supergru

I'm the lucky guy with a lucky Su-34 from britmodeller (I have different nick here). If you want to have a good Su-34 I suggest you to wait until someone release a new mold. If you can't wait, this is a must have list kept to minimum for serial production machines: Pavla cockpit Olimp resin set Authentic Decals stencils North Star nozzles What you are asking for is 2nd prototype, which is different in instrument panel, nose pitot tube and front leg / ladders. I think tail stinger could also be different. As for paints, I?m color-blind. This is one of my scratchbuilt verticals compar

Simon, I'm jealous... I'm very happy that you managed to fit three new noses. Much better than mine. :)

One piece decal? Gee, that's heroic !!!

Go for Simon! Well, I don't have table big enough for ... what's this?... Octobuild... So, I'm just with one MiG in the MiG alley... Personally, I don't like seats with molded belts - it's very hard to paint/mask the seat. Not to mention to repair anything. I just hope you won't have any problems to fit it inside Eduard's cabin. In reality it's the same seat on both MiG-21 and MiG-23, but I have no experience with it. A good idea, for sure! Looking forward to see how will you close the fuselage. Only 3 BIS noses to fit. Which ELF set did you use? 1:72? 1:35?

After only five minutes I posted those photos on Face, another fellow modeler noticed I forgot to paint dielectrics on wing leading edge. Done. That's all for this update. Stay tuned ...

As you can see, there is no sign of cutting the nose. This was achieved with additional 2-3 sanding sessions and changing grades of sanding paper from initial 800 up to 2000 in 3rd session. It could be that some of you think this contrast is too high (hard)... For now, I will leave it as it is. After I place decals, I will brush that missing final coat of thinned Light Ghost Grey. This will make soft panel, but it should also fade decals. Dielectric panels were brushed with MM2027 Dark Green, as announced previously. As 2nd layer I added white, to fade it out.

In for some painting prep work... For IFF antenna I cut a panel on top of the vertical tail. IFF antenna is PE from Eduard box and this way I increased area of contact with the base (tail). Now it's flushed. Something totally different is how to cut in a panel on tip of a thin vertical tail. Is there a volunteer to paint rear navigation light? Pitch and yaw vanes were also glued in place. You have small markings on pitot tube where to position them, but you really need a steady hand with CA glue and tweezers. As for painting, I decided to try something new for me. As airbrush nob

Hello Simon! I've been watching this topic for last half an hour or so - well, there was some jaw dropping here, but in positive sense! I'm quite happy that someone else understood how to cut Eduard's nose better than me! As for seats - well, I think they are very good so don't worry about your modelling skills. I'm very, very slow builder, stuck in details, so to say...As you are happy with 8 MiGs, so am I with just one. Looking forward for more WIPs.

Here you can see that the seat was sanded (thinned) on both sides. Seat was sanded from bellow, too. I also thinned left and right panel to squeeze the seat in between. Intake masked, plastic rod in place. Rudder and wings with main wheelbay were also glued. ! That's all for this time! Enjoy and keep those comments incoming!

After I finished the nose I moved back to cockpit... Windshield was still off. This was due to gunsight carrier (J6). You need to thin its tongue (red) and then also narrow flanks (blue). Here you can also see A17 and J5/J8, discussed previously. I also sanded C41/C42 bellow gunsight (yellow arrows). Throttle had to removed, to fit the seat in the cockpit. PE19 part (smaller circle) was real PITA !!! Here you can see why ... I needed some 20-30 minutes to figure where I lose 1-2 mm in height. Armrests were cut from the seat and glued directly to back of the seat. Additional sanding

Fuselage gap (also 3 mm) was filled with Tamiya epoxy putty. Vertical tail and well-known BIS backbone were also glued in place. After sanding ... So, this is BIS nose... Upper boundary layer exhaust (J5/J8) fit almost perfectly.

First static discharger on top of the tail. Ok... Nose replacement.... New chapter... I cut old nose, as per instructions yet there was some misalignment so I cut again and again... Cabin floor is still in tact on upper photo, but you need to narrow it 2-3 mm on each side. This way you can lift up the replacement nose. I managed to fit new nose only when dryfitted with A17 part (front avionics cover). I think this is much better approach to find exact place where to cut. Anyway, until I reached final position as per upper photo, I cut too much. Even front wheelbay was cut, which w

Cabin floor and back were painted and glued. Some steel was added with normal brush, to show worn out floor. Idea was to glue nose cone carrier at this point, before cutting nose. But this was not good idea, so I detached it later. Eventually, I glued carrier for the nose. Plastic rod will be used as assistance while painting model. This will also be helpful while centering new nose. The seat... Decals, belts and headrest were worn out again with drybrushing basic paint or Revell 87 over them. I had problems with mounting gunsight... It looks quite funny when dryfitted - as if

I would like to advise to take care how will you detach gun sight from sprue. Although this sounds like basic operation, I got initial crack with scalpel. I needed another 1-2 hours to scratch new one. I also received static dischargers from Master Model. This is front panel with scratchbuilt radar hood from metallic tape. Left and right panel. Fade-out created with drybrushing grey over panels. "The stick". Pedals

Here is one bigger update... Meaning several posts due to limit of pictures allowed per one post. In the meantime I tried to get some information of actual machine from people who know more about MiG-21 service in Yugoslav Air Force. No one could provide a photo of actual aircraft, close enough so I could see cockpit details. Anyway, I decided to go for light grey headrest and rounded windshield. Eduard also gives masks only for rounded windshield in the box. I started with masking of canopy... Inner side was done with provided masks from Eduard, and for outer side, I "copied" masks on a