1/48 Revell SR-71A WIP

[eaglecash867]

Thanks for the comments fellas.

Finally was able to get back to this one again. Getting a feel for putting the engine nacelles together was a little rocky at first. I ended up with a HUGE builder-induced step toward the front of the top of the nacelle. It was big enough to where sanding would have thinned the material on one side far too much, so I had to cut through it with a scribe and use a .010 styrene strip to fill the gap the cutting created, before gluing it back together in proper alignment. Got the pieces aligned properly this time, completely eliminated that seam...and then carefully re-scribed it because the seam is meant to be a panel line. I'm using Tamiya masking sticker sheet material to mask the already-painted inlet cones...and the stuff also makes good "elephant skin" that protected it from accidental slips when I was sanding/scribing the re-worked seam. I cut the finger off a latex glove and slipped it over the exhaust tube to protect it during the finishing process.

One good thing about the step problem on this is that I can now apply that same solution to the Su-25M1 project I shelved a year or two ago due to a large step on the bottom of the fuselage.  I should be able to fix that now and finally get that project going again some day soon.

[armornutii]

   Is it just me or does anybody else see the humor in a latex finger and the tailpipe of an airplane

[thug626]

Not sure how I missed this! It is now bookmarked. If ya don’t mind, I’ll be taking notes on this as I’ve got one parked in my stash.

[handiabled]

It's great to see this one up and running again!

[eaglecash867]

Mar 15, 2024 21:33:00 GMT -5 armornutii said:

   Is it just me or does anybody else see the humor in a latex finger and the tailpipe of an airplane

Heh...well...I kinda have bad memories about that from my little adventure with colon cancer a little over 5 years ago.  But, I can laugh about it now. 

Thanks for the comments guys.

It's been a while since I've had an update on this...just kinda lost my SR-71A mojo there for a little bit, but it's starting to make a come-back.  The wing-tip/nacelle subassemblies are both done and all dressed up with a little Apoxie Clay to even out the panel lines on them.  Then I moved on to the cockpits.  Trying to make a hybrid of the kit parts and four different aftermarket kits (Eduard, Quinta Studio, Metallic Details, and Hypersonic Models) so I have just been focusing on the front cockpit so I learn all of the pitfalls before starting the rear cockpit.  Got everything in the bucket put together this morning, and the Hypersonic Models SR-1 seat is in the process of being painted.  This is what I have on the cockpit bucket.  All of the extra detail around the top of the seat rails required some delicate surgery with a jeweler's saw on the fuselage, along with some addition of Evergreen styrene to take up the tiny space the surgery left.  At some point, the canopy sills are getting tiny holes drilled in them for the tiny magnets I'm planning to use to make the canopies removable.  Unfortunately, my wheels-up Blackbird is going to be without a flight crew.  I did a dry fit on the Shapeways flight crew I bought for it, and those guys are apparently suffering from giantism...they're significantly out-of-scale.  They look good, but they're HUGE.

[armornutii]

Oct 19, 2024 8:21:35 GMT -5 eaglecash867 said:

Mar 15, 2024 21:33:00 GMT -5 armornutii said:

   Is it just me or does anybody else see the humor in a latex finger and the tailpipe of an airplane

Heh...well...I kinda have bad memories about that from my little adventure with colon cancer a little over 5 years ago.  But, I can laugh about it now. 

Thanks for the comments guys.

It's been a while since I've had an update on this...just kinda lost my SR-71A mojo there for a little bit, but it's starting to make a come-back.  The wing-tip/nacelle subassemblies are both done and all dressed up with a little Apoxie Clay to even out the panel lines on them.  Then I moved on to the cockpits.  Trying to make a hybrid of the kit parts and four different aftermarket kits (Eduard, Quinta Studio, Metallic Details, and Hypersonic Models) so I have just been focusing on the front cockpit so I learn all of the pitfalls before starting the rear cockpit.  Got everything in the bucket put together this morning, and the Hypersonic Models SR-1 seat is in the process of being painted.  This is what I have on the cockpit bucket.  All of the extra detail around the top of the seat rails required some delicate surgery with a jeweler's saw on the fuselage, along with some addition of Evergreen styrene to take up the tiny space the surgery left.  At some point, the canopy sills are getting tiny holes drilled in them for the tiny magnets I'm planning to use to make the canopies removable.  Unfortunately, my wheels-up Blackbird is going to be without a flight crew.  I did a dry fit on the Shapeways flight crew I bought for it, and those guys are apparently suffering from giantism...they're significantly out-of-scale.  They look good, but they're HUGE.

   Nice drivers box eagle, maybe the crew suffered a depressurization event and their suits expanded.

[brandonk]

My son wants to build this one and I picked one up for him. He's grown now, but he has only built one kit so I will have to assist him through this or we will lose a future builder to frustration. Your work on this looks great and I am taking mental notes of all of this.