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Kinetic Su-33 Bort 80


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It's ok... I didn't have a way of measuring this accurately so I just used me eyes the best I can.   It's close enough for me.  You're probably the only one that's gonna notice. 

 

I had too many issues with this kit to fuss over this little bit.  I didn't want to spend more than an hour working on this stiffer (or whatever it is). 

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10 hours ago, BaconRaygun said:

It's ok... I didn't have a way of measuring this accurately so I just used me eyes the best I can.   It's close enough for me.  You're probably the only one that's gonna notice. 

 

I had too many issues with this kit to fuss over this little bit.  I didn't want to spend more than an hour working on this stiffer (or whatever it is). 

You make a great model ... But if you paid attention to this detail, I decided to say how it will be right ...
I know this plane very well, according to my materials, the fourth model is already being made (Hasegawa, Kinetic, Zvezda and a new Chinese company .. and I just wanted to give you advice ...

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I appreciate the advice, Nazar.  I did not mean to make it sound like I did not want your input. You probably know more about this aircraft than anybody else on this forum and your input is always welcome. 

 

 

To be honest, at this point this model is practice for the "aviation art" (or whatever they decide to call it) model... if it ends up being as nice as it looks in the photos they posted.   

 

There are other items that I ignored while building this kit.  The sink marks on the vertical stabilizers, ill-fitting canopy, engine nacelles, and a few issues with the leading edge slats that I can't correct.  I did not want to give up on this kit, so I decided to just push through and get it done.  

 

This model will not be winning any contests, but it will look nice on my shelf!  

 

 

When I build my next Su-33, I will definitely seek your help.  Your photographs have already been a lot of help.  

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3 hours ago, BaconRaygun said:

so I decided to just push through and get it done

 

This is exactly how I felt about this kit. I've ignored most of the same stuff you have. Right now, I'm so tired of it that I am in a real slump and haven't touched the model for months. I'm at the point of adding small parts, fixing some painting, dealing with the canopy and IR sensor and a few more things, but I just can't get the drive to get back to it (health problems don't help). So, it sits. I'm hoping that watching some more of your build will get me going, so, carry on my friend. I'm depending on you to rescue me :whistle:

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Keep at it, Mstor!   Sounds like you can get yours completed right around the same time as me.   

 

Got a little bit more done.  Had to re-do the horizontal stabilizers because I guess I must have forgotten to wash the mold-release from the rudders and the paint didn't stick... that's why they look the way they do at the moment.   Main colors on these just need a wet-sanding and a final coat. 

 

20200218-224817.jpg

 

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I greatly underestimated the effort required to make hard-edged camo look good.  When I did the soft-edge camo on my Su-33, that took about three two hour sessions... so 6 hours total, plus the additional hour to prime and wet-sand.  I got it done in four days, and then painted the exhausts over the weekend.   I think I've spent about 15-20 hours over two months on this hard-edged camo so far.  The masking takes 3x longer than the actual painting.  

 

 

Oh ya, look, the nose no longer looks like a pile of crap!  To be fair, I had some major issues with the nose... my own issues, not Kinetic's fault this time.  Initially I overlooked some sloppy sanding marks, so I went and re-sanded.  Then I went to re-paint and accidentally went a bit too heavy at the tip, and then to make it worse, touched it before it was dry... so I had to once again sand, prime and re-paint the nose.  I also prepped it for the Master pitot tube (not pictured). 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by BaconRaygun
typo
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So, I made a boo boo this morning.   I had the resin engine sections sitting on the shelf above my work bench... already painted on the inside.  Well, I dropped a small item on one of them... one of the actual cans, with the internal piece inserted.  Chipped both pieces.  

 

Anyway, long story short, I already ordered a replacement.  

 

If anybody reading this also does something this dumb, please PM me, and I'll send you one half of the resin kit.  You just pay shipping.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got a bunch more work done this week.  After correcting the mishap with one of the engine nozzles, I finally laid down some gloss black primer and put a few layers of Alclad II onto the engines.    Enjoy these horrible pictures that I took with a 4 year old potato. 

 

Primer down. 

20200310-233253.jpg

 

My method of painting engines requires many thin layers of paint.  All paints are Alclad II unless otherwise specified. I'm going to try to take a picture of every layer, so here go's... 

 

The hatches were sprayed magnesium first, and then lightened with duraluminum. 

20200312-192815.jpg

 

Next came the Gold Titanium.  The panels were mottled and faded in, while the cans received multiple solid coats.  

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Next is Magnesium.  The first layer is mottled, followed by a second more solid layer.   No Magnesium on the center panels (top and bottom). 

20200312-214919.jpg

 

Next is Duraluminum for the center panel.  Same treatment as above. 

20200312-224247.jpg

 

I also took care of the wing joints and a few metal grilles while I was at it.  The wing joints got a solid layer of Magnesium followed by a layer of Duraluminum, and finally finished with a light layer of dull aluminum. The grilles are just Duraluminum.  

20200312_230420.jpg 

 

Still a long way to go before I finish the metal bits, but it feels great to finally be at this stage of the build.  

Edited by BaconRaygun
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Painting the engines on these Suhkoi jets is really an interesting task. Every airframe is different. I spent hours looking at pics and trying to replicate the look. Still not satisfied, but decided to stop as I could have fiddled with them for ages and never been completely happy.

Yours are looking great. :thumbsup:

Edited by Mstor
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For sure.  I had a lot of fun painting the engines on the Su-35, and I fully intend on one-upping myself with this one.  I think painting burnt metal is one of my most favorite aspects of this hobby... it's certainly one of the more artistic aspects. 

 

I've got a long way to go before these are where I want them.  This session basically established a base layer that I am going to build on.  Next up are the lines and heat staining, followed by some blending, followed by more heat staining and then on to the tarnish, grime and soot.... but it's all gonna have to wait till next week, because I'm getting into my car and driving to VT in, ehh, 10 minutes. 

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You are doing very well. You performed the camouflage pattern reliably ... Regarding the engines ... You will succeed, if additional information is needed, please contact ..

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Thank you Nazar.  

 

Got a little bit more done last night.   I added the "lines" on the engines with .05mm black marker and a lot of masking tape.  I did not take much care to make these particularly neat because they are not really that "perfect" on the real thing, and they will be very faint once all of the other painting is done.   The few lines that are more prominent will be re-drawn once more before the next round of paint. 

 

This is after I added lines, and painted MRP burnt metal blue and MrColor clear green.  

20200315_213355.jpg

 

After the burnt metal colors, I again added magnesium and duraluminum to the upper panels, followed by a bit of pale burnt metal.  This should give you a good idea of how faint the lines will appear. 

20200315_222133.jpg

 

Note that this all looks quite grainy in photos because of my lighting.   Once I get it all done, I will take photos in natural light.  

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Thank you, Brett!

 

I put in a solid 3.5 hours last night, so I've got another update for you guys.    I was not satisfied with the way the top panel was coming out, so I decided to take a step back, re-do a few things and maybe experiment a little bit.  

 

 

I re-drew the lines, since adding all of these additional layers would make them virtually invisible. 

20200316_194412.jpg

 

Next, the experiment.  I used a primary color... that's right, MRP AIG II blue-green... like what I used in the cockpit.  Every image I can find of those panels appears to have a seafoam quality to it, so I figured I would start with a really light layer, and work off of that. 

 

This is after the AIG II and some additional MRP burnt metal blue and Alclad II pale burnt metal. 

20200316_203539.jpg

 

And again after a little Mr. Color clear green.  

20200316_211811.jpg

 

 

I skipped a few photos because I had to double my focus for the next segment.   This is where I feathered in Duraluminum, Magnesium, Pale Burnt Metal, a blend of Mag and PBM,  and Jet Exhaust.  Masking tape and cigarette paper were used for masking.   I also filled in a few of the exhaust feathers with jet exhaust, but that was really just to dump excess paint as I am not focusing on the cans at the moment. 

 

20200316_221149.jpg

 

20200317_072921.jpg

 

...it's getting there.  Still need to do the bottom side and then finish up the cans and then do all of the stenciled stains and whatnot. 

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Man, you're really into this. You know, I never even noticed that there were those faint lines. In photos of that area on Bort Red 80, unless they are very close up, you really can't see them unless you are looking hard for them. I never added any lines to mine cause I didn't realize they were there. Especially compared to those photos we've seen of the Su-35's engine panels. I concentrated more on weathering the panels. Photos I have show a lot of dark grey or blackish staining, like one sees when dirty hands and  shoes have trampled the area. So I concentrated on this staining effect. I was not completely satisfied with how it turned out, but I had to stop at some point, else I'd have been at it for months :naughty:

I can't wait to see how yours look after you do the weathering.

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These things are weird... that's the best I can say, lol.   When comparing photographs, the colors are all over the spectrum, and what stands out from one angle may be all but invisible from another.   I think the actual temperature of the panel also has some effect on what we see, which explains the differences that are seen when comparing photos of the Su-33 in the air vs. parked.  All of that before we even consider dirt, soot, rain marks, oil stains and oxidation.  You can go crazy trying to paint Flanker exhausts. 

 

I'm just trying to make it as accurate as I can with the tools that I have.  I wanted to do the lines because its one of those fine details that people who really like Flankers will notice. That, and I personally think the engine makes this plane.  It's weird seeing a nicely built and painted flanker where the engines were more of an afterthought.  I remember seeing a large model at a museum, and the engines were just painted two colors.... and it just looked all wrong to me.  That's why I'm spending so much time on the engines.  

 

Yesterday I started on the bottom side (I'll post pictures later).   Much deeper hues down there... lots of purples and blues along with grey, amber, rust red and all of that stuff.  

 

I will be doing all of the weathering and staining too.... that comes later. 

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I think that if I had it to do over, or hadn't already finished them, I'd add the lines too. Now that you've pointed them out, I can't unsee them. Oh well, what's done is done.

 

Now, I eagerly await more updates from your build. :thumbsup:

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Here's the bottom side.  

 

Started out the same as the top side by drawing the "lines" with a .05mm black marker and then laying down a bit of MRP AIG II, followed by some MRP Burnt Metal Violet.   One difference here is that the checkerboard pattern is there to act as a guide for shading and will be completely filled in. 

20200317_230416.jpg

 

 

Then came the Burnt Metal Blue. 

20200317_231912.jpg

 

Then the Mr. Color Clear Green

20200317_232838.jpg

 

 

...then I screwed up a bit and went too light with the duraluminum and ended up having to add more magnesium to get back on track.   Unfortunately,  fixing this screw up made the lines on the lower hatch more or less disappear.  I haven't decided if I'm going to bother re-doing them yet.   Next I added some Pale Burnt Metal, a mix of PBM and Stainless Steel (for the two lighter bands), traced the checkerboard with Burnt Iron, added more Burnt Metal Violet and Blue to bring them back out, and finished with a very light coating of magnesium.  Sorry, no pictures of those steps. 

 

Here's where I'm at with the underside at this point. 

20200318_223338.jpg

 

 

One thing you cant really see in most of these pictures is how those underlying layers come out when you view the model from different angles.  Maybe this will come through better when I take photos with a real camera after the model is finished. 

Edited by BaconRaygun
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I'm gonna call the airbrushing portion of the engines finished.  I left the blue and purple a bit on the vibrant side because I'm anticipating these colors to tone down once I clear cote, just like what I observed when painting the exhaust on the GWH Su-35 last winter.   If they don't, then I can always tone them down later. 

 

I gave up on taking pictures of every step because..... there are too many.  I think you all get the idea anyway.  

 

I started off by feathering Jet Exhaust around edges and dark spots. Some masking was involved, mostly for demarcation.  For the heat stained portion of the cans, I masked everything except the heat stained portions. I then added pitting and staining with the use of stencils made from open-cell foam and cigarette paper.  I then removed some of the masking tape and continued the pitting stencils all around the engines.   

 

Next I added a heavily thinned layer of 50/50 Magnesium and Duraluminum all over, this toned down the pitting and added depth.  Then came heavily thinned MRP Burnt Metal Blue and Violet, and a custom mix of pale burnt metal and a few other colors to the heat stained portion of the cans.   After I was happy with everything, I added more pitting, this time with Tamiya Red Brown and Flat Brown sprayed through some open cell foam.   

 

The last layer was 10 parts Mr. Leveling Thinner, 4 parts Megnesium and 2 parts Duraluminum.   This acted to again tone down the pitting and add depth to the heat staining.   

 

Oh ya, and I removed all of the masking tape....

 

...and now for some bad photos. 

 

Underside. 

20200324-210612.jpg

 

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20200324_204429.jpg

 

 

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I looks amazing, but I'm wondering why you have painted the outside surface of the tail boom bare metal? All the photos I have of this airframe show it to painted with whatever color the camouflage is in that area.

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All the photos I have show it painted. Here's one.

DSC07776.JPG

 

Maybe later photos have it bare metal? I believe this one and the others I have are pre-Syria deployment.

 

P.S. I just checked Zactoman's drawings and they show it painted. I've just talking about the outside, not top or bottom which are bare metal.

Edited by Mstor
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Never mind, I see what you're talking about.  Don't worry about that stuff... that's gonna be painted once I mount the horizontal stabilizers.   The crisp line is there because I needed to use the tape to get the edge right on the bottom side... and I just never bothered adding more tape to cover the side because I knew I was going to paint it anyway. 

 

I thought you were referring to the first photo. 

Edited by BaconRaygun
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