1/48 SR-71 COMPLETED

Donald Dickson II
I got this in the mail the other day. I was considering moving it onto the bench with the finish of the Skyraider. That was sealed when I kept seeing reviews whining about it isnt perfect and its not good enough blah blah blah.

So, I need to see why these people have sand in their panties.

Spanjaard
I am curious about this one too

Donald Dickson II
So one of the biggest whine fests I have seen yet about this kit has been over engineering the engines and nacells. Along with bemoaning the fit. So I decided that after I put the bracing on the main fuselage I would go ahead and just jump right to the engines. Now, there IS a point with the over engineering thing. They probably could have accomplished it with a few less parts. That being said it wasn't that bad. And the fit was pretty good. I'm confident that most of what few issues I had were my fault and not the kits.

Villiers de Vos
This kit is in my wish list. I would like to follow this build.

Donald Dickson II
Welcome Villiers. Pull up a seat! 🙂

Donald Dickson II
OK. Got the engines done then went back to the beginning. LOL Got the wheel wells and landing gear in. Cockpit decals done. And they are pretty good. They match raised detals on the parts. If you hit it right they look decent. I was pretty close.

I did the rear tires. I think I got a good approximation of the color. I did them worn. A number of pics I found showed them with black showing through. Obviously after a good 10 landings or so. Neat facts about those tires:

They are silver because they added aluminum to the rubber to increase heat dissipation. Even in the wheel wells they would get hot.

They cost 2300.00 each

They are inflated to 410 psi

And finally, they were good for a max of just 15 landings. They tended to change them after 10.

Erik Leijdens
Great start Donald! I'm busy with it's older Italeri YF-12 sister but this one is in the stash too. Looking forward to your further progress 👍

Donald Dickson II
Welcome Roland and Erik!! 🙂

Erik, I had that kit and had to sell it. Do you have a thread up on it? And I am hoping Revell will follow this with that and an A-12

Erik Leijdens
Yes Donald, click on my profile and it will pop up 🙂

Donald Dickson II
OK, pits in, fuselage together. Engines dry fitted for the pic. This thing is freaking huge. The ruler on it is a foot long. 30 cm if you use that.

Erik Leijdens
Yes it's a big model to move around on the bench! Know your pain 😄

Donald Dickson II
So the wings are on. Canopies on. Its gonna stay closed up. Working on the tail fins. Now, THOSE I have no idea WTF they were thinking on the design of those. They suck.

Erik Leijdens
What is wrong with it?

Donald Dickson II
They did it in three pieces and it has an inevitable gap. They needed to be two pieces max. It just made zero sense how they did it and it was 100% not necessary.

Donald Dickson II
OK, it is primarily together. I sprayed Revell enamel anthracite gray randomly to mottle it a bit. Last pic shows that. Sort of. LOL I am futzing with streaking it similar to the one in Udvar Hazy museum. Its the one I have seen in person and can refer to. But I am also liking it how it sits. Not sure how I will go with it yet.

Donald Dickson II
I weathered it with cheap dollar store makeup and brushes. Makeup is what the expensive Tamiya weathering palettes are. And several other brands. Just freaking foundation and contouring makeup only 4 times as expensive. Anyway, I took the pics before I blended further, so its not quite so stripey now.

Gerald
👀

Spanjaard
Donald, there is so much of that out there..... you can buy pigments in art shops for a fraction of the price of the ones for modelled, or make your own "washes" (thinner and a bit of paint), and so on ...

Donald Dickson II
Some of the stuff I will grant the color choices are unique. Like I dont mind paying for rust pigments. Or stuff that replicates green slimey gunk on an abandoned vehicle. Those things are fairly unique. But most else, yeah, its far cheaper to take a second and look around.

Donald Dickson II
And welcome Gerald. 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Decals have commenced

Villiers de Vos
Very nice. I like the technique that you used to break up the black.

Donald Dickson II
Villiers, thank you. 🙂 The anthracite gray is just the right color IMO. It really does look simply like faded black. LOL

Donald Dickson II
Finished her up today.

Overall, very good kit. Not quite as good as I would have hoped, but definitely worth getting and building. I would suggest after market decals. I was not impressed with these. it took a lot of Saolva set to get them to settle in. I was kind of surprised by that.

I would say a B minus, C plus for a grade.

This thing is over 2 feet long. And heavy. Perhaps metal landing gear would be a plus. And it was too large to use my usual photography area. AND the camera on my phone is jacked. But I managed to get good enough pics on the porch so you can see it. LOL

Gerald
👍

Spanjaard
She is beautiful. And big, no doubt 🙂

Villiers de Vos
A very nice result.

Donald Dickson II
Thank you gentlemen.

Roland, I have a large display case. Like 8 feet long, a couple feet front to back. Waist high. It houses a 1/32 F-18 and a 1/32 Tornado along with 4 1/48 F-15s. Currently it is sitting on top. After I take it to my club meeting it will be hanging inside the case. I'll post pics.

Guy Rump
Very impressive 👍

Spanjaard
the more i look at it, more i like it. the shades of the black are just perfect. getting all that black to not just look plain black, is certainly not easy.

Rui S
Very nice paint job 👍

Donald Dickson II
Again, thank you! I do appreciate the kind words. 😊

Spanjaard, I was looking for NATO black to use for highlighting but there was none at the hobby store. I saw the Revell paint rack and started going over it and found the anthracite gray. It's perfect for this. I've never done an all black plane where I needed to fade it like this, so it was seat of the pants. LOL Glad it turned out well. 😊

Spanjaard
turned out really well 🙂

Thomas Bischoff
Well done! Now for a bigger photo box 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Roland, there ya go! Thats where she is. The Tornado and 18 under her are 1/32. The 15s to the left are 1/48 like her.

Николай Романов
Выглядит эффектно. Хорошо получилась тонировка на черном. Поздравляю👍

Donald Dickson II
Использование переводчика. Спасибо! Я тоже был доволен этим.

James C
Fantastic! 👍

Daniel Klink
Black Beauty !!! 👍

John
Glad to see a build of this kit, beautiful job. I did the old Testors one as a kid and it was massive.

If you have an hour or so to go down a rabbit hole, this is an interest tale of searching for 928, which crashed in 1967.

otherhand.org/home-p..re/the-hunt-for-928/

Kyle DeHart
Awesome!

Donald Dickson II
Well, it took silver in an open judging show this past Sat.

Villiers de Vos
It looks menacing and lightning fast standing still. Congratulations.

Spanjaard
Congrats on that wel deserved medal