1/32 Su-27P (Flanker-B) just made its last flight.

[Alan P]

Hi All,

Looks like I've got about a month off work and doctor's orders to take it easy, so it's time I started this behemoth of a kit! It seems like a good subject for a WIP thread as I'll be doing a bit each day for the next month or so - this is a BIG kit and I'll be throwing the kitchen sink at it. I've got a proper digital camera instead of my phone for pictures, so hopefully I will be able to keep a record that is visually explanatory as well as detailed in words.

Trumpeter's by now familiar 1/32 Su-27 Flanker-B kit. I bought it seven years ago on my first visit to China - it cost me about £40 at the time when it was double that in the shops at home. Since then I've gradually accumulated practically every aftermarket item worth having, with still some more on the way!

The main purpose of the aftermarket stuff is to deal with some of the well-documented shortcomings of this kit. I'll outline those in this post and tackle them as I go. As far as the kit goes, it was among Trumpeter's first forays into the 1/32 jet world in the early 2000s, which brought us several very popular subjects that had never been released in this scale before. No-one really expected to see large aircraft like the F-105, A-10 and Su-27 in 1/32, but Trumpeter surprised us all with their efforts. Unfortunately for all these early kits, though very nicely produced, they were blighted with some fundamental shape problems, and the Flanker was arguably the worst offender. From studying drawings, I think the shape of the Trumpeter kit is based on drawings of the earlier development airframes (T-10-10/11), rather than the production model T-10-S. That said, there isn't a kit in any scale out there that captures the correct shape of the Flanker's fore section (except, I'm told, the new Zvezda 1/72 version), and this kit is very finely detailed in good quality plastic, nicely produced with minimal flash, and fits together well. And it is seriously HUGE!

The three Aires sets for the kit - cockpit, wheelwells and exhaust/nozzles:

Superb quality - I haven't used many of these Aires add-ons, but they are amazingly detailed:

These items are luxuries to upgrade the kit detail - out of the box the kit versions are very much acceptable!

Now for the corrective items - all from Zactomodels.

These are the intakes and new nose. The kit intakes are too narrow and curved along the bottom profile. The kit nose is much too short and conical and these replacements are spot on. The other problem shape is the canopy - the kit windshield is too sloped and the overall shape is too short and bulbous looking. I did get Zactomodels' canopy set as part of the combo, but since I'll be posing the canopy open, it's less apparent that the shape of the canopy is wrong. I've test fitted the canopy and Aires instrument panel coaming and there is likely to be an interference fit with the HUD as well, so I've decided only to use the canopy accessories from the Zacto set and keep the vac canopy for another day.

I can't overstate how very, very good these items are. The quality is the best I've ever seen in resin.

The surface is almost creamy, perfect fidelity and very finely detailed. They also fit the kit exactly. This stuff is by no means cheap, but it is good value for what you get. It's also sufficiently accurate to throw suspicion on later releases of the Trumpeter kit which mysteriously "fixed" the intake and nose problems within a year or so of Chris' (Zactomodels) release. Make of that what you will!

I also have the obligatory Eduard etch sets for the ejector seat and airframe exterior - some of the exterior is for the FOD guards, but as they are based on the kit intakes, which are quite dimensionally different to the Zacto ones, I won't be using them :'(

Decals - I have Linden Hill's stencil set and Guardians of the North decal sets - I've also got some leftover Begemot MiG-29 decals, so who knows what I will end up with??

I'm leaning towards one of these two at the moment - 03 Red or 41 Blue.

On the other hand, it would be nice to do a bang-up-to-date 2014 version seeing as these may be becoming very relevant in the coming months!

If that were not enough, I also have MasterCasters' replacement wheel set, and the seated pilot figure. The wheels are pretty much exact copies of the kit wheels but without the need to use the rubber. Personally, I have no problems with rubber wheels, and have several completed kits going back eight years with rubber wheels that have suffered no ill-effects. So I may not use the MasterCasters wheels unless I have trouble reshaping the rubber ones.

The last aftermarket items (still on their way) are some wingtip Sorbitsya ECM pods courtesy of Wolfpack Designs. I could have also got these from Zactomodels, but I could buy the Wolfpack ones here in the UK. This solves the problem of the kit's mis-shapen wingtip missile rails which are conspicuously wrong and very visible. I intend to build this as a modern-day Su-27 interceptor with R-73, R-77AE and R-27(E)T missiles, so two less R-73s won't make a huge difference. The missiles will come from the Trumpeter 1/32 Russian Weapons Set which I bought years ago and luckily have all the required missiles included. They are not spot on but perfectly acceptable, as I used several for my MiG-29UB built two years ago:

Well, that's that little introductory thesis over - the casting blocks are cut off, the resin is drying off after a marathon washing and scrubbing session, the parts are cut to shape - we begin at dawn tomorrow, Comrades! 8)

Hope you enjoy following the build, I'll try to be as detailed and explanatory as I can, tell me if it gets too boring or tedious with minutiae!

Edited November 11, 2014 by Brokenedge

[Tomjw]

Mmmmmm lots of lovely aftermarket. And in the proper scale as well. Looking forward to this.

Cheers,

Tom.

[Roland Pulfrew]

Beer? Popcorn? Any other takers? Bring on the comfy chair.

[rom1]

Beer? Popcorn? Any other takers? Bring on the comfy chair.

Beer for me!

Wow! that is a huge amount of aftermarket!

Those stuff will correct he majors shape inacuracies.

But if I may, I would recommend to correct the front windshield too.

Seen in profile, Trumpeter gives you a rounded shape. You have to get a straight line.

Here are some pictures:

Finished Flanker here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234944761-132-sukhoi-su-27-flanker-b-blue-38-kilp-yavr/?hl=flanker

Have fun!

Romain

[HOUSTON]

Good choice..

Excellent start.

[Alan P]

But if I may, I would recommend to correct the front windshield too.

Seen in profile, Trumpeter gives you a rounded shape. You have to get a straight line.

Romain

Did you build up the area where the windscreen sits? It's clear from test fitting that the Aires front coaming will cause the HUD to interfere with the Zacto canopy!

If I don't use the Zacto canopy, can you recommend the correct soda bottle? ;-)

Edited September 29, 2014 by Brokenedge

[rom1]

Hi Brokenedge,

I didnt see that you have Zacto canopy too.

In that case, you do not have to worry about choosing the right soda bottle

Except possible fit issue with Aires HUD...

In that case I think you better have to level down HUD or IP coaming than raising up windshield.

Zacto products are amongst the better I seen.

Concerning the nose, you have to be careful with fitting.

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=44533&st=0&p=464100

Zacto nose is a bit smaller in diameter, and you have to remove some material on the two fuselage halves in order to tighten the resin nose.

cheers

Romain

[SaintsPhil]

We'll this is definately a project to watch! Are you sure a months solid modelling, which is what this will take, is really what the doctor ordered!!...

Edited September 30, 2014 by SaintsPhil

[Alan P]

Thanks very much Romain, good advice, and very much in time!

And I consider this very therapeutic Phil!

Got a good chunk of modelling done - certainly on our way...

Starting in the cockpit - Aires tell me on the box that it includes a Crystal Clear Dashboard! Unfortunately there is no way to mask the clear dials, so I decided to drill them out instead. It was also very thick, so had to sand it a lot thinner. Still a bit thick, but then so am I.

First casualty of modelling is the resin - chipped off a corner already

For the instruments, I will use a combination of the included instrument film backing, and these instrument decals from Airscale:

They worked very well for my recent Cobra build, so I think these will look nice under a thin sheet of acetate (provided with the decals, very smart!) behind the instrument panel.

The upper panel/coaming part had suffered some damage so I replaced the missing corners with plastic card and sanded smooth.

This construction is very well thought out as the lower instrument panel is the same colour as the rest of the cockpit, but everything above the canopy sills is black. This separation of the upper and lower will make painting very simple.

Even Aires have some casting imperfections! I use a curved scalpel for this kind of surgery!

Didn't quite get this in focus, but you can see the sense in using an aftermarket set, the kit part (right) looks OK but the resin stick is so much better.

First awkward part of the build - the resin cockpit sidewalls actually form the canopy sills as well, so part of the kit sills need to be cut off. I clearly remember my first ever aftermarket resin job, the often-repeated entreaty to "measure twice, cut once!"

First, I taped the sidewalls to the cockpit tub to test fit without needing fifteen fingers:

The cut point is just about where the kit panel line is. However, it's not quite the same on the other side!! Measure twice, cut once!

I marked out the line to be cut with Tamiya tape, then used a flexible steel tape as a cutting guide. My best cutter/scriber is a shaped razor saw blade.

Initial result not bad, but needs some tidying up!

I decided to fit the sidewalls to the fuselage and add the cockpit tub later - this means the sidewalls fit the actual sidewall of the airframe, rather than try to fiddle the whole cockpit tub to align with both sides.

Since I'm using the resin coaming, I needed to lose this locating peg on the front dash - these side cutters work well for that sort of thing

Next to fit was the flat platform behind the seat where the canopy actuator will go. Again, this is a resin part, far better detail than the kit version:

Fit isn't perfect, a gap all the way round and particularly where it meets the sidewalls. Time for the Green Stuff!

I used a cotton bud soaked in Mr. Thinner to smooth off the putty before it dried. The gap at the back is best tackled from inside the fuselage.

The gun bay was next - I'm trying to get all the interiors ready for priming at the same time as it will all be the same colour. (I'm going to use a different colour for the cockpit).

This had five ejector pin marks in it! - luckily only two were recessed and needed filling. The others scraped off. Chances are, none will be visible anyway, but you never know! Looks like I donated a hair as well. Not that this build is making me tear my hair out.... yet!

While all that was settling and drying, I moved on to the flying surfaces. One of the gripes about Trumpeter is the way the injection stubs attach to the parts. I hadn't noticed this with previous releases, but sometimes the sprue attaches partially on the detail surface of the part. This can be very frustrating. Time for the file....

Stay tuned for the next episode - the first frustration of the day so far!

Edge

Edited October 12, 2014 by Brokenedge

[Dave the Doctor]

This is one I'm going to follow!

Dave

[James G]

This will be great I'm sure....wish I had the room for the 1/32 beast

Nice pics of the Aires add-ons, these will actually be a great reference for my 1/72 build - presuming they are pretty accurate for an early Su-27?

Will be watching

Cheers

James

[Alan P]

Yes James they are very accurate, especially the wheel wells, not a pipe or wire out of place! The cockpit is also very good, couple of missing warning lights and a bit indistinct at the rear right console but pretty amazing from comparing photos.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Brokenedge

[mixup_1]

This is gonna be some build...keep'em coming

[rom1]

Nice work

If you use Citadel Green Stuff, you can simply use ater to smooth it.

Romain

[Alan P]

So what follows is one of life's mysteries!

The control surfaces (flaps, slats, rudders) come with a strange Heath Robinson attachment method:

The hook-and-eye PE parts slide on to the metal rods, which you have to CA glue into the wing halves. Is this to make them poseable?

So, I make a start with the rudders, following the instructions exactly, and so far so good....


It's going to need a lot of filler down the seam though!

Then I went to fit it to the fin, and... eh??

That's not even close to fitting. So I go back to the instructions - no mistake. But the parts numbered clearly don't fit. So that's the end of that little exercise. I just cut the offending hooks off and grinded them flush. The rudders will fit the fins without needing these attachments anyway:

If nothing else, this pic shows what a well-detailed kit this is! (Every cloud etc...!)

It was a good excuse to add some detail on the tails - both rudders have much more pronounced hinge points than the kit shows anyway:

The lower hinge point also carries on to the fin, there's a small cutaway abeam the hinge which I cut using the razor saw and curved scalpel. I still need to make the prominent hinge, and I since noticed the two sides are not the same, so a bit more surgery will be required!

One last detail before gluing the fin halves together - at the lower leading edge of both fins are some ram intakes. On the kit they are identical:


In fact the port one is different - larger and oval in cross section. I cut the existing one off, squashed a plastic tube and cut it to shape.

Bit rough so far, needs to be cut to size. It also has a horizontal vane inside, but I'll add that when the fin is complete.

This build is so much FUN! Great kit, good aftermarket, and what problems I've had have been turned around easily.

The main reason I sat on this kit so long is that I was trying to wait until I'd built up the skills necessary to tackle all the aftermarket stuff. To be honest I found it quite intimidating for being so big and complicated. Turned out to be a total pussycat! ;D

More tomorrow - I'm really hacking through this.

Edge

Edited October 12, 2014 by Brokenedge

[James G]

Great stuff, looks like you are making good progress! Are you going to depict a heavily weathered finish like Romain (rom1) did on his (link in his previous post)?

[Alan P]

Great stuff, looks like you are making good progress! Are you going to depict a heavily weathered finish like Romain (rom1) did on his (link in his previous post)?

No, I don't think I'm brave enough for that! It'll probably look something like the MiG in my first post. I want to depict it in the repainted light blue grey scheme, there's a thread about it in the Modern section ;-)

[Ade]

Good effort. Love Soviet aviation.

[Alan P]

Thanks very much

Getting ready for the first round of priming - glued the gun bay in position and secured both ends:

Fits very well, just a very slight seam line which will be covered up by the... cover.

The fins are assembled - to give you an idea of the size, these fins are about the size of the wings on a 1/72 F-15!!

All the Pale Blue coloured items have been primed - primer didn't go down that well on the wheel bays, so I've left that overnight and I'll begin a major blitz of the cockpit tomorrow!

Edited October 12, 2014 by Brokenedge

[Alan P]

Hi again,

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/images/uploaded-images/2014-7/12/429140.jpg

Having a bit of trouble sourcing the correct paint for the colour scheme linked above. The range are produced by AKAN (acrylics and lacquers) but only seem to be available from Linden Hill (US based, can't send lacquers by airmail!) or Coastal Craft (UK) who don't have an online ordering service. I'm going to need these colours very soon (like, tomorrow!) so I may have to revert to plan A, which wouldn't look too bad!

So, today's progress:

Here's the problem I had with the primer and the wheelwells:

The cockpit was a different story though!

Amazingly good product. Full marks to Aires for this one.

I mixed the nice blue-grey interior colour using White Ensign enamel paints - Flanker Medium Blue with a bit of Dark Compass Gray:

Enamels are my favourite type of paint, but they take a loooong time to dry! While it was curing I started on the Zactomodels intakes. First challenge was the FOD doors.

All Flanker variants have these clever titanium mesh anti-FOD screens that automatically deploy when weight is on the main wheels, and angle of attack is less than 10degrees.

The question for the modeller is whether you want them up or down. Being a simple-minded workaholic, I decided to keep them down so that you can look down the intakes. On test fitting the Zacto screens, they were too wide:

The instructions show that if you model the doors down, you need to support the back end or it will not sit flush with the rest of the intake:

As luck would have it, the doors are also too long, by the exact amount shown in this phot:

So out with the saw again...

Then i took the offcut and used GS=Hypo cement to glue it in position to act as a perfectly sized shim! Easy.

And behold, it fits!

On to painting - Russian Flankers have this really attractive (not!) colour inside the intakes:

I used Tamiya Dark Yellow acrylic, oversprayed very lightly with a thin layer of green.

The same lovely colour is in the nose gear bay:

The FOD mesh door is natural metal, and leaves distinctive rubbing marks on the interior of the intake:

The finishing touch in the intake is the airflow sensors provided by Zactoman:

And lastly the compressor faces of the AL-31 turbofans (31,000lb thrust EACH!)

I'm happy this build is rolling along nicely so far.... :

And you can see what the completed intakes look like... tomorrow!

Edited October 12, 2014 by Brokenedge

[SaintsPhil]

At this rate you'll have it licked in a couple of weeks! Top tip about the nose bay colour I assumed it was the same colour as the main bays, which I think is the same blue grey as the pit....

[Alan P]

At this rate you'll have it licked in a couple of weeks! Top tip about the nose bay colour I assumed it was the same colour as the main bays, which I think is the same blue grey as the pit....

Well, it's not a "given", I've seen it both colours on the online walkrounds. The Russian one I've been using shows it the same greeny-beige colour as the intakes and main gear side recesses so it's a matter of "checking your references" as the decal manufacturers always say! Edited October 1, 2014 by Brokenedge

[SaintsPhil]

Ah ok that explains why I see grey! Can you link to the walkabout you're using?

[Alan P]

Ah ok that explains why I see grey! Can you link to the walkabout you're using?

Mainly This one and This one (which is almost panel by panel!)

Edited October 1, 2014 by Brokenedge

[SaintsPhil]

Thank you sir!