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Восток — дело тонкое (1/72 Trumpeter Su-24M FENCER-D)


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In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the eight-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech--and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives--he called them enemies!--hidden out of sight somewhere.

 

-- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

 

 

COLONEL SAMUEL TRAUTMAN (Richard Crenna): You expect sympathy? You started this damn war! Now you'll have to deal with it!
COLONEL ZAYSEN (Marc de Jonge): And we will. It is just a matter of time before we achieve a complete victory.

 

-- Rambo III, Dir. Peter McDonald, 1988

 

 

FYODOR SUKHOV (Anatoliy Kuznetsov): Восток — дело тонкое. [The Orient — a delicate matter.]

 

-- Белое солнце пустыни, Dir. Vladimir Motyl, 1970

 

 

The Su-24 Fencer is sort of the Soviet Union's version of the Panavia Tornado, if the Tornado was the size of the F-111. (The Su-24 has a smaller payload than a Tornado, despite being twenty feet longer. Soviet aircraft tended to carry less than their Western equivalents, however, and as the Su-24M was intended to deliver a single nuclear bomb as one of its primary roles, it probably didn't overly fuss Sukhoi much.) It's a big beast and comes from the era before relaxed stability, when swing-wings were the thing to have. And have them the Soviets did. The Su-24, Su-17, Tu-22M3, MiG-23/27, and Tu-160 all had them, more swing-wing production types than everyone had combined. If war had come, Su-24s would have launched deep-penetration interdiction raids behind NATO lines or delivered nuclear weapons. But war never came, or at least not the war they were made for. 

 

I'm building the Trumpeter 1/72 FENCER-D, pretty much the only accurate Fencer on the market -- my preference would be the earlier FENCER-C, but life is hard.

 

I cleaned my desk up from the Yak.

 

30617335136_54e329ddd2_h.jpg2016-10-29_10-44-19 by Clean-ish, on Flickr

 

I have a teeny little bit of aftermarket -- I'm not a big aftermarket guy. Just an Eduard mask, Begemot decals and stencils, and a Master Models pitot tube.

 

30023725424_25951fd454_h.jpg20161030_002841 by The Fencer on the desk, on Flickr

 

I plan on using Akan's paints for this.

 

30023723344_095722e4d0_b.jpg20161030_005059 by Akan paints, on Flickr

 

I'll be building "20 White" of the 143rd BAP (Bombardirovchnyy Aviatsionnyy Polk -- Bomber Aviation Regiment), which by bizarre coincidence, operated the Yak-28 BREWER bomber until it switched to Su-24s in 1978. 143rd BAP operated Su-24Ms over Afghanistan, including the plane I'm building. The Begemot sheet doesn't have the markings for it, but it has markings for "02 White" with the same (slightly unusual) bort number font. I should be able to cobble together everything I need from it.

 

30021495403_957df51bd9_h.jpg20161030_002800 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I like the look of the KAB-500 smart bombs, but the kit only comes with two -- I welcome suggestions for an appropriate Su-24M loadout over Afghanistan.

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Oooh good, a seat at the front :popcorn:

Nice subject and introduction PC - she does look very Torna-111ish doesn't she.

Also a nice cleared bench... off you go then!

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Stumbling across to find a seat, blocking Ced's view and proceeding to slurp Kia-Ora orange juice titanically-noisily from a square plastic cup. Calls out 'Isn't this that same guy that did that Yak recently? Am I right?'

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1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I'm in.  Anyone who has a white ensign on his workbench deserves respect. 

Agreed.

And to prove how respectable he is,he also has his sprayer's mask hanging up above his compressor and airbrush.

 

One likes the cut of his jib alright.

 

BTW,no doubt yon Fencer is built a little more robustly than the Fin,don't think you could

bonk a Fin down on a rought dirt strip.

Edited by Miggers
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Ah, this brings back memories. Shortly before I stopped modelling in my yoof, I acquired a fascination for all things Soviet swing-wing, but couldn't find a Su-24 kit anywhere (looking at Scalemates today, it appears that there may not have been any mainstream kits back in the late 80s). So, if may follow along, I can vicariously fulfil that yearning. (A shame that's not possible for many other teenage yearnings...)

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:popcorn: Gentleman's scale? Check. Afghan misadventure time? Check. Paint scheme from the era before 50 shades of grey? Check. 

 

Ok, I'm in. Wondering if I can find a 20mm Mujahideen with Stinger to send PC...

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30 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

Ok, I'm in. Wondering if I can find a 20mm Mujahideen with Stinger to send PC...

 

Well...

 

www.plasticsoldierreview.com/review.aspx?id=2437

 

:)

 

Any room left? 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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nice project!
 

 

I'd go with some standard dumb bombs, if you want to go heavy - 4x 500kg if spectacular 100kg on multi ejector racks...

some very nice examples:

http://armoryhobbyshop.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=37_85_91_2065

 

eg:

http://armoryhobbyshop.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=37_85_91_2065&product_id=35816

 

Edited by exdraken
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5 hours ago, Miggers said:

 

And to prove how respectable he is,he also has his sprayer's mask hanging up above his compressor and airbrush.

 

I'll be honest with you, I almost never remember to use it. Maybe one time out of fifty. 

 

1 hour ago, exdraken said:

nice project!
 

 

I'd go with some standard dumb bombs, if you want to go heavy - 4x 500kg if spectacular 100kg on multi ejector racks...

some very nice examples:

http://armoryhobbyshop.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=37_85_91_2065

 

eg:

http://armoryhobbyshop.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=37_85_91_2065&product_id=35816

 

 

 

The Armory stuff is beautiful; I was looking it over for bombs for my Modelsvit Su-17. It also looks very complex, though -- lots of tiny PE parts to lose and so forth. I do love the look of the 100 kg bombs on the Soviet MERS, though. I always wondered -- why 100 kg? Such a random size for a bomb.

 

9 hours ago, Miggers said:

BTW,no doubt yon Fencer is built a little more robustly than the Fin,don't think you could

bonk a Fin down on a rought dirt strip.

 

Certainly true!

 

5 hours ago, amblypygid said:

(A shame that's not possible for many other teenage yearnings...)

 

 

My teenaged years were pretty rotten, to be quite honest with you. Best not to dwell on my teenaged kicks -- most left bruises.

 

4 hours ago, 06/24 said:

And I can. Right, Soviet speed merchant, prepare to meet western tehcnology. Ahmed, take aim...

 

http://sandsmodelsshop.com/product/mujahideen-stinger-aa-missile-team/

 

Fortunately(?), Su-24Ms flew too high to be much threatened, and only one was lost in Afghanistan, to a landing accident.

 

Anyway, let's get down to the biscuits:

 

30634908236_1669742e21_h.jpg20161030_155245 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I've started with assembling the cockpit, the tripartite nosewheel bay (the instructions want me to put the nose gear in now as well, but I just laughed a tired, world-weary laugh and ignored that), and the excitingly complex main gear bay. For the cockpit, I used Akan's Sukhoi Grey, and for the gear bays, which I had trouble finding pictures of (there aren't even any in Yefim Gordon's ruinously expensive Famous Russian Warplanes book on the Su-24!), so I followed my heart and used Gunze H311 FS36622 Grey Semi-Gloss for them, secure that little will be seen. They look so nice, though, I kinda want to do a wash, or marry them.

 

30040155554_57f6082138_h.jpg20161030_155311 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I painted the inside of the lower fuse as well, the whole thing slots in there rather nicely, as this test fit shows:

 

30037695783_69ad7c019e_h.jpg20161030_155452 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

There are some differences between the contemporary Su-24M cockpit and the 1980s version -- the eight-track player, cigarette lighter/ashtray, and backpack-sized mobile phone are all gone. I'm not sure I want to actually bother with modifying it, but notably the early Su-24Ms had a scope vice a HUD, I gather. 

 

30554642092_4ff3719453_h.jpg20161030_155259 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

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My daughter gave me this same kit for Father's Day - glad to see you tackling it. Sure looks nice in the box, donnit? Like you, I've heard that it's one of the most accurate Fencers in 1:72, and it certainly is furlongs ahead of the old Dragon kit. If I remember right, Trumpy made a tiny boo-boo with the intake leading edges, but it looks to be an easy fix.

 

Proceed, comrade!   :popcorn: 

 

Cheers,

Bill

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1 minute ago, Navy Bird said:

My daughter gave me this same kit for Father's Day - glad to see you tackling it. Sure looks nice in the box, donnit? 

 

It looks lovely in the box -- especially since my last kit was an early Amodel. I think there were some Belomorkanal butts in that box. 

 

3 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

Like you, I've heard that it's one of the most accurate Fencers in 1:72, and it certainly is furlongs ahead of the old Dragon kit. If I remember right, Trumpy made a tiny boo-boo with the intake leading edges, but it looks to be an easy fix.

 

I gather they're supposed to be slightly angled forward, vice straight up and down in the kit. Apparently the old Dragon kit (which is also the old Zvezda kit, and the old Revell kit) is dreadully inaccurate, but I'm not really an expert on Fencers by any means.

 

 

7 minutes ago, PhantomBigStu said:

Another watcher, one Id love to build one day

 

So far, so good!

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6 minutes ago, Rob G said:

So my Zvezda -24 is a candidate for the ongoing stash pogrom then? Darn, I only bought a few months ago (for the Cold War GB, but never got it started, surprise, surprise.)

 

If it's a Fencer-C (just a straight Su-24 vice Su-24M or -24MR or whatever), you're sort of in the clear, as Trumpeter doesn't do the Fencer C, just the -D and the naval recce version.Alternately, you can get cunning and claim you're doing a model based off the illustrations in Soviet Military Power.

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1 hour ago, Ascoteer said:

 

They fly altitude in metres too.

 

Which is just bloody silly

and speed in km/h...

 

being coherent is important I guess...

 

or are feet better suited for altitude? (more is always better, no ;))

cheers!

 

 

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