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

[Serkan Sen]

On 6/30/2024 at 4:22 PM, David Hansen said:

I know the Italeri box top of the YF-12 kit called this plane "The Thing", but i can't recall any other references to the plane by that name.

 

Perhaps i just haven't researched the subject, deeply enough...

 

On 7/3/2024 at 11:48 PM, themongoose said:

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.

 

Hi David, I have updated the title with "Project Kedlock". Thanks for your attention. 

 

On 7/3/2024 at 11:26 PM, drsquid142 said:

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.

 

On 7/4/2024 at 4:46 AM, Michael931080 said:

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.

 

Many thanks for having interest on my printed models. I am not sure if it is allowed here in this forum to collect orders. Currently I am not offering any models in any scales but if there is a significant demand I can make them available. It is not easy to name a reasonable price for such huge model because the amount of work, effort and material increases not linearly but in cubic scale:

 

 

I have printed and delivered several models for 125-150€ in 1:72 scale and for 250€ in 1:48 scale. But in 1:32 scale it will not be less than 500-600€. Because the parts are too big to fit in wash&cure station, print time is extremely long, almost each fuselage parts have to be printed in separate print jobs due to their sizes. I will post photos soon to have an idea how big all these parts are.

 

Serkan

16 hours ago, 66misos said:

Hi Serkan, incredible work!

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

 

Thanks lot! Yes the intention is to offer an opened engine bay option. I already modeled the outer wing half but inner engine cowling half modeling has not been started yet:

 

Basic J-58 modeling has been done as well. Adding all pipes and tubes will require a bit time:

 

Engine dolly model is also almost complete 

 

Serkan

[Serkan Sen]

Before attempting large parts I continue to print relatively small parts with my Mars 3 printer. First three different chine root fairings (dummy, IRST and canard versions):

 

And nose wheel bay and doors:

 

I am progressing a bit slowly but continuously.

 

Serkan

[Serkan Sen]

In both cockpit tubs I have identified some flaws in printing  as well as errors in model. They have been fixed and re-printed.

 

Also the gauges were too shallow to paint them properly. Therefore I have slightly increased their depth.

 

Last but not least, The engine rotor fan and inlet guide vanes as well as afterburner rings were printed.

 

Next step is to start printing bigger parts.

 

Serkan

Edited July 6, 2024 by Serkan Sen

[David Hansen]

The evolutionary process has been fascinating to watch.

[Serkan Sen]

Before printing front and mid fuselage parts, a shortened mid fuselage model has been generated to test the new design with separately modeled missile bay forward wall:

 

Here are the partly printed forward fuselage, shortened mid fuselage and nose wheel bay parts together;

 

For dry fit test, the print supports were removed.

 

The new missile bay forward wall design works as expected. Now the real fuselage parts can be sent to printer.

 

Serkan

[Serkan Sen]

The first fuselage part printing is done. It took 19 hours to finish the forward fuselage. The print plate was resting at maximum z height and the printed part nose was still inside the resin vat when the job was finished (I didn't size the part intentionally to fit it in printer's maximum print volume, pure luck! ).

 

In parallel the little Mars 3 has printed the main wheel bays and some other small parts:

 

The part size was also at the limits of wash and curing stations. I am afraid that printing the rear fuselage parts will be more challenging.

 

Serkan

Edited July 7, 2024 by Serkan Sen

[themongoose]

Those are some serious drawing skills you’ve got! Really nice renderings coming off those printers. Tons of detail painting is in your future i see 

[Serkan Sen]

On 7/7/2024 at 1:57 PM, themongoose said:

Those are some serious drawing skills you’ve got! Really nice renderings coming off those printers. Tons of detail painting is in your future i see 

Many thanks! I am not very good in detail painting and weathering, therefore I do my best to postpone all the paintwork as late as possible!..

 

Back to progress: the forward and mid fuselage parts as well as the wheels, bays and struts have been printed.

 

The wooden ruler gives you an idea how big the parts are. Next is to print much bigger rear fuselage parts.

 

Serkan

 

Edited July 9, 2024 by Serkan Sen

[Daniel Iscold]

Sorry to bother you again with this matter. But I think you´ll earn a good amount of money selling the files to print this beauty.

Not every modeller have the skills to desing such complex model, but Ipm sure you all of them got money to buy your files.

Jus my two cents. Great job so far!!!!! 

[Serkan Sen]

17 hours ago, Daniel Iscold said:

Sorry to bother you again with this matter. But I think you´ll earn a good amount of money selling the files to print this beauty.

Not every modeller have the skills to desing such complex model, but Ipm sure you all of them got money to buy your files.

Jus my two cents. Great job so far!!!!! 

Thanks Daniel. Earning extra money would be nice (especially when it comes from hobby projects ). But not only finding a proper server to store the data but also to avoid any potential problems with the tax office, currently I am not offering any stl files to sell. But in (near) future why not?

I need to have a look how to register as a small business and how much effort is needed to keep such business here in Germany. There are a lot of strong regulations to obey including GDPR etc.

 

Serkan

Edited July 10, 2024 by Serkan Sen

[Serkan Sen]

I have managed to print the rear fuselage halves. It took around 19 hours to finish this job. And again just by pure luck the rear half fit exactly the maximum printing volume. There was no margin in z axis and the bottom end was still in resin vat when the job was finished:

 

As expected they didn't fit into cure station either:

 

Fortunately now it is summer and (sometimes) the sun shines here too. I will leave the parts in the garden for 15 minutes to cure them with natural UV light.

Serkan

Edited July 10, 2024 by Serkan Sen

[Michael931080]

Incredible!  This is one project I am definitely interested in for sure!

 

Beautiful print Serkan!

[Furie]

As someone who can barely glue a few pieces of plastic together and then smear them with paint, I'm truly amazed by the extraordinary talents of this forum...
Your work is stunning and beautiful Serkan!

 

[Serkan Sen]

13 hours ago, Michael931080 said:

Incredible!  This is one project I am definitely interested in for sure!

Beautiful print Serkan!

Many thanks Michael. Recently I made a big mistake and decided to use Elegoo's ABS like resin which produced the worst printouts. I have switched back to Sunlu/Jayo which gives the best surface quality / price performance.

 

13 hours ago, Furie said:

..., I'm truly amazed by the extraordinary talents of this forum... Your work is stunning and beautiful Serkan!

 

Many thanks. I am trying to do my best on this project to build the mighty YF-12A aircraft in such a big scale.

 

Except the outer wing, engine cowlings, spikes and exhausts all parts have been printed. To give you an idea about the size of the parts I have taken a photo with 1 liter Coke bottle.

 

Next step is to print the outer wing and engine parts.

 

Serkan

 

[LSP_Kevin]

47 minutes ago, Serkan Sen said:

Recently I made a big mistake and decided to use Elegoo's ABS like resin which produced the worst printouts. I have switched back to Sunlu/Jayo which gives the best surface quality / price performance.

 

That's interesting! I've been using Elegoo's ABS-Like resin from day one, and never felt the need to try anything else.

 

Kev