From Russia With Love GB (Su-27SM)

[JudgeDredd]

You have to be kidding me!!




Thankfully, I had my dremel which I was able to fit a sanding head to and get them sanded off...but what a pita.

And here they are on the fuselage


She is taking shape now

[JudgeDredd]

These were such a pain to build. They came in 4 parts and the fit was very, very tricky


But I got them together

[Nefaro]

I recall using the IRST on the Su-27 for sneaking up behind enemy players and shooting IR missiles up their tailpipe without them ever knowing I was behind them.  In LOMAC/Flaming Cliffs multi-player years ago.  Because you could leave your radar off and scan with that, passively, without giving yourself away.   8)

Still very possible in the latest DCS version AFAIK.  If you can actually work up an IR detection on that damn IRST and get in position.  Not as easy as I remember it being in the older versions.

[JudgeDredd]

So the intakes seemed to have turned out ok in building - really difficult fit though and unclear instructions though.

They don't look too bad on



I was going to have the airbrake open, but 1. there's no detail to speak of there and 2. it's on the ground, so the likelihood of it being open are nil (unless being tested). But anyway, I choose to close it.


Man - it's these bits that get me with modelling. All the tiny wee fiddly bits. Especially where you are left to pretty much guess where the "connections" between the two pieces of plastic are!

Anyway - these things are taking their time
The front undercarriage mech


The wheels (and for some weird reason, the rear wheels came in 3 parts (not including the mech)


This is the front mech hand painted


The wheels painted


And the wheels and mech ready for assembly



It's all taking so long. So many just "useless" bits in the kit. Sometimes I find a bit and think "why is that a separate moulding". But as I said before, it is an old kit. You can get new moulds with a lot of pieces, but they are generally easy to fit. This kit has a lot of parts and they are all quite difficult to put together.

It's definitely turning out to be a patience thing.

I've got a few more wee bits to do, then I'll be looking at spraying the whole model (less undercarriage/doors and weapons)

I'm concerned about the front undercarriage...it's very flimsy given the 10g of weight in the nose!

[JudgeDredd]

After doing all this tedious work on the wheels, I may well have to do this "wheels up" and stick it on a stand. The parts for the undercarriage doors are just too fiddly

This is what I mean. Rather than the door coming with the "latches" for connecting to the fuselage, you have two tiny little pieces that you have to glue to the door and THEN to the fuselage. It seems like it'll be a severe weak spot and the parts aren't sticking correctly.


I'll keep on with it. I have to paint the fuselage before fitting these parts anyway and then I'll see what I'm going to do. The bits above are not even the most fiddly sections!!

I have put quite a bit of work into the wheels though. I think I've probably spent in excess of 2 hours just cutting, sanding, painting and fitting!


Nose cone and tail sections on

[Nefaro]

Looks like a lot of extra little fiddly work. 

Got my respect.  Don't think I'd have quite the patience these days. 

Especially since I'm much more bent on doing projects all in one go, as I get older.  Didn't used to bother me, leaving something unfinished and just coming back to it in little bits, but somewhere along the way that changed.  Nowadays it drives me nuts when something isn't finished ASAP, and I don't always consider that a good thing.  :-\

[JudgeDredd]

I'm getting the same - must be an age thing.

This is starting to look like a Russian Su-27SM now  ;D

[JudgeDredd]

Taped up and ready to be painted.



For these parts I used damp toilet paper. When damp there's no "dust" off it, it's quite malleable and you can pull it around to fit the hole. I used Tamiya 10mm tape on the intakes.


And I've decided to give the cockpit sides and back a black coat instead of that blue (I think black was the correct colour anyway) hence I've left it uncovered

[JudgeDredd]

Got the primer down.

I had mixed results tonight. First, I mixed the Badger primer with thinner until I got the "milky consistency" talked about. Now, I know people say you shouldn't thin primer, but it clogs up my airbrush faster than a rainy day turning up in Glasgow. So I did thin it. But, it kind of clogged anyway.

Also, as it was thinned, the primer on the model looked "patchy". So, I put some fresh primer in and whacked the airbrush up to 40-50psi in the hope that the air blasting it out might stop it clogging...and, hey presto, it seemed to work.

So - primed and ready for painting







I'll be looking to paint tomorrow - at least the main colour with the coat of camo on Wednesday, clear coat on Thursday, decals on Friday with weapons and undercarriage being fitted and clear coat on Saturday. Cutting it very, very fine...but hopefully I will make it as Saturday is the deadline for the GB.

[JudgeDredd]

Base colour down. I'm not entirely sure of the colour - but sod it. I'm out of time!

[Nefaro]

Are you going to put a camo scheme on it, or just the one color?

[JudgeDredd]

I'll be doing camo nef. I'm not sure what yet, but whatever I have time for. I love the digital camo out there...but I'm not sure I have time for that, so it'll probably be something simple.

Masked the canopy


Painted the canopy


I also decided to change the colour of the top of the pit...so I had to mask that up


Then I painted it with a mix of Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver, X-1 Black and FX-20 Medium Grey


However, I thought it was a bit too "shiny", so I put some pure X-1 Black on it to take some zing out of it and this is how it's ended up


Next step will be the camo and Klear (tomorrow) followed by metallic painting of the engine nozzles and more Klear on Friday followed by decals on Saturday and fitting all the wee pieces...and done...hopefully just in time. I presume I have until midnight on the 30th April (Saturday).......if not, oops.

If I ever do another one of these, I'll be starting considerably earlier.

[JudgeDredd]

Took the Tamiya tape off


Oh dear...slight issue





Luckily, I had a tiny drop of my mixed paint from yesterday...so a patch up was in order and seemed to work.


That's the first time I've had an issue with Tamiya tape taking paint off...especially as I had primer down as well

[Staggerwing]

Any chance you might have accidentally left some oils from your fingers there?

[GDS_Starfury]

go with a splinter scheme.