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Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (04967) 1:48


Mike

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Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (04967)

1:48 Carrera Revell

 

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If it were to be rolled out of Lockheed’s famous ‘Skunkworks’ factory for the first time tomorrow, the SR-71 Blackbird would still look like something from the future. It’s simply phenomenal to think that the sleek design of the aircraft, with its blended wing, colossal engines and sinister matt black paint is over 50 years old. The SR-71 flew for the first time in 1964, two years after the aircraft it was developed from, the A-12. In comparison with its predecessor, the SR-71 was a larger aircraft, with a stretched fuselage designed to hold more fuel for greater endurance and a second cockpit for a Reconnaissance Systems Operator (RSO).

 

The SR-71 began its active service career in 1966. The aircraft was used for reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam and Laos, flying from its base on the Japanese island of Okinawa. It also flew missions over the Baltic Sea from Mildenhall in the UK. Always a hugely expensive aircraft to operate, the Blackbird was retired in 1989, with the funding for the programme redirected to the troubled B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit programmes. However, with no suitable replacement in the development pipeline and increasing tensions around the globe, the SR-71 programme was reactivated in the early nineties, only to be retired for the second and final time in 1998 – or was it? During its 32-year career, the Blackbird set dozens of records for absolute altitude and absolute speed, most of which still stand today, making the aircraft a true Cold War icon.

 

 

The Kit

This is a brand-new tool from Revell, and when it was announced there was quite a clamour from the modelling public, as we’ve been wanting one for a while, having the reboxed Testors kit from 1982 as  our only recourse in this scale until now.  Now we have a new kit from Revell, and right out of the box it’s a good looking piece of plastic engineering.  It arrives in a large top-opening box, with thirteen sprues and two fuselage halves in pale grey/green styrene, two small clear sprues, a large decal sheet and the instruction booklet with ‘colour’ profiles for the decal options on the rear.  I say colour, but most of that is black, with a ton of stencils.  The surface detail on the blended fuselage/wings is excellent, and you can actually see it because the plastic isn’t that hard-to-photograph black that graced Blackbird kits of yore.  In addition to the kit, you get a stand for your model, and a pair of Pratt & Whitney J58 afterburning jet engines, which have their own cradles on the base beneath the aircraft.

 

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Construction begins with the – lower fuselage.  Eh?  Surely not?  Yes.  The lower fuselage part extends from behind the nose cone to the beaver tail, and out as far as the engine nacelles, with three holes cut out for the gear bays.  A couple of holes are drilled to place it on the optional stand, then three cross-braces are inserted into grooves on the inside, to be joined by a sturdy beam that stretches from the aft of the nose gear bay all the way to the rear of the model.  This will make the model structurally rigid along its length, which will prevent any seams cracking after construction due to flexing parts.  The nose gear bay is semi-integrated with the spar, butting up against it once complete.  It is made up from individual sides for extra detail, and has an optional front bulkhead, and I can’t quite divine why you would want to leave it off the model, as the next and subsequent steps shows it installed.  The bay door openers are fixed to the centre of the bay for breaking off later (hopefully kidding!), and the bay is inserted into the lower fuselage from within, then set to the side while the main bay doors are completed.  The bays are tapered toward the outside, and are each made from three walls, with a retraction jack fitted into sockets in the front and back walls without glue.  The main gear struts are dropped into their cups on the outer edge of the bays in the fuselage, then the bay walls are glued in, trapping them in position.  After the glue is set, you can hook up the two sections or leave them loose and taped/Blutaked into the bay so they don’t get knocked off during handling.  The bay rooves have a deep cylindrical retainer for the wheels moulded-in to protect the tyres from heat damage, plus ribbing representing the upper surface of the wing.

 

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The SR-71 was expanded to accommodate two crew members, and they each get an ejection seat that is based on two halves, onto which the cushions with moulded-in seatbelts and a separate pull-handle for getting them out of there in a hurry.  They each have individual cockpit tubs with moulded-in side consoles and separate instrument panels, which are nicely detailed, and have decals to place over them to add more interest to the area without too much effort, just the addition of some decal setting solution.  They too fit into the lower fuselage in square brackets moulded into the floor.  The next step is to create the refuelling bay in the spine of the aircraft, as the Blackbird was a thirsty bird in the air, and a leaky one on the ground, thanks to seams that only fitted properly when the titanium frame had expanded to flight temperatures thanks to the friction of passing through the air at high speed.  You have the option of a “wedge” bay, or a cover panel, and there are also two nav. lights - one on the bottom, the other on the spine, both of which are inserted from inside.  The upper fuselage has the cockpit surrounds painted before they are joined, and an additional bulkhead is fitted within the nose as this task is carried out, with the very tip of the tail also a separate part.

 

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While the fuselage is setting up, attention shifts toward the massive P&W engines, of which there are two.  The build process is the same for each one, but they are handed, so take care to use the correct parts.  The exhausts are first, with a tapered trunk between a funnel-shaped afterburner and shallow exhaust petals, fitting into a compact bulkhead that will locate it within the nacelle later.  At the front, the long, tapered intake bullet is made from two teardrop-shaped halves with a separate nose-cone tip, and this is also attached to a bulkhead with stator-blades moulded-in, and four sections of intake trunking are added on strakes around the bullet, forming the complex shape that slowed down the supersonic air so the engine could breathe at high speeds.  At the rear of the bulkhead the initial compressor ring is added, although little will be seen of this unless you have an endoscope camera.  The exhaust cans are last, made up from two interlocking crowns, a tubular fairing, and a large set of petals that have detail inside and out.  There are a few small sink marks just visible on the inside of these parts, but they probably won’t notice.  Each engine is then installed in the lower section of the cowling, which also incorporates the outer wing panels too, each section locating on tracks moulded inside the cowling halves.  With the cowling closed up, the nose ring is added, then the aft section of the exhaust with the auxiliary intakes is clipped in place on the cowling over the inner exhaust.  The completed engines are attached to the fuselage now, using a long slot and tab to make for a good join.

 

The nose cone is separate, and there is a choice of two shapes to the chines on the top half, depending on which decal option you have chosen.  There’s also space for nose weight, but that might not even be necessary, given how far back the main gear legs are, and nothing is documented.  The twin tail fins were canted in to reduce the type's radar signature, and each one has a two-part base topped with a single piece rudder that is fixed in place with a tab and pin.  The flying surfaces at the rear of that big delta-wing are also separate, and while the outer sections are single parts, the thicker inner sections have two layers, while all of them have the prototypical zig-zag lines etched into the surface.

 

If you have elected to pose your model with the gear up, there are simple bay doors supplied for all three bays, a single part for the nose gear, and two parts each for the main bays.  For the gear down modeller, the nose gear strut has a moulded-in scissor-link, and a clear landing light.  The twin wheels are each made from two halves and fix to the bottom of the strut via a straight styrene axle that you could replace with a length of 1.2mm brass rod if you are concerned about strength.  It fixes into the rear of the bay with a small bay door attached to the retraction jack and two more on the sides of the bay.  The main gear legs were installed earlier, and are now decked out with three wheels each, using another thicker axle to support the wheels across the yoke.  The Blackbird’s tyres were specially made with metal impregnated rubber to make them more heat-tolerant, so don’t forget to check your references to see how they should look.  Two large doors fit to either side of the bay aperture, the outer one linked to the strut, the inner having two retraction jacks at the bottom edge.  The airframe is completed by adding a number of small aerials and the prominent nose-mounted pitot probe, then installing the canopy.  There are two external colour options here, with a separate sharp-fronted windscreen part attached to the fuselage with two canopies that can be placed in the open or closed positions, with an opener jack supplied for them both.

 

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You can stop there if you wish, but it would be a shame to waste the parts included for the two engines, even if you aren’t planning on using the base.  It wouldn’t be too much effort to create a trolley for them both with some styrene rod or similar.  Each engine begins with the pairing of the two front fans and the exhaust section with the funnel-shaped afterburner, which there are thankfully duplicates of on the sprues, so you don’t have to choose.  The engine body is built up in quadrants to which two lengths of trunking are added to two, and a single length to the others, to augment the excellent moulded-in detail.  The four quadrants are joined together around the engine front to create a cylindrical housing, with the exhaust inserted into the rear once it is complete.  A detailed painting guide is shown for each quadrant, and there are stencil decals for each of the lengths of trunking that snake down the side of the body.

 

The base is a large circular plate with a concave sloped edge, and it has a cruciform central socket for the two-part stand, plus four additional slots for the engine mounts.  With the parts in place the engines are fixed to their mounts on small pins, and the SR-71 is placed atop the stand on the two pins that mate with the holes you drilled at the very start of the build.  Paint it whatever colour you like!

 

 

Markings

The Blackbird got its name from its inky-night Radar Absorbent Material (RAM) finish, which comes out pretty black and very matt on most photos.  There are four options on the sheet, and they differ only in their markings, of which there are a pretty substantial number.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

  • AF61-7958 US Air Force 27/28th July 1976 World Speed Record Runs (High Visibility Scheme)
  • AF61-7955 Air Force/Lockheed Flight Test Aircraft, Palmdale Plant 42, Edwards AFB, 1972-94 (High Visibility Scheme)
  • AF61-7972 US Air Force 6th New York – London 1st Sept 1974, Los Angeles – Washington DC, 6th March 1990
  • AF61-7967 US Air Force Last Flight Det 2, Edwards AFB, 10th Oct 1997

 

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Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

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Conclusion

The SR-71 was a stunning triumph of the slide-ruler and sheer skill of its designers, Kelly Johnson and his team at Skunkworks.  This kit is a thoroughly modern representation of this landmark aircraft that broke world speed and altitude records almost as often as it broke the speed of sound by a substantial margin.  The detail is excellent out of the box, with the separate engines and stand adding to the attraction.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

Currently, Revell are unable to ship to the UK from their online shop due to recent changes in import regulations, but there are many shops stocking their products where you can pick up the kits either in the flesh or online.

 

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Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

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it looks like an old monogram kit in terms of moulding tech to me ! accuracy ? well has to be checked ! but i might be wrong !!! too much doing the engine detail ! they could spent more on the cockpit and on the wells wheels !!!!

 

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Thanks, Mike, for the kit review. I'm really looking forward to the first build review. I think we just might have a winner here.

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1 hour ago, asgardiano said:

it looks like an old monogram kit in terms of moulding tech to me ! accuracy ? well has to be checked ! but i might be wrong !!! too much doing the engine detail ! they could spent more on the cockpit and on the wells wheels !!!!

 

Well you are a glass is half empty chap eh?

 

From my standpoint its a good looking new tool of an iconic aircraft. Looks better than old tech thats for sure.

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1 hour ago, Julien said:

Looks better than old tech thats for sure.

Just in the lack of flexibility of the fuselage alone, it beats the old kit hands down.  I put the two fuselage halves of the new tool together earlier (as you do), and they were rock-solid even before the installation of the massive radio-mast down the middle.  I've owned both kits now, and the old kit isn't a patch on this, and has gone in the disposal pile:shrug:

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It appears that the instructions on Scalemates are incomplete. After the cover page, the next page is Page 11. The missing pages include the key for the color flags. Farther on, pages 29-32 are also missing, which must be the instructions for the separate engines and stand.

 

I seem to remember this happening with the Airfix Vulcan instructions too, where Scalemates posted a partial instruction booklet first, and eventually had the complete one.

 

Peter

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I think @Mike’s review might just have pushed me to get one now. I was resisting on the basis of cost, size and painting all that black combined, but it would be daft to miss out on one when it’s so good.

 

My one minor quibble would be that purely from a UK based modellers perspective, some Det 4 Mildenhall markings would have been nice. I wonder if anyone will see any return in producing a set. The old Cutting Edge set would probably cost more than the kit if you could find them. Maybe Caracal will re-release theirs (I assume they were an option in one of their two sets).

 

Or could they even be found amongst the kit decals given there were so few markings on them anyway?

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I only ever built the 72nd scale Italeri kits and they were not bad. The 48th scale kit on the other hand, i heard was something of a trainwreck to build. We've been overdue for a more modeler-friendly iteration of the Blackbird in 48th scale and this is most welcome.

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The Testors/Italeri 1/48 kit can be built, but it's a lot more work than it needs to be. Years ago I built it as the B model flown by NASA after the SR-71s were retired.

 

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Sadly it's now the worse for wear as the result of a house move, but I'm hoping to fix it up to go with the new kit. Maybe by that time Revell will reissue it as a B.

 

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Edited by Peter O
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55 minutes ago, Filler said:

I think @Mike’s review might just have pushed me to get one now. I was resisting on the basis of cost, size and painting all that black combined, but it would be daft to miss out on one when it’s so good.

 

My one minor quibble would be that purely from a UK based modellers perspective, some Det 4 Mildenhall markings would have been nice. I wonder if anyone will see any return in producing a set. The old Cutting Edge set would probably cost more than the kit if you could find them. Maybe Caracal will re-release theirs (I assume they were an option in one of their two sets).

 

Or could they even be found amongst the kit decals given there were so few markings on them anyway?

Caracal Models have reissued their Sr-71 Sets Part 1 and 2 here:

https://www.caracalmodels.com/cd48100.html

https://www.caracalmodels.com/cd48101.html

Both 17.99US. How long before they sell out? probably not long

They cover just about everything from the original non-painted A-12 to the YF-12A to a good portion of the Sr-71's

I had part 2 in the stash and just ordered part 1 yesterday. They begin shipping on Dec 10th

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4 hours ago, asgardiano said:

it looks like an old monogram kit in terms of moulding tech to me ! accuracy ? well has to be checked ! but i might be wrong !!! too much doing the engine detail ! they could spent more on the cockpit and on the wells wheels !!!!

 

Unbelievable!!! 

 

Not sure I see any raised panel lines. Just to help you out, yes, you're wrong.

 

I have my kit. The plastic in front of me and I'm very happy with what I see.

 

Tom.

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54 minutes ago, Peter O said:

Sadly it's now the worse for wear as the result of a house move, but I'm hoping to fix it up to go with the new kit. Maybe by that time Revell will reissue it as a B.

 

Well, you might want to put the canopies back on, but that second picture looks just like some of the pix of the weatherbeaten real thing in the various books I have! 😜

best,

M.

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6 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

Well, you might want to put the canopies back on, but that second picture looks just like some of the pix of the weatherbeaten real thing in the various books I have! 😜

best,

M.

True enough! The biggest obstacle isn't reattaching or replacing the parts, but the fact that it isn't up to my current standards, which have improved considerably since this was built. What starts as gluing parts back on would end up as a complete strip, refilling the joints, doing some scribing, etc. I might as well buy two new ones, and graft the 2nd cockpit onto a new one 🙄

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The SR-71B looks wonderful. I've been told by someone who has built several of the Italeri kits that the key to assembling the model is assembling all of the upper fuselage sections first and them gluing that sub-assembly to the bottom fuselage piece. I'm not sure how that makes the build easier but he insists it makes a big difference.

 

I'm looking forward to having one of the new Revell kits in my stash but it won't remain in the stash very long. It'll be on the work bench shortly after I get it ... and another work in progress kit will go on the back burner.

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22 hours ago, Peter O said:

Years ago I built it as the B model flown by NASA after the SR-71s were retired.

 

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Twenty five years ago I built that kit too. As you also experienced after three house move (one of them was international) my Blackbird was also heavily damaged as many of others. I started to restore this kit couple years ago but after the announcement of Revell kit release my project was suspended. Now I can build them together:

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Serkan

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I'm just received and started to put this kit together... and not impressed with what I'm seeing !

 

Whilst definitely an improvement on the 40-year old Testors/Italeri kit,, this is not a particularly detailed OR accurate kit of this iconic aircraft.

The SR-71 was designed in the 1950's and still looks like something from the future, but this Revell kit looks like it was produced in the 1990s - nowhere near up to the standard of most recent kits...  

 

There are visible sink-marks around the tails and afterburner sections, mistakes in the instructions, a pitiful lack of detail in the undercarriage bays and many other inaccuracies.  This is going to be a very hard kit to bring-up to modern standards.

I look forward to seeing what the aftermarket producers come up with.

 

I have plenty of better kits to build, so I'm putting this one back in it's box and into the loft....

I'll wait for the much better SR-71 kit that is already well into development by Hypersonic.

 

Then we might be able to do justice to this historic aircraft.

 

K

 

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