Stealth GB

yeah i ran out of flat finish, Im gonna hit it again when i get to the shop to get more. I used tamiya black gloss spray, basically to make it easier to decal,and only managed to get one coat of flat on there before it ran out. Thats what I did with my sr71, and I think I put about 3 coats of flat on that b4 i was happy with it. I got an airbrush recently so Im going to hit it a few more times to dull it down a bit. I think the camera flash accentuates it a little too, it doesnt look that shiny on the shelf.
Thanks for the nice comments though!

Matt, what did you use for the gear door tubing/hoses/wiring stuff? Looks great!

Brian, its all very thin wire from radio shack with the insulation stripped off painted black and superglued on. and a tiny piece of brass on the gear door. I still need to actually finish the thing, but when i get that close to being done I cant wait to move onto my next project. when I get back after the weekend I really got to do the last 20 minutes work on this thing!
So, is anyone else getting anywhere with these black beauties yet?

Soooo.....due to my move a few months back, and a new job etc. etc. yadda yadda, I haven't had nearly the time I'd have liked to put my silly plane together, but here's a great shot of some of the pieces! :)



If anyone needs it, I still have an extra resin ACES II seat from the Verlinden kit that I won't be using. It's in 1:48. So far, I've gotten the electronics together for the rotating beacon, filled most of the panel lines on the top of the fuselage, worked a bit on the landing gear assemblies and started in on the black box cockpit detail set. Still have ages to go it seems though. *sigh*

It's fun, but sometimes, I wish the hard parts would just finish themselves! :)

Bri~

QUOTE: Originally posted by uilleann If anyone needs it, I still have an extra resin ACES II seat from the Verlinden kit that I won't be using.

As for myself, I have only barely surpassed minimal progress on my kit. Tomorrow is entirely free, though, so I plan to hit the workbench for most of the day. However, I've got a few questions ...
1 - Brian, how much for the resin seat? Is it produced for use with any particular kit? (More specifically, is it compatible with my Academy 1:48 kit?)
2 - Anybody, what's the best way to apply P/E parts to the regular polystyrene plastic? I tried conventional superglue and it didn't hold. Not only that, but once the PE parts fell off, the glue got really cloudy and it looks horrible! I looked around on the forums and couldn't find any significant advice. Please help!

The seat was originally designed for the Tamiya kit I believe, however, I seem to recall it works well in the Hasegawa kit as well...may also work alright in the Academy kit...but I haven't heard. I can take some measurements with my dial calipers later on and see what sort of dimensions it would take if ya like. I'll be happy to ship it for postage too.

As for the P.E.-polystyrene bond, I've always just used superglue myself...depending on the part, sometimes the gel works better than the reg. liquid. Not much help there - sorry!

B~

Brian,
Good to see the stealth is still in the works. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

I finally got some work done on my model! YAY!!!

Glued exterior PE parts into place, glued the tail wings on, masked around the cockpit for later painting .. assembled/painted cockpit with PE parts included .. assembled bomb racks .. put PE parts onto landing gear assemblies.

PE parts aren't that hard to do ... I just about completely botched the port intake thingy, and my superglue got cloudy and all that nasty stuff, but I just used a needle to poke the glue out from the grid. Good as new ... almost.

No pics to show it, though. Dad has digital camera w/ him on 4-day business trip. I'll post some pics soon as I can though.

One of the harder things I've been working to figure out how to get correct are exactly those darn intake grills. On production aircraft, they are definitely NOT just a thin flat piece of screen - they have a very distinct depth of an inch or two at least...more like a waffle iron than a window screen if that makes sense. But of course, all the PE screens are just that - thin screen. To my mind, they should be about 4-6 times thicker to accurately produce the appearance of the real screens.

Thoughts??

Bri~

P.S. HI PHIL! Sorry I've missed the last few meetings...stay on me about it and I'll see if I can't keep making it out to some soon!!

One quick question...anyone have a good lead on a MXU-648/A cargo pod thing that the pilots often use to transport personal stuff to airshows etc? If there isn't a kit of this pod available in 1:48, can an ordinance kit be used and modified to work? As I understand it, It's basically the casing of a modified Vietnam-era BLU-1/B (or BLU-27/B) 750 lb. napalm bomb, equipped with a side door, that is used to store personal effects, tools, and about anything else one can stuff in there.

I haven't seen the baggage pod sold in any weapons kits, but I found a couple that came with my new Hasegawa F-16C kit. Hasegawa's Weapon Set A contains the old napalm bombs if you want to try to make some from that kit.

Well, hopefully I'll finish some of these other kits I have going so I can really get into my F-117. Well, I guess I will have an X-35 done soon, but I started that well before this thread was started so I guess it won't count. I'll try to get some pics on after that one is finished too.

Don't suppose I could talk you out of a pod there Caine?? Or if anyone has one of the H-"A" kits and isn't using the old napalm cans....

Guess I'm just boring and like to hang stuff you'd see at airshows from the bombrack rather than stuff you drop on peoples heads to make them go boom. Ah well!

Brian~

Cool - so I got a cargo pod on it's way. Now if I can just find some time to work a bit more on the kit inbetween all the new reeds I gotta make for the pipes! Sucks having two hobbies that you love so much! :D

Bri~

hiya, folks !
i've been checking out this thread 4 awhile now, thinking about building something... stealthy....
nice skunkworks, matt ! the nighthawk's 'office' is looking really great !
is this a closed build or can people still join up ?

frosty

No worries frosty... what you wanna build?

Thanks Frosty, although I've got to admit I'm a little bit tired of painting things black by now!

i have a 1/72 revell/monogram sr-71 i could build 4 this...
i didn't realize just how big the Blackbird was,
even in 1/72, it will b the biggest a/c i've built yet.
looks like i'd better lay in a supply of black paint !!!

frosty

Out of curiosity, haven't seen anyone with a YF-12A or an F-19 in the build. Surely these would be great subjects? Incidently, I don't think I've *seen* a YF-12A kit for ages and ages.... *sigh* oh well! Any SR-71 type aircraft with twin nuclear cruise missle launchers is pretty damn cool in my book either way!

Is it to late to jump into this build? I have Italeri's Mig-37 which is a fictional aircraft I know but it seems to fit the spirit of this build.
A side note on the U-2/TR-1 These aircraft are NOT stealth aircraft and were never designed to be "undetectabel" The survival factor of the U-2/TR-1 was its ability to fly at rediculously high altitudes. What they believed were out of reach of Soviet style anti aircraft SAMs. Not high enough as was proved a couple times. The paint used on these aircraft came from a CIA mandate that the aircraft coming out of SKUNKWORKS should be painted black, against the recomendations of designers that black is not the best color for low visiblity at night. (a dark kind of pastel grey was suggested.) The reason the black paint was wanted was these aircraft at first were restricked to night ops not only to reduce enemy detection in enemy territory but outside the bases they operated out of. They took of and landed in darkness and were immediatly stored in hangers. Quite often the only people who knew they were on base would be the pilot, maintainers, and base commanders. Ive heard stories that not even the ground controlers or airtraffic controlers knew these planes were coming or going and that landing lights were turned off during take off and landing. just some info and my

thanks guys and lemme know about the Mig-37

OK, so the suspense is killing me! How's everyone else coming along with their builds? I haven't had two seconds to breathe between work and a new CD with the band, but hope to continue moving along shortly.

INFO GUYS! :)

Bri~

well, i've taken off the shrink wrap & looked inside the box...
cut the top fuselage section off of its sprue & dry fitted it 2
the bottom fuselage section 2 check the fit....
(looks like there'll be some gaps 2 fill here & there)
that's as much as i've done so far, still gathering reference materials
at this point...
this SR-71 is really huge, i wonder if anyone makes one in 1/144 ?
because i really don't know where i'm going 2 put the 1/72 one
once it's built !

frosty

Is it too late to join in? I've got an X-32 that I just started that would sort of fit the GB.
As for a meaningless bit of stealth trivia: According to a friend of mine who works with military radar systems, the Dehavilland Mosquito was very stealthy (in terms of radar) for it's time not only because of it's small profile but also because of its all-wood construction.

I've been a little lazy with this build. I haven't done ANYTHING yet, but considering the kit, I should be able to put it together in a day or so, as soon as I can find a day or so to build

I've started painting doing some detail painting and will probably work on detailing the cockpit/ejection seat today.

Ok, well it's become painfully obvious to me this weekend that I probably won't be able to finish this one in time. Hell, I'd be lucky if I had the time to START it on time. Thus it is my sad duty to inform you all that I will be dropping out of this GB.
Good luck to the rest of ya, have fun!

Hey all .. I'm back. Guess I should have said I'd be gone for a while ... lol, mybad.

Sweet - new participants! Yeah, come on in and join .. it's all for the sake of fun and nobody is forbidden to participate. (Unless you're building something big, slow, and noisy!)

Sooo ... overkillphil with an X-32. frostygirl with an SR-71. Awood23 with a Mig-37. Sounds good to me :o)

Awood23 - What kit did you make for that aviation team group build? I've always wanted to make one of the old A-4 Blue Angels, a sleek F-16 Thunderbird, or something like that ... but was afraid they would come with huge decals and be cheesy like that. What did you do and how did you do it?

OK so I'm DYIN' HERE! How's everyone coming with there builds? Me....uh....we....er...ya see......it's like this... :)

I seriously haven't had more than a second to breathe the last two months and so haven't really gotten any progress done past what I had well...a few months back. I suck I know. :D Just curious how the rest of you are coming on?

QUOTE: Originally posted by uilleann OK so I'm DYIN' HERE! How's everyone coming with there builds? Me....uh....we....er...ya see......it's like this... :)

Well, this model would probably be done if I didn't have to fix all the ejection points and fill in all the panel lines that aren't supposed to be there. Other than that, it should move along pretty well once I get those done.

Audiophile, I wsnt to build the Mig for this build but Im home stateside right now on emergency leave and I doubt I'll get it finished before the end date. I will post pics of it for you guys anyways for those intrested.
For the aerobatics group build Im building Premiers 1/48 Hawk in the RedArrows livery seen in my sig. The kit decals for any aerobatic team can be a pain but Ive learned some tricks that make applying them a little easier.
#1 Never use Premiers supplied decals. They're AWFULL
When dealing with large decals that come with kits for builds like the red arrows, blue angles, and thunderbirds, Just because theres one big decal doesn't mean it has to be applied as one big decals dont be afraid to cut a decal in half and even thirds to make them easier to apply. Especially the longer fusealge stripes... Just make sure that you allign the next stripe up to the next one and try and apply the next decal while the first one is still wet and movable. Id wait till the whole decale is in place where you want it before applying any decal setting sollutions.
For more experience modeler try making masks... and painting marking rather than decals. The results are much nicer. One thing Ive tried in the past with some success with a Blue Angel. Paint a base of yellow covering the area where the decal will be applied. Apply the decal then paint the blue and use the decal as the mask simply remove it after you done painting. Just some ideas... I wouldnt be afraid to tackle kits like these as practice will only make you better. And in my case using a crappy kit will force you to get better :)
Im still working on my RedArrow but Ill be posting progress pics as it some along, Just follow the thread and if you have any questions about how I did something just ask. Some of the other guys in that build will also be more than happy to recommend kits that are user friendly for what you want to build. In my case Id say go with the Airfix 1/48 kit. I havent built it but its GOT to be better than this one :)

Hello, I just purchased a Revell SR-71 Blackbird today and would like to join this group build. I know that theres about 5 or six others that are building this same model and Im just going to have to jump on the blackbird bandwagon. This will be my first groupbuild and im wondering if anyone can fill me in with the details of this groupbuild?