Lol true sir very true!

Current state of bird! I have filled, filled, filled. Oh and filled some more lol.I started rescribing last night I had to make a jig of sorts to hold her up off the gear while I work on it.still don't think my nose looks 100% but I will know after primer.also bought some stuff to finish scratching the engines post pics soon over and out

At Mach 3 the markings routinely burned off the airframe so I'm not at all surprised that they used decals to put them back on. Imagine the masking and painting job if you wanted to actually paint them all back on after every flight!

As a bonus, this allowed the USAF to play serial number games to confuse spies, especially on deployment to Okinawa and the UK. It was very common to see aircraft depart on ops wearing two different tail numbers on either side of the aircraft. Of course when they came back they were pretty much anonymous...

Well that's interesting thanks for sharing

Alright as promised photos. I've been working on front and back at same time.as one is drying I'm working on the other one lol. The nose is on and the rescribing is almost done on the top end. I cut out and added vents for the fuel dump.as I am going to do lowered flaps I started boxing in the tail and getting it ready for finishing.I know it looks ruff but trust me its not easy doing a rescribe and when im done the whole thing gets wet sanded and pulls everything back to looking like death incarnate! I'm just saying if death flew a plane your looking at it

hard at it lol

ok so the fuselage is completely detailed rescribed and ready for primer!!!!!!!!Remember when I said I was going to drop my aileron's ....well I did completed that tonight. Next stage engines getting close to finishing




Your probably wandering why would he do that well I am portraying mine in a stored state so they are relaxed stay tuned

waiting with bated breath Justin

You need to come round my house and rescribe my F102 for me!

Lol that's funny I have one in the stash.future project.I'm glad the rest of the rescribe subjects I have are not this big.think I will do my p-61 next.....I wanted to do the bmf yf-102 but I can't find decals.really all I need Is the lettering which I can figure out.see all it takes is the mention of an idea and it gets the ball rolling.look for these future projects

so engines are under way...I used a pvc coupling for the base turned it using my drill and a plug connected to a dowel rod.

I then line the inside with plastic card slat board


moving on I turned the small dome in the back with the drill.
I then made the bird cage in the rear using different sizes of solder



next I made the fans in the rear by rubbing tin foil over some 1/48 fans from a a-10 in the stash and backed them with plastic card to make them stiff.


just need to paint and weather and these puppy's are ready for installation. Questions welcome thanks for watching

Very clever work Justin. Nice job.

Thank you sir thanks for watching

Well painting of the engines has commenced I was waiting on some allclad to arrive.soon as all is assembled I will post pics

Still watching quietly from the sidelines Justin, super scratching as always mate.
Looking forward to seeing some paint on this baby!

Cheers, D

I'm in the home stretch D! Very soon my friend .its been so long since I painted I ran out of thinner and didn't know it lol.I'm restocking and then production will continue.I painted the engines last night.

Wow 30000 hits that has to be some kind of record lol

alright so moving right along...I assembled and painted the engines then installed them into the main assembly.



while flipping it over I noticed two little slots I had completely looked over apparently these are in case you are making a sr-71B there are fins that go here.I am not so moving on I filled and sanded.I finally got all of my elveron work done.


Then installed the tails making sure they are asymmetrical thanks to a featured video I just watched using this super tool...


its getting closer and now im just trying to figure out where I will display it

Justin those engines are so cool.

I also share your pain as to how to display / store the beast, mine went to a show recently where I spent several hours applying filler to the inside of the main assemble ready for the big sanding event to convert it into an A-12 and since I came back the 'A-12' is still in the boot (trunk) of my car several weeks later as my bench is too small for it I have plans though

Welcome back Justin with your superb build.

Those engines are stunning and will make a huge difference. Any chance of you doing some resin copies commercially for us mere mortals?

Keep up the great work.
Gary

thanks lol.I thought about casting them but there's no money in it really lol.couldnt sell enough sure they would be hot at first but since I don't believe in gouging people it just wouldn't be worth it.but I do appreciate you watching and giving kind words

Hi Justin, I note the sentiments but you may be surprised how popular these sets could be. I know a few people who have this kit languishing in the stash and are just waiting for some decent aftermarket, especially engines, to bring it up to scratch having also stashed away some now OOP "Afterburner" 1/48 SR-71 decals which sold out the the complete production run in no time at all are are now in some demand so it's clearly a popular modeling subject despite the kit's age and 'issues'. These are modelers of course who don't possess your incredible scratch building skills where the engines are concerned.

I saw that "Fisher Models" had some SR-71 1/48 engines listed some time ago as "in development" but seem to have now disappeared off the radar?

Bottom line Justin, it's a matter for you but the quality of your work is amongst the best I have seen if you could replicate the end result into resin sets. Irrespective, great work and a fabulous and inspiring build you have going here.

Gary

Wow thank you Sir. I will have to take a closer look into casting some. Well I finally solved my display case issues. A friend of mine told me ikea was having a sale on them so I looked and got these baby's for 64.00 a pc.US$.This enabled me to free up quite a lot of space so the pics your about to see are my work bench and yes it is organized





Its funny you mention those decals from afterburner those are what I'm using for my build. I got some when they were announced

So I checked around and to get into mass producing these would be pretty pricey at first.I just really wonder how big the market would be for them? I have a few other ideas as well who knows maybe the start of a new company.ant thoughts guy as to how sought after something like this would be?

Justin,

I would sign up for a set for starters.

This thread on the SR-71 seems quite popular amongst the readership as a modeling topic, so perhaps if you could gauge interest and if you get enough positive responses, the engine set is something you may wish to consider? Indeed, I can recall quite a lot of questions getting asked about availability and progress of the (then) proposed Fisher Models SR-71 engine set on various forums so I think the interest and potential customer base is out there.

I am sure that even current major players in the hobby's resin aftermarket game like "Barracuda Resin" etc. all started with the same tentative footsteps and approach you will naturally have.....and 'the rest is history' as they say!

Once again, thanks for a fabulous and inspiring build article that demonstrates what can be achieved with some TLC and old fashioned modeling skills on this old kit.

Gary