Dotcom Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Hello all, As posted in the welcome thread, this was started about three years back, but I somehow stalled when I saw all the small and big modifications necessary to turn it into an accurate replica... Now I will soon have more beautiful shelf space and more finished kits are needed to go behind the nice glass doors. So the Su-34 shall be one of them. I will keep the build quite simple tho, mostly OOB. A few small tweaks here and there as I go along but I don't wanna get lost again. Following the image of the current state, let's finish that cockpit and then move to the exterior and landing gear! Cheers, Andy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CorsairMan Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Glad to see this one. Looks like a great candidate for this GB. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 Ok let's get some things done....but...uh oh, I see why this build stalled....so many to-do things come up as I remember them by having the half-done plane in my hands. The cockpit didn't start off too well back then so I will not put too much effort in there and finish it by using the kit seats. While the paint on them dries I started with a small correction on the outside: There is supposed to be a splitter plate where Italeri molded the rounded wing transition. The area was marked: Then the extra plastic was cut off and sanded smooth: Carefully a slot was cut out and some sheet plastic trimmed: Finally the splitter plate was inserted with cyano. Final cleanup and a liiitle bit of filler will be applied during the general fuselage cleanup. Such was my easy start to force this shelf queen into submission. Happy modelling, Andy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Good observation on that plate Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sentry30 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Looks good! Good cutting too, I'd be afraid to ruin the model with an operation like that! Daniel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 Thanks for the heads up guys! Moving to the cockpit, the instrument panels were done before the hiatus and at the time I didn't care to do proper research. On the front panel I fabricated an imaginary flat screen instead of the four MFD that should be there, but im not inclined to change it now. So I just proceed with closing up the flightdeck and be done with it. The kit's ejection seats were painted and installed. Seatbelts from Tamiya tape. I did add the HUD projector: Some styrene profile cut to shape. But theeeeeen.... I got carried away a little on the canopy roof, apparently there is also some instrument panel up there, while in the kit it is supposed to be left blank. No sir, let's see what we can fashion with some styrene bits and stretched sprue: Cutting little fuses or switches or whatever they should be from the stretched sprue: After drilling shallow holes into the panel, the switches were installed: Slapping some black paint on, followed by silver drybrushing and installing the hole piece into the canopy: And then its all buttoned up! I'll save removing the masking to the very end of my build, there will be some time until then! Happy modelling! Cheers, Andy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 Moving to the other end, the tailboom with the rearward looking radar was already assembled but it is well known that the kit boom comes out 6mm to long. Two strokes with the saw took care of that. The flaps and slats were already separated in the first build attempt. To finish these off, the slats needed a styrene wedge to set them at the nose down angle. The flap was fitted with a quarter-circle section of styrene profile. When assembled it should look like this: and for the flap: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 The verticals need some working over. The kit fins are too tall, so they were cut down a little and the wrong panel lines filled. The antennas at the back of the tip were scratchbuilt from sprue and styrene sheet: The fins have pegs that fit into holes in the top fuselage. However there is another modification needed: The fin should be quite flush with the outside of the fuselage, but if built unmodified there is a noticeable step: So I tried to drill new holes just adjacent to the original ones. That proved tricky as it needs to be touching the old hole, and thus the drill wandered off into the old hole (see front left hole below). So for the remaining three holes the old holes were filled with some stretched sprue first, and then redrilled in the right location. Finally the fin sits flush with the fuselage outside. It will still need some filling and rescribing once the fin is attached, as the fuselage corner is quite rounded. That's it for this weekend! I still need to to it all for the starbord side as well, before moving to the stabs and nozzles! CU 'round, Andy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 So whats the deal with Su-34s turning into shelf queens?! Nice progress and a clever method of filling holes Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 I for one think they must ripen. You know, just like the real thing ;) Andy, keep up the great work. What scheme are You going to finish Your Fullback in? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted March 30, 2015 Author Share Posted March 30, 2015 Thanks guys! As I go along I start to comprehend why it stalled...so many small things to add and improve, and it is a big jet in 1/72! This being a derailed out of box build, I will go for the 1995 paint job on the initial test aircraft 45 White, which is supplied in the kit. And I'm having a hard time matching the colors to the Gunze range. There are a couple of pictures I found on-line, but different lighting has them all appear slightly different in shade. It is hard to tell if the most dark color is blue or green. It keeps being interesting... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Hi all! There was not much in the line of updates and unfortunately there is not much progress to report. And the deadline is looming larger and larger... Continuing on the tail end, the elevons were set at rest angle with the trailing edge down. The latches on the tails were removed and replaced with a 1.5mm steel pin: The slot in the fuselage was filled with a styrene strip and a hole was drilled: Finally the actuator fairing was attached to the fin: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 The afterburner nozzles out of the box are too small in diameter: Before going the easy route and getting resin replacement I decided to try the following: The nozzles were cut lengthwise and a fitting strip of styrene was inserted. After some filling a small piece of adhesive aluminium tape was added to simulate an additional nozzle petal: With some careful painting it should look quite ok. The diameter fits: Of course the kit afterburner tube is also too short, so a strip of thin styrene was used to provide some depth to the burners: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Some progress on the armament. The centerline pylon is missing from the kit, thus it was fashioned from a suitably sized strip of styrene: And then what goes under the plane: From left: R-73 to go under the wingtip rails, R-77 with rails, then R-27 with the same rails, (on top) empty KAB-1500 rails for the innermost wing stations, X-31 with rails to go under the intakes, and a KAB-1500L on the centerline. The kit parts were marred with numerous ejector pin marks that had to be filled and sanded. On the pylons for R-77 and R-27 the struts had to be reversed as Italeri has them go on backwards. The R-27 are borrowed from the Trumpeter Franker. The X-31 were shortened by 5mm, and the pylons will sit a good 15mm further back than foreseen by the original positioning holes on the intakes. The KAB-1500L had the rear fins reduced in span but lengthened with sheet styrene. Also its pylon is attached to the bomb body further forward than foreseen. Whew, that was a full week's work! Now, on to the landing gear... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Don Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Tons of great work being put into this kit. Well done ! Regards, Don. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Awesome work buddy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted June 24, 2015 Author Share Posted June 24, 2015 Hej Guys, unfortunately the news ain't so good... I will not finish the build in the end of June deadline. There are still a lot of small things to do before even painting can begin. And with the summer weather R/C flying has begun again in earnest so my time doing plastic surgery got somewhat limited. I'm still dedicated to get this stubborn lady off the shelf. I'll continue posting about the progress but it may take another month or two to have her squared away. Some progress was made on the landing gear: Next up are the wheel wells... Take care, Andy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted August 3, 2015 Author Share Posted August 3, 2015 Signs of life! After cleaning up the landing gear doors all parts seem to be ready for the priming and painting stage! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thadeus Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Any more progress on this beauty of Yours? I'd really like to see it finished :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john53 Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 (edited) Nice job. Was just looking at this kit to purchase. Flankerman has lots of fixes for this kit. Are you going to continue on with it? Hope so. It is an"inspiration".---John Edited October 18, 2015 by john53 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted December 28, 2015 Author Share Posted December 28, 2015 (edited) Hello all! Thanks for the encouragement everybody! Yes I definitely will finish it. I had planned to finish by end-of-year but it may take a few more weeks into 2016. Over the holiday season I managed to paint it. But... trouble started when matching my preferred Gunze colors to the pictures that were at hand of the original. For light blue undersides I chose H323. The medium blue I could not match so I used a old Tamiya Sky Blue. For the dark shade I had a rough time, on some images it looked dark blue and on other images it had a greenish shade. Finally I chose H42 Blue-Gray...a classic case of the bottle lid not well corresponding to the contents. On the model it looks way too dark. Maybe H56 Intermediate Gray would have been the ticket...bummer. Here is what it should look like: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Russia---Air/Sukhoi-Su-34-%28Su-32FN%29/0493265/L/&sid=896460d282c4614d3149e807bf3855fd I am also not happy with how the color demarcation turned out. I painted free hand as usual instead of masking and I struggled with air pressure and paint thinning so in several areas the delimitation between colors has bad overspray... Now I have to consider leave as is versus repaint the whole thing... I'm afraid this may drag on a little... Cheers, Andy Edited December 28, 2015 by Dotcom Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dotcom Posted January 30, 2016 Author Share Posted January 30, 2016 Hello patient readers, in an outbreak of getting-done-itis, the Fullback was finished over the past days. I decided that I could live with the questionable paintjob, and rather move to new projects. Following a few images of the finished beast/shelfqueen. Hope you enjoy, Andy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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