HABU! Revell 1/48 SR-71 Blackbird

[Alan P]

2 minutes ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Well I think that finish looks spot on mate. I dont envy you doing such a large model in black, but it looks to me (from my screen anyway) that you got this about right!

Thanks Anthony, I think the third pic down on my post captures the effect the best, it's hard to get a decent photo 🤔

[Retired Bob]

I had dug out some old 35mm photos of the SR-71 that I took at Mildenhall in the mid 80s.  Found my trusty old film scanner but it will not work on my present laptop. 

I have ordered a new one, should be with me by Wednesday.  

How is the decaling going Alan?  I have started on my kit, slow pace so that it gives time for any AM to come on the market.

[Alan P]

16 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

How is the decaling going Alan?

Thanks for asking Bob, it's done!

I'm going to have to stop trying to take full size photos, it's just too big!

Decals done, still in the gloss coat.

These decals were all taken from the Warbird decal instructions. I don't have any photos of 974 in 1969, so i suspect not all of these would have been applied to the real thing, but meh.

The Warbird decals are excellent quality and went down very well with MicroSet/Sol. I think the trick of using these solutions is not to tamp down the decal after application - just leave them on 'wet' and brush MicroSol over the top and leave to dry.

The red lines were a pain, I'd probably mask and paint them in future

The ICHI BAN decals are provided in red or white lettering as there are photos of both - anecdotal testimony of the original crew chief at Kadena says he painted it first in red, so that's probably correct for the 1969 period.

Here are the Gooney Birds as painted during the stopover in Midway. The original decals were a bit monochrome, so I painted the wings in Xtracrylix Dark Sea Grey to look a bit more like the original. Also the Warbird Decals instructions place these on the wrong gear doors (inboard instead of outboard) so take care if you're using this set.

Also specific to 974 during the Kadena deployment during the Vietnam War were the Habu mission markings - these are wrongly represented in the Warbird Decal set (there should be 12, not 14). I tried to correct them as they were originally in lines of 5, so I added the extra 2 at the end of the first row. I didn't find a proper photo of the mission markings until after I'd applied them  (they should have been arranged in three rows of 5, 5 and 2.) Ah well.

 

[Alan P]

Flat coat on:

I used Xtracrylix Flat Varnish which is just the best flat I've used since Testors Dullcote, but easier to thin and a lot less smelly. Dries in about 5 mins and leaves no pebbling or residue.

Added the nose gear:

I'm not going to do any more paint effects - this aircraft wouldn't have had many hours on it in 1969. Even at this scale, too much weathering just looks bad.

 

[Alan P]

Possible solution for the main gear legs:

Each main gear already has this hole in the top of the leg - there's no obvious purpose for these

So why not drill a hole in the corresponding position in the wheelwell...? (this is just a pilot hole, not the correct diameter yet)

Then add a plastic rod to the hole. Now this will provide a proper mounting point and transmit load down the axis. I'll glue these in with CA and it should work, maybe well enough to sit on while I paint the stand

 

The wheels themselves are still drying but tomorrow I'll attach all those and this will be more or less finished.

 

Cheers,

Alan

[Ray_W]

Alan,

 

What a wonderful and impressive build. Lots of useful tips and tricks. Great reference source with you being the guinea pig. Thanks for that.

 

I've enjoyed catching up with your process. Nice attention to detail as usual. Love the black. 

 

Ray

[Alan P]

3 minutes ago, Ray_W said:

Alan,

 

What a wonderful and impressive build. Lots of useful tips and tricks. Great reference source with you being the guinea pig. Thanks for that.

 

I've enjoyed catching up with your process. Nice attention to detail as usual. Love the black. 

 

Ray

Cheers Ray 👍 it's nice to be a pioneer when it's something you really have been looking forward to for a long time! This feels way better than talking about a box of plastic and trying to infer things from it!

[Alan P]

Quick reference pics of the 974 artwork from the era I'm modelling (all from sr-71.us)

 

Original as applied on Midway Is

 

After the flight back to Kadena

 

ICHI BAN Original art

 

The Warbird decals aren't bad, draw your own conclusions though! At least they are in stock, while waiting for Caracal pull their respective finger out!

 

[Retired Bob]

12 minutes ago, Alan P said:

Each main gear already has this hole in the top of the leg - there's no obvious purpose for these

The hole is formed because the main wheel legs are hollow, I filled mine with sprue gloop to give them more strength.

 

14 minutes ago, Alan P said:

Then add a plastic rod to the hole. Now this will provide a proper mounting point and down the access. I'll glue these in with CA and it should work, maybe well enough to sit on while I paint the stand

After I assembled the main wheel bays last night I was surprised how little material there is between the inner wheel bay roof and the top surface of the wing.  I will drill and pin my undercarriage legs to 'hopefully' give them enough strength to support the aircraft but before they are attached.  I had to cringe a little at the thought of drilling blind holes in those locations, the upper fuselage/inner wings are recessed to accommodate the main wheel bays, there is only a couple of mm to play with.  

[Alan P]

Just now, Retired Bob said:

The hole is formed because the main wheel legs are hollow, I filled mine with sprue gloop to give them more strength.

 

After I assembled the main wheel bays last night I was surprised how little material there is between the inner wheel bay roof and the top surface of the wing.  I will drill and pin my undercarriage legs to 'hopefully' give them enough strength to support the aircraft but before they are attached.  I had to cringe a little at the thought of drilling blind holes in those locations, the upper fuselage/inner wings are recessed to accommodate the main wheel bays, there is only a couple of mm to play with.  

Really pleased you're off to a good start and have some practical solutions already. The sprue goop idea is excellent! Next time I will drill the holes in the wheelwell roof part before fitting it, that way I don't have to play drill bit roulette with the outer surface!

[bar side]

Revell should have stolen the Italeri solution & cut a slot for the whole top of the leg to push into.  Makes a nice strong mounting point & might be a potential solution to cut your own slot before assembly 

 

[Johnson]

50 minutes ago, Alan P said:

I used Xtracrylix Flat Varnish which is just the best flat I've used since Testors Dullcote, but easier to thin and a lot less smelly. Dries in about 5 mins and leaves no pebbling or residue.

Superb finish Alan. I have a bottle of Xtracrylix Flat Varnish which I've not opened, I'll have to try it. What did you use to thin it?

 

52 minutes ago, Alan P said:

too much weathering just looks bad.

👍

 

Love the Gooney Birds!

[John Meyer]

I've been following this with interest. The mediocrity of this kit is astonishing. Especially the failure to design landing gear assemblies that will support the weight of the model without modification. That is just bizarre.

Edited December 28, 2021 by John Meyer

[Alan P]

3 hours ago, Johnson said:

I have a bottle of Xtracrylix Flat Varnish which I've not opened, I'll have to try it. What did you use to thin it?

Thanks Charlie, it'll thin just fine with water. Don't need to overdo the ratio, only needs about 20% water to varnish even though it's a bit goopy to begin with. Spray at low pressure (15psi max).

 

Thanks very much 👍 

[bigbadbadge]

This is looking rather splendid Alan with the paint and Decalling on. 

Great work 

Chris

[Johnny_K]

I am super impressed! Great looking model.

[Tomjw]

Excellent progress Alan. The weathering looks spot on and the flat finish seems perfect.

 

Hopefully the solutions for the landing gear issue will work as I won't be using the stand.

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

[mark.au]

Looks great Alan!  I quite like the finish as it is, not everything needs to be weathered to the inth degree and at this scale it’d be too easy to overdo it.    I’m looking forward to seeing the finish pics.

[JMChladek]

Beautiful build thus far. I am really liking the results! I live in the states and I bit the bullet to get mine sent from the Netherlands. It just arrived today and I am most impressed with it. It puts the old Testors kit to pasture.

 

I have access to a museum Blackbird near where I live and I checked its paint with what I had on hand when I built a 1/72 Hasegawa Blackbird a decade ago. At the time, Floquil Grimy Black was the best colour I found to use. Floquil is gone today though. As for colours to try, Tamiya Rubber Black, either spray or airbrushed is a good basis. Tamiya NATO black can work as an accent colour. One obvious place to put in a "tan line" as it were is the nose. Typically the more secretive mission noses are kept indoors and not attached to a Habu until it is being prepped for a mission. It's not uncommon to see a nose either darker than the rest of the airframe, or lighter. There can also be a slight colour change from the fuselage just in front of the wings to the main body. Don't go too crazy on weathering since these birds tended to be hangered when they weren't flying.

The question was asked about the IFR door. When a Blackbird was powered down, the door was open, even on the ground. This was a safety feature added by Kelly Johnson himself. If a Blackbird lost its generators in flight (which has happened) he didn't want the aircraft to lock out its IFR door because then hookup to the tanker would be very critical since the plane consumes more fuel at slower speeds. If power is lost, the door drops open exposing the IFR receptacle On the ground, dirt isn't really a concern as the birds are hangered and meticulously inspected during preparations for a mission (unless the ground crew had a way to manually crank the IFR door shut) or use some sort of lockout pin. 

 

Somebody asked about pressure suit colors. In the 60s they were white (A-12 pilots wore a silver suit). In the 70s they were changed to a brown shade similar to a military uniform dark brown. A blue suit has also been seen but I do not know how common it was (possibly only used in the YF-12?). In the very late 70s it was changed to a colour called "Old Gold" which is a orange/yellow shade, like about two thirds yellow to 1/3rd orange. You don't necessarily have to get it exact, just close as it looks like newer suits are a little brighter in colour than the older ones. The exact same suits were used by NASA Space Shuttle crews on the first four test missions. So you can consult images of those suits for references. On my build, I am going to scrounge a pair of astronauts from a Revell 1/48 Apollo CSM kit as the Block 1 style suits used during Apollo 1 (which Revell rendered in their Block 1 CSM based kit) were made by Dave Clark corporation and were heavily based on the Gemini suits. The S-1030A suits used by later Blackbird crews are also relatives to the NASA Gemini suits and made by Dave Clark corporation.

 

The engine flame bucket internals were indeed covered with a tan ceramic coating. I once stuck my head in a J58 on display separately from the Blackbird we have at the SAC museum in Ashland, Nebraska as I was getting measurements for a possible resin engine insert to use in the Testors kits. Unfortunately the resin firm no longer exists as it burned up in the California wildfires a few years back. But, nice to know we don't need one now for any OOB builds of the Revell kit. Resin or 3D print ones sound appealing though if one were to do a diorama of a Blackbird starting engines as you see a green flash of TEB igniting in the chamber. Museum engines are perfectly acceptable for research since they were pulled out of the planes on display and pretty much kept looking pristine with no repaints.

 

After I get a little more research done, I'll start work building mine this week. Thanks for the build tips!

[Alan P]

@JMChladek outstanding information, thank you! The IFR door was open when powered down then! (Sorry @bar side you were right).

 

The point about hangaring also is a good one...someone earlier mentioned how a lot of the variations in colour and tone seen on the photos could be down to changes in reflectivity of the black surface rather than actual different colours, and the lack of actual weathering would be down to the fact these birds lived under cover most of their lives.

 

 @bar side

[Alan P]

Also thanks very much @bigbadbadge

@Tomjw and @mark.au @Johnny_K , it's good to get to this point. Not much left now and I'll give my final verdict on the kit 👍

 

[Serkan Sen]

Outstanding work Alan. Looks really awesome!..

Serkan

[bar side]

That’s interesting @JMChladek - great information & most useful.  Yes Alan - looks like a Blackbird in the hangar going through pre flight checks could be either powered or unpowered to the IFR, so I won’t stick in my closed doo just yet!

[Hewy]

Great job alan , an impressive model 👍

[Retired Bob]

12 hours ago, John Meyer said:

I've been following this with interest. The mediocracy of this kit is astonishing. Especially the failure to design landing gear assemblies that will support the weight of the model without modification. That is just bizarre.

I agree, Revell appear to have decided that most of the kit builders would use the display stand but their design of the kit just became confused.  As mentioned several times in this build the main and nose undercarriage legs all have weak pivoting attachments that Revell indicate you do not glue.  If it's not modified and the model is on it's undercarriage it will be very weak, but if the model is on it's stand with the undercarriage down it will look wrong because the legs have been moulded in the 'weight on ground' position, a quick 'eyeball and ruler' check reveals that that the oleos would need extending by about 5mm with the scissor links altered to make the legs appear to be 'off the ground',  With the model in the 'flying' state on it's stand a crew in appropriate flight gear are required.  If I can obtain a crew I would make another Blackbird model on it's stand with the undercarriage just retracting.