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"Irbis-E" rador, the mass production version.

And what's inside of the canopy......

The final effect of the whole cockpit. Totally out of box. Yes with some patience you can get that too!

K-36D-5 ejection seat, latest model of K-36 family. Now only used by Su-30SM, Su-35 and Su-57.

Cockpit assembled.

Frames in side the canopy.

Hi Gary This kit definitely fits much better than the Fulcrum. No worry! Thanks all for your following! After my visit to Shizuoka last weekend, I finally finished painting the first part, cockpit and rador. Since many colors on details were not added in the instruction sheet which was finished in just about 3 days, I added the color by studying real life pictures for your references. The color I used are all Gunze GSI Creos Mr Color lacquer paints.

Last few shots. Thanks for watching! Yufei

Some in progress pictures.

Some detail shots.

Hi mates This is the last sub I finished in March and here I found some time to post it. Yes it's the Dallas, probably the most famous type 688 or so called Los Angles class SSN! I chose Riich Model kit instead of Hobbyboss since I learnt its shape is more accurate than Hobbyboss. The only time consuming work is to deal with the joint when upper deck meets lower body at the waterline. But just some putty and patience, nothing difficult. After all a great joy to build!

Thank you very much for your encouragement! Yufei

Thanks for checking and from this weekend finally I can start painting this beast. I will paint most of the parts BEFORE assembling, and that's the purpose we made the parts arrangement. Most of parts have at least one gate which will be invisible after gluing, so you can keep that gate/sprue on the part for easier removing parting lines, painting and weathering. And that's why I tried to solve all the assembling issues before painting, for smoother assembling experience going forward. So as always I sprayed Gunze Creos #1500 surfacer on all parts, to check if the parting line has been removed thoroughly. And just as I said above, you can see I leave some sprue/one gate on some small parts especially those fragile pipes for easy handling and also sort of protection. To be continued...

I replaced the plastic dischargers with Master metal ones. Those are definitely recommended! Actually the plastic dischargers on T1 sprues were only half diameter compared with current ones(mass production ver), but unfortunately they were too fragile to deal with so tool factory had to make them fatter. I also recommend you to deepen the rivets on radome part sides by 0.3mm drill. You can only find very shallow trace of the rivets there but you can use them as guide. The reason why those rivets are so shallow is due to injection mold technical limitation (the direction of pulling part out of mold). Now that all the hard/boring (in my personal opinion) work is finished, finally I can start my beloved painting job! To be continued...

And these are the final result. Nose gear

It cost me a whole day to add details/piping the landing gears yesterday, from 9:00 AM to 23:00 PM. It remineded me of my age...did not have such suffered experience when I made the 1/72 Su-27 about 10 years ago. The Flankre gear detailing is always a pain: too much complicated piping work! Although Su-35 piping is simplified compared with Su-27 or Su-30, thanks to the technology improvement I guess, it's still time consuming... Well another reason is too many references now. Very "negative" for serious modellers mental health I have to admit (just joking)! I used 2 diameter brass lines for piping, 0.1mm 0.2mm and 0.3mm All are very easy to bend and no nasty resilience.

This time I also tried mini magnet to enjoy more weapon configuration in the future. The Su-35S is a multi role fighter so most adaptors have same install structure to fit any missile pylons. Another reason is that I'd lik to enjoy the well researchd and fine details on belly, especially on central pylon mounting points. In order to assur enough holding strength, I added 4 magnetc per pylon. There is no need to add magnets on weapons since almost every Russian missile has its own pylon so you cannot exchange different missiles on different pylons. And you can make your weapon configuration freely at any time going forward!

Thank you all for your encouragements guys! Yes I know these issues should have been fixed before releasing but we have to live in a imperfect world, and we have to face the fact. Fortunately noen of the issues is big deal so with a bit extra patience and dry fit, your build will be very much straight forward and enjoyable. Today is the labor day, a National holiday in China so finally I found some time to update the work. Some additional notes to vertical fin parts since some guys reported the right fin does not fit well with fuselage. I found the mounting slice was a bit too thick which is the main reason for the problem. Just thin 2 sides of the slice a bit and you will be happy. The left fin meanwhile, need no extra work to fit like a glove.

Thank you Ken and all guys for your encouragement! I love Cold War submarines and the stories Tom Clancy gave us in my childhood. Will post another one soon... Yufei

Last 2 shots are saluted to Mr. Tom Clancy. Thanks for watching. Yufei

Some WIP pictures:

More detail shots:

Also finished in March but finally found time to show this little gem. The Mikro Mir kit just like other typical low pressure injection kit, has the better shape and more accurate details than Hobbyboss kit, but suffers from bad fitting, lack of antennas and poor decal (it split into pieces when hit the water). So I scratch built the antennas and rador, etc. and spend 1.5 hours to merge those decal pieces... The final result shows it worth every second for the kit. Hope you like it!

Final is the canopy. As you know in the first limit edition, you have one clear brown sprue to replicate the tint canopy. I send Tamiya 1/48 F-16CJ tint canopy part to factory as their reference to mix the right color. But unfortunately (just as other "expected" issues), the color was too light and they started mass production before obtaining my approval to catch the schedule. So for my own built, I decide to "tint" the canopy my self. I also used Future wax to improve the clear parts. Really super impressive! I coated the canopy by Gunze Creos Mr Color GX109 clear brown. Just Tamiya F-16 clear part sprue as the standard for color tone. To be continued...

Then the cockpit parts. First the K-36D-5 seat. Sorry you have no choice since no other makers ever made this seat especially designed for Su-35 and Su-57 before, plastic or resin, so you have to use GWH plastic parts. But it's quite OK actually with some careful cleaning work, and also add the bulge on 2 sides of headrest. And if you prefer more fun to have the canopy swithing between open/close any time after finish, cut out the area on part C99 to avoid interfere with part C49. The front slat parts G4/5 and G7/8 need some sanding work and recribing/rivetting. I added needle tip on top of nosecone part G11, to add sharpness and strength. Next are weapon part. First the L-265M10 Khibiny-M ECM pods. The lift holes are molded all in the center of upper bulge, but actually the front lift hole is offsite to outer side. I remade the lift holes with 0.3mm brass rod, and open hole on small intake part I2 whicn is only on left ECM pod. There are issue with the cooperation between pylons and missiles I have summarized my solution to simplify your built.