Here's the Blackbird with all the decals in place.
I've yet to glue the inlet cones, tail cones and engine mount in place.
After the decals are dry, they'll get a coat of Future.
After that the entire model gets a dull coat spray.
Normally I don't use dullcoat. Fingerprints tend to show up on flat finishes.
This model is black overall and fingerprints won't show as much on the black finish.
I have to wonder if this red striping on black was used by George Barris when he designed the Batmobile for TV. The SR-71 was first flown in 1964, the Batmobile is from the same time frame.
I'm surprised you went with a gloss black for paint. The SR-71 was never painted with ANY gloss colors due to the reflective radar signature of a simple emblem, let alone the entire aircraft. A flat black with with a dull clear coat would have been closer to the original. But still a beautiful build! (eBay maybe-I want it...) :)
ReplyDeleteI rescind the flat black with a dull clear coat comment. Plain flat black would be it, but flat black works the same as chrome paint when it gets handled-it gets ugly. For authentic scale, the flat would be it. But for a shelf queen, gloss is perfect. (Can you tell the SR-71 is the top of my four favorite birds?)
ReplyDeleteHi Thomas,
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty simple, decals transfer and stick better to gloss paint.
If you were to put decals on flat black they wouldn't settle down on the surface and would "silver".
You can always use a dull coat after the decals are in place.
In the next few blog posts you'll see what happened with some dull coat that wasn't compatible!