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

[-Neu-]

This is fantastic work all around. I really like your work on the missiles... its impressive. 

[MPaul]

Very good work.

What color will you be painting this, as i see the Russians have just done a new dark grey upper paint scheme.

[rom1]

[splinter]

Very good work.

What color will you be painting this, as i see the Russians have just done a new dark grey upper paint scheme.

 

 

This new camouflage is called eggplant (баклажан in Russian) and I hate it 

 

My will be finished as "red 05" with pre-serial camouflage.

 

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx57/supergru/Su34/DSC_0797_2_zpsbc20d22c.jpg

 

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx57/supergru/Su34/DSC_0685_2_zpsc90ce33e.jpg

 

If you like the eggplant camo, I would suggest you this page:

http://gold-mun.livejournal.com/147706.html

[MPaul]

Thats a great link to some good photos.  I do actaully like the new scheme, but I dont dislike the old one that you are doing.

 

It will look excellent when you are done.

[splinter]

In the meantime I ordered Trump's Su-30MKK because of that spare horizontals set. Thanks to Flankerman one more time!

They are spot on when compared to drawings and a bit smaller that Italeri's.

Next detail is tail stinger. I managed to rescribe it as on photos I have from Voronyezh in 2011. Tri-colour sheme aircrafts have different tail stinger panels and equipment as on eggplant camo planes. So, I only used flare housing PE from Olimp set. Additional corrections were done after these photos were taken.

Main problems were high curvature and Alclad gloss base which got sticky in direct touch with my fingers. Eventually, I sanded it completely off.

I also thinned canards: not only leading and trailing edge got more sharp look but also thickness in root. FIrst image shows both thinned and original canard.

I also buyed soldering kit. These are my first attempts with soldering in my life.

Later it got more sophisticated.

Next was that R-77 missile I was missing for station no. 2

Fuselage was also sanded.

Some misshaps like this one were just waiting around the corner: epoxy putty got loose from Italeri plastic.

This is first stage as finished.

Dryfit with wings: I got scared if left wing was too low, but the test with ruler showed everything was fine.

More to come in a few moments....

[splinter]

Next were nozzles from Dreammodels.

Here with Italeri.

Afterburner ring, compared with the same from Eduard set.

One small advice to all people interested in this set. Instructions are not very helpful when you come to afterburner ring. When looking from centre to outer edge:

1st ring is PE part no.9 (smallest in size)

2nd ring is scart

3rd ring is scart

4th ring is PE part no.8

5th ring is PE part no. 7 (biggest)

Next is front landing gear. This is original from Italeri.

Followed by removing some details and adding new ones.

This is how Italeri's mudguard looked like. Eduard wanted to add some PE ribs, but they proposed to remove rear side of mudguard completelly off. Not only is this wrong but also their ribs were etched too narrow for Italeri parts. So, additional corrections were needed. Eventually I used those PE ribs but in different way which I found to be more correctly installed, whne compared to photos of real mudguard.

More details to come...

I added actuators for turning and some hidraulic lines.

I also ordered new Su-34 decals from Authentic Decals.

http://modelsua.com/Su-34-Fullback-1-72-Authentic-Decals-7258.html

[splinter]

Canards are rescribed with riveter. Dryfit with new holes in fuselage.

Mudguard finished.

I wasn't happy with PE ladders from Olimp. So I made my own from styrene tubes.

When I compared both nozzles together, I concluded that I could do first nozzle better, so it ended in acetone to be reassembled again.

That's all for now... Keep those comments coming!

[James G]

Very impressive work

[lyn]

wow

you work is fab

[Flankerman]

Excellent progress Splinter - great work on the noseleg.

It's probably a bit too late now - but I zoomed in the the Su-34 at Zhukovsky to get some detail of the nose gear with built-in ladder.........

... and if you don't fancy detailing that APU exhaust grille in the tailboom - you can always cover it up with a blanking plate.....

Keep up the good work - and shout if you need any more......

Ken

[Marcus.Q1000859]

Fantastic work you are doing, if there is a 1/48 kit or conversion forthcoming I would be very interested, a monster maybe but 1/72 I cannot contemplate doing this in 1/72.

Well done so far and keep it up, I can't wait to see it with some paint on.

Marcus

[hillstar]

Superb work so far... Can't believe it is done in 1/72 scale!

[splinter]

@Flankerman: thank you for your support. Yes, nose gear leg with mudguard is almost finished. But, more about this later on.

Talking about photos of Su-34 ... Can someone comment this one:

http://russianplanes.net/id102180

It seems there are two Su-34 with tactical code "red 05": tricolor and eggplant.

I was visiting Donetsk in Ukraine and brought back some goodies. That's why there were no updates, recently.

PAG-14 airfield plates from ICM

http://www.icm.com.ua/catalogue/aviations/163-soviet-pag-14-air-field-plates.html

New decals for Su-34

Reboxed Italeri with interesting warning

APA-5D starter - conversion set for ICM Ural 4320

Vehicle from Voronyezh in masking camo ?!

[splinter]

Some work-in-progress...

This is door for fuel cell. It's attached to 0.2 mm wire. This means I had to drill 0.2 mm hole to door and fuselage.

This is glycole tank, made from 1.5 mm styrene and 0.2 mm wire for ducting.

I also flushed gun PE into the fuselage with countless filling and sanding. Dremel was also used, to sand PE parts in some area.

Front leg with new details added:side struts and lights with cabels. This cabeling made me a big headache.

Dryfit with ladders. Ladders will be glued after all painting is done and not before I attach glycol tank. Some pics are rotated to simulate leg in vertical position.

One detail I'm missing are anti slip plates on ladder's steps. I could not find any simillar to real Su-34, but I ordered this one from Aber.

http://www.ecomodelismo.com/engrave-plate-88-x-57mm---pattern-01-Ref-ABER-PP01.html

More photos incoming ...

[snapper_city]

Looking great. Can't wait to see the final product.

[splinter]

PE nozzles from Dreammodel also became a headache.

I decided to repair first nozzle by placing it into acetone. This photo shows current situation after 3rd attempt to rebuild it from start. I'm still making same mistake over and over: one inner ring is placed inside-out. I think some parts won't survive another bath in acetone, so I ordered new nozzles from North Star. Yes, they have PE latices, too.

http://northstarmodels.com/product/exhaust-nozzles-for-su-34-fullback/

Another reason is that I would need to remove 0.5 mm all around on fuselage to accomodate Dreammodel nozzles (they are narrow than fuselage in engine area). I hope I will have better luck with North Star nozzles.

Vertical tail: I started with adding panel lines on inner side. I made a mistake on starboard fin: one panel has to be longer.

I also repaired HUD. This allowed me to close the cabin.

Prep work is also needed for horizontals, taken from Su-30MKK kit.

After I narrowed it, and compared to drawings, I got interesting conclusion: model engines are wider than drawings.

Another view shows that I need to thin fuselage in the vertical tail area. Trailing edge on fuselage is 4-4.5 mm, while horizontals are 2 mm thin.

Plan is to remove excess material all the way from main landing gear, towards horizontals, but slightly.

Hole for horizontal's shaft will be placed halfway: one half on fuselage, one half on the horizontals. Just like on real Su-34.

The problem appeared with this solution: I could end up in fuselage, as there are big hollow places from inside.

Thus, I added Milliput from inside.

Last this for today is fuselage in the wing area. THere was a hollow space between upper and lower fuselage half. So, when I applied pressure with sanding paper or file, it just broke off along the joint with epoxy. I added some melted sprue in between.

[Flankerman]

Talking about photos of Su-34 ... Can someone comment this one:

http://russianplanes.net/id102180

It seems there are two Su-34 with tactical code "red 05": tricolor and eggplant.

Don't understand yer banter, old boy.........

I see two eggplant Su-34's in the photo link - Red 05 and Red 10.....

Can you elucidate ???

Great progress BTW - excellent work and great attention to detail.

Ken

[James G]

Great modelling, interesting and informative.

[splinter]

OK, I will try to explain it this way... On this photo, showing line-up in Baltimore/ Vorhonyezh AB, there are 5 Su-34:

- red 08 in tricolor camo - nearest to camera, with extruded IFR probe, rolling on the runway

- red 04 in tricolor camo - 1st in line-up, looking from right to left.

- red 05 in eggplant camo - 2nd in line-up

- red 10 in eggplant camo - 3rd in line-up

- red 05 in tricolor camo - 4th in line-up, has double B-13 launchers and ECM wingtip pods.

Tactical code of the last one is covered with hot air from red 08, but damaged reg. no. can be seen on port vertical tail.

As far as I know (And I don't know much about Su-34), there were only two Su-34 in tricolor camo with reg. no. applied:

-red 04 = RF-92252

-red 05 = RF-92253

Now, since red 04 is first in the row, the one with B-13 launchers could be only red 05.

My first thoughts were that red 05 with tricolor camo went back to Novosibirsk to update it to new serial standard and therefore also got new eggplant camo.

But, after looking at this picture yesterday I concluded that there are two Su-34 with code red 05: one with tricolor camo and other one with eggplant camo. And both are at Voronyezh AB.

HTH

[Flankerman]

But, after looking at this picture yesterday I concluded that there are two Su-34 with code red 05: one with tricolor camo and other one with eggplant camo. And both are at Voronyezh AB.

HTH

Ah!! - Sorry, I misread your first post - it does indeed look as though there are two Red 05's.

But then that's typically Russian - all designed to confuse !!!

Ken

[JFVicente]

Nice work, friend. I,m following your build with great attention, as I am planning to build that bird on few months. I ordered the North Start exhaust nozzles too and I have to say that they look magnificient! Altought don´t know how they will fit against the original fuselage...

Also, are you going to rescribe the entire fuselage?

Keep those updates coming, please!

Juan

[David_DFN]

Really impressive !

[splinter]

Same as you all are impressed by my work on this subject, I'm also really impressed by the number of views.

It's almost one year that I'm working on Su-34, and this topic is opened more than 12000 times already, which means over 30 times each day !!!

I wasn't much at home in the past two months, but I still have worked on Su-34. This update will be a little bit bigger (5-6 posts), so be patient, until I upload everything.

As some of you already noticed, this project evolves thru time, and what started as CAS with pre-serial machine, now I'm hungry for more. In general, this should end as diorama of Voronyezh AFB, with 3-4 Su-34s, two APAs and one TZ-22 tanker. Plus some ground crew. So, I think I will need a couple of years to finish everything.

First photos on own legs! It's a dryfit but with many loose joints it looks a bit sloopy.

To help with loose joints, I filled them with styrene and drilled holes again.

I ordered some Evergreen columns to reconstruct the link between fuselage and main gear struts (part 46 on Italeri instructions). I moved the legs outwards, because of cables, so original parts would be too short.

Here you can see the port strut moved outwards and cable lines, behind it.

And here is new link.

More to follow, shortly....

[splinter]

Next thing are North Star nozzles. I will show you more later on. This is just a inbox preview.