Sebastijan

Hi everyone! Here's my new project I wanna share with you, the Sukhoi Su-17M3. But hold on, it's not the infamous Kitty Hawk Fitter and neither is the new HobbyBoss one. We're talking about a Modelsvit one in 1:72 scale. And from what I've seen so far, it is by far the best Fitter in this scale... and quite possibly in any. You might have seen the K-36 seat already from Ken's beautiful M-17 build, but here it is again. Ejection seat consists of, believe it or not, 23 parts! What you see here is 22 parts as I left of the commendably thin ejection seat lever to add at the end. All in all a model inside a model I could say and the level of detail is just great. The only problem are instructions as they are not very clear with the location of some of the tinier parts. Nicely molded exhaust turbine The exhaust pipe is of correct length and made out of 3 parts. It is a bit tricky to assemble, but for some time lost during the assembly, you get some really nice interior details and the dreadful seam lines that usually plague the exhaust halves, won't be seen here. Cockpit and front wheel well details is awesome as well - larger companies should be learning from a small short-run company like Modelsvit. I've bypassed the instructions a bit here - instead of building the cockpit/front wheel well assembly first and then gluing everything into the fuselage halves, I found it easier to just glue the cockpit halves into each respective fuselage half and build on from there. And guess what, the fit is perfect! Just look at the back wall details. Much better than with KittyHawk kit in larger scale. You get two different instrument panels - one with flat surface if you choose decal and one with all the little details if you fancy painting all the little details. I guess I'll go with the later option and if I fail miserably, I still have a back up :)

Thank you very much, Don! I've used Mr.Paint MRP-32 Green for wheels (and radio transparent parts), though ironically I used some other green for wheel hubs :D

good luck with cutting the canopy ;)

Thank you guys!

Eduard's well known MiG-21MF built as a commission build for a friend of mine who wanted 'used but not abused' look. Loadout and markings are his wish and especially the later may not be historically correct. Full article and gallery available on my modelling blog: https://vvsmodelling.com/2017/09/13/mig-21mf-fishbed-j-2/

needle or a pin could work as a rod I guess?

That's a new Russian Naval Aviation camo - MiG-29Ks and Su-30SMs carry it. Air Force reverted back to the blue-grey one. Bort number shape on Yak-130 is typical for this type. Similar type is also used on some Su-30SMs.

No rest for the wicked, ey? Are you going for TPS or earlier white/gull grey scheme?

Wonderful work so far, Euge! OT: If you ever come back to holiday here, let me know and I'll buy you a beer ;)

Thanks!

Thank you for your nice words, Dan!

Thank you Romain!

Thank you, Ryan!

Thanks, and once again thanks for all the help during the build!

Thanks! The patched up appearance and the availability of reference photos were the decisive factors on choosing this scheme.