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

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Matt you need to pick your poison when it comes to the attachment of clear parts, all have their times for use, but you must be comfortable with what and how you use your chosen glue.
Clear parts are always going to be the achilles heel of a model....

I use Tamiya liquid glue most of the time, sometimes white glue and sometimes very small beads of super glue, great care must be taken each clear part or canopy presents a different challenge.

but the most important thing....... keep your bloody fingers away from the parts once you fit them!!!
 
Okay thanks guys. Confirmed what I knew. And I'm with you Les. I botch the superglue on clear parts everytime and thus quit using it. It's the masking that I'm worried about now.
 
I'll post some pics later. Canopies have their first coat of paint completed. Wayne mentioned a trick that I tried for the canopy windows. A little ammonia cleaned up any glue residue from my ham handed abilities. Great tip, Wayne.
 
not bad lookin', Matt! I did that kit once, twas a couple years ago. but I never painted the exterior of the plane since the whole thing was black.
 
Not bad lookin'? Thems fightin' words. Just kidding, Trebor. I'm not a Jedi, but I at least wave my light saber around with attitude.

Okay. Today I took next step towards getting a coat of paint on her. First the mask job. Not looking for perfection, just ensuring that the cockpit with all that AWESOME detail that will never ever fricking ever be seen is not oversprayed. A sharp knife is is critical. If your knife has been sitting around for a while, toss it and install a new one. It's only money. For those like Lucky who are cheap bastards, save it. You can resharpen it hundreds of times and use in your Weight Watchers diet program. Check that. Lucky just bought the whole damn hobbyshop for his supplies. That joke won't work now.

So here are a couple of shots of the masking prior to the first coat.
 

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At the suggestion of Airframes, I did some research and took his suggestion that there is quite a bit of blue in that SR-71 "flat black" scheme. Now I have seen two different SR-71s: First in the Pima Air Museum in an outdoor display and; Second in the Seattle Boeing Air Museum. And there was some blue tint by golly! In fact, I made it a point to get up close and touch the Pima display in Tuscon, Arizona, as the anti-radar absorbent paint looked extremely matt in sheen and almost like it might be somewhat spongey (it wasn't).

You can see in these pics that depending upon whether the aircraft has been hangered or left in the elements, that the weathering can really vary. I am looking for a slightly weathered look, but want to capture the color changes associated with the heat generated from flying at up to Mach 3.5 (yeah you read that right). The nose and leading edges are a more grey color reflecting the up to 900F+ (485C+) skin temperatures.
 

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So my first coat was a mix of Model Masters acryl flat black, with a bit of Testors gloss blue and Model Masters flat white. I used a bunch more blue that I expected. I made extra, to ensure that I could use the base color to spray the lighter tints and heat weathering. Hope I made enough. [Looking forward to that magazine, Airframes].

The canopies received another wash of this "modified color", the window frames were etched in flat red, and the window splitter was detailed. It is interesting to note that the window area in the cockpit at altitude and Mach 3.2 was about 500F (260C). Now that makes one appreciate the environmental qualification of civil avionics!
 

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That's some neat masking, and a good collection of pics of the real thing, Matt.
Now that the painting has started, it's gone from a box load of bits to a big sleek bird! It's looking really good Matt, I'm impressed! Just hope my info arrives in time to assist!
 
Late today made some progression.

Second coat was mixed from leftover first coat. With a dark, lighter, lightest airbrush technique, I mixed the first coat with a very little aluminum and a bit more flat white along with some water from a pipet. Airbrushed the nose and leading edges along each side of the chines and around the wing leading edges too. This was a very subtle change.

Third coat was adding a bit more flat white to the leftover mix. More highlights to the nose, emphasizing the major panel lines perpendicular to the direction of flight and the leading edges of the vertical stabilizers.
 

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In the first pic you can see a less colored look than that provided by the flourescent lights in my work area. I look forward to getting this girl in the natural light of outdoors for some more pics.

...and finally some small details of the secondary and tertiary ramjet inlets. A little silver/metal drybrushing followed by some extremely overly thinned flat black to allow some capillary effect into the inlet vanes. Things begin to pop.

Can't wait to apply the decals, but am getting ahead of myself. Next step after a good day of drying will be to coat her in some Future to seal things up.

If I'm bold I might do some pastel brushing along the panel lines. Also, most pics indicate that there is quite a bit of staining from the JP-7 leaking out of the upper fuselage refueling receptacle staining back at about a 30-45 degree angle, I suppose from inflight refueling disconnects at low speeds.

Hmmm... gonna have to think about that a bit.
 

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