twhite80 Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 (edited) I have always had an infatuation with these big Flankers. This past weekend at the IPMS KC show I picked one up for $100. I got the older issue Su-27 Flanker B as well as the Aires cockpit. Motivating my purchase was the idea that I could get a big build in before my wife and I welcome our first child this coming fall! So with the time table set in stone I am ready to begin. I don't have all of my parts quite yet, but here is where I am starting: I have a set of Wolfpack wheel wells on the way and I will be ordering the Zacto combo 'real soon now.' I have found it a little odd that with such a huge Flanker following out there that the 1/32 decal options are so slim. I don't want to do Blue 24 (the only option in the box) and all of the Linden Hill Russian Flankers are sold out. There are still a few Ukrainian Flanker sheets floating around however and Blue 56 is a very attractive jet! I did a splinter scheme on an aggressor F/A-18A and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As the parts roll in and the paint and glue are applied I will keep updating. I am very much looking forward to building my Flanker. Where to put it is the last obstacle... Edited May 28, 2012 by twhite80 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tonal Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 I always love to see a Flanker built no matter what the size is, will follow your build. B) Tonal. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shan Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 (edited) I'M GONNA WATCH THIS. I HAVE THE SAME KIT AND WAS THINKING OF BUILDING IT. HOPE TO LEARN SOME TIPS FROM YOUR BUILD. INCIDENTLY, DID TRUMPETER HIJACK THE ARTWORK FROM THE SQUADRON REFERENCE? LOOKS PRETTY CLOSE................ BEST OF LUCK CHECK THIS OUT: FLANKER BUILD Edited May 29, 2012 by shan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderWeasel Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 Looking forward to this one! I want one so bad, but I keep putting it off! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 Thanks for the link Shan. I can only hope to come close to that build. I sat down to paint the interior color in the cockpit last night and the minute I pressed down on the paint trigger the paint in the cup exploded all over me, the table, the floor, and the cockpit leaving globs of drying paint everywhere. Yes. I forgot to clean my airbrush out from last time. So I spent 1/2 hour cleaning the airbrush and by the time i got it in good shape and cleaned up my mess it was time for bed. I will try again and post some cockpit pics as soon as I can. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rogier77 Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 Good luck with your flanker. I am still working on my bird, a Su27UB in the 32 scale. I will follow your build. Its always nice to see what a other is making of the same plane. Rogiér van den Berg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 I'll be following with great interest! Good luck with the build! J Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 More goodies have come in the mail this week: the Linden Hill Ukrainian Flanker sheet and the Wolfpack wheel wells. The wheel wells are the newer flanker wheel wells. It is not clear to me whether they are appropriate for Blue 56. If someone has any ideas I am all ears. I do have a set of the Aires wells and I can easily swap them out. At $23 US these are a good buy. A big chunk of resin that is a definite improvement over the kit parts. Compared side by side with the Aires wells it is clear that the Aires parts are crisper, but they are also more complicated, maybe needlessly so. Aires provides extra pipes and hoses that you can go the extra detail mile but cutting the parts free looks challenging. Here is the Aires cockpit. The Aires pit is fantastic. I used an acrylic Polly S and then sprayed a coat of Future. I went back to an oil wash, which I have not used in a long time, but I was happy with the result. I have not added any of the photo-etch yet. It might look a little sloppy in the corners but I have left areas that will NOT be visible alone. I am not entirely happy with the instrument panel. It is not that well executed by Aires... or by me. The IP is clear resin and that sounds like a great way to replicate the glass but the detail seems tough to deal with. It is hard to wash, the dial bezels are impossibly small and the bezels are deep which means you must paint inside of them to make it look half way decent. That of course means that you have to slop the paint into the dial in order to make it work. I wonder is a simple PE part would have been a better approach? The dials are simply not crisp enough for me to justify the clear resin. So I hope it looks okay. It was a bit of a struggle. I ordered the Zacto update kit and I look forward to getting my hands on the intakes, canopy, and nosecone! More to come... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Awesome looking pit, T! Keep up the great work. The oil wash looks good to me. J Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Major Walt Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I think the hardest part is painting a convincing cockpit. This is the part that always gives me pause. You've done an excellent job. This is gonna be a fantastic build! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tonal Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Sweet detail on the cockpit, keep up the good work and the pic's coming. Tonal B) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 Thanks for the comments. My Zacto set came in on Monday and I am super psyched! What a great package! I have been working in the rear decking and sidewalls on the Aries cockpit. I will post pics soon. I am having a blast with this scale. I would do nothing but 1/32 if I was a multi-millionaire who could afford a bunch of them and had the space to put them! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Marcel111 Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Good to see you start a 1/32 Flanker... and Ukraine 56 to boot. It just doesn't get any better! Marcel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shan Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 (edited) Thanks for the comments. My Zacto set came in on Monday and I am super psyched! What a great package! I have been working in the rear decking and sidewalls on the Aries cockpit. I will post pics soon. I am having a blast with this scale. I would do nothing but 1/32 if I was a multi-millionaire who could afford a bunch of them and had the space to put them! Wow, this is gonna be interesting with Zactomodel Stuff. I've just bought their aim9 missles and its superb. I hope you will also consider the full stencilling on the flanker. you can get these decals at : http://www.begemotdecals.ru/showpos.php?lang=2&id=56 Yes 1/32 scale is definately the way to go.... i just love the scale of the aircrafts and so much more details...etc... hope you will keep posting more pics of you build. I cant wait to get started on mine, but i am working on the trumpete harrier now... Edited June 8, 2012 by shan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted June 9, 2012 Author Share Posted June 9, 2012 Life has been pretty busy, but I have been able to get some work in. I have kept picking at this cockpit. I have to stop before I ruin it. I repainted the ejection seat rail a color that might be considered 'close' to the few reference photos I have seen. The more I look at the oil wash the more I wonder whether that was the right approach. I like that you can kind of fish in a darker color and create a stark relief. It also looks a little grimy which is realistic. I just keep wondering if it looks too grimy? What do I know, I have never even seen a real Flanker! Here is the cockpit. The ugly green will be mostly be covered up with the ejection seat, but I figured I should try to make the cockpit a little more accurate. Installing the rear decking has been an interesting process. After supergluing there is a pretty big gap on both sides, but the gap is not big enough to fil with a styrene shim. I went ahead and puttied. There was a smal gap between the resin and plastic in the back. I silled those gaps with small sheet plastic squares then sanded them out. It took a couple of times to get that seamless look. There are a few flaws but I have decided that if I replaced some of the sanded rivets with some Archer rivets that the detail will make up for the areas where you can still see a little line where a gap used to be. Here are the sidewalls from below. The resin pit fits nicely inside. I found the resin to be well designed for a good fit. As mentioned in a previous post I did receive my Zacto parts! Here is the box. I am just getting ready to wash the intakes and get started. I hope to do them justice. I am also hoping that I don't biff the canopy. We will see. It seems pretty straight forward and I am not going to let any trepidation stand in my way. I have also decided to use the Aries wheel wells from my stash. I figured that the Ukrainian jets are all probably older. When I get to the later part of the build I am thinking about purchasing the Zacto missile pylons and doing the full stencils. These Flankers just kill your budget, but I don't anticipate doing this again any time soon... I couldn't afford to! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted June 19, 2012 Author Share Posted June 19, 2012 (edited) Just a couple of updates. I am struggling with the weathering. I am so used to 1/48th stuff. The shading and dry brushing seems different. I finally decided that I need to not obsess so much and just build. I sanded off some of the rivets and screw heads so I used some Archer rivets. I am very happy with the outcome. Edited June 19, 2012 by twhite80 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rogier77 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Is looking like a nice stearing house for a pilot. Nice progress. I like BIG Flankers on the ARC. Greetings and good luck, Rogiér Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 I probably spent waaay too much time messing with the Zacto canopy, but it was giving me a small anxiety attack. How would I replicate the rivets? What if I cut it wrong? So I took an early stab at it. I have a spare canopy and I might und up using that one just because I am not totally satisfied with how I cut the canopy apart. I am also thinking of using the Aries windshield brace instead. In any case here is my first attempt. I used very thin plastic card to raise the canopy detail. Before I attached it I just drilled the rivet detail and this is what i got. Now that I am satisfied I put the canopy away for what will probably be a few months while I tackle the rest of this beast. The Intakes are the next order of business. Much has been said about the Zacto intakes and I can only echo the positive comments. These are an absolute necessity, especially if you are working on the Flanker B. The challenge for me would be trying to work the PE FOD guards from the Eduard set into something I could use. The Eduard guards have a rounded end and are pretty long. I put them together and crammed them into the intakes. The result was not good. So I placed the PE guard next to the Zacto guard and it quickly made sense: the PE guard is waaay too long. So some cutting and then bracing with some plastic rod and here is what I got: Here are a few shots with the guard installed. Yes there is a gap or two but the guard is not permanently installed. When I go to glue it in it should be pretty bang on. I will try and get the other guard knocked out very soon so I can get to work on the intakes. I am excited that the modified Eudard PE will work. The Zacto FOD guards are very well done, the resin is crisp and obviously well detailed, but you can't see the rest of the great detail within the intakes. Hopefully this splits the difference. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rogier77 Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Nice progress and lot's of eye for detail. I use the frame of the Zacto Fod guard and put in the mess parts of the Eduard set. So i have a fod guard you can look trough and no gap on the side's. The 'problem' is now, you don't see a lot of the fan. Its to dark in the airintake so you need a flashlight to see the fan. Keep up the work, you going to have a very nice Flanker-B. Greetings Rogiér Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 Forgive the poor pictures this time, I promise more once I get some of the sub assemblies painted. I have made all of the appropriate cuts, installed the Aires wheel wells and fared over the gaps. I should have realized that most of those gaps are covered by the intake trunking but the gaps just could not be ignored. Here are the intakes on the fuselage. I am following the Zacto commandment of test fit, test fit, test fit. I am having a few issues with matching up the little supports on the top of the intake. I will have to keep test fitting. The plan is to paint as much of the intake as possible and as much of the lower fuselage surrounding the intakes and wheel wells. I figure reworking a seam will be easier than fishing paint into some of these crevasses. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
geedubelyer Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Fortune favours the brave Good work, keep at it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Youngtiger1 Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Oh no, this ship is infected with Aliens....call 1-800-Predators...lol Seriously, you are doing great work here. This will be heck of a model with all those detail sets. You still have few more months before fall, so best of luck! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sebastijan Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 One question. I see almost everyone is obssesed how their anti-FOD meshes will look inside the intakes of their Flankers. To my knowledge, the meshes are up only when the engines are running, otherwise they just sit flat on the bottom of the intake, just over the auxiliary blow-in doors and are quite hard to see on a model. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 (edited) I know, you are right. I think that I like the FOD guards up because I can see more detail on the Zacto louvers below. I would love to just have some one make 1/32 FOD covers for the Trumpeter Flanker because when you look for reference pics it seems like 90% of the time they have those on and you can't see inside anyway. I am surprised Quickboost doesn't have any yet. I have the intakes all together and I will be posting more pics soon. Edited July 14, 2012 by twhite80 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 (edited) Last Thursday I had minor ear surgery which kind of sucks, but on strict orders from the doctor I have been staying at home doing little except building. I have done a lot of experimenting and made some mistakes but I think that I am moving in the right direction. So other than sleeping here is what I have come up with First I drilled out the back end of the intake trunking to make room for the engine faces. I am sure they would have been fine but the resin was rubbing up against the plastic and there was a gap. Then I started on the plumbing. I tried a bunch of stuff. Gluing the wires to the plastic, but that was a non starter. I tried bundling the wires together with glue but that didn't look right either. I decided to make braces that I could run the wires through to keep them more organized. I like this much better and I have seen them used on several Flankers so I don't think I am completely out of line. Then it came time to repaint and detail the wheel wells. Here is what I came up with for those. Next I am going to go ahead and attach the intake trunking. Wish me luck! If anyone has any beter pics of Blue 56 let me know. I am making this up as I go along but I think I am going to do the jet as it looked when the paint was a little more vibrant Edited July 17, 2012 by twhite80 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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