Legendary Blackbird - YF-12A "Project KEDLOCK" (3D Printing in 1:32 scale)

[Serkan Sen]

Many thanks @alaninaustria, @Tony T, @Furie @Mebo @Out2gtcha for your kind words. I am trying to do my best for this beautiful machine.

Thank you @Biggles87, @TheBaron for following me in this forum too. I will start soon a new topic in Britmodeller to share my progress there.

Thanks @TankBuster. I am using Elegoo printers since first Mars release. Currently I have 3 Elegoo printers, namely, Mars 3 Pro, Mars 4 Ultra (still unboxed!) and a heavyweight Saturn 3 Ultra. I have no experience with the other brands. But I am very happy with the print quality of Elegoo printers. The below photo shows Mars 3 and Saturn 3 together with Mercury Wash&Cure Station. The three nose cones (YF-12A, A-12 and SR-71A) were printed in 1:32 scales to see and decide which one to be built in this project. Please note that Mars 3 print volume can only print the nose cones. All other fuselage parts have to be printed with Saturn 3 Ultra.

 

@David Hansen, you are absolutely right. I haven't seen any other source for the YF-12A's nickname other than Italeri kit either. Tonight I will have a look Paul Crickmore's book if I can find anything related to its nickname. If the nickname is not correct I will remove it from the title.

 

Serkan

Edited July 2, 2024 by Serkan Sen

[TankBuster]

Hi, I thought you might have been using a fdm for the big parts, I like the Elegoo printers and maybe one day I wil buy one. Cheers.

[Serkan Sen]

4 hours ago, TankBuster said:

Hi, I thought you might have been using a fdm for the big parts, I like the Elegoo printers and maybe one day I wil buy one. Cheers.

FDM surface print quality is not in acceptable level. Also having engraved panel lines and fine details as seen below is not possible.

 

Serkan

Edited July 2, 2024 by Serkan Sen

[Martinnfb]

Fantastic work. 

[Daniel Iscold]

Are you going to sell these files? Great work on this model by the way!!! 

[Serkan Sen]

12 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Fantastic work. 

Many thanks Martin.

 

12 hours ago, Daniel Iscold said:

Are you going to sell these files? Great work on this model by the way!!! 

Currently I have no such plan Daniel. But maybe in future I can think about this. The size of entire model is larger than gigabyte even in binary format.

 

The first printed parts in 1:32 scale were the nose cones of YF-12A, SR-71A and A-12 models (left to right) to decide which aircraft is going to be built. I have already built few A-12 and SR-71A in 1:72 and 1:48 scales, I decided to go with YF-12A:

 

 

Before printing large parts, I have started printing cockpits and wheels with Mars 3 Pro:

 

 

In the last photo lower right you can see the tire&hub fit test (snap tight, no glue).

 

Next step is to print other (relatively) small parts.

Serkan

[Bekim]

Hi Serkan, nice work so far....

 

Bekim 

[danimalmagic]

Hi Serkan, nice work so far, did you ever finish the 1/48 A-12?

 

[Serkan Sen]

2 hours ago, Bekim said:

Hi Serkan, nice work so far....

Bekim 

Many thanks Bekim.

 

1 hour ago, danimalmagic said:

Hi Serkan, nice work so far, did you ever finish the 1/48 A-12?

 

Long story short: No.

 

To be honest none of my Oxcart/Blackbird builds have been fully completed. I assembled 3D printed A-12 and YF-12A in 1:72 scale to check the parts without painting.

 

Also  I did in the past  A-12 and M-21 conversions based on Italeri 1:72 kit using PU Resin casted parts but the seats haven't been painted yet:

 

I will build A-12 in 1:48 scale in parallel to this project:

 

The decal artwork for A-12 and M-21 is ready. I have to design the decals for YF-12A soon.

 

I have used many printed parts to improve my 1:48 Revell SR-71A build (but again the seats are missing):

 

Two years ago I started to convert old Italeri/Testors Blackbird into TA-12 "Titanium Goose", but I haven't painted the cockpit details yet (as usual):

 

I hope this 1:32 YF-12 project will be the first successfully completed one (with your support/pushes) !..

 

Serkan

[drsquid142]

If you don't have plans to sell the STL files (however, file size wouldn't be an issue for most), do you think you may consider selling a limited run of printed kits, or do an "on-demand" print offering? I am sure there would be a few interested buyers and many of us would understand if it took many months (or longer) to deliver anything. The quality of your design work and the lure of having a large-scale Blackbird is a very appealing prospect.

[themongoose]

oh this is an awesome thread! Looking forward to helping your completion rate out. A bunch of us will be watching! It'll be interesting to see if you find anything on the nickname. That caught me by surprise in the title, although I have to say it was part of the reason I opened the thread as well since I'd never hear that before.

[Michael931080]

Serkan, this looks incredible!  I would love to get one of these in 1/32 from yourself when you have all the details worked out and are ready to print it.

[chaos07]

This is going to be an awesome thread to keep up with!  An LSP Blackbird of any flavor is impressive, but the work you've put in for all the different versions is even more impressive. 

[alaninaustria]

Amazing!!

Cheers

Alan

[66misos]

Hi Serkan,

incredible work!

 

Is engine gondole at unpainted A-12 intended to be open with the visible engine inside?