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Absolutely love it!!! Looking forward to seeing the finished bird!! Andy

Hi rom and Tonal, thank you! Hope it goes on like this! As a short update, I started working on the canard wings and shoulders. The demarcation line between shoulder and canard seems to have some toe-in, that is to say that the shoulders get narrower towards the front. Drawing the shoulder shape onto sheet plastic. Note the ledge which will slide in between the upper and lower fuse half. Small curved scissors is very handy in cutting thin plastic. Found it at the beauty department of a supermarket :-P Don't forget to make a second item for the opposite side at this point, else it ne

Hello Flankerman, nice to have you on board! About the wingspan...bummer! :-| i should have followed your description more thoroughly. I had one reference stating the span as 14.7m for the KUB and didn't check further...but of course you are right, the below picture shows the flaps extend to a wider span than the elevons which is not represented on my flaps. The info is much appreciated! http://www.flanker.free.fr/mono/Texte/su27kub/22.jpg I guess I will fix this by moving the wings outbord and lengthening the flap towards the fuse. At least one hinge I will need to redo. I also see that my

Well then, let's get started! First I start with the wing flaps. The Sea Flankers have a wing with ailerons (outboard) and two section flaps (inboard) with a longer root chord as opposed to the standard flanker wing where there is only a single flaperon. See the original flap configuration: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Russia---Air/Sukhoi-Su-27KUB/1671007/L/ The left wing flap was separated and will be in approximately the position as shown above. The missing triangle to be filled with sheet plastic. Sheet plastic added. The outer part is glued on to the aileron. The inner part is s

@Nazar: Thank you for the link to the reference pictures, they will come in very useful! @supergru From a google images search I came up with pictures of two different aircraft: The yellow-silver prototype and a blue camouflage aircraft (21 Blue). It never occured to me that this might actually be the same aircraft, but then of course I didn't check further. So it might well be a unique conversion. I haven't decided yet as which of the two paint schemes i will do, but then, that's still long off...the prototype does sure have it's charm though. Regs, Andy

@Berkut: Why the Italeri kit - a good question to a long story ;-) I had the kit in my stash for quite a while, and it had been picked up at the LHS at a very reasonable price. The original plan was to turn it into an accurate Su-33 Sea Flanker with all the mods necessary, including wingfold and such. After lengthy reference study I compiled a long to-do list with all the steps necessary to come up with a reasonably accurate Sea Flanker. That was about a week before I learned about Hasegawa's new tool Su-33 release. So I thought, let's go bowling, and bin the conversion plans. But then wha

The major modification hotspots I identified a number of work packages/items that need to be adressed for the intended project: (1) 2 seat cockpit: The big one. Cut out kit cockpit section, replace with scratchbuilt floor and bulkheads, blend in with rest of the fuselage, add instrument panels and seats, get a canopy from whoknowswhere, ... While I could use the Italeri Su-34 kit cockpit this would leave me with a useless rest of the Su-34 which I plan to build later on. So I decided to make the cockpit section from scratch, in the end I intend to learn something here ;-) (2) Canards and

Hello fellow modellers, I am usually a silent watcher on this forum, but for once I also like to contribute with my current time-eater. After finishing my last long-term project, a Hasegawa old mold F-15E with plenty of mods, I decided to step a bit ahead in the extent of scratchbuilding. The new subject requires quite some alterations in order to turn a stock kit into a different version aircraft. I don't intend to go into the highest level of detailwork but rather use the project to explore and hone advanced scratchbuilding skills. The Sukhoi Su-27KUB is the two seat trainer version of th

Your F-14 turned out wonderfully! Simply amazing work at that scale, congratulations! BTW the Revell 144 F-14 was my very first plastic model, more than 20 years ago... It's really nice to see your finished model, at such level of perfection. Cheers, Andy

Verrry nice looking skyraider! I like the paint scheme very much! May I ask what color did you use? Regards, andy

Whoa what an amazing finish! The camo effect actually works on the spine area, I can hardly make out the lines of the plane! Congrats! andy

My family of redneck scribers and scrapers. All made in one hour from stuff found in the workshop, that is wooden rod 10mm and 4mm nails, beheaded and shaped with a file. From right to left: Scriber, wide cleanup tool (like a sharp screwdriver), narrow cleanup tool, round cleanup tool for inside curvatures, needle for cleaning up panel lines. that and tamiya tape make for most of my equipment ;-) andy

Congrats Dragan_Mig31 on a stunning rendition of the Mi-24! I like the used look of this workhorse! How were you satisfied with the kit? How is the fit of the parts? Greets andy

Lady A remains the 747, no plane's gonna take that from her ;-) Andy

Update: After putting all the parts in place it was evident that no noseweight would be necessary despice initial concerns&indication in the instructions. Anyway, thanks for the help as Im sure this mistake happens too often ;-) andy

Filipe, I'm stunned by the level of detail you achieve at the scale of 1/72! This is most amazing, wish I was only half way up there! Your Tornado is gonna be one outstanding model! Keep it up! greets, Andy

Thanks guys for the help! I think Ed's way of fixing the problem is my way to go, it takes much less surgery than what I had previously in mind. As the Mirage's front wheels are really tiny it seems a bit difficult to me to install a reasonably strong pin to connect it to a base. But I might try that on a following build where Im more confident! thanks again, Andy

Hello plastic surgeons, just as I put the final clamp and tape on the two fuse halves of my Italeri 1/72 Mirage 2000 B two seater it occured to me that no weight went into the nosecone, the lead sitting on the shelf silently grinning. The instruction calls out for 20 g in the nose. Guess from the large portion of the wing behind the main wheels this is a good starting point for a tailsitter. Cockpit and nose wheel bay are in place so cheating is out.. Plan to cut off the nose and add the weight from there. Or does anyone have an idea or experience how to work around such a mess? all help ap

Python, thanks for sharing your approach to accelerate the expansion of the model fleet and reducing the stash! Some time ago I also tried a similar way when i started to paint the parts of about three similar kits while the parts were still on the sprue. As you say a lot of time in construction is eaten up by the multiple use of the same paint in the different construction steps. I never came up with the idea to write down a list of parts that would need to be painted, I tried to do it all by memorizing with the expected result of parts receiving the wrong paint or none at all, demanding f

Congratulations to an awesome build and weathering, I especially like the chipped paint effect! May I ask how you did achieve that? Great model! Andy

The anniv markings on my jet just had me wonder a bit, but you convinced me ;-) I'll spray it over next time I load up the 36118. Thanks for the info, Andy

Hi BeeGee, thanks for your note, I was not aware of the fact that the roundels are only on the left side wing. However I did find reference pictures of dutch F-16 in special livery that bear the roundels on both wings...see eg http://www.airliners.net/photo/Netherlands...b162c6af524ad70 but if you are positive that on this kit plane they are only on the left wing I might consider removing them

Hello everyone, here are some pictures of my recently finished 72nd Viper. I built it right out of the box and used the kit supplied decals as they make for a nice colorful anniversary scheme applied by the RNLAF in 1999. Construction was straightforward and went on without any problems, only spots where filler was needed were the intake trunking and the joint of the engine nozzle to the fuse. Reference pictures show the plane sporting a different camouflage scheme than indicated in the Revell instructions, as the top of the intake (towards the forward fuse) is the same color as the unders

Gents, thanks a lot for your feedback! Ill keep us posted on the rest of the plane which takes quite some further work. @geedubelyer: You're right of course, the afterburner section had me think quite some. Maybe ill find some useful tube around which could easily be used to lengthen the section and also incorporate the tricky flameholders. Hmm... greets, Andy

Mario, I'm following with much interest! You are paying a lot of attention to the details, nice! I'm sure the agressor will turn out an eye-catcher! greets, Andy