Revell 1/72nd SR-71 w/D-21 Drone

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The Revell SR-71 kit has some pretty nice wheelwell detail for an inexpensive kit. You get hydraulic lines, hydraulic accumulators and other details that most model makers would have not included.

That's a shame. I'm wanting to make my model "clean" with the wheels up showing off the Skunkworks beautiful lines. While I would like to make it with the wheels down and post her in my office, I can't sacrifice such beautiful lines for my own vanity. And she is a beauty.
 

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She's not puny that for sure. I've got to dry fit the landing gear doors to get a feel for their fit. The upper and lower fuselage fits okay. It leaves a HUGE challenge though. The leading edge of the wings and chine contain numerous raised panel lines and the fit has a significant gap and raised area. The anticipated sanding will remove those details. Not sure how I'm gonna address that. I'll post some pics once it's together.

Now first thing is to scan for flaws and generally clean up fuselage. Here is a more aggregious one. They should have shot the engineer who thought a raised copyright symbol was a good idea on a scale model. Tsk, tsk, Revell.

So a before and after...
 

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Need to hit that again with a little 1200grit it appears to remove the scratch line on the right. I'll get that at final cleanup before painting.

Next are the exhausts. They consist of afterburner rings, tertiary inlet ports for the ramjet and exhaust cones. A fair bit of work here for such a simple structure. The interior needs to be painted to represent combustion (something other than flat black) and the exhaust rings detailed. I chose a dark grey. I had an old jar of Pactra Hot Rod Primer that worked well for what I was looking for. Some flat black for the exhaust rings with steel highlights rounded it out.

But the tertiary inlet ports are entirely too bulky. This will require removal of material around the exhaust cone edge at about a 45 degree angle and then cleaned up with sand paper. Need to be careful that I don't remove too much material and compromise the exhaust cone itself.
 

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Thanks guys.

After some scraping with an Xacto knife (razor), cleaning with 220 and finishing with 1200, I have an acceptable look. Acceptable is a adjective that is determined by your expectation. Time is money and money is time. Keep that in mind.

Soooo.... here is the aft stages of the Pratt J58s. The outsides are not painted and have only been staged for final painting. Some sanding and detail work remains. But you can see that the tertiary inlets are more open and representative of aerodynamic shape.
 

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Man, you have to love the digital cameral. It forces you to look at detail. You can see the glue's spider web in the last photo.
 
Next, glueing the cockpit.

The cockpit is glued into the upper fuselage. Again, to maximize the reflectivity of the 1/72nd cockpit detail with such small plastic "windows" the insides must be painted in a light color. I chose the same color that was appropriate for the cockpit 'tub', light gray.

This needed to be applied in the inside of the canopy, inside the upper fuselage and then touched up once assembled. Again, the small plastic windows of 1/72nd are not going to allow too much detail to show. So I am focusing upon merit.
 

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Oh man that nose probe is going to be a problem. Lots of flash and entirely too large. Hmmm....

Probably punt and leave it.
 
Catch22 said:
Very nice Matt! Looking forward to more progress, and you've sure been motoring.
Click to expand...

Yessir...

This model is actually a perfect model for a beginner or an advanced modeler. One of my most favorite. Believe it or not, but I made this same model when I was a kid in the early 1980s. It has few pieces and can be advanced or not. I truly have to give kudos to Revell for this one!
 
Coming along nicely, Matt. And you're right about the digital camera, it's a superb way of checking for errors or flaws, before it's too late. Our eyes might not see the 'fault', but the camera sure will record it!
 
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