Johnny_K Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 I live in the U.S. I purchased my kit on ebay in January from an on-line hobby store in England called Jumblies Models I paid $90.00 for the kit. I am not sure if this kit has been officially released in the U.S. This is one big model. The kit is composed of 207 parts and it takes a while to build this puppy. I wanted this aircraft model to look like a weathered Blackbird. The model was painted with Tamyia Rubber Black and weathered with Aqualine weathering products. My opinion is that Rubber Black is a closer match to the actual weathered aircraft color than straight black paint. After the Rubber Black paint dried, I coated the model with a couple coats of Model Master Gloss Clear as a base for the decals. I used Tamyia Mark Fit decal setting solution. The result was minimal silvering. After appling the decals I painted the model with Tamyia Clear Matt. The actual planes became very weathered, so I weathered the model with Aqualine weathering products to enhance the molded in details. These products are water based and are easy to use. Unfortunately, they are no longer available. Unlike previous Blackbird kits, this kit's landing gears and wheel wells have a nice amount of detail. I didn't like the appearance of the seats that were included in the kit, so I purchased seats from Aires. They look nice when the canopies are off, but when the canopies are installed the seats are barely visible (see photo above). The Blackbird makes a nice companion to the B-58 Hustler which is finished in Bare Metal Foil. The engines on the Blackbird are quite impressive when compared to the engines on the Hustler. This is a very well done kit with outstanding molded in details. It has some glitches, but all model kits do. The final result is an outstanding looking and unique model aircraft. I highly recommend this kit. 56 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plasticbasher Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 Very nice, great finish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aigore Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 Sweet!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrfischer317 Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 Great work. I like the weathering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallBlondJohn Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 Superb - and shows how big the Hustler is. I saw the Blackbird at Farnborough in 1987 (I think) and it still looked like something from another planet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t15dja Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 What a fabulous pair! Your SR-71 is superb....but the star for me is your B-58...my favourite plane of all time (see my avatar!) Works of art! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny_K Posted March 24, 2022 Author Share Posted March 24, 2022 21 minutes ago, t15dja said: What a fabulous pair! Your SR-71 is superb....but the star for me is your B-58...my favourite plane of all time (see my avatar!) Works of art! The Blackbird looks like something from a different planet. The B-58 is a great looking airplane. I love the delta wing and the four large engines hanging from the wings. Then there is the huge bomb/fuel tank hanging from under the fuselage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomcat101 Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Beautiful Blackbird! It looks incredibly realistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Very nice! Who doesn’t love a Blackbird? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinChipmunkfan Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 What a great looking model, as you say the rubber black colour looks very realistic- storing it will be the biggest problem, I remember admiring the Blackbirds at Mildenhall back in the day. Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny_K Posted March 25, 2022 Author Share Posted March 25, 2022 It's longer than the Hustler. I'm not sure where I'll display it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhutchi Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Looks great. I really like the faded finish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Niiiice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Dyck Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Fantastic work, the black turns out very very interesting and looks perfect! Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coneheadff Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 The colour and the weathering look spot on. That's a great looking pair you have Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busnproplinerfan Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Ya you are right, they were weathered quite a bit. Never thought of it that much, thought it was just the old photographs. I also never saw one in person. Is there a replacement to the weathering products used? Also why are the canopies a darker shade? Very nicely done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maginot Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Black on black and shades of black. And like Eric Olthwaite's Mother's black pudding, even the white bits are black. Nice work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72modeler Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Superb! You really captured the varied tones of the black finish better that I have seen before. Got to see and hear one fly at the Randolph AB airshow where I live back in the nineties...Incredibly loud! What they say about the skin panels being loose when cool is right; after shutdown and cooling off, fuel began leaking all over the place!! As soon as the Blackbird parked on the ramp, the ground crew placed large fans in front of the main wheels to cool them off. Spectators were not allowed close to the airplane until it had cooled down. (This one came to use direct from Beale AB, CA to San Antonio, TX- took less than 45 minutes to fly the 1,476 miles, as they piped the crew's radio transmissions into the airshow loudspeakers! from wheels up at Beale to wheels down at Randolph) Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny_K Posted March 25, 2022 Author Share Posted March 25, 2022 (edited) Hi Everyone, Thank you so much for the kind words. Greatly appreciated. Here is how I weathered the model The Aqualine products are about as thick as Greek yogurt. I used three colors, rust, dry earth and mud. I dipped just the tip of a damp, wide, stiff paintbrush into the Aqualine weathering product and applied it to the model in a random manner. This looks like a giant mess. Next I used the same damp brush and smeared around the weathering products. Next I used a lightly damp paper towel and started to remove the excess weathering products by lightly rubbing the model's part. Aqualine is a water based product, so even when it is dry it can be removed by rubbing it with a damp paper towel. I kept wiping off the weathering product until I was satisfied with the result. This model has a lot of molded-in panel lines. The weathering highlights those lines and adds a nice texture to the painted surfaces. Prior to weathering those panel lines are pretty much invisible. Aqualine was made by a Russian company. It was distributed via a website called Wilder.su. Wilder stopped selling Aqualine during the recent pandemic. Currently it is still no longer available. I have been looking for a replacement product, but so far no luck. I am open to suggestions. Edited March 25, 2022 by Johnny_K 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 21 hours ago, Johnny_K said: I am not sure if this kit has been officially released in the U.S. The kit is available in the US as the Revell Germany edition. I understand there will be a Revell USA edition without the stand and engines. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Best black finish I've seen... well done !! DaveH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny_K Posted March 25, 2022 Author Share Posted March 25, 2022 29 minutes ago, DaveH said: Best black finish I've seen... well done !! DaveH Thanks Dave. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Excellent model! Glad it turned out so well and you seem to have no trouble with the landing gear 👍 Great to see it finished, and the interesting, black surface effect is really good 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny_K Posted March 25, 2022 Author Share Posted March 25, 2022 (edited) Alan, your build was a great inspiration for me. Edited March 26, 2022 by Johnny_K 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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