Jump to content

Salineated Michigander

Members
  • Content Count

    45
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Salineated Michigander

  1. I recently purchased this Italeri kit as mentioned above and would like to attempt to convert it to a gunship.  

     

    Has anyone done this?  What would I need to do a reasonable conversion, 'reasonable' in the sense of reasonable cost for AE stuff and actual modifications necessary?

     

    Any info available would be greatly appreciated.  

  2. On 5/28/2023 at 1:48 PM, VADM Fangschleister said:

    Not sure if this will help but after looking at the sprue shots and then photos of the real aircraft, I think their fidelity to accuracy is laudable but the reality of wanting to display the model with gear down is atrocious.  

     

    https://dddimaxxx.artstation.com/projects/aRnGx0

     

    Here's maybe another idea:

     

    SAC Landing Gear for 1/48 Zvezda Su-25

    After wrestling with all the gear in their deployed positions, I ended up just supergluing the hell out of all of them and applying accelerator it to inconspicuously up inside the bay doors to harden everything up so hopefully it won't show.  Accurate? Oh, hell no, but at least the airframe is now supported on it's legs without fear of collapsing.  I also braced the front gear with brass rods to aid in the stability which helped a lot.

  3. You chose wisely to forego the landing gear down option but I'm curious as to how you'll display it when finished.

     

    As as aside, speaking of exceptional fit, I just finished the Meng Kamaz 4386 Typhoon and that was quite an amazingly good kit.

  4. Has anyone here built the Zvezda Su-25 Frogfoot in 1/48?

     

    I'm about half-way through the process and am quite dissatisfied with Zvezda's engineering, or lack thereof.  

     

    The landing gear assembly process is laughably spindly and fragile and now that I've got it completed I doubt it's going to support the weight of the fuselage, especially after adding more than 40g of extra nose weight as the kit called for.  Not only that, but there's a woeful lack of functional connecting points and a maddening lack of illustrated details in the instructions so much to my chagrin I've realized the engine intake covers are going to require some meticulous puttying and sanding to get everything lined up. It's been very exasperating to say the least.

     

    I tried to find images online of the Frogfoot's landing gear linkage but was unable to find detailed photos so I'm left to merely guess where things actually connect.

     

    I may end up ripping the landing gear out altogether and just close the bays up in a 'in-flight' mode.

  5. I'm nearing the end of mine; I wanted the digital camo set but could not get it so I went with a painted splinter camo scheme.  I kinda phugged up the build tho; due to a massive brain fart I left off part of the bomb bay hatch superstructure and ended up boffo-ing the closure to conceal what I did wrong.  Oh well; if you don't look at the bottom side of the aircraft you won't see my boo-boo.

     

    The rest of the build went very well and things fit quite nicely.  Zvezda has upped their game; it was a superior experience compared to the YAK-130 I wrestled with a couple of years ago, although there is not much mechanical detailing on this SU-57 to speak of.

  6. I picked up Hataka's Have Glass lacquer (comes from Poland, expect a long shipping wait if you're in the USA)  to use on my current build, not a Dark Viper SEAD, but Meng's Royal Netherland's F-35 Lightening II 75th Anniversary version.

     

    So far, to my eye, the Hataka paint mimics at least one or two Alclad aluminum shades, not sure of their official title off the top of my head but almost interchangeable to my naked eye. 

  7. I've essentially completed the build myself and ended up rattle can spray painting it with Tamiya white primer.  It took two full cans!

     

    Flankerman's review and pictorial is spot-on in describing Trumpeter's rather whimsical notions of joins and connections; as big as this kit is, you'd think they would've engineered more functional joining processes.  The only acknowledegment is reinforced landing gear struts that are metal; otherwise get ready to fiddle with it as it is very large, flexible, and handling it was a big challenge.  And forget using a painting booth; this thing was WAY too big for that!

     

    Luckily, I loaded enough lead shot into the nose early on to keep it from tail sitting, and even then, it doesn't take much to get it there.  

     

    Now my problem is, where to put it.  It's far too big for display inside any of my display cases.  

  8. On 4/16/2020 at 3:33 PM, foxmulder_ms said:

    It is indeed essential from my perspective. Without my models, my mental health would have taken a serious hit. 

    Of course it's an essential business!!

     

    I mean, look how many people on 'model makers' on reddit label their most recent build 'my quarantine build'!  Just about every new entry is labeled as such!  How much more essential do you have to be to assuage the mental anguish of MILLIONS of people across the globe?

  9. Gents:

     

    Have any of you assembled this kit, the Trumpeter SU-160 Blackjack (or White Swan)?

     

    If so, due to its massive size, how did you handle painting it?

     

    Overall, was it a desirable project for you?

     

    Any opinions on the construction, the execution, and the results of your labor would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

  10. It certainly is unfortunate that the TANmodel guy is dealing with illness, but speaking solely as someone who has experience building one of their products I have to admit it was quite a dog of a kit.  

     

    I'm talking about their 1/48 scale rF-84f Thunderflash.

     

    I have absolutely no experience with anything else they've produced but my experience with this kit gives me pause as to whether I'd buy another one from them.

  11. On 1/27/2020 at 2:28 PM, Robertkp111 said:

    I agree 100% I did the same using begemot and the kit decals and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Hopefully I'll be getting a canopy in the mail soon. 

    Anybody know when the GWH mig 29 9-19 will be back in stock? Can't find one anywhere.

    I got the Mig-29 SMT from Kitlinx 2 weeks ago, just started working on it yesterday. 

×
×
  • Create New...