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Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback


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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!

2015-02-26%2021.48.12.jpg

Cheers, Andy

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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:

2015-03-03%2022.20.55.jpg

Then the extra plastic was cut off and sanded smooth:

2015-03-03%2022.26.27.jpg

Carefully a slot was cut out and some sheet plastic trimmed:

2015-03-03%2022.33.44.jpg

Finally the splitter plate was inserted with cyano. Final cleanup and a liiitle bit of filler will be applied during the general fuselage cleanup.

2015-03-03%2022.34.30.jpg

Such was my easy start to force this shelf queen into submission.

Happy modelling, Andy

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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.

2015-03-10%2018.45.47.jpg

I did add the HUD projector: Some styrene profile cut to shape.

2015-03-10%2018.46.07.jpg

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:

2015-03-10%2020.16.44.jpg

Cutting little fuses or switches or whatever they should be from the stretched sprue:

2015-03-10%2020.29.18.jpg

After drilling shallow holes into the panel, the switches were installed:

2015-03-10%2020.45.16.jpg

Slapping some black paint on, followed by silver drybrushing and installing the hole piece into the canopy:

2015-03-10%2021.09.45.jpg

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!

2015-03-12%2020.46.28.jpg

Happy modelling! Cheers, Andy

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  • 2 weeks later...

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.

2015-03-12%2006.48.01.jpg

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.

2015-03-22%2018.14.02.jpg

When assembled it should look like this:

2015-03-22%2018.05.55.jpg

and for the flap:

2015-03-22%2018.06.14.jpg

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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.

2015-03-12%2006.52.36.jpg

The antennas at the back of the tip were scratchbuilt from sprue and styrene sheet:

2015-03-12%2008.04.26.jpg

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:

2015-03-12%2006.59.24.jpg

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.

2015-03-12%2007.09.13.jpg

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.

2015-03-12%2020.45.57.jpg

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

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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...

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  • 1 month later...

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:

2015-03-14%2013.08.49.jpg

The slot in the fuselage was filled with a styrene strip and a hole was drilled:

2015-03-14%2013.09.28.jpg

Finally the actuator fairing was attached to the fin:

2015-05-22%2006.43.36.jpg

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The afterburner nozzles out of the box are too small in diameter:

2015-03-13%2006.36.55.jpg

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:

2015-05-22%2006.55.01.jpg

With some careful painting it should look quite ok. The diameter fits:

2015-03-13%2007.01.09.jpg

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:

2015-05-22%2021.44.46.jpg

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Some progress on the armament.

The centerline pylon is missing from the kit, thus it was fashioned from a suitably sized strip of styrene:

2015-05-28%2007.00.41.jpg

And then what goes under the plane:

2015-05-30%2014.37.29.jpg

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...

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  • 4 weeks later...

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:

2015-06-24%2021.31.57.jpg

2015-06-24%2021.32.38.jpg

Next up are the wheel wells...

Take care, Andy

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

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 by john53
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  • 2 months later...

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...

2015-12-28%2016.20.55.jpg

I'm afraid this may drag on a little...

Cheers, Andy

Edited by Dotcom
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  • 1 month later...

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

IMAG1027%20(Custom).jpg

IMAG1030%20(Custom).jpg

IMAG1032%20(Custom).jpg

IMAG1034%20(Custom).jpg

IMAG1035%20(Custom).jpg

IMAG1036%20(Custom).jpg

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