SU-33 folded wings - flaps position

[Vlad]

I will soon be starting a Zvezda 1/72 Su-33 (when the postman arrives tomorrow 😎). I was reading about the subject and noticed our resident expert @Flankerman saying in a thread some time ago that one weakness of the kit (shared with Trumpeter and others) is that it's not possible to display the folded wings correctly because the inboard wing section flaps are not dropped, the slats are molded in place and the outer wing section segmented flaps are molded in line with the ailerons. He then goes on to link pictures of his builds where he skilfully and painstakingly cuts apart the various flaps and slats to reattach in the correct lowered positions.

 

However, not to question his work and expertise, and others who display their models like this, but Googling pictures of the aircraft readily produces shots showing the wings folded and the lifting and control surfaces in any manner of drooped/retracted combinations. It seems the only compulsory element is the outer section flaps and ailerons are drooped, to clear the tail. The rest, slats, inboard flaps, I've seen either retracted, or partly down but not fully deployed (i.e. the second flap segments are not split). Even the horizontal stabilisers it seems aren't always necessarily drooped, though this seems to be associated with aircraft that are started up and ready to taxi not parked fully "cold".

 

The most common combination seems to be:

- inboard slats extended

- outboard slats retracted

- inboard flaps part down but second segment not extended

- outboard flaps down with ailerons, but second flap segment remaining in line with ailerons

 

I just wanted to re-open the discussion in case I'm missing something, possibly transition states or changes in doctrine over time. The kit probably still needs some work to get a more realistic appearance, but it seems we are more free to "pick and mix" how much we want to cut. The biggest "win" for me is that the outer wing section can basically be build exactly as Zvezda intended and would be accurate.

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by Vlad

[Hook]

Apart from the wings - generally speaking the horizontal tails droop as well. AFAIK this (as well as the folding pitot tube) is an OOTB option in Trumpeters kit but not in the Zvezda.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Vlad]

On 29/10/2019 at 16:02, Hook said:

Apart from the wings - generally speaking the horizontal tails droop as well. AFAIK this (as well as the folding pitot tube) is an OOTB option in Trumpeters kit but not in the Zvezda.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

 

This is very true but the horizontal stabs should be an easy fix. I went for Zvezda despite Trumpeter having some better OOB options like that because Zvezda is more accurate while being significantly cheaper. That and on the Zvezda kit the inner wing section flaps are a separate part. They're not designed to droop, but saves cutting them off if I wanted to do this.

 

I thought canards might droop too but they're all over the place, seems they can be in any position when the plane is shut down.

 

Also spotted this, apparently the tail boom folds away too! And both rudders point inward here, that's odd I haven't seen that in other shots.

 

https://i.imgur.com/FKxsvB3.jpg

Edited November 4, 2019 by Julien
Links only to copyrighted pictures pls

[Hook]

Yes on both counts - the tail stinger does fold, and I prefer the Zvezda as well as being the more accurate choice. I couldn't resist the edition with the flight deck, but the deck will feature one of my Zvezda kits. 

 

A great reference is: 

 

https://www.scalemates.com/hu/books/sukhoi-su-27-and-30-33-34-35-famous-russian-aircraft-yefim-gordon-dmitriy-komissarov--118125

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Julien]

If anyone wants some additional pictures, we do have a walkaround

 

 

[Vlad]

@Julien that is an excellent walkaround, I was aware of it.

 

However what I was getting at is that the extent of flap drooping and segmentation shown there is not mandatory for a folded Su-33. I was posting pictures that specifically show different posings to that walkaround, basically as a way of saying "you don't need to take that walkaround as gospel and cut your model's wings into a dozen pieces to have a realistic folded configuration".

Edited November 5, 2019 by Vlad