ZVEZDA 1/48 SU-2

[bruce bay]

I am going to attempt something a little more exotic than my first WIP build. And back to my preferred scale. This kit caught my eye after I saw a very impressive build of it on this very site, here. Though I doubt I will be doing as good a job as that, I will give it a crack, and it's nice to have something to aim for. 

 

I plan to finish mine with some worn away winter camo over-paint. There don't seem to be a lot of photos of the SU-2 with this scheme in action, but a quick google threw up a few examples, albeit very small and pixel-y ones: 

 

 

I had a look in Osprey's Russian Aircraft 1875-1995, and though there are some nice photos of the SU-2, they are in what looks like one-colour schemes:

 

 

In what might seem a rather perverse move I finally took on an enormous He111 that's been hiding under my table for a year now as a practice run for the winter camo on the comparatively small SU-2. I had never tried the hairspray technique before, and was rather daunted by the idea of it. Turns out that, as promised, it's remarkably easy - and very rewarding. My only problem was that it was  so satisfying seeing the white coat chip away that I had to really force myself not to rub all of it off.

 

Anyway - He111 is below. And with the hairspray technique demystified I will now plod on with the SU-2. 

 

[Crossofiron1971]

Fantastic HE111 Sir!!!!

 

[bruce bay]

9 hours ago, Crossofiron1971 said:

Fantastic HE111 Sir!!!!

 

 

Many thanks. Was a nice kit. Loved the cockpit build... but it went to the dogs a bit on the underside wing-fuselage joins...

 

Still - very happy with the paint finish. Thanks for your comment. 

 

 

[bruce bay]

So. Some progress made - starting with the engine.

 

It's a lovely kit so far. Now I have said that I foresee a major fit issue striking me down for such hubris... Seems from builds and reviews I have read that the gun turret might be the culprit... we will see. 

 

One odd thing, which may be a ZVEZDA trademark I am not used to, is the instructions - which are rather clumped together over very little space. Rather than the 'usual' 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 etc,etc steps with clearly delineated progress, here sections of construction are shown with blown up sub-assemblies. So far it's been no issue, but took some getting used to. On the upside it's nice not having to turn pages constantly. 

 

Engine was up first. 

 

 

I sprayed the main components tar black before dry brushing them quite heavily with some Valejo aluminium. Then the smaller components were added in two stages, with the first being painted before the second went on. To avoid me splodging paint over everything. The exhaust component at the rear was brush painted aluminium then rubbed lightly with some rust and blue pigment (from the Tamiya weathering sets) to try and capture a bit of heat staining.

 

Finally I gave the whole thing a pretty liberal dusting with a mix of dark earth, rust, and black pigments to knock the shop-new look off it... 

 

 

Thanks for looking. 

 

 

 

[bruce bay]

Bit of progress made. Still plodding along nicely. With one or two small hiccups. 

First off I get working on the bomb bay. I drilled some small holes at either end of the bay and ran some solder through which I then painted red. Just for a bit of extra visual detail in there, though it will be largely obscured by the bomb rack and bombs. The bombs themselves were painted flat green then given a wash of burnt umber to dirty them up a bit. 

 

Once the bombs were in place the whole bay and the wheel wells were washed with burnt umber and given a bit of a flick with some Humbrol weathering pigments mixed with water. Just to create a bit more filth. As I am hoping to make this build a well worn one. 

 

It was at this point that I hit my first snag. I hadn't realised that the back wall of the bomb bay would be visible through the canopy, and also through the floor windows... And I had two bits of solder in the way. These were trimmed off, and then I superglued some tinfoil flat over the surface in the hope of getting back to square one. That wasn't utterly successful - as there were some small creases in the foil. I decided to add to extra detail to this section too, both for fun, and also to distract from the ungainly surface finish. I used a part from an Airfix Defiant's cockpit, and added some wiring. 

 

As ever - it wasn't stunning work. But looks fine now painted up, and shouldn't be glaringly visible anyway. I then cracked on with the cockpit and other interior areas. The seat cushion was made with Citadel Green Stuff, and the belts are thin masking tape strips with some cast off photoetch from past builds as buckles. 

 

 

Thanks for looking. Any advice, pointers, criticisms most welcome. 

 

 

 

[bruce bay]

As a result of having a tedious bug I want to defeat in time for Sunday League tomorrow I have been cooped up all day with this one. 

 

All the main parts went together pretty well. The only exception was the join along the top of the nose - which popped open as I settled the fuselage onto the wings. I will however assume that this was due to a miscalculation on my part somewhere down the line - as the rest of the kit has gone together perfectly. A tiny bit of miliput was used on the wing / body join, and some green putty along the top of the nose. 

 

The whole thing was primed with Army Painter white primer, before being given a coat of Humbrol olive green. Then I masked up the camouflage and sprayed with tar black. I was fairly rough with this stage, as I was a) being impatient and b ) knew that most of this would be covered with winter white-wash. The whole thing was then given a oil paint dot wash to break up the black and the green - which looked very flat.

 

 

Then red stars were sprayed onto the wings using cast offs from a Montex set - originally for a P-51, but a star's a star. Once the oil wash and the markings had fully dried I sponged some masking fluid over the stars, and then the whole thing was sprayed with two heavy coats of hairspray. Which made me sneeze a lot. 

 

 

And now for the fun bit. Once the hairspray was totally matte and dry the whole 'plane was lightly misted over with the Army Painted primer, with certain areas getting two coats - mainly along the top of the fuselage and on the tail - where I wanted less chipping and wear. 

 

 

And then - of course - came the joy of getting to work with a stiff wet brush. As with my first attempt at this technique on a recent He111 - I was very relieved when the paint started coming away, and once it did it was hard not to get carried away with the process. I think I managed to stop at about the right time, and then gave parts a very light panel wash with burnt umber. Leaving todays work at this stage : 

 

Thanks for looking, and as ever - any comments or criticisms are most welcome. 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

[DJJunis]

Bruce,

That is an excellent result. Well done.

 

All the Best!

Don

[JWM]

Very interesting "multimedia" painting technique! Result is very realistic. I like it very much. One suggestion if I may - in winter camos always the leading edge of all control surfaces is  darker  - the white paint goes out there easily...

Surprising is that red stars are on top of wings, usually Soviet WWII planes did not have stars on top of wings.

Cheers

J-W

 

[bruce bay]

1 hour ago, JWM said:

Very interesting "multimedia" painting technique! Result is very realistic. I like it very much. One suggestion if I may - in winter camos always the leading edge of all control surfaces is  darker  - the white paint goes out there easily...

Surprising is that red stars are on top of wings, usually Soviet WWII planes did not have stars on top of wings.

Cheers

J-W

 

Thanks J-W, very much appreciated. The red stars on top were as directed by the Zvezda instructions - but I have no idea how reputable the brand is when it comes to markings... From the archive photos I managed to find - few showed the tops of the wing. So I am unsure on this one.

 

And thanks for the weathering tip - that of course does make sense. I will have a bit more of a go at the leading edges on the horizontal stabilizers... 

 

Many thanks,

[Jbbusybee]

Very nice work, thanks for sharing.

[bruce bay]

 

Things went a little down hill from the last post. Though the kit was generally a very enjoyable build, with great detail, and really good general fit of major components and fiddly bits alike - I HATED the transparent parts.

 

The material is unlike anything I have come across before on a kit. The canopy sections were so flexible you could bend flex and them backwards and forwards without any effect. This is rather nice in that there's no staring when you cut bits from the sprue, and does mean that accidentally cracking or snapping parts won't be an issue. But I felt that it also led to less hard / sharp edges, making masking of sections harder - and there were issues with section edges almost fluffing up when being trimmed with a sharp blade. 

 

On top of that I, like others whose builds of this kit from what I have seen, could not get the turret to sit in the space allocated. Even with the turret open it was tricky to get it in place. As a result of all this I am not thrilled with the canopy, and feel that it's rather let down the rest of the kit. 

 

The underside was given a burnt umber oil wash, and then some streaks of brown running from the wheel wells, before being generously flicked with humbrol weathering pigment mixed with water to replicate a few clods of wet mud. 

 

The exhaust stain was a dry, coarse brush, and humbrol deep black pigment. 

 

Finally - the kit decals didn't work out - my fault, not Zvezda's. So the tail markings are leftovers from an old LaG kit... which worked out well as they are very matte. 

 

Over all - as mentioned - I really enjoyed the kit. I guess I will pop it on Ready for Inspection. Thanks to all for the advice and comments. 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2017 by bruce bay