded and tapered to fit lower surface:

1469.jpg

 

And finally both halves were glued together:

1471.jpg

1470.jpg

 

Next will be adding nose cone and filling all the gaps.

 

Serkan

 

 

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The nose cone was glued to its position and all gaps were filled with putty:

1472.jpg

1473.jpg

 

Note that before using putty the lower surface seam line was masked with vinyl masking film strips and then filled with Revell putty. After approximately 30 minutes the putty mask was removed and the seam line was very clean even before sanding with 800 grit paper. This is the method I always use for all seam line and gaps before filling with putty to reduce sanding effort and prevent surface details.

 

Serkan

 

 

Edited by Serkan Sen
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