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Eduard 1/48 Su-27 Flanker Blue 03


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Let me begin by expressing my pure disdain for all things Eduard. I hated building this kit. Had all the AM and the amount of money spent on this kit is the only thing that kept me going. It fought me right from the very start and did not let up till the very end.

I built this as an early Su-27 depicting Blue 03 from 941st IAP in Kilp-Yavr. I think the bird is now scrap metal (which is what I'd like to make of this). I weathered it heavily especially the decals to reflect photos I had of the real think. Thanks to all who helped out with reference material! Not proud of this build (thus no massive close up shots) but here it is anyway. I hate you Eduard/Academy :chain-gun: .

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Edited by Crazy Snap Captain
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Hey, better than me. I saw your sig and in a way I've been waiting for you to present this build. Thanks for presenting. It's kinda hard for me to believe that a kit like this could be so bad for anybody who's building it, especially with all the AM provided. Guess the kit itself must not be a real upgrade from the original Academy kit.

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Chaps,

Thanks for your unwarranted kind words :)

J4K,

It was the AM that caused most of the problems! The faults with the Academy moulding and the fit issues are well documented as are the accuracy issues so I won't go into them too much. Some of the Eduard extras were great while others were just rubbish. The kit already had a heap of resin and PE OOB, but I went to town and got a Quick Boost resin nosecone, Aires Exhaust cans, Eduard R-27ET Alamo D's, PlusModel R-27ER Alamo C's, Eduard R-73 Archer's, Master pitot tube, Wolfpack Sorbtsiya L-004 ECM pod set, Fairy Hobby's Correct Canopy, Linden Hill Su-27 Stencil Data and Linden Hill's Flankers on Patrol 2 decal sets. Basically everything bar the wheel bays.

The kit itself is pretty bad in terms of fit. With the main body I needed to glue the 2 halves bit by bit so I started from the back and slowly worked my way up with Tamiya extra thin. There's a fair whack of putty needed around the nose section and the back end of the fuselage, but nothing you wouldn't expect from an Academy kit. The worst part though was the intakes. Fit is average at best, and trying to putty and smooth down is difficult considering the position of the intakes. But I finally got there. Getting those Eduard PE intake covers on was frightful. I had to file the intake walls to within a millimetre of their lives so that they would fit in, and even then it was a pain. The fit is so tight that no CA was needed to attach them in place. The PE exhaust louvers look great but very fragile and a few of them snapped off so I had to glue them back on. Painful.

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The leading edges had very bad fit. Here is how they looked when they first went on...messy...

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I used the included Eduard resin cockpit which was nicely detailed and very accurate.

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And, Surprisingly it fit perfectly!, But that's when the real fun began. This is what Eduard give you for the IP coaming ...

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Pathetic. That's a piece of PE that you are expected to align (7 petals) and make it look like one piece...seriously, couldn't they have just made a resin piece? So I tried the kit piece. Nope...not wide enough to fit over the IP. So I bought the Aires cockpit set and thought I'd use that. Painted it up got it ready, dry fitted and...no chance...the fit was shocking. I couldn't be bothered doing more sanding, so I just used the IP coaming from the Aires kit. It was wide enough but too short. :angry:

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I puttied the gap and smoothed it out. Took ages, but looked ok in the end. Next problem though was the canopy which wouldn't close over the IP. More surgery...I literally spent around 2 weeks just on this bit.

I decided to do the LG early on in the piece whilst patience levels were high. First time trying to detail up LG...not bad

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The Eduard PE bits were bloody fiddly but I think I got them ok. The Aires cans are high on detail. I tried the getting the burnt metal look with Tamiya weathering sets, Turned out ok. Only problem is fit. They are SMALLER than the openings on the kit. Only by a millimetre but still! Apparently resin shrinks sometimes... <_<

The Fairy Hobby canopy died an early death. The one I bought didn't have instructions included and I couldn't source a hi res copy, so I didn't try cutting out all the parts that it asked to do. I attempted to cut the canopy to make it fit the kit, but that was a bad idea. It was the first time trying to work with vacuform replacement parts, so at least lessons were learnt.

Blue 03 is an early Flanker and in its last days it was heavily weathered and the camo pattern was almost blended into one colour. In my ref pics there is a total lack of stencils that I can see so I left most of them off. The insignia's and art work where also very faded. I tried a few new techniques for weathering decals like gently sanding with 12,000 grit paper. Here is my the two stabs one weathered and the other not. Turned out really good after a few more runs. So at least I learnt something new :)

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For ordnance, the Plus Models R-27's were rubbish. The Eduard R-27's and even the R-73's were a joy to work with. But the rails lacked any positioning pins and getting them to align was figgin painful.

My moons didn't align on this one as well I think. Lots of hamfisted c0ckups on my part as well. But its over...so I'm happy now.

Edited by Crazy Snap Captain
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Well...it just looks great!!! The weathering is spot on...about aaaallll the rest, we know you are a good modeler so...once more, another beautifull model!

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I think the build turned out great, atleast it looks great thousand miles away. :) I literally laughed out loud at that PE coaming. That is just horrible. :lol: Micromeshing decals is indeed good technique for weathering/fading, another good one is to have little bit of grey in mattcoat.

Kilp Yavr is kinda special base for me, as my grandfather was there when Su-15's was based at that base.

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Nice build my friend!

But i just noticed the FOD grills!

Looks like eduard got it wrong. they have you install them in front of the louvers when in fact they should be hinged behind them!

some one correct me if i'm work.

Not a critique against you but against eduard!

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Nice build my friend!

But i just noticed the FOD grills!

Looks like eduard got it wrong. they have you install them in front of the louvers when in fact they should be hinged behind them!

some one correct me if i'm work.

Not a critique against you but against eduard!

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I gotta claim that one boys. I just checked the instruction sheet and it seems this is one of my c0ck ups :bandhead2: Although the instructions are a tad vague. Dammit!

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Wow. Looks like a lot of drops and turns in this build chap. I still think it turned out great. Speaking of stencils, have you seen Begemot's great Su-27 Flanker stencil data in 1/48? I read it comes with lot of weapons markings and other stuff.

That's a brilliant job on the cockpit. How is it like working with Eduard PE? That's something i haven't tried yet.

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Apparently, it was well worth going all these lenghts in building your Flanker. Great job!

The Flanker is way on top of my personal to-do list.

I'm hoping for a quarterscale Su-35S, though.

Cheers,

Erik

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