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Good 1/48 SU 27 series kits


Flyboy3394

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Hi all, just finishing up my first three models (all 1/72) and would like to move into a 1/48 for the next one. i love the Flanker series and am thinking about doing one of them next. 

 

Question is, what are the best fitting, best looking kits in this series, that I will not have to purchase too many aftermarket bits (excessive PE, and lots of inaccurate bits like radome (easy to buy aftermarket I know) etc. So priorities are good fit, good detail.

 

Thanks!

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Probably the new GWH Su-35S?

Then Kinetic Su-33

Followd by Kitty Hawk Su-35

Then the Hobbyboss series

And last Academy / Eduard

 

Everything else is better be discarded all together ;)

 

 

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I would suggest the Hobbyboss kits are the easiest builds (from what I've read)? It would be interesting to get the views of folk who have built all of them. I am less bothered with 100% accuracy than the build experience and overall look when finished as I'm not an expert on Flankers. Having said that I will be having one of the GWH Su-35S kits when they arrive as it looks stunning.

 

Duncan B

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The HobbyBoss 1/48 Su-27 kit is certainly a quantum leap with regard to the old Academy offering if you talk about the correct lenght of fuselage. God knows I've tried for years - to no avail - to straighten those missing 16mm on the old Academy kit fuselage 'til I gave up.

Unfortunately, the HobbyBoss kit has got the very same issues the Academy offering had with respect to the lack of the distinctive double curvature on the LERX, the wrong size of the port fin intake, the wrong shape of the fuselage around the cockpit area and, to make things worse still, the IRST is undersized on the HobbyBoss kit. Both the Academy and HobbyBoss kits share the wrong angles on the main gear wheel wells.

Now, good thing about the releasement of the new GWH and Kitty Hawk Su-35 is that the modeller is finally able to correct all of these shape issues on the Hobby Boss Flanker B kit just by ordering spare upper and lower fuselage halves of either kit.

I don't care about the Su-35, but the kits released by either GWH or Kitty Hawk have allowed me to build the ultimate Su-27 kit in 1/48 scale.

I've ordered the Kitty Hawk Su-35 upper and lower fuselages, and they are almost the perfect match for the HobbyBoss Su-27 kit.

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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Sure, Werner, my mate in beautiful Austria.

Will have to get my sheila to lend me her Canon reflex camera first, for I only have a lousy 3.2-megapixel camera from a lamey Nokia Asha 302 mobile phone to take piccies with... :lol:

Oh, in the meantime, be advised that if you go the Kitty Hawk way, you've got to get the Amur Reaver photo-etch set of Louvres and Meshes #4820 for the cannon and stuff.

Otherwise, you won't want the CS @ Kitty Hawkes to suspect a scam. :wicked: 

 

No dice for a two-seater mod, I'm afraid, as the way the cockpits are arranged on the two-seat version would make for a very steep modification of the LERX on the single-seat one.

I don't know. I would like to see about the LERX on the GWH example. Will have to e-mail my mate Sophia Lynn. 

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On 24/3/2018 at 12:33 PM, Uncle Uncool said:

The HobbyBoss 1/48 Su-27 kit is certainly a quantum leap with regard to the old Academy offering if you talk about the correct lenght of fuselage. God knows I've tried for years - to no avail - to straighten those missing 16mm on the old Academy kit fuselage 'til I gave up.

Unfortunately, the HobbyBoss kit has got the very same issues the Academy offering had with respect to the lack of the distinctive double curvature on the LERX, the wrong size of the port fin intake, the wrong shape of the fuselage around the cockpit area and, to make things worse still, the IRST is undersized on the HobbyBoss kit. Both the Academy and HobbyBoss kits share the wrong angles on the main gear wheel wells.

Now, good thing about the releasement of the new GWH and Kitty Hawk Su-35 is that the modeller is finally able to correct all of these shape issues on the Hobby Boss Flanker B kit just by ordering spare upper and lower fuselage halves of either kit.

I don't care about the Su-35, but the kits released by either GWH or Kitty Hawk have allowed me to build the ultimate Su-27 kit in 1/48 scale.

I've ordered the Kitty Hawk Su-35 upper and lower fuselages, and they are almost the perfect match for the HobbyBoss Su-27 kit.

Cheers,

 

Unc2

so using the upper and lower kittyhawk fuselage and using the rest of the hobby boss kit you can make a almost perfect su 27 B??????? 

 

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On 24/03/2018 at 6:51 PM, exdraken said:

I'd assume the Lerx would not work easily...

The LERX is the same on the Su-27 (Flanker Bee)  and Su-27UB (Flanker C) (there is no such thing as a Su-27B).

 

The 1/72nd Airfix and Heller Flankers were the same kit - with a new upper fuselage, fins, cockpits etc - in the Heller kit to make a two-seat Su-27UB.

 

Both upper fuselage mouldings matched with the lower fuselage moulding - which was the same in both kits.

 

That's not to say it will work with any other cross-kitting though.

 

Ken

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1 hour ago, Flankerman said:

The LERX is the same on the Su-27 (Flanker Bee)  and Su-27UB (Flanker C) (there is no such thing as a Su-27B).

 

The 1/72nd Airfix and Heller Flankers were the same kit - with a new upper fuselage, fins, cockpits etc - in the Heller kit to make a two-seat Su-27UB.

 

Both upper fuselage mouldings matched with the lower fuselage moulding - which was the same in both kits.

 

That's not to say it will work with any other cross-kitting though.

 

Ken

Yeah Ken... I have to give in... ;)

 

What I meant is that the UPPER Lerx to cockpit transition is most likely different on single vs twoseater Flankers ;)

 

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13 hours ago, asgardiano said:

so using the upper and lower kittyhawk fuselage and using the rest of the hobby boss kit you can make a almost perfect su 27 B??????? 

Yeh, and nay...

Nay, because, as "Mr Flanker Bible" has stated it himself, there ain't such thing as a Su-27B - you go ask the Ruskies about that. :bleh:

Yes, you can correct the many, many flaws (minus the undersized port fin intake, of course) in the 1/48 Hobby Boss Flanker B kit by using either the upper and lower fuselage halves of the recently released 1/48 Su-35 kits, either Kitty Howling or GWH. The latter one is yet to arrive in my hands.

Oh, one another issue I forgot to mention about the Hobby Boss kit is the lack of round profile under the forward fuselage where it meets the LERX, as this is also a very distinctive feature in the Flanker family, and which is present in the recently released kits.

For the undersize IRST is either the one in the Academy canopy or the one which comes with the Fairy-Hobby aftermarket. This is what I used. 

Yeh, I did. 

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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thanks uncle ! i have two kitty hawk kit the latest one under Chinese marking with the resin  and i have the su 27 hobby what boss i will do or i will try to do it!

 

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23 hours ago, asgardiano said:

thanks uncle ! i have two kitty hawk kit the latest one under Chinese marking with the resin  and i have the su 27 hobby what boss i will do or i will try to do it!

You're quite welcome, Asgardiano, my mate.

Look, I've tried to no avail to persuade my sheila to let me have her camera in order to take piccies of the mods I did on my HobbyBoss J-11 kit to show to my bruh Werner here. Oh, but the lass is quite busy with it right now. Failing that, I might as well post the awful piccies I shot with my pitiful mobile phone camera - only that the resolution is so low that it was a no-go. :fraidnot:

Not an easy task, but what the hell. Some things you've got to know about working with the Kitty Hawk Su-35 kit; the whole upper fuselage half fits the HobbyBoss Su-27 kit lower fuselage half almost perfectly. From there on you will have to make all the appropriate cuts on the whole forward fuselage of the HobbyBoss kit in order to fix the double curvature of the LERX + that round profile on both sides of the cockpit area - which are well represented on the Kitty Hawk Su-35 - and also, use the whole lower fuselage half on that kit to fix the round profile under the forward fuselage and fix the correct angle of the main landing gear wheel wells - which are wrong on the HobbyBoss kit. I was amazed that the different height due to the double curvature on the Kitty Hawk kit has even made space for a deeper well on the main landing gear wheels! 

Bear in mind that you'll have to cut the air brake area on the HobbyBoss kit and make it fit on the Kitty Hawk one (remember that the Su-35 hasn't got an air brake). I've cut a whole piece right from behind the cockpit area on my HobbyBoss kit to make use of the fairing aft of the canopy - which is different in the Su-35. This whole piece I've cut out of the HobbyBoss kit reaches up to the end of the air brake well on that kit, so that you're able to display it open if so you fancy.

One another area you've got to take care about the Kitty Hawk kit - compared to the HobbyBoss one - is the poor definition of the spine on the latter kit, something you will fix by using the former kit upper fuselage piece. This piece should cover up to where the engine shrouds begin, and up to where the wing reinforcement strips? end on the wings. Kitty Hawk kit is wingless, so it makes a lot easier to work with. Still need to cater for some wingtip rails for my Flanker B, as I'm working on a J-11 kit.

Next is the different IRST layouts on the Flanker B and the Flanker E. You'll have to cut the Kitty Hawk kit in that area almost from the windshield forward and adapt the same pieces on the HobbyBoss kit (you'll have to get rid of the recess for the IFR receptacle and its bulging and an aerial which looks like a night recon light? on the sides of the fuselage over the point where the LERXs start - please, @Flankerman). :lol:

Shoot me; come to think about it all, I just found out that even the upper fuselage half on the Kinetic Su-33 is a close match to the HobbyBoss Su-27 kit! You'll be able to fix the doublé curvature with it, but unfortunately, the rounded fuselage on both sides of the cockpit is not so well defined on the Kinetic kit.

Both the Kinetic and Kitty Hawk kit upper fuselage halves match the HobbyBoss kit lower fuselage half up to the wing roots. Still waiting on my Great Wall Hobby fuselage examples.

P.S.: Oh, I wouldn't waste a whole Kitty Hawk kit in order to make those mods to the HobbyBoss kit. I'd rather order fuselage halves instead.

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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thanks very much for the tips ! looks like a challenge ( i guess it is) as far as i can see no kit is close to the real ! for many reason ! i would thought with the new tech many faults could have been avoided ( see the latest f4 C  from zoukey the mess with the back en curvature ) but i like it and i did get one zoukey  f4 C

    

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Ah, you know it's been an endless frustration for me ever since Academy have released their Su-27 kit in 1/48th scale. I recall this Tomislav-bloke on ARC, who made a lot of cuts across that kit in order to restore those 16mm missing from the fuselage lenght on that kit. His work was so amazing - think the bloke's screen name is Splinter on BM - but eventually he quit his work on that project.

Yeh, indeed! It was quite a stirr about the Zokey Mura Phantom with regard to the way the contour around the exhausts was represented! Guess what? The kit which best represents this area is the good old Monogram example. How about that? It's all about knowing which kit is right regarding another kit's issue and see whether you could make use of that; I mean, even when kit manufacturers device their kits differently, how much will two kits of the same subject in 1/48 scale difer, like 1mm?

I'd rather learn about those facts and invest on the latest tools there are available in order to measure, copy, reproduce and make spare parts to modify a kit, than I'm willing to expect for a manufacturer to release the ultimate kit of a certain subject, as that is not likely to ever happen - not now, not in 20 more years, methinks.

Sometimes you'll be lucky enough that an aftermarket is out to solve a kit issue, but there will be other times that you ain't gonna be so lucky, yet there might be kits out there which parts could be useable to solve that issue: I remember this time when I was much younger and I was building a Monogram 1/48 Marauder. The engine cowls on that kit were regretful; completely out of shape, and somebody told me the engine cowls on the ESCI kit were right - this was much before Loon Models released their resin corrections.

How many kits I could tell you about that the cottage industry has neglected on offering resin corrections to 'em? The nose on the Italeri 1/48 Sled has always been one of them. Spoke to a lot of the owners of the mainstream aftermarket resin industry to no avail about it - still, there's no-one to offer a good ASARS/TEOC/OBS resin nose in 1/48 to go with that kit. Why? Is it because no-one is interested in that subject? C'mon... :rolleyes:

So the key about modelling to me has slowly become about how to come up with a plan to make modifications on my very own kits - resort to the aftermarket industry first and then see an alternative to it if there is no aftermarket resin correction available. Talk about Mexico; I once met a bloke from there who corrected the flaws on the old Heller 1/48 SuE kit. His work was so impressive that I learnt a lot from him: Carlos Ruíz. Perhaps you know him. This is what modelling is all about for me.

Me's gotta run now. Doggie's getting nervous.

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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