Total time building 793.25 hours (that’s about 33.05 24 hour days, 19.833 work weeks).

Begin date July 15, 2017; end date September 20, 2019.

Vendors:

Testors

Giant Spy Plane Kit #984 1/48 scale

My Opinion

This kit was designed and produced back in the dark ages (Italeri, I think, cut the dies) and IT SHOWS. Gaps. OMFG, do we have gaps? Everywhere. And some of the gaps have gaps. Fit is foul. Sometimes knowing something sucks doesn’t help when it starts sucking.

The “detail” on this kit is equally notorious, which given that the Blackbird was TOP SECRET when the engineers went to take measurements (assuming they were allowed to take measurements) didn’t surprise me. It was obvious they weren’t allowed to get too close to the Blackbird. I knew going in that the details wouldn’t be there and that was damned correct.

True Details. What can I say about them… In general, they don’t impress me, and this time wasn’t an exception. I didn’t use the ejection seats they provided as they were incorrect. I used Pavla’s, which were also incorrect. I used the Pavla seats because those inaccuracies were easier to fix (relatively).

Metallic Details is interesting. Their PE parts are decent, I’m not especially impressed with their resin parts. After I had committed to scratchbuilding the landing gear bays, I saw that they’d come out with a resin set for that. Maybe they beat scratchbuilding the landing gear bays, though I like what I did better than what Metallic Details offer.

The build. It was a grind. Just under 800 hours spread over two years. GAH. And the further I got into this build, the more this thing fought me.

I had to modify the True Detail cockpits. Canopy details had to be scratchbuilt and some that didn’t fit just thrown out.

The landing gear and the landing gear bays were also scratchbuilt, and that took a lot of time.

Panel lines. Scribing panel lines on something that’s over 27″ long takes time. Rescribing takes more time. Rescribing the rescribed lines also takes time. Sanding wasn’t my friend. I’m beginning to rethink scribed panel lines. Are they better than raised lines? I figure both are equally inaccurate, just in different ways. I suspect that at some point in the future I’m going to end up filling recessed panel lines and sanding down raised panel lines, replacing them with lines that are drawn on. Sorry, but recessed panel lines are actually out-of-scale, y’know.

If a person has the skills and wants to invest the time, the finished product looks damned impressive (and in order to finish this thing, you will develop new skills); large, black, and sinister. It’s rumored that Hyperscale* is doing a new-tool kit of the ‘Bird in 1/48. If you really want one on your shelf (and ONLY one unless it’s a large shelf), wait for that one. This one takes a lot, A LOT, of time to build into something adequate.

This was also my first commission. I told him it was going to take a long time. His patience was definitely appreciated (and he seemed pleased with the result):

In closing, a shout-out to Bruce from New Zealand. About the time I was neck deep and sinking into the swamp of homemade decals, he informed me that Caracal was doing a new sheet of decals (the ONLY complete set of ALL BLACKBIRD MARKINGS in two different sets). That bit of information, without exaggeration, saved this build. My homemade decals were horrible. Thanks, Bruce…I owe you more than one! (For all the good that will do you!)

Its new home: