1/48 Hobbyboss Su-34 Fullback. Finished 09/09.

[DaveJL]

1 hour ago, redcap said:

Kudos Dave and this build a masterclass in model making perseverance, putting the thing down, walking away and coming back when refocused.

 

Gary

Thanks Gary. The kit was too expensive to leave aside for too long . I want to get it finished before starting another F-14, although i'm now looking at the Su-35 sitting in the stash!

[Nocoolname]

oooo… I do like a good Duck Billed Platyplane 

[DaveJL]

3 hours ago, Nocoolname said:

oooo… I do like a good Duck Billed Platyplane 

It’s a big old bugger!

[DaveJL]

A bit more to show. All the ordnance was painted, given a coat of gloss then a panel line wash:

 

 

Individual bomb pylons given the same treatment:

 

 

Most of the sub assemblies have also been finished, ready to be added to the model once it's painted. Just the landing gear to finish off. FOD covers:

 

 

Exhausts:

 

 

Wheels:

 

 

One thing I've noticed when preparing the airframe for paint is that the nacelles on the Su-34 appear to be a different colour to those on the Su-27/30/33 - the top sides are in the colour of the airframe, whilst the undersides appear to be silver-grey, unlike the other variants of the Flanker which are metallic/bare metal. Some images:

 

here

here

here

here

 

 

More soon.

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

Landing gear done:

 

 

Note the crew boarding ladder on the front leg (second picture). Hobbyboss give you metal inserts each of the three landing gear pieces, which adds strength forms the central part of the gear itself, to which you attach the various bits of plastic. A very nice addition in my opinion. The vinyl tyres also have some nice detail, though I think the wheels for the main gear may be a touch too 'fat'.

 

More soon.

 

Dave

 

 

[DaveJL]

For those of you planning on building an Su-34, I've been using the following Flikr album as reference. An excellent walkaround portfolio!

 

Su-34 Walkaround

 

[Avgas]

1 hour ago, DaveJL said:

For those of you planning on building an Su-34, I've been using the following Flikr album as reference. An excellent walkaround portfolio!

 

Su-34 Walkaround

 

Excellent, thanks for sharing that Dave. Will come in handy!

 

Yours is coming along nicely!

[DaveJL]

11 minutes ago, Avgas said:

Excellent, thanks for sharing that Dave. Will come in handy!

 

Yours is coming along nicely!

Thanks mate, i'm quite happy with it too!

 

It's a great set of pictures, stumbled upon it during a google search.

 

[DaveJL]

Good progress over the weekend. The airframe is now painted. I used Akan paints for the blue and the Eggplant Grey:

 

 

Though I found the blue to be too light so I added a few drops of a darker blue. 

 

 

The Akan paint goes on very well. 3 coats needed for the bottom, 2 on the top. I added some areas with a drop of lighter grey in the mix and then a couple with a drop of black just to add some worn effect to it. Not sure how it looks under camera, but it looks decent in the flesh! I left that to dry for about 12 hours and returned this morning. I added the anti glare paint around the canopy (looks in the pictures to be a dark olive colour so I used Tamiya's XF-62 Olive Drab. I also painted the lights on the ECM pods and added some silver 'chipping' to the fronts of these, as seen in a few reference photos. Once that had all dried, I removed the all the masking except for the canopy:

 

 

Canards and stabilisers dry fitted:

 

 

Just need to mask off and paint the gun vents and some panels around the APU before glossing.

 

More soon.

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

Decals on:

 

 

A few of the stencils from both the TwoBobs sheet and the Hobbyboss sheet broke up so they're missing unfortunately.  There's plenty of mission marks on this jet from operations over Syria, i'm just not sure what the stars represent - wether it's individual missions, a number of missions per star or bombs dropped, perhaps someone can shed some light? The TwoBobs sheets doesn't give any information on the jets.

 

I've sealed the decals in with another spray of gloss. Next up will be the panel line wash but won't get near it for a week or so due to shifts.

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

A bit more done. Wash was applied:

 

 

Excess then removed after about 40 minutes. I then added the ordnance, some of the antennae and the FOD covers:

 

 

I've since given the model a flat coat and added the landing gear this evening, which I'll leave to cure overnight before adding the landing gear doors and some weathering.

 

More soon.

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

A bit more done today. All the landing gear doors were attached, canopy masks removed, exhausts, stabilisers and canards attached the some weathering was added. Looking a pictures from the jets based in Syria, the 'eggplant' paint seemed to fade, presumably under the sun:

 

Example here

And here

 

So I attempted to add some of this effect with Tamiya weathering sets and a sponge tipped brush.

 

 

The undersides had some grime and oil staining added, but not too much as per the pictures I've seen:

 

 

Still have to add some etch antennae around the nose and the pitot tube. The exhausts will also be dulled down a bit and that should be it done.

 

More soon.

 

Dave

[DaveJL]

Initial plan was to use the Master brass pitot tube, however having noticed the shape and small 'cut' at the tip of the CWS nose piece, the brass example will not sit - it appears to have been designed for the incorrectly shaped Hobbyboss nose. So I'm using the provided, and much more brittle, resin part from CWS. I hadn't noticed previously, but CWS state that putty is needed, which made up for me me wondering if the part was cast incorrectly

 

 As shown here

 

And a close up of the nose profile/pitot tube on the real thing:

 

 

Just this to sort and then that's her done.

 

Dave

[IPMS19]

- Excellent very inspiring job I like it, to avoid being bored with my HPH Pak-Fa challenge (see WIP)  I've just began the building of my second platypus with all the CWS stuff as you've done. I have the same opinion about his pitot and  antennas, too fragile, as in all of  his products I already used,so I always discard them. For my 34, putty for putty, I will try the Master one.

-The wash has always been a problem for me whatever I try, and I'm seldom satisfied with the finished product, that's why my models have a very operationnal look, which one did you used?

[DaveJL]

10 minutes ago, IPMS19 said:

- Excellent very inspiring job I like it, to avoid being bored with my HPH Pak-Fa challenge (see WIP)  I've just began the building of my second platypus with all the CWS stuff as you've done. I have the same opinion about his pitot and  antennas, too fragile, as in all of  his products I already used,so I always discard them. For my 34, putty for putty, I will try the Master one.

-The wash has always been a problem for me whatever I try, and I'm seldom satisfied with the finished product, that's why my models have a very operationnal look, which one did you used?

Thanks mate, hope your build goes smoothly! The CWS items in general are excellent, I just prefer a sturdier pitot tube!

 

I use Flory Models 'dark dirt' wash for most of my builds. Be sure to add a drop or two of washing up liquid to the bottle and shake well as this helps the wash stick to the panel lines. The excess is easily removed with a lightly dampened cloth and cotton buds after being left for at least 30 minutes.

[DaveJL]

Finished over the weekend. The pitot tube was surprisingly tricky to get to sit right!

 

 

More photos here

 

Glad it's done and I'm relatively happy with the result. Would I build another one? No. I love the look of the Su-34 so if the notion takes me to make another, I'll plump for the Kittyhawk kit.

 

There's a few things that I'd like to list to help anyone else building one. These are the issues that I came across and the fixes I used:

 

1. Parts E15, E16 and E17 serve no purpose other than to create an awful fit of the nose section. Leave these off.

2. Sand down part of the step on the rear of the cockpit - lower part of the bulkhead where the locating pins for the front landing gear are. Dry fit before adding.

3. I'd use superglue to fix the front landing gear bay as I found it had a tendency to dislodge when fitting the upper half of the fuselage due to the flex in the plastic.

4.  When fitting the CWS nose, add a couple of spars from styrene sheet from the plastic into the resin nose - gives it a better and stronger attaching point.

5. If adding the KAB-1500L/T bombs, do not fix them upright as per the instructions, fold them over at 90 degrees. This is how they sit when fitted to the aircraft.

 

Thanks to all who commented/followed.

 

Dave

[Zactoman]

On 8/24/2018 at 2:34 PM, DaveJL said:

For those of you planning on building an Su-34, I've been using the following Flikr album as reference. An excellent walkaround portfolio!

 

Su-34 Walkaround

 

A word of warning for those using this walk-around as a reference: This is a prototype air-frame and several changes have been made on production models. Check other references before using these.

I don't have time right now to list all the changes (and am no expert, but some of the bigger differences are the forward portion of the intakes and the vent arrangement on the stinger.

 

On 9/9/2018 at 11:27 AM, DaveJL said:

Finished over the weekend...

 

There's a few things that I'd like to list to help anyone else building one.

Nice build Dave!

Do you plan to do another in the camo scheme (using the Kitty Hawk kit?)?

 

Thanks for listing the problem areas on the kit.

 

[DaveJL]

15 hours ago, Zactoman said:

Nice build Dave!

Do you plan to do another in the camo scheme (using the Kitty Hawk kit?)?

 

Thanks for listing the problem areas on the kit.

 

Thanks mate. Not in the short term - I've a Mig-25, Mig-31, Tu-22 and a few other Russian jets to build before I'd consider another one. If I do, it will be the Kittyhawk kit for sure. I think I'll try and get an Su-24 in the lineup before that too!