Italeri/Testors 1/72 Lockheed YF-12A

hsr · December 31, 2022

Just coming in under the wire for 2022 here is my last build of the year; the Italeri/Testors 1/72 Lockheed YF-12A "Blackbird". The YF-12A was a 2 seat version of the CIA's A-12 built as a high speed high altitude fighter-interceptor. Although some would say that it was just an elaborate cover story to hide the real purpose of the SR-71.

I read a review of this kit that praised the near perfect fit of this kit which would require no filler. I can only think that reviewer must live in and alternate universe because what I got in this Testors' boxing was a typical Italeri kit with short run model poor fit, Especially problematic was the the fir of the upper front fuselage to the upper rear and and the inside joints on the engine nacelles. Unlike the A-12 and the SR-71 only the chines on the YF-12A were painted black leaving the rest of the fuselage and wings bare titanium. The only titanium paint I could find was AK's Extreme Metal AK 669. I have been very happy with AK's Real Colors so I got that. But it also has a special primer and cleaner, so I got those too. The primer is supposed to have a high gloss black finish but what I got was a pebbly semi gloss black that never fully dried and remained tacky. I sanded it smooth and masked it with Tamiya mask and sprayed on the titanium. Unfortunately, when I pulled the mask off the glue stayed behind on the black primer. Mineral Spirits removed the glue with some rubbing and left most of the black, which was still tacky, but took enough of the black off that I mask the titanium and respray the black areas with the AK Real Color "flat" black, which is a semi gloss. This time when I removed the mask only a little of the glue stuck to the titanium. Once again Mineral Spirits removed it this time without hurting the titanium. I have never had this happen before, especially not with Alclad, although I never got a nice gloss finish with Alclad primer either.

The decals were by Scale Master and pretty old. They turned out to work very well but, I only used them for the serial number and FX number. The rest came from other sheets.

Not my best work, but I think it came out OK. Sorry for the dark pictures but it is a dark and rainy day here in my part of North America.