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What to do after removing the IRST ball of Si-27


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Hi Folks,

I'm working on a white 595 flanker of test pilot aerobatic team for an ICM kit. The first thing to do is removing the IRST ball from the wind shield. That looks trivial

50404_1351547_eda0b.jpg

However after seeing real pictures like following, I found the hole after removing the ball is too big, and it cannot be filled with plastic card, instead, should also be clear.

survey_50.jpg

Unfortunately, in most of the flanker kits, the wind shield and IRST are moulded together. But I believe there must some way to fill the hole with clear part without seam as people here like flanker man has done this before. Any comments are appreciated.

Cheers

Edited by STAVKA
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On the ARC main page today there's a review for canopies from Fairy Hobby that look to be molded with the IRST separate!

Very nice, though a bit oversized for 1:72 kit, don't you think? Pavla also sells Su-27 vacform canopies for Airfix and Heller kits. As the ICM kit is based on the Airfix one, this might be a reasonable solution.

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But I believe there must some way to fill the hole with clear part without seam as people here like flanker man has done this before. Any comments are appreciated.

Cheers

I didn't cut my IRST off the Airfix/Heller windscreen - I hacked away at the plastic intil it was nearly level - then sanded off the remaining plastic until it was smoothly contoured....

su-30_024.jpg

... and then added a home-made IRST cut from clear sprue - trying as best as possible to get a smooth join between it and the windscreen and fuselage.....

su-30_030.jpg

It isn't perfect - but it looks OK in 1:72 scale :thumbsup:

Ken

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I didn't cut my IRST off the Airfix/Heller windscreen - I hacked away at the plastic intil it was nearly level - then sanded off the remaining plastic until it was smoothly contoured....

... and then added a home-made IRST cut from clear sprue - trying as best as possible to get a smooth join between it and the windscreen and fuselage.....

It isn't perfect - but it looks OK in 1:72 scale :thumbsup:

Ken

The problem with STAVKA's kit that ICM's Flanker although the fuselage is from Airfix, remember that they modified the molds and added the hasegawa cockpit as well as the surrounding detail on the upper fuselage. Also the clear parts are from the Hasegawa molds which means the IRST ball embedded in the windscreen is hollow and thus the big hole when STAVKA removed it.

Edited by Inquisitor
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I didn't cut my IRST off the Airfix/Heller windscreen - I hacked away at the plastic intil it was nearly level - then sanded off the remaining plastic until it was smoothly contoured....

Ken

Finally...comes the expert. Thanks for your instruction, which is very educaitonal, although it is too late as I've already cut the ball off. In the weekend I tried to melt the wind shield a little bit to fill the hold, and not surprisingly, screwed it up. I'm thinking about purchasing the resin correction set from neomega, which contains two windshields and therefore two more chance :bandhead2:

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The problem with STAVKA's kit that ICM's Flanker although the fuselage is from Airfix, remember that they modified the molds and added the hasegawa cockpit as well as the surrounding detail on the upper fuselage. Also the clear parts are from the Hasegawa molds which means the IRST ball embedded in the windscreen is hollow and thus the big hole when STAVKA removed it.

Do you mean the IRST ball in airfix kit is solid? I just learned about that. I also have a hasegawa sea flanker kit, where the wind shield and IRST ball are separate, may be it can be used. The only problem is what to with the rest of the kit :bandhead2:

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I'm sorry Stavka, I am confusing you.......

The Airfix/Heller windscreen has the IRST ball moulded solid - hence it is easier to remove without leaving a hole.

As Inquisitor points out, the ICM kit of the Su-27 is the old Airfix kit updated - but with the canopy/windscreen from the Hasegawa Su-27 kit - with has the IRST ball moulded 'hollow' - hence your problem.

The Trumpeter J-11B kit has a much smaller solid IRST - so that may be better for you - if it will fit the windscreen recess on the ICM kit ??

Here's a pic I took of the various kit windscreens........

Flankers%20133.JPG

The whole comparison thing with more photos is here

The final alternative is to wait until Yufei Mao (Haneto) makes his 1/72 scale vacform Su-27 canopy available.

Cheers :cheers:

Ken

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