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Flanker engine area painting Sequence - Before or after adding vertical stabs?


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For those of you have built the Flanker before, did you paint the exposed engine areas and mask them before adding those huge vertical stabilizers? It seems like once they are in place, it may be difficult to spray the outboard area of the engines where they approach the tail fins. On the other hand, I can see the benefit of completing all of the basic assembly and seam filling/sanding/primer before painting the bare metal. I do plan on spending a lot of time on the engines to simulate the real thing as closely as possible. For what it's worth, I'm using Alclad for the metal paints and Akan acrylics for the camo colors. Any advice for a 1st time Flanker builder?

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1 hour ago, godfrey1775 said:

For those of you have built the Flanker before, did you paint the exposed engine areas and mask them before adding those huge vertical stabilizers? It seems like once they are in place, it may be difficult to spray the outboard area of the engines where they approach the tail fins. On the other hand, I can see the benefit of completing all of the basic assembly and seam filling/sanding/primer before painting the bare metal. I do plan on spending a lot of time on the engines to simulate the real thing as closely as possible. For what it's worth, I'm using Alclad for the metal paints and Akan acrylics for the camo colors. Any advice for a 1st time Flanker builder?

Ive tried both  ways and prefer the latter

 

Edited by goondman
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I always assemble the fuselage, paint the engines, mask them off then add the (already painted) vertical fins.

 

I have tried adding the fins, then painting the engines afterwards - but trying to airbrush the camouflaged inside faces of the fins is almost imposible - especially in my preferred scale of 1/72nd.

 

So - I paint the engines, mask them off - then apply the camouflge pattern to the fins before glueing them in place.

 

Happy Flankering

 

Ken

 

 

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On the GWH Flanker, I painted the whole intake/engine section first then attached it. Painted the body, then the engines. Then glued that to the upper/lower fuselage assembly. And finally added the tails which were painted separately as well. Worked well 

brian

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I prefer to finish building the whole fuselage before painting, so if there are some seams to fill and sand I can do it with no problems. In fact the tall fins of the Flanker are a bit of a headache when you have to mask and paint. For my first Su-27 I painted the engine cowlings after the camouflage (a bit tricky, but it can be done), but I've seen a build review where they first painted the cowlings, then the camouflage (with the fins already in place). Think, I'll try that on my next build

Edited by Yuri
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This Japanese modeler painted the vertical stabilizers first, then masked them before painting the metallic areas:

 

http://www.naritafamily.com/howto/Su27/day24.htm

 

from :

 

http://www.naritafamily.com/howto/Su27/photo_frame.htm

 

End result:

http://www.naritafamily.com/Scalemodel/airplanes/Su27/photo_gallery.htm

Edited by JackMan
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  • 6 months later...

Just following up here. Thanks to all those that offered advice. I ended up painting the engines, masking them, free-handed the camo, then removed masks, touched up the engines where needed and attached the painted stabs. Not perfect, but overall happy with the results. Glad I attempted on the Academy kit, now I feel more confident starting the GWH at some point in the future. Sorry for the terrible lighting and phone photography. 

 

Burner Cans

Engines

Top View

Side View

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7 hours ago, solher1 said:

Hi,

 

What brand and color did you use on your Flanker?  
 

They look great.

 

Let me know when you can.

 

Juan

Thanks Juan. I used the AKAN acrylic Flanker color set. From what Ive read, its generally agreed that they are the most accurate colors available. I believe it to, they are based in the USSR....er, I mean Russia.

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