Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird **FINISHED**
- JamesPerrin
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Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird **FINISHED**
I've been itching to start this for a while and has been marked on my white board as one of my intended builds for the year. Not a lot of bench time combined with other more involved projects took their toll.
This tooling is ~3yrs old and essentially replaces the ancient ARII kit in this scale. At about 8" in 1/144 it's the perfect size as the Blackbird is all about the overall shape and not fancy camo or exposed cockpits. It being a Dragon kit expect superb surface detail and the old dumb mistake. I believe this is one of their kits that you could also build made up and painted - but where's the fun in that
Very few pieces, the undercarriage makes up more than 50% of the part count. Instructions are one side of A5 with paint and decalling on the other. A small but crowded set of decals is supplied. I've a Speciality Press SR-71 scrapbook full of useful photos covering all the members of the Blackbird family. As there were many subtle differences I need to make sure I', looking at a SR-71A and even then it appears some aircraft had shorter exhaust cans.
The single piece cockpit suffices, though I replaced the chunky stick with wire and added the head rests. These are bright red and are just about the only thing that can been seen through the tiny windows.
With the hole for a stand (not supplied) the upper and lower fuselage halves can be glued together. Fit is pretty good though it is worth fettling here and there as I always think at this scale you need to halve you tolerances compared to 1/72. Clamping helped close up most gaps though underneath the nose fillets needed a smear of filler. As the top surface wraps around the edges of the aircraft all the seams are hidden underneath anyway.
The intakes are poor the edge is think and doesn't line up top and bottom, the worst being they are not round but slabbed sided! There was little I could do to remedy this with happening on some tubing that was exactly the right diameter so I made the best of it and pressed on.
The rear engine inlets and reheat gubbins are neat single pieces that sits ahead of the exhausts. These along with the intake opening were sprayed black firstly and then the reheat picked out in steel.
Exhausts had there inside brush painted with some excellent Vallejo Metal Color Burnt Exhaust. Though these are a very good (expensive) airbrushable metal acrylic they appear to brush paint well too. The shock cones have 3 different sized pegs which ensures the are installed correctly.
This tooling is ~3yrs old and essentially replaces the ancient ARII kit in this scale. At about 8" in 1/144 it's the perfect size as the Blackbird is all about the overall shape and not fancy camo or exposed cockpits. It being a Dragon kit expect superb surface detail and the old dumb mistake. I believe this is one of their kits that you could also build made up and painted - but where's the fun in that
Very few pieces, the undercarriage makes up more than 50% of the part count. Instructions are one side of A5 with paint and decalling on the other. A small but crowded set of decals is supplied. I've a Speciality Press SR-71 scrapbook full of useful photos covering all the members of the Blackbird family. As there were many subtle differences I need to make sure I', looking at a SR-71A and even then it appears some aircraft had shorter exhaust cans.
The single piece cockpit suffices, though I replaced the chunky stick with wire and added the head rests. These are bright red and are just about the only thing that can been seen through the tiny windows.
With the hole for a stand (not supplied) the upper and lower fuselage halves can be glued together. Fit is pretty good though it is worth fettling here and there as I always think at this scale you need to halve you tolerances compared to 1/72. Clamping helped close up most gaps though underneath the nose fillets needed a smear of filler. As the top surface wraps around the edges of the aircraft all the seams are hidden underneath anyway.
The intakes are poor the edge is think and doesn't line up top and bottom, the worst being they are not round but slabbed sided! There was little I could do to remedy this with happening on some tubing that was exactly the right diameter so I made the best of it and pressed on.
The rear engine inlets and reheat gubbins are neat single pieces that sits ahead of the exhausts. These along with the intake opening were sprayed black firstly and then the reheat picked out in steel.
Exhausts had there inside brush painted with some excellent Vallejo Metal Color Burnt Exhaust. Though these are a very good (expensive) airbrushable metal acrylic they appear to brush paint well too. The shock cones have 3 different sized pegs which ensures the are installed correctly.
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- DavidWomby
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Nice one. Such a great shape.
David
David
Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Like it.
- DavidWomby
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
James, just remember NO purple paint on this one, eh.
David
David
- gnomemeansgnome
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Nice.
Ego no habeo consilium.
ICBM = Insatiable Collector and Builder of Models
ICBM = Insatiable Collector and Builder of Models
- JamesPerrin
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
This build is playing ball, but despite best intention not to start tweaking anything I was unable to stop myself.
The nicely moulded undercarriage parts have one noticeable flaw, the oleo leg's scissor on the nose leg is moulded with the gap between it but the main undercarriage scissors are not. So out with the drill bits and pointy knife.
I sat down with a notebook and carefully noted the colours of various bits of the undercarriage, famously the walls of the main wheels are silver grey as they had a metallic weave to protect them from heat and stress IIRC. Blacks were lightened with tans and grey to create (probably too) subtle variations. One nice thing I found was that the legs were moulded to the same level.
Another of Dragon's hiccups is that they show the main inner doors closed when the undercarriage is down. Now usually the mistake is the other way around but I could not find a single picture of a Blackbird with doors up. The large flanges which help position the doors closed was removed and some detail was added to match the outer doors.
Already it's time to paint the fuselage!
The nicely moulded undercarriage parts have one noticeable flaw, the oleo leg's scissor on the nose leg is moulded with the gap between it but the main undercarriage scissors are not. So out with the drill bits and pointy knife.
I sat down with a notebook and carefully noted the colours of various bits of the undercarriage, famously the walls of the main wheels are silver grey as they had a metallic weave to protect them from heat and stress IIRC. Blacks were lightened with tans and grey to create (probably too) subtle variations. One nice thing I found was that the legs were moulded to the same level.
Another of Dragon's hiccups is that they show the main inner doors closed when the undercarriage is down. Now usually the mistake is the other way around but I could not find a single picture of a Blackbird with doors up. The large flanges which help position the doors closed was removed and some detail was added to match the outer doors.
Already it's time to paint the fuselage!
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Looking good. IIRC the wheels were impregnated with aluminium or some silvery metal.
Hoping to return to modelling sometime this year!!
Owner of Marky's Model Emporium since 2013!.
Owner of Marky's Model Emporium since 2013!.
Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Or maybe it was magnesium..
Hoping to return to modelling sometime this year!!
Owner of Marky's Model Emporium since 2013!.
Owner of Marky's Model Emporium since 2013!.
- JamesPerrin
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
The windows on the SR-71 are tiny, in 1/144 they minuscule! I decided to pass on my normal method of masking using Tamiya tape and pull out some Bare metal foil. As this is very thin it works much better for such tiny items and very clearly shows the frames, I've barely touched my stash of BMF for it's intended purpose so should probably use it more for masking.
My original intention was to prime & base coat in one by lightning some Alclad Gloss Black primer with their Grey microfiler except that the grey coagulated on hitting the back! very weird they are both lacquerers so I@m not sure why they didn't mix. Plan B Hu 33 matt black with some Hu 87 steal grey. The later has a bluish tone which I wanted, not because of the urban myth that the SR-71 is a very dark blue (all the photo's I've seen show it very black when new and fades to dark grey), but I wanted to get away from a monotone palette so I've been altering my black with light tans and creams. The blue is not noticeable in the finish. Some touch ups to do and then I'll start to weather and modulate it with lighter mixes.
My original intention was to prime & base coat in one by lightning some Alclad Gloss Black primer with their Grey microfiler except that the grey coagulated on hitting the back! very weird they are both lacquerers so I@m not sure why they didn't mix. Plan B Hu 33 matt black with some Hu 87 steal grey. The later has a bluish tone which I wanted, not because of the urban myth that the SR-71 is a very dark blue (all the photo's I've seen show it very black when new and fades to dark grey), but I wanted to get away from a monotone palette so I've been altering my black with light tans and creams. The blue is not noticeable in the finish. Some touch ups to do and then I'll start to weather and modulate it with lighter mixes.
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- iggie
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
That's looking really good, and the music choice is pretty good too!
Best wishes
Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Very nice James! Your colours look spot on to me. I have this kit too and I found the intake disappointing as well. It is partially built in a box somewhere but your build might make me take it out again.
Paul
This is it. The moment we should have trained for.
This is it. The moment we should have trained for.
- JamesPerrin
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Progress has been made, quite a bit in fact. I shaded and weathered the panels using various shades of grey ( black + buff) all of which appears to disappears under a coat of gloss. In my quest to find a decent sprayable gloss Tamiya X-20 beat Vallejo by a nose, I acquired a Lindberg X-3 Stilleto as a test target for which being long and thin means it can be shoved on the window sill out of the way. I had a long decalling session mainly because the decals were crammed onto a tiny sheet with barely any room between them. The long wing no walk lines were in two parts each the two U shapes and the rear being interlocked and encompassing other decals, I've also replaced the pitot with one filed from brass rod, there is a very small side appendage which I thought about trying to solder on for ~1ns as it is barely visible in most photos.
Just the final matt coat and weathering to be applied before fitting the undercarriage.
Just the final matt coat and weathering to be applied before fitting the undercarriage.
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- Dazzled
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Really nice James. I wasn't aware that there was an SR-71 available in 1/144th.
COLD WAR S.I.G. LEADER
Wherever there's danger, wherever there's trouble, wherever there's important work to be done....I'll be somewhere else building a model!
Wherever there's danger, wherever there's trouble, wherever there's important work to be done....I'll be somewhere else building a model!
- JamesPerrin
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Ta Daz, it could be Cold War SIG's for a brown envelope stuffed full of readiesDazzled wrote:Really nice James. I wasn't aware that there was an SR-71 available in 1/144th.
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- Eric Mc
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Re: Dragon 1/144 SR-71A Blackbird
Nice video - shame about the plane.
Only joking. I love both.
Only joking. I love both.