Well, I finally finished this beast. The new Revell Blackbird is a Revell of Germany kit. I purchased my kit on ebay in January from an on-line hobby store in England called Jumblies Models I paid $90.00 for the kit. I am not sure if this kit has been officially released in the U.S.
This is one big model. The kit is composed of 207 parts and it takes a while to build this puppy.
The model was painted with Tamyia Rubber Black and weathered with Aqualine weathering products. My opinion is that Rubber Black is a closer match to the actual weathered aircraft color than straight black paint.
After the Rubber Black paint dried, I coated the model with a couple coats of Model Master Gloss Clear as a base for the decals. I used Tamyia Mark Fit decal setting solution. The result was minimal silvering.
After appling the decals I painted the model with Tamyia Clear Matt. The actual planes became very weathered, so I weathered the model with Aqualine weathering products to enhance the molded in details. These products are water based and are easy to use. Unfortunetly, they are no longer available.
Unlike previous Blackbird kits, this kit’s landing gears and wheel wells have a nice amount of detail.
I didn’t like the appearance of the seats that were included in the kit, so I purchased seats from Aires. They look nice when the canopies are off, but when the canopies are installed the seats are barely visible (see photo above).
The Blackbird makes a nice companion to the B-58 Hustler.
Two pair of engines are included in the kit. The engines that are installed in the model only include the front compressor blades and the rear turbine blades and the exhaust pipe. A second pair of engines are included that are complete and are super detailed. The kit includes a stand for displaying the finished model and a cradle for the engines. This is a very well done kit with outstanding molded in details. It has some glitches, but all model kits do. The final result is an outstanding looking and unique model aircraft. I highly recommend this kit.
Great job Johnny! You really had a handle on the Blackbirds black paint scheme. I was behind you in my build; was just about to glue on the nacelles and then to the paint booth when I notice that both wings were warped. Back to the drawing board for me!
Are you refering to that funny little dip towards the rear outside ot the wing? My model does the same thing. I think that that is supposed to be there and that the wing is not warped. I’ll take a look at some photos of the actual plane tomorrow.
The wings are not warped where the arrow is pointing. They were designed with that dip. Look at the cover photo on the instruction manual. The dip is very noticable.
Thanks for your thoughts Johnny. The rear conners of the wing are the controll panel hinges; they may dip one way or another depending on their position when the plan comes to a stop, but they seem to come to fixed flat position with the wing most of the time. Besides the control panel, it woluld no surprise me if there were some curvature to the real or the kit wing.
However. I wish that was my problem, because if it were I would not have a problem. The edges of both wings were both squiggly. It looked like too much glue flowed onto the edges of the plastic. It took me 5 hours yesterday of compression, heating with a hair dryer, and dunking in cold water to get them straight. At one point I got careless and overheated to adjacent panels. That is todays fix!
I was very close to ordering another kit! Now I can set back and enjoy your build.
That dip is part of the kit and seems to appear in the real thing; even after the straightening which I did, that dip was retained, but reduced, in my kit! I am till working on the collateral plastic damage. Thanks for pointing that dip out.
