Billos

Just building my example, and the thing I would note is that it needs considerably more than 8gm as recommended to sit right. If you can fit 8g weight in the recommended position under the cockpit you're using some super dense extragalactic unknown metal... I ended up putting a lot of weight behind the cockpit and even a bit in the front of the belly tank, and even then it was a close thing. I suspect the 8g is a calculation of the moment-arm of the weight of the very long tail. And I concur with the statement about the nose bulkhead fouling which I did't realise till I'd closed the fuselage, and so I ended up filing it flat and even then it needed filler. The nosewheel assembly is very complex, and I was worried about its fragility so after assembly into the nose, I simply slathered it with CA glue to harden it up.

All Done. Quite a satisfying result. Hopefully a tribute to our brave Ukrainian Freinds. Наші серця і думки з тобою Бережи себе

So started painting the canopy and I thought Babushka! Don't wanna get on the wrong side of those Ukrainianwomen!

Pictures not showing up is browser dependent. Especially in Chrome and derivatives, the default setting is not to display stuff from a source that does not have an SSL cert. Firefox (praised be it's name) is a far better browser. Chrome was explicitly designed to deliver ads. (That's not just my opinion, It's Google's own description. I'm working on getting a ssl cert for my site, but the ISP has just changed so I'm waiting for them to settle down. Any way back to the Plane. Wings aside the rest of the fit was quite straightforward. The undercarriage despite it's spindliness seems to be quite robust. Using photoshop and a sharp knife I created individual Templates for each of the Splinter Patterns. Then the process of cutting tape, applying, painting, next level, etc etc. I did the dark blue first followed by the grey. Then careful touching up which always seems necessary no matter how carefully you cut the tape and apply the paint. Several very thin coats applied at a time. A pretty good result I feel. But there's a large discrepancy with the decals. Printed by Eduard, they are fine and in register, but the Ukrainian roundels, bort numbers and pennants are very overscale. I decided to live with it. This is not a competition, just for my own personal pleasure, and frankly no-one's going to know unless I tell them. They are also very fragile. Even using my normal method of a wet paintbrush to position them, they were very susceptible to tearing. Again persistance and patience necesary. Then a final coat of Matt fixative. Just the missiles and clear parts to finish. Yes I took a bit of a liberty with the Tailfin!

I hadn't really realized how big the Flanker is...... comes out to 32 cm in 172 (12.5 inches for you oldtimers) pitot tip to tail . I'd previously shied away from the Flanker cos I thought it was too much like the Mig-29, which is true in basic conformation. But it's sooo much more impressive. It's probably not politically correct to say so, but it really is a fine looking airplane. A bit more work to do on fine smoothing of the wing/fuselage join, but it's looking good, even if I say so myself.

The fit of the wings is truly bad. You can line them up underneath, or on top... take your pic. Whichever way you do it, you'll end up with huge gaps on the other side...... I chose to fit them into the wing recess from below, and then force bend and apply lots of glue and filler to get them to mate on top with the fuselage. Still going to neeed lots of filler...

Just started the Heller 2014 release SU-27, searched round found Ukraine color scheme, and now guess what -yes Heller announce the 2023 release of a Ukrainian Digital Camo version Grrrr. Ah well remember Niven's revelation - the perversity of the Universe tends to a maximum! Anyway searching round I couldn't find any reference to Nose weight for this. There's nothing mentioned in the instructions. So after taping the main structure together and some careful balancing on a kitchen scale, I estimate about 30g is needed (1oz in old money). Fortunately there's plenty of room in the nose cone and under the cockpit. Incidentally the instructions are a seriously confusing mix of color numbers and part numbers, with every part labelled with a color number and a part number.... Some people may welcome this but I find it annoying and unhelpful, especially since the color numbers are all for a Russian version. The ukrainian version is different in several respects - the cockpit colors, etc. Still we struggle on. I mean really if that's the worst we have to deal with, we're pretty lucky. Pics to follow. Slava Ukraini!

Cos that's what dreams are made of.......

@RatchNo it's not your poor skills, it really is very difficult to get them all lined up, especially if you make the slightest misalignment in fitting the engine, etc. Needed a lot of filler. and sanding.

I know it's old but in case anyone else is wondering, ALL A400M have white outlined doors except Kazakhstan, where they use red. And yes white door decals are provided.

Yeah that's cos I moved it and I forgot it doesn't autoupdate.

I have built this model. It does give a quite splendid result eventually, but requires a lot of fiddling. As @224 Peter states many parts are very fiddly and require care in lining up. And tolerances are so fine that a coat of paint will throw everything off. I found that the chin cowlings (which in my opinion are the signature feature of the Typhoon) were very ill fitting and required a lot of work and filler to clean them up and get that "Typhoon" look. But it's worth it. here's a photo of my finished Tiffie with a 1/72 BE2 for comparison. Yes I know the half faired guns are an anachronism, but I couldn't bear to cover them up after painting the recoil springs! f

I totally agree. It's a bit daunting in prospect, but once you take a breath and start, indeed it comes out very cleanly. Then a quick light file to clean up the edges, and then after fitting the new sponsons, just a coat of mr surfacer afterwards to seal the lines.

So more on this whole transparent wingtip thing. I still don't get it. Doing it the way Airfix have done it means you have to keep the lens masked off during spraying, and it's always in danger of being broken off during handling, since the clear plastic is very brittle. It would make more sense to me to mould it in with the Pitot tube, which itself has to be filled and faired in right next to the lens... Anyway for my Second Victor (yes the 2nd one ) I simply cut it off and glued it back on afterwards!