1/72 YF-12A, Blackbird Interceptor, 60-6935, Italeri

[sweaty]

Hello peeps, First wip in a while here

Seeing as i'm enjoying my self so much and its turning out better than normal, i thought i'd share.

This is my first attempt at rescribing a full kit and i don't know why i didn't do it sooner, but a bit more pratice i think.

The progress so far

Cockpit done, i Added the throttle and a few extra switch panels, not accurate but help make it look busy. Also made some seat cusions and belts from foam tape and tamiya tape.

IP panels, just painted and dry brushed, might give the eduard set a go on the next one, seeing as italeri missed so much detail. There must be half the insturments you get on the IP in the monogram kit.

Front top

Front bottom and scratch built nose gear well, damm photos show every thing far to clearly, might have to redo the 2 blobs of miliput, was thinking fishing weights or ball bearings. I.E. these things Nose gear well

Had another go at this and i think it looks a bit better

I know some of the panel lines don't quite line up but i have plans to correct it at some point before paint.

And my lovely cracked decals :badmood: anyone got any tips other than joining up the pieces.

Found this site, which is great for all things Blackbird SR-71 Site and direct linnk to my bird YF-12A Pics

Please feel free to critique anything, apart from the cockpit :winkgrin:

Thanks for looking

Jamie

[MiG31]

So far so good. What are your plans for the weapon bays and exhausts? Also, will it be all-black, or the earlier black-bare titanium arrangement?

Regarding the decals, you may look around for any liquid decal film, like this stuff.

[ST0RM]

I'd mask and paint the red stripes. I did it with my SR-71 and it turned out better than any decals.

-JS

[MiG31]

I'd mask and paint the red stripes. I did it with my SR-71 and it turned out better than any decals.

That's one option. Of course, I was happy with the way my decals turned out.

[sweaty]

Thanks for the replys chaps and the tips.

Nice build MiG31, any more pics. All black paint and plane 60-6935, got another one on its way fom ebay i'm planing for the black and chrome paint.

Thanks Jamie

Edited March 30, 2010 by sweaty

[Paul Mullins]

Jaime,

Nice progress. I'm looking for a 1/48. It's one of the few aircraft I have left to get for my collection. Where did you get yours?

Paul

[MiG31]

Nice build MiG31, any more pics.

More photos here. I'm planning to build a YF-12 at some point using lessons learned.

Any new photos of your build?

[sweaty]

Jaime,

Nice progress. I'm looking for a 1/48. It's one of the few aircraft I have left to get for my collection. Where did you get yours?

Paul

Hi Paul, thanks for the support, i got the kit from my LHS (he buys collections) and i just got another one from ebay, i also got a 1/48 one as well this week, been waiting quite a while for one to show up and it did :) .

not sure if the link will work ebay win

Any new photos of your build?

I'm blown away by that build, that is awesome work, love the work on the leading edges, the gear wells and all the rest. I never even noticed the difference bewteen the cockpits of the 2 kits till you said it :) .

I've been looking at my exhausts for a while, i like the petals but not the step italeri have added between them and the body bit, not sure if i'm gonna fill or milliput them into shape.

I'm just finishing of rescribeing the bottom and the camaras on charge, but a quick shot of my sad sr-71 :)

All the best jamie

[MiG31]

The last photo you posted is a great illustration of why I used the Italeri YF-12 cockpit section. Note the width of the YF-12 sill compared with the SR-71. To the best of my knowledge, Lockheed simply adapted the YF-12 cockpit to the SR-71, albeit lowering it due to the smaller nose diameter. I'm fairly certain the A-12 uses the same cockpit/canopy, though I'm not 100% certain.

That said, your SR-71 looks great. Maybe a bit on the dusty side, but then again, the same is true for the real deals at this point. :)

[Aggressor Supporter]

Your YF-12 is going to look good with your SR-71. Keep it up.

[sweaty]

No pictures, but i'm almost finished rescribing the bottom, now i'm thinking what to do about the exhausts, how to make them deeper and a bit more realistic.

Airliners exaust pic from 60-6935

Any one got any idears i'm all ears, i was thinking rolled coke can with some very fine styrine card to recreate the ridges somehow and trying to cut out the plastic between the burner ring? The bits in red.

All the best Jamie

[MiG31]

When building my inner J58 exhausts, I used 3/4" segments of aluminum pipe of the appropriate diameter. You can see the basic assemblies here. The pipe was sleeved with .010 styrene, which was scribed beforehand to provide proper internal texture. In my case the base kit was the Monogram SR-71, so some of my techniques won't work in your case, but you should be able to deepen the inner J58 portion. For what it's worth, I used floral wire bent into rings and glued together to represent the flame holders. It wasn't perfect, but it accomplished the effect.

[sweaty]

Hello Chaps

MiG31 i've had a go at the exhausts as i was getting a bit bored with all the scribing, i hacked up some 1/48 Aires F-15C exhaust pipes as they seem to fit the vent bit ok, but i think i've cut them a bit short after compairing them with the photo in the link i posted before, so i'm going to try and lengthen them with some pipe as you have.

So far i've found half a old crutch thats the same size as the Aires pipes but it looks a bit to heavy (might end up with a tail sitter), and i've closed up the fuselage.

I'm going to see if some standard plastic overflow pipe from a plumbers merchants will do the job, if not maybe some 22mm 3/4 copper pipe.

I also drilled out the flame ring with the old rotary tool using a 1mm drill bit. but i think that it looks a bit pants, so might have a go with some 15AMP fusewire bent and superglued together , can't look any worse and im hoping that the paint will cover most of the sins, plus the fact the flame holders and pretty far down ;) , but whatever its still a massive improvement over the kit bits.

Im going to leave the part with the petals as ATM not sure how to lessen that step.

Anyway on with the pics

Broken down

The original

As ever i will be grateful for any tips, help or good old constructive criticism.

All the best Jamie

Edited April 9, 2010 by sweaty

[MiG31]

You may be able to add nose ballast if you drill a hole through the bottom of the radome, pour in your shot along with super glue or a similar adhesive, then putty the hole and sand smooth. I've had to do that for the (smaller) 1:72 RQ-1 Predator when it was nearly finished. The end result was good.

On the exhausts, I would recommend thinning the forward flange, which attaches to the kit's bypass door/flame holder piece. As-is, the flange is quite thick and doesn't look right as a result. There are some photos in my build thread which might give you some inspiration. In particular, I had to add styrene strips to the fixed segments between the bypass doors, in order to extend them forward to "hold" the rear exhaust piece after I had thinned the flange. These exist on the actual aircraft, and will help hold things together.

This page has some very helpful photos of the J58, in particular the exhausts. In addition, I have basic measurements of the interior of the afterburner section if you need them (I'm not at home at the moment).

[sweaty]

After having a good go at this at the bank holiday, i sat on it... after finishing rescribing the bottom and starting the top.

So this week i've had a go at glueing it back together not wanting to give up on it.

On to the pictures

Not to bad see what it looks like tomorrow after some more paint

all the best jamie

Edited May 6, 2010 by sweaty

[sweaty]

Been painting this weekend and would like some input.

Started with a overall coat of XF-1, then highlighted some panel lines with XF-24 then different panels with XF-69, a mix of XF-1+XF-69, XF-69+XF-24, XF-1+XF-10, XF-1+XF-10+X-3, XF-1+X-3, then the leading edges, painting every other chime? a mix of XF-1+XF-69, then a very thinned coat of XF-1 all over.

The painting doesn't look this heavy in the flesh, i think it must be the flash :unsure:

Edited May 16, 2010 by sweaty

[sweaty]

Also had a go at detailing the gear bays,

Had to take about 50 pics an these were the best, sorry.

So what ya think, all comments good or bad welcome

Thanks Jamie

[MiG31]

So far so good. What color are you using for your wheel wells? I used MM titanium metalizer for mine, in addition to international orange to represent the insulation on the tire cans and the side walls in the nose wheel well. It also appears that you painted your vertical fins beforehand. Are they dry-fitted?

[sweaty]

So far so good. What color are you using for your wheel wells? I used MM titanium metalizer for mine, in addition to international orange to represent the insulation on the tire cans and the side walls in the nose wheel well. It also appears that you painted your vertical fins beforehand. Are they dry-fitted?

Hi MiG

Sorry for the lateness of my reply, i mixed up some XF-16 XF-56 AND X-32, till it looked right. As for the tire can i've repanited them a mix of red and orange

The vertical fins are dry fiited as you guessed

All the best Jamie

[sweaty]

Finished, Thread in the display case here Finished build .

Thanks for the support :D

All the best Jamie