1/48th Suhkoi Su-7BKL Fitter A x 2 - completed!

[trickyrich]

For this GB I will be doing something a little bit different for me, I’ll be building two identical models!

By pure chance on evilbay I came across 2 1/48^th OEZ Su-7’s for about $10 US! One model was missing the canopies and decals, but the kind sole threw in a VacForm aftermarket one. This wasn’t really needed as the kit supplies both open and closed canopy sets.

So I intend to build a Czech Air Force and Soviet Su-7BKL, though right towards the end of their lives they were still frontline attack aircraft in the early 80’s (they were still some in service in the very early 90’s!).

The model/s are really nice and have been used by Eduard with extra bits added (that said I now have 2 of the Limited Edition Su-17/22M3’s in the stash with full AM accessories as well!!!).

The instructions are……interesting!! Will be using a set from the Eduard Su-7.

Because they were so cheap I’ll be throwing heaps of AM stuff, this is just some of the stuff, still need more!

So far;

Eduard – Internal & External sets, BKL (BMK not needed) Wheel Well Doors

QuickBoost – Intake Scoops (need another set)

Aries – Cockpit set

Wolfpack – Engine nozzle set

Pavla – Ejection set

The open canopy version will have the AM cockpit set, the closed will have the Eduard added bit.

Colours scheme have yet to be finalised and I may switch the Soviet one to a Polish one yet.

I can’t wait for this GB!!!!

[modelling minion]

Very nice choice Rich, you've just got to love Soviet heavy metal!

I look forward to seeing you work your usual magic with these beauties.

Craig.

[Col.]

A 'fitting' subject for this GB Rich ha ha ha aha ha hum yeah okay.

These two Cold War warriors will look fantastic. The OEZ kits were a good basic starting point and those after-market parts will add plenty quality details when combined with your modelling skills.

[CliffB]

Looks like these will keep you seriously busy Rich!

Cliff

[PaulR]

Definitive cold war warriors! Will look forward to the final choice of colour schemes! Paul

[mirageiv]

, such a beast of a jet! look forward to seeing what you do with these.

David

[AndyC]

A sprinkle of Trickyrich magic and they will look ace! I spent ages gazing at the one at Prague-Kbely as it was the first I'd seen in the flesh. What a beast!

[Col.]

Just remembered reading a report by a western observer in India who described these aircraft being so solidly built that it was possible to use the pitot probe as a chin-up bar!

[trickyrich]

Definitive cold war warriors! Will look forward to the final choice of colour schemes! Paul

Well they won't be NMF...tank goodness!!! By this time they were all camouflaged, in the 3/4 colour tactical colour schemes and the Czech one in the two tone. I'm pretty sure these were the colours they kept right up to the end.

Plus the Soviet one will have a RN-28 Tactical Nuc on one of the centre pylons....... I'm just waiting for the comments in the main thread over this one!

From what I have read these like most of the Fitter family were really tough aircraft that could take an aweful lot of damage and still keep flying.

I'll be doing a lot of similar additional mod work to both of them as I did to the Su-17.

I'm soooooo looking forward to this one that I actually gave the work bench a big clean up!!

[AntPhillips]

I'll be following this one too.

[noeyedears]

Me too ,got one waiting to be done, I'll be interested to see how it goes.

[Lex77]

Nice one with some very nice aftermarket!

[Arniec]

I will be following this one as well. I am planning to buy the Smer reincarnation of this kit and the Su-17/22 one.

Cheers,

P.S. they are now in my collection.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Arniec

[whitestar12chris]

Nice choice Rich, look forward to seeing this one.

All the best Chris

[trickyrich]

thanks guy's I am very excited over this build/s and have spent a lot of time going over everything as best I can while away with work.

Have finally gotten all the bits I need on order. I had initially made a bit of a stuffup, as I planned to be one of each version, but as usual a rash decision!! Only the BKL version is eligible, the BMK was an export only beast that didn't see service with the Soviets or any of the Eastern Bloc countries. So one of the U/C cover sets is is no good, plus the Pavla may be wrong as well, I think this version was for the earlier Su-7B versions, need to do some more on this!

Plus I have finally nailed down the colour schemes and units, both will be in similar late 4 colour schemes which they were serving in up to retirement. The Czech one will be of the 20th Fighter-Bomber Air Regiment and was in service right up to 1989

The Soviet one was a bit hard to track down as they were used on both sides of the Soviet Union, but I fully tracked down this unit operating out of Brand in the GDR, the 116th Guards Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment, they used them up until 1984 (they actually used all versions of the Su-7 starting from around the mid 60's).

Most of the hard research bits over so the fun will start next weekend for me!

[Davek72]

Top research Rich. Looking forward to seeing you work your usual magic.

Dave

[franky boy]

Great stuff Rich.

I didn't realise the Su-7 served until the late 80's.

Will be watching with interest.

James

[trickyrich]

Great stuff Rich.

I didn't realise the Su-7 served until the late 80's.

Will be watching with interest.

James

I must admit I didn't know much about them either until I bought the pair of them, I thought they were a beast of the 60's and maybe early 70's. But after a bit or research I found that they were a quite an interesting aircraft. Even for their age they were still a very viable attack aircraft right into the 80's with their exceptional speed and ability to take a huge amount of damage and still return to base, though their handling was a bit on the heavy side!!!

I'm pretty sure in that the Czech, Polish and Soviet Air Forces retired them all around the same time from front line service, around 1989/90 and from memory the North Korean's are still using them, not bad for a 60's aircraft!

[franky boy]

Hi Rich

I found some great videos on u tube of Su-7s in action after seeing your thread yesterday. Sorry I don't have a link but worth a look.

James

[trickyrich]

Hi Rich

I found some great videos on u tube of Su-7s in action after seeing your thread yesterday. Sorry I don't have a link but worth a look.

James

Hi James,

I've seen quite a few of them, some of them are really quite good. There is one of an early NMF Su-7 with a "dummy" Tac. Nuc. fitted, it goes through the whole mission...in Russian of cause! I'm going to check out a few more when I get home and have decent bandwidth.

But I do have to say the Fitter family is fast becoming a real fav of mine, have 5...at the moment!!

[trickyrich]

Ok I finally get to start this build, as usual I’ll not be following the plans or any normal way of building, I'll pretty much do things as I feel they need doing! So today was lots of resin and plastic dust and snow angels!

First up the first of the weaponry has arrived. These rockets will be for the Czech aircraft, I’m not too sure if I’ll fit all four (have another set) or just two with something else, have to think about it.

The main steps are the mod work for all the AM stuff! One build will have just about everything thrown at it and will have the canopy open, the other will have sort of the leftovers and the canopy closed…not sure which scheme it will be Yet. The Wolfpack set needs some surgery to fit (the Eduard update set does as well!!!). Plus this one will also have the air brakes opens so they had to be cut-out as well.

I have actually discovered that I need to also remove the bit sticking out in the air-breaks as well!

AS with the Su-17 I built the nose auxiliary intake bleed doors need to be opened as well.

On the ground these doors behave like the ones on the Su-17’s, with the top set usually drooped inwards and the lower set hang open. There is no AM stuff for these so they’ll be custom made out of brass sheet.

The Eduard PE bits were added to the second exhaust nozzle, this looks quite a bit different to the Wolfpack one, I’m sort of inclined to prefer the Eduard PE one even though it was a real pain to build!!!

The wings and main tail unit are together as well, there is some mod work to these which cannot be easily seen as well.

Plus I cut off all the resin blocks from the resin bits as well. It doesn’t look much but all this took up much of today.

Tomorrow……wash all the resin bits and start to build up the cockpits. With luck at the rate I’m going I hope to have both fuselages and wings on before I head back to work.

[CliffB]

That PE exhaust nozzle certainly does look good.

Cliff

[trickyrich]

That PE exhaust nozzle certainly does look good.

Cliff

It doesn't look too bad, just a pain to build! Funny thing is that the exhaust is totally different to the Wolfpack resin one. I have a feeling that the Wolfpack one is correct and that the Eduard one was made to it the original kit parts, nice looking but not necessarily correct!

Have been quick busy with this even though I don’t seemed to have gotten that far in two days.

First up though I have to say this is not an easy model, compared to the Tamigawa models that just fall into place, this one requires you to do some real modelling. The big problem with this model is nothing really fits all that well and a lot of the issues are the same with the Su-17/22 models as well. Plus it doesn’t matter if you have the original OEZ (which was made during the Cold War, 1989!!), or the Eduard Limited edition version, they’re all the same with the same issues.

Anyway I digress….

So what have I been doing for the last two days…..building cockpits to start with. The resin one was fairly simple, with some PE bits were added to the seat and rudder pedals added to the cockpit floor, plus you have to modify the original nose gear wheel well for the new cockpit to fit. The height is right but there still is some adjusting to do with the back, plus I added a PE “roof” to the wheel well.

The second cockpit (which will have the canopy closed) has the kit parts with extra Eduard PE bits, to tell the truth I should have ordered a second resin set…hopefully you won’t be able to see too much with the canopy closed. It actually was a real pain to build and looks horrible beside the resin one.

Once they were both done they were given a coat of aluminium then Cockpit Blue/Grey and a gloss clear coat. , Looks a bit bright but that should tone down detailing and shading/weathering. Some sources, including Eduard, mention these cockpits should be grey, this is wrong! All Sukhoi’s had this lovely shade of Blue/Grey, early MiG’s were grey but later switched over to this colour as well. It was meant to make the cockpit more relaxing for the pilot!

The second set of wings were completed and some work started on one set of wheel wells, only one model will have all the work done on it.

Next up the nose intake and spike. Again straight away it doesn’t fit right. If you use the kit parts and locators then the spike barely protrudes past the intake ring which is incorrect (I forgot to take a photo of it like this), similar issue I had with the Su-17 as well. The whole unit needs to be moved forward about 4-5mm, not an issue if you hadn’t opened the auxiliary intake doors!! Plus the upper and lower splitter plates don’t fit…no surprises there either!

So cone and bulkhead get chopped up, a few bits added and you end up with this. Not too worried about the new bits, as these cannot be seen when everything is closed up.

Now with the bulkhead in the original position the spike sits almost perfectly. There is a gap between the bulkhead and spike assembly for a reason, this is so I can add spaces and wedges to get the spike in its correct position…..there’s an hours worth of work just to sort that out! And of cause the splitter plates still don’t fit quite right!

Finally the next mod work to be done and actually finished this time was the said auxiliary intake doors. I had done the same thing to the Su-17 I built so went about if pretty much the same way.

First add small bits of plastic strip to act as supports for the doors. Then using some thin brass sheet custom made to fit each door. Results…not too bad. These doors were hydraulically controlled and used on take off to allow more air into the engine. When shutdown the pressure released from the system the upper doors would droop inwards and the lower sort of flopped around. This is very noticeable on parked Su-17/20/22’s but not so noticeable (or less photo’d) on Su-7’s. But it’s a simple mod that looks really good when done.

As you can see I left them a bit all over the place, pretty much as you would expect you’d find them.

Well in three and a bit days I have gotten quite a lot done…have to remind myself this doesn’t finish till August so I can slow down a wee bit. I won’t close them up this break as I am still waiting for some new resin vents to arrive. I’ll do a little bit more on the cockpit and then probably play with one of my other projects!

[Col.]

Nice progress Rich. I always enjoy watching your models take shape and these are no exception

[smuts]

Hi, looks impressive...

Andy