MOC SR-71 Blackbird, would love feedback!

[AskYourDoctor]

Hello friends! I have been entertaining myself recently with LDD. I have always loved aviation and especially military planes. I have seen some beautiful large-scale builds of the famous SR-71 Blackbird but they are always so huge, and I had some ideas to make a smaller, more practical model, perhaps sacrificing detail for the sake of practicality. Anyway, I would love all your comments, criticisms, and suggestions. Don't be afraid to be harsh- I really want to know how I am doing.

Thanks in advance!

http://imgur.com/a/Cuyy9

[rollermonkey]

Looks very good. At that scale it's tough to capture the shape of something as curvaceous as the SR-71. Only comments / suggestions I have are these:

1. When in service, the blackbirds had no red on them. I've seen pictures of them with the striping, but it was only on out-of-service aircraft. That said, an all-black model wouldn't look as nice.

2. I think your stand is too far forward and that it's going to tip over backwards if you put it there. maybe 1 or 2 studs further back ought to do it. :)

[AskYourDoctor]

Thanks so much for the thoughtful comments. I didn't actually know that the red was just for "display" but when it comes down to it, my model is for display as well :) I would prefer to keep it, I think it looks better.

As for the stand- I am about to order the parts and try my hand at building it. So I will see soon enough, it's very possible you are right. Thanks friend!

[Boettner Builds]

The whole thing looks pretty darn awesome. But the cockpit area is a little plain. But with that scale I don't know if it could be done better than you already have!

[AskYourDoctor]

Good thought. Somebody else suggested I try to make the nose pointier, and I tried a few different approaches, but everything looked bad. As you say, the scale is the limiting factor. So I think I am satisfied for now- I may try a few more things.

[AskYourDoctor]

Hey all, I got a generally positive reaction when I posted my LEGO SR-71 on here, among other places. But a couple of people commented that the nose doesn't look quite right- it should be pointier. I agree, but it's challenging to be accurate in the scale I am working in.

So I tried redoing the nose, and I would love your opinions. In my opinion, it's slightly more accurate, but much blockier and less elegant. Any and all feedback is welcome here.

http://imgur.com/a/Spmkc (First four images are of the original, last five are of the proposed edit.)

Here is a good rendition of the original, for comparison.

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/sr71-art.jpg

[LibraryBoy]

I suppose it depends on what you're after. I like the sleekness of the original, especially because it reminds me of one of my favorite GI Joe toys as a kid, the SR-71-inspired Cobra Night Raven, but yeah, the extended nose/needle is probably more accurate to the genuine article, so if you're committed to coming as close as you can to that, the update is probably the way to go.

[jimmynick]

The first nose doesn't quite grasp the concave curve of the Blackbird's nose. I much prefer the second one.

[Rufus]

No need for a fresh thread for this - I will merge with your previous one.

... and done.

[Boettner Builds]

The second one looks WAY more jet like. Now looking at the old version, it looks a little boat like.

[rollermonkey]

I disagree.

The first one's shape is more accurate in general, but it does need a point. The second one's point is extended too far, and from the needle-tip, the real airframe flares out horizontally much faster than it does vertically.

Are you using a black lightsaber for the tip? If so, it needs to be pushed into the 1x1 cone as far as it goes, and instead of the SNOT 2x2 cone you have there, connect the 1x1 cone to a 2x1 jumper plate, connected SNOT and oriented horizontally. I think that will blend the point more accurately into the fuselage. The after the point, the tip should flare out, almost like a shovel.. This picture shows how stubby that point is and how the nose is flared horizontally:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Sr71_1.jpg

This picture shows that the bottom of the nose is much flatter than the top:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/SR71BLACKBIRD.jpg

Edited March 21, 2014 by LuxorV
Images too big. Changed to links.

[AskYourDoctor]

Neat, that picture is from the Seattle museum! I went there a few months ago, and in fact that's where I was inspired to start making LEGO models of planes.

Anyway, I think the verdict is in. The vast majority of people prefer my original design (from replies I've gotten at the different places I have posted this question.) I have gotten a number of great suggestions, and I have tried them all out.

One suggestion is to keep the original nose, but to add some kind of spike or smaller cone to it. I have tried that and I don't like the way it looks very much, but I will give it another go with different pieces. I also extended the fuselage after somebody noticed it was a bit unproportionally short- and it looks much better now.

Rollermonkey, you're right- the bottom should be flatter. I will try that next.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions!

[slybynight]

I designed this one.

http://www.flickr.co...157635260224964

Any feedback much appreciated

Edited March 26, 2014 by slybynight

[rollermonkey]

Way to glom on to someone's thread asking for feedback on a MOC to advertise selling your own.

:/

[slybynight]

OK - Fair enough - I can see how it might look like that. But that is not the way I meant it to come across. Apologies if anyone esp OP is offended - OP - Yours is a good model -take a look how I solved the pointy nose problem. A better way BTW would be to use a triangular clip on road sign - it'll clip onto the black lightsabre nicely - they dont make one in black but you might be able to dye one.

Its a lego forum, its a SR71 thread - My kit is an SR71

I'm pretty sure I would have got grief if I had started a new thread.

TBH I get so much grief on forums from anyone I tell about my 10 kit run. - I'm seriously going off the idea of doing any other MOC kits.

If you like it, - cool

If you think its tat, say so - but please say why

If you want to delete my 2 posts and ban me - by all means go for it! -Sorry to have a strop, but I'm a bit beyond caring now - and probably being a bit over sensitive

Edited March 25, 2014 by slybynight

[rollermonkey]

I didn't mean to offend, but a nicer way to do that would have been to post the link to the flickr of your MOC, as a comparison for the OP, and when people got there, they would have seen you have it available for sale. I dunno, that wouldn't have struck me as rude, but the way you originally posted kind of does. Or at least flesh out the post more so it's got some real content besides the sales pitch.

Does that make sense?

[slybynight]

Yup - Fair cop! - All understood and accepted. - I will edit the original post.

I would (probably will), of course, have posted in the buy sell area instead (when I am allowed). Anyway - a further note on Lego SR71s in general.... which might help the OP. - The thing that dictated the scale of mine was the engines. - you're kind of limited when if you want perfectly round - I see the op has taken a similar approach and scaled his model to have nice round engines. If you look at the larger ones - they all have to compromise on engine roundness and all went about it in different ways.. As for the red "dont tread beyond here" line. - I sacked it off. Even on the huge ones, I think it still looks too prominent traced in 1 stud wide tile. On the OPs smaller model, I would personally abandon it. - it dominates the model far too much. I did end up paying tribute to the red lines by including a large red plate on the internal structure. It is only just visible from the outside on a diagonal view between the wings and the fuselage - far less prominent than on the real plane. - good 4X12 red plate wasn't so easy to get hold of I can tell you!

I love what you have done with tiles to get the corrugated skin affect. I was considering just tiling mine with flat, but I wanted to stick as close to scale as I could - and the SR71 has really thin wings. That, said, If I had thought of it, I might have conceeded to get the beautiful effect on your wings. - In fact, I would have painted 2 of the bars/ridges on the tiles in red, which would have given a scale red line. And would also have driven me mental!

Edited March 26, 2014 by slybynight