Testors 1/48 SR-71 Blackbird x 2 - Salvage Job

[oortiz10]

Yeah, you read that right. One of my next two projects is salvaging the two started Blackbirds the wife found at a yard sale.

The parts came loose in a box that included the P-47 that I just finished.











Construction quality isn't that bad, but it leaves some to be desired. One thing I will have to do is clean up a lot of the seams. While I was looking over the overall condition of the kit, I noticed that there is some breakage on various parts of the airframe.


















But before I decided if the repairs were even worth it, I checked to make sure all the parts were accounted for. It turns out that most of them are.











Luck would have it that some of the parts have some damage...





But luckily, nothing too significant. Speaking of luck, I found that only one minor part, which I think is a gear door actuator, is missing.








I think I should be able to scratch one easily enough, or now that I'm a master resin caster, maybe I can make a copy.  

The bad news is, this is going to be a long-haul project. I'll be building them concurrently with a pair of Tamiya Jugs. The good news is, I pulled a groin muscle in my hockey game last night, so I might be getting more bench time that I expected. Wait...how is that good news...?

Anyway, as usual, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out.

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned!
-O

[deafpanzer]

SWEET! You have my attention as well. I always loved seeing those at the museums... wish they are still flying today!

[kyledehart5]

Awesome!! Who doesn’t love a Blackbird. I’m here for these

[keavdog]

Those poor birds have seen better days. I'm sure you'll take care of them O.

[TJ]

After seeing what you went through with the B-1 these should be a piece of cake

[406 Silverado]

Jul 2, 2024 3:57:00 GMT -5 TJ said:

After seeing what you went through with the B-1 these should be a piece of cake

 I'll second that and will be watching this one .......

[handiabled]

My money is on you having these looking top notch. Bookmarked!

[themongoose]

Awesome kits, worth your time to make something out of them. Are you up for something NOT a whirlybird? 🤣 a quadruple build, huge challenge, should be lots to see here! 🍿

[Medicman71]

Very cool. Can't wait to see the build.

[Steve Zuleski]

That'll work, excellent!

[jmarc]

IIIIIIIIIIII'm here , I'm here !

[oortiz10]

Jul 2, 2024 3:57:00 GMT -5 TJ said:

After seeing what you went through with the B-1 these should be a piece of cake

Hey...you know what? My wife snatched up that B-1 from a yard sale, too! Hmm...maybe she's not "being supportive of my hobby. Maybe she's trying to kill me!



Well, I'm waiting on some parts for the Jugs. Since that project is at a stall, I took the time to focus on these Blackbirds. I'm still working on fixes for the chipped wings, but I did get the parts cleaned up.





Not very exciting, but I can put some time into fixing the small issues with all the loose pieces, like repairing the broken wheels and axles. 

Sorry this thread isn't very exciting...yet. I promise things will get more interesting soon.

Anyway, as usual, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out.


Cheers!
-O

[oortiz10]

WARNING: Those that find the destruction of raised panel lines upsetting may find this post disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

OK gang, my Jugs are on hold while I wait for Mr. (or Ms.) Postal Worker to deliver some goodies. So, I turned my attention to the Blackbirds to keep me busy.

The biggest challenges were going to be repairing the breaks and chips in the fuselage. The -B had some damage to its boattail and two different areas of the trailing edges of the flaperons. Luckily, the damage to the flaperons extended far enough forward to where the kits plastic was thick enough for the styrene plug to be glued. The plugs and boattails where then filled with Milliput and shaped. The boattails also had some gaps between them and the corrugated areas of the fuselages that needed to be filled. I used some styrene strips to fill those gaps. This provided the added bonus of giving the rear areas of the fuselages some rigidity.





The -A on the other hand, proved to be a bigger challenge. The plastic on these kits is very brittle. The chip on the -A's flaperon was too close to the trailing edge to simply glue in a piece of styrene. 





So, as I tried to cut back the chip in an effort to clean up its irregular shape and get to a thicker section of the wing, disaster struck. The plastic shattered and spider-webbed, almost all the way up to the flaperon's hinge line. As a result, I had to cut out all the broken plastic and fabricate a plug to replace the missing plastic.

The first thing I did was use the other wing to make a tape template to use for correcting the plug's and trailing edge's shape.





Then, using thick CA, I glued in the plug and used the tape to trim the plug to shape.








After that, it was a matter of using more CA and Milliput to (try to) get things smoothed and blended.





I have no idea how it looks under paint yet. I'll have to wait until the whole airframe gets primed. However, before that can happen, I had to get the seams squared away. I used copious amounts of sprue-goo, some Bondo, and a dabs of PPP to get the job done. Again, I have no idea how well it all worked. We'll have to see what things look like under primer, but for now, here's what the fuselages look like.








In an effort to give my arm and shoulder a break from all the seam sanding, I decided to rescribe the vertical stabilizers. Doing so resulted in...more...sanding...

I used a template traced onto tape then transferred to a piece of sheet styrene in order to create a jig for that tombstone shaped panel on the stabilizers.

















In that last photo, you can see where I had to use some PPP to fill the gap that was left after some panels were installed to the bases of the stabilizers.





I decided to rescribe the stabilizers because I'm going to rescribe the rest of the airframe. All of the seam fixin' obliterated a lot of the raised panel lines. In order to get things looking uniform again, I'm going to rescribe the kits. But before I wrestle that monster, I decided I'd do some easy fixes.

The nose gears had their wheels and some of the mounting pins broken off.








So, I simply used some styrene rod to make some new axles. Of course, I drilled new mounting holes into the actual wheels themselves.





So, the parts for the Jugs are supposed to arrive any day now. Until they do, I'll keep on keepin' on with these two. Like I said, these are gonna be long term projects.

As usual, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out. I'll post more when there's more to post. Until then, stay tuned!

Cheers!
-O

PS - I'm thinking my wife is trying to kill me. I'm pretty sure these kits are going to give me fart hailure!

[kyledehart5]

😂😂😂 Surely she isn’t trying to kill you. Maybe she’s trying to give you so much extra work you just stay hidden away at the bench though. Really outstanding work on the repairs and the rescribing. These are looking great.

[oortiz10]

Jul 10, 2024 17:43:11 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

😂😂😂 Surely she isn’t trying to kill you. Maybe she’s trying to give you so much extra work you just stay hidden away at the bench though. Really outstanding work on the repairs and the rescribing. These are looking great.

She is trying to kill me, I'm convinced! And don't call me Shirley!  

(C'mon! I couldn't pass that up.)

-O

[handiabled]

That is some great corrective surgery you performed! I don't envy the amount of re-scribing that awaits you

[TJ]

You've definitely got your work cut out for you on these. I'm hooked to the screen

[kyledehart5]

Jul 10, 2024 18:37:40 GMT -5 oortiz10 said:

Jul 10, 2024 17:43:11 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

😂😂😂 Surely she isn’t trying to kill you. Maybe she’s trying to give you so much extra work you just stay hidden away at the bench though. Really outstanding work on the repairs and the rescribing. These are looking great.

She is trying to kill me, I'm convinced! And don't call me Shirley!  

(C'mon! I couldn't pass that up.)

-O

[406 Silverado]

THAT......is a fair amount of work and lovin' that you're putting into both of these kits. All of the filling, sanding, rescribing and totally rebuilding various parts of these two are frickin' mind blowing.......

Keep up the good work and I'm most certainly tuned into this thread. WOW!!!

[stikpusher]

[keavdog]

Some great repair work there O

[bradley25mm]

Your attention to detail is over the top. Most modelers would see the box and toss it. This is quite the epic build, and Undertaking. Thanks for sharing this gem with us.