Su-34 Fullback (1:72, Italeri + scratch + aftermarket) Update: 2015-01-20

[JOCKNEY]

Thanks Splinter

Great to have the Humbrol numbers, do you mind if I ask, why you are such an enthusiast of this aircraft ?

Cheers Pat

[JFVicente]

Hi friend! Nice to see some progress on this thread after so much time, and a pitty that you have had to remove the paint...

Keep that good work, mate.

Juan

[splinter]

Thank you all for your comments.

You can ask me anything - I'm always open for discussion, comments and critics.

This is my favorite airplane - nothing more needs to be added.

I started this as "mostly" OOB project, but when I noticed that I will not be able to finish it within group build deadline, I decided to focus more on accuracy, especially after Olimp resin set arrived. With time I got an idea about whole diorama with 3-4 Su-34, one TZ-22 tanker truck and two APA-5D starters and some ground crew, as shown on many photos from Vorhonyezh AFB, Russia. Call me crazy, but I hope to finish it during my life.

Stay tuned.

[Amen]

I like your plan. You could start another parallel build , more fast one.Just to keep you excited having one finished.

Thanks for the info about zvezda kit. I will update the stalemates.com database

[James G]

This is great work splinter - the finished diorama will look great! I have something similar planned for the 1/72 Su-27 Flanker B (the Airfix kit)...I started the thread on here but other stuff keeps getting in the way! This is good inspiration.

Cheers

James

[splinter]

As this project comes to finish line, I checked my weapons choice once again.

Until 2 weeks ago I focused on this version, despite it's off rules.

I mean, APK-9 can be easily placed under intake, and it's normal to be seen with Su-30MKK. Su-30MKK can also carry H-59 missile under intake (or at least I saw it somewhere)

So I thought I could do the same for Su-34. But, I did some measuring and there is no free space between H-59 mounted on Su-34 intake and ground.

At least not on my 1/72 model.

So, I'll try to go for ver.2 which asks for 2 KAB-1500L bombs.

If you recall, I wrote that Italeri will give you KAB-1500 size body with laser head and KAB-500 rear stabilizers. So, here it goes.

0

Ver. 3A - this one will go if all 3 KAB-1500L bombs are finished in time.

Ver.3B - this one is a solution if I don't manage to finish bombs - stations 9 & 10 are empty.

Ver.4 - alternative are S-13 racks from ICM box.

PTB tank is also finished (decals, wash, flat finish). I placed red stripes, as my choice since Begemot instructions doesn't help with exact rule when to use yellow and when to use red.

H-59 missile with clear seeking head lens.

I also managed to finish repairs on fuselage.

First coat is light blue.

Original Italeri verticals are used as test field.

AKAN 83037 - no changes
AKAN 83038 - lighten up with AKAN 88000 (white) in 5:1 ratio.
AKAN 83039 - lighten up with AKAN 88000 (white) in 5:2 ratio, although I would now go for 5:3.

First time in my life I tried freehand style - practice, practice, practice ...

End result for port vertical. All masking has been done primary with Tamiya 40 mm masking tape.

Fuselage masked for 3rd paint.

Freshly painted.

Starboard tail.

Horizontals.

Final result - canards and flaperons have been removed during masking tape removal.

I tried to compare two painting attempts together, but I don't have any software to lighten pics, as both light blue should have same shade.

Left is first attempt, and current attempt is on the right side.

One more post to come today...

[splinter]

Next was Dark Green, as described on Authentic Decals instructions.

I mixed Revell 8 + 48 in 1:1 ratio, since I don't have original AKAN paint.

Here is test shot with different white balance - not black, not green - perfect.

As for greys - I took MM Dark ghost grey for lighter shade and AKAN 82043 for darker.

AKAN 66033 Steel wash airbrushed for engine nacelles, horizontals underside and flare housing.

Metal pigment from this AKAN paint has an overspray tendency, so I will brush MM stainless steel for gun panels.

This will be done later, once Future dries.

Front wheelbay and fuel refueling panel were also painted. Fuel panel got some MM1584 (Chromate) and Revell 15, and MM1790 Chrome Silver.

I also repaired red on intake covers and some other details.

Last photos before Future. Enjoy.

Starboard vertical tail.

Port one...

Starboard horizontal.

Port horizontal...

Edited September 6, 2014 by splinter

[Arpie]

She is looking very good, very nice work on the paint job. How are the Akan paints to apply?

[JFVicente]

Hi Tomislav! Glad to see that you are on the road again with that kit!

Nice painting job on that camo.

Juan

[splinter]

@Arpie: It depends which type of Akan paints you use. I'm happy with nitro based (paint numbers start with 8xxxx), while water based (7xxxx) are not so good. But, I'm not "friendly" with acrylics in general, regardless which brand I tried. So, it could be my mistake.

I would also recommend to avoid Akan metalic paints. I have only Steel (Akan 66033) and pigment (paint particle) is very big, and it has a tendency to overspray and fly over room. Once it settles on model surface where it should not be, I was not able to remove it.

Back to this update...

I decided to go for weapon's option no.4 (with double S-13 launchers) since production of wings for KAB-1500 is very time consuming.

Here I have only side view photo of S-13 mounted on a Flanker wing.

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx57/supergru/Su34/P1030143.jpg

It's 4+2 configuration (two doubles, and two single S-13) on Su-34.

I took pylons from ICM box, as suggested, but I also had to modify them.

This is how ICM suggests to mount S-13 container on a MBD launcher.

So, I cut those "wings" away, cut them each aslope and glued back.

Here you can see two blue launchers which will separate S-13 from wing underside and 4 modified MBD launchers for S-13. Two additional MBD launchers are ICM original, for KAB-1500L bombs.

Anyway, I would be very happy if someone can answer me how far is S-13 mounted on it's launcher?

S-13 were painted with ALC305 Gloss Black Base, and ALC106 White Aluminium. Very nice!!!

Those S-13 from ICM are 20% smaller from what it should be in 1/72 scale. I noticed this only when I started to place decals from Begemot, so I decided not to use several stencils, because I had no place for them.

This is instruction sheet from AUthentic Decals, scaled up on A3 paper format size to ease tracking and placement. Main problem with Authentic Decals stencils is that some stencils "overwrite" others or they are shown twice on the same place. Another problem is that stencils are very, very tiny. I think Authentic Decals should join several stencils in one bigger stencil.

To solve this problems, I decided not to use several stencils. One example is no.134 which is a dot about 0.15-0.2 mm in size. This is crazy !!!

I don't think anyone will miss it.

On the other side, gun housing got 16 stencils.

Mosti important decals, like "ВВС РОССИИ" or VVS ROSSII in latin, and red star also made problems.

Authentic decals provided those decals, but the sign VVS ROSSII is too big for Su-34 verticals which I made. I think they would be perfect for original "Su-35"-like verticals from Italeri box.

And inner red star on Authentic Decals sheet was breaking apart.

So I took ones from Begemot sheets 72-048 and 72-049.

VVS ROSSII sign is size 02, and red star is size 06 no Begemot sheets.

Only catch is that those Begemot decals have separated paints, so you need to align one decal over another.

One more thing is registration number RF-xxxxx. First tricolor Su-34 got squared letters, and Authentic Decals provided only RF-92252 for "red 04", so you can't combine any other aircraft.

Begemot gives rounded letters, which are used on most other aircrafts in the inventory like MiG-31, Su-35, Su-30....

So, I didn't place any registration number.

When I already placed most of stencils on upper surface, I noticed that it could be useful to paint gun housing panels.

Despite the fact that I had no problems with overspray of MM metalizers, I didn't want to take any chances on this one.

Now it's officially RED 05 !!!!

I needed 3 nights to place all stencils and decals. I estimate there are 200-300 stencils, without those on weapons and launchers.

MiG Dark Brown Wash and 10/0 paintbrush = 2 hours in gloves just to fill all panel lines.

Horizontals and canards have almost no panel lines - only dots, so this is how they look now.

Verticals... Future and 2nd painting "ate" several panels. Some are fixed, others are on hold.

Sorbciya pods....

S-13 with only three rings, which are panels. Those black strips look upside down, but I position them according to Begemot instructions.

Upper side also has mostly soft panels, which are not able to hold wash. I will try to fix this. Gun area is OK, for example.

Lower side is OK - a few panels on the wings still need to be fixed. Remember that underside was painted once with one paint only, while upper side was painted twice with 3 paints.

That's all folks for this time!

[JFVicente]

looking nice, friend! You are almost done with this bird. Go ahead!

Juan

[rom1]

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!

this is truly awesome job!

congrats! keep it up!

[splinter]

I managed to repair panels on fuselage underside.

But, when I moved to upper side, DIMO tape ripped off decals, despite 2 additional Future layers over decals.

It's not such a headache to replace this decal, but I don't know how to proceed with repairing shallow panels on upper side. There is no insurance that this will not happen again, and I need DIMO because I cannot fix ruler and I need DIMO to be able to cut in curved lines.

Currently, upper fuselage has maybe 20-25 % of all panels visible. Which is almost totally opposite to underside.

Any ideas what to do now?

[splinter]

Oh boy, had to go back to page 16 to dig this up... First of all I wish Merry Christmas to all Britmodellers!

In last three months I focused mostly on another project: MiG-21BIS in 1/48 scale, while this beast waited in the dark box.

I managed to fix some problems, while others are in progress.

After three attempts to place oil wash I focused on something new for me and my modeling: now I'm doing weathering with thinned base paint and dry soft pastels.

Here are Sorbtsya pods covered with acrylic light blue (from fuselage underside) thinned with alcohol, compared to original.

You can notice that contrast between decals (and wash) and camouflage has been toned down and pod surface is more flat.

Horizontals: after oil wash they got same treatment as Sorbtsya pods, plus spots of dry pastels spread in airflow direction.

Underside got additional pastels to represent burnout traces from missile starts on under wing stations no. 3 & 4.

Several photos show starboard side to be more burned than port side on different Fullbacks.

From nose to tail stinger machine gets dirtier. Gravity streaks from wing upper side shown on slats and flaperons. Tail stinger has numerous dried airflow streaks of smudge on its underside. Wornout area shown on all weapon stations. Wheelbays are also covered with dry pastels. Fuselage and wings also got treatment with thinned base paint.

Verticals and canards : thinned blue paint + dry pastels in airflow. I didn't treat RWR surfaces yet (grey)

Panels on top side are rebuild with technical pencil. Still far away from finish line.

Here I test some pastels to match tricolor camouflage: I would also like to add them on fuselage and wing upper surface, once they are ready.

Pastels were also added to wheelbay doors, inner side, to show dry dirt from wheels.

Pastels were also added to OFAB-100 bombs. I'm sure bombs are not stored in open space, but photos of live munition show as if they were laying around.

Similar to Sorbtsya pods, pastels were used to tone down the contrast on H-59M. They also helped to hide silvering.

AKU-58 launcher

Although nothing can be seen on upper photos, one word about silvering. I made same prep work for all launchers and bombs when compared to fuselage and airplane parts in general. But, silvering was very high on all missiles and launchers, especially on AKU-58 launchers, launchers for R-73 and H-59 missile. I still don't know the reason, but I'm happy to be able to find solution with dry pastels. On the other side, there was no silvering on fuselage, wings and verticals, despite big decals, like roundels, fleet markings, decal for main wheelbay on fuselage upper side.

That's all for this update.

[rom1]

Hello,

Impressive work!!

keep it up!!

[Linus]

Hi splinter,

really great beautifull job, congratulations, the paint with weathering is real .........mmhhhh FANTASTIC indeed!!!!

greetings

Linus :-)

[POTKC]

Amazing detailing, and the AB diorama, when complete, will probably not only be the greatest piece of modeling ever created but will also exhaust everyone's superlative reserves for the rest of their lives!!!

Just one thing - shouldn't the flare dispenser thingy at the back have burn marks around and behind it?

[AngstROM]

Looking utterly wonderful! That tiny Kazoo is a thing of beauty in itself...

[IGKent]

Hello, splinter!
Looked your thread from start to the end ..... Amazing job! Well done!

Edited December 27, 2014 by IGKent

[splinter]

I managed to draw all missing panels on upper side with technical pencil.

This is after treatment with dry pastels and Klear Kote Flat

While removing masking tape from canopy some glue residue appeared again. I removed it but I also applied another layer of Future "on the fly".

While the aircraft is being tanked by TZ-22 (and engines are shut down, of course) it needs to have power, so APA starter is hooked on the Su-34. I managed to make small doors for ground power panel, but I also lost it after this photo was taken. No problems, I will make another one.

Just one thing - shouldn't the flare dispenser thingy at the back have burn marks around and behind it?

Point taken...

Final photo before final assembly

First photos on own legs after months and months. I started from the middle - H-59 and APK-9 on stations 1 & 2, then legs, then the rest ...

Someone talked about Kazoo... Here it is ... Dark silhouette and clear seeking head are good enough for that effect.

Despite all dryfitting I have a "near miss".

Several close-ups for weapon systems.

More to come in a few moments ...

[snapper_city]

Looking really nice.

[splinter]

So, weapons choice, combination no. 4

APK-9 + H-59, 2 x H-29, 12 x OFAB-100, 4 x S-13, 2 x R-73, 2 x Sorbtsya ECM pods

There are modelers who say this is too much for a Su-34. Well I feel sorry for them. They don't understand the point. This project started as a part of CAS GB here on Britmodeller and so it will be finished. So, if I as pilot, wing commander, whatever ... had a choice what to take to a mission for attack and self-defence, this would be one of my choices. I didn't check for weight, but I'm sure I'm under 8000 kg limit with this.

++

A few close-ups

Moment of truth: dropped slat close enough to front cover of main wheelbay. Just as it should be (check few pages back for details).

And there is MBD carrier to enrich the detail.

Inner and outer part of Northstar nozzles were glued additionally with aluminium tape, to enlarge joint surface.

CA gel was used to mount engines to fuselage.

Engines on, all control surfaces on...

And ... My favorite for the end ... When I saw the original photo on my computer, first I thought it's real Su-34.

Enjoy!

What is left now to do: a few touch-ups, attach a zillion antennas and to assemble tow bar, ladders and wheel chocks. Also, the fuel cable and power cable are to be finished.

But, this is definitely last update for this project. My next post here should be be a link to "Ready for inspection" gallery.

[Rich G]

Looking really nice, I especially like the weathering on the weapons and the discolouration on the free fall bombs, that gives it a more lifelike look.

Rich

[A6-EHJ]

Omg, very nice

[IGKent]

Looks great, colleague!