SR-71 Blackbird

[Grendels]

I don't venture over to this part of the forum very often, I usually stick to the Sci-fi part, but decided to build a plane or two. I haven't made one in over 20 years. This time around I am building a Revell Snap-tite kit in 1/110 scale:

SR-71 part 1

Criticism is welcome!!

 

[Chiefpettyofficer]

This bird reminds me the Transformers II Movie. haha! The old Decepticon "Jetfire" and his rusty farts


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[Quaralane]

Nasty fit on that cockpit glass, but I like your idea of starting "small" before moving to some of those larger projects

 

[Grendels]

Cutting those pins out fixed the nasty fit just fine, and the glass went in with zero trouble after that.

I also like the idea of starting small. The trouble is cheap kits are just that cheap. Sometimes the fit is bad, or seams don't line up, or other such problems. This sr-71 kit is a great kit for the price. Most of the seams are on the underside, where most people won't look, and if you just hack off the pins in a few places it goes together really well.

Thank you for the comments!!

 

[13aceofspades13]

after 3 days, it should NOT!!! come off like that, i use testers beacuse its the most readily available Paint i can get my hands on! but by what i hear, Tamiya's paint is much better.. and most everyone i see uses it.

 

[Grendels]

I ran into a set back tonight. I sat down to put on decals, and to my surprise it isn't decals that came with the kit, it is stickers. I detest stickers on models. They don't stay put. This kit has a lot of contours, and stickers just won't work with it well. I tried to find after market decals, but no luck. So I think I am just going to dull coat her. (I put future on her for decals without really looking at the decals!) I will try the stickers, but I am not holding my breath.

Ace: Tamiya sprays very well, much better than Testors ever did for me. (Well for this first kit anyhow.)

 

[Quaralane]

I'd skip the stickers, and maybe give painting some pinstripes a try

 

[Grendels]

I found a "fix" I did some looking on the wide world of the internet and found a scan of some decals for the 1/48 testors kit. Down loaded them and scaled them to fit, so we will see if this works. I like the downloaded decals much better anyway. They are all red, with little white. The kit stickers had a lot of white to them. I will let everyone know how it works in a bit.

 

[13aceofspades13]

I'd skip the stickers, and maybe give painting some pinstripes a try

thats what i do when i don't have decals... hand paint, the Spades on the Ace Of Spades P-51 are hand panted... its probably noticeable, try masking out the shapes of the decals, or may i suggest just be creative with it, go wild, thats what i would do as soon as i realized the decals where duds.

 

[Grendels]

Well that didn't work, I forgot that if there is a yellow background to the scan, then it prints yellow on the paper. I will have to fiddle around with my photo program to see if I can fix this. If not. at least I have the red stripes down

 

[13aceofspades13]

Well that didn't work, I forgot that if there is a yellow background to the scan, then it prints yellow on the paper. I will have to fiddle around with my photo program to see if I can fix this. If not. at least I have the red stripes down

thats how the cookie crumbles i guess.

 

[Grendels]

I am still working on it. Given enough time, I will come up with a solution!!!

 

[13aceofspades13]

I am still working on it. Given enough time, I will come up with a solution!!!

you could look up decals for a 1/72 scale SR-71 Blackbird that is not the snaptite kit, if they have one, and use them!

 

[Grendels]

I am going to go ahead and try the decals that I have made. I made two sets, and will try them on the base where I can easily remove them if I don't like it.

 

[Quaralane]

Good luck

 

[Grendels]

Thanks Q, I think it will come out ok. But the only way to know for sure is to give it a try.

Here is the next part of the videos:

SR-71 part 2

 

[Quaralane]

Excellent tip on that Squadron/Acetone combo

 

[Grendels]

Thank you Q. I didn't sand it at all before paint, and in the next video, I will show everyone what it looks like. Not quite as good as I would like, but not bad for as little work as I put into it.

 

[13aceofspades13]

hay, you know what you should try for sealer? you should try bondo, it works like a trip, i use it on all my models, i have used it on the P-47 Thunderbolt, P-40 Warhawk, MKII Spitfire, and FW-190D-9! works like a charm!

 

[JMac]

Grendels-

I use the Squadron green putty, I suppose it's alot like the white in terms of handling. I do not thin it (Ill try that sometime) - one tip I have using these putties is I will do a really rough mask to either side of the joint prior to applying the putty. I find that way I use less putty, and I sand a whole lot less.

Also I use liquid mask all the time. I use the Mr Hobby brand (because it has a brush in the bottle). Often I will do several coats (applied quickly over fully dried previous coats) - just got to be careful to not over work it, they tend to dry fast. I used it on areas up to 4 or so centimetre square.

JMac