SR-71 Blackbird - request for help

[Petestein]

Happy new year to all!!

[rickstef]

the problem I see with trying to obtain pictures in the manner you request, is not many or any museum would allow you to use a ladder or lift, or even a drone to take pictures.
you would end up climbing up and down the ladder dozens of times in order to take pictures, or drive a lift around the aircraft.

even with the SR-71 located at the Udvar-Hazy center in Dulles Virginia, you could only shoot from the floor, and 3 locations which are higher up. and the lighting conditions are not the best, it is pretty dark in that section of the museum.

I do hope some one, or entity can provide you with what you seek.

Rick

[bigpetr]

Hi Rick,
I dont need whole coverage of the plane. It would be great to have it. Photos from the eye level (or from hands stretched above head) and/or from the underside will be perfectly sufficient for my need. I did not expect to obtain perfect 3d model from these photos. I do not think it is even possible. It is not ideal subject for photogrametry as is. If I acquire positions of an important landmarks I will be very happy. I will be able to correct basic shapes of my 3d model according to them. Then I will be able to photomatch my 3d model precisely to any publicly available photo and use it as a guide for further modeling.

[Vermin_King]

Originally Posted by bigpetr

Thank you for sugestions.

I have Ken West model, P-model, FLY and Betexa.

I wanted to build Ken West model. It is great model and looks realy good. I saw it beautifully assembled. But after some research I find out that it is not extremely accurate. I tried to correct it, but decided it will be probably easier for me to start from scratch. So I did. I have fairly accurate 3d model now. Because I want to make it extremely accurate I wrote this request for help with reference photos. Therefore to use Ken West model as reference has no point, and it would be unnecessary to make a copy of his model.

I do this kit mainly for myself. I know there are kits available, I paid for them and wanted to make them but they are not what I am looking for.

When I did scifi model (X-wing from star wars) I spent lots of time and effort to modify it to be as accurate as original model. It was just fictional scifi model where term "accurate" is relative. It is in my nature to do so. Now I am working on real plane, so I can not help myself to make it as accurate as I can. That is how I like to make my models. Informations are there (some of them difficult to obtain for me, that is the reason for this request), so I have no excuse to do my best. To have scifimodel accurate and not a real plane would be shame.

I know I could make other plane, that is not covered as paper model and not "25th" version of SR-71, but because it is one of my favourite plane plus the reasons I wrote, I choose to do so.

I do not want to compete with what is out there. As I know me, my version will be overcomplicated and with lots of parts to preserve complicated shapes of the plane and from my experience only a few likes that and wants to spend the time to complete such a model. That is why I think it is not direct competitor of available kits. But I could be wrong and in that case I have no problem to keep the model for myself and give the finished template only to the persons that will help me with references (or possibly build the model for him).

I totally get this. I'm a fair hand at over-complicated designs myself, but when I see things that are obviously wrong (like the vault cover and nose on the Cybertruck), especially when I see the same errors carried over in many models, I get an overwhelming urge to see if I can do better.


Best of luck on this project

[willygoat]

I have access to this SR-71, but I doubt it's in the right positioning to help much for your project.

[Vermin_King]

Holy Smokes! Where is this?

[airdave]

Originally Posted by Vermin_King

Holy Smokes! Where is this?

https://foursquare.com/v/strategic-a...64a520e9fe20e3


...
Nice view (for surface detail)

[mbauer]

Went through some old CD looking for my photos of the Lockheed M21.
Posting a few here to see if you can use them.

Once again, poor lighting, background subjects, angle of viewing all cause issues with trying to take photos.

Note: This M21 Mothership comes with the D21 Drone!



















Best regards,
Mike Bauer

[mbauer]

A few more photos of the M21 belly from my June 2009 Museum of Flight visit with my son.

















Hope you can use some of these in your project research...

Best regards,
Mike

[murphyaa]

I can get access to an SR-71, but it's jacked up to head height, so again pictures will be difficult. For some reason, museums just don't take photographers into consideration when setting up their displays.