Eduard SU 27UB ... a journey into the Russian Modern jet abyss!

[moaning dolphin]

Good day one and all,

Hope we are all doing well, surviving and building? Now my wee kid is grown up enough to have his own wheels I'm not out every night ferrying him to his soccer practice or his social gatherings (max 5 only though!). That has left me with a nice load of free time to smash through my stash and I am now getting to those kits that keep coming out, getting a once over and then put away for another 6 months. This is one such kit, a kind offer from a fellow Canadian BMer which couldn't be turned down. However I am not a Russian aircraft aficionado, my previous includes a Trumpeter 48th Mig 19 and a Accurate 1:48 Sturmovic, oh and the old Hasegawa Mig 23 in 72nd, so this will be a journey of discovery.

Now on with this kit, which is full of goodies as standard, there is etch, resin cockpits, resin wheels and a comprehensive decal sheet. As it was a nice bargain I didnt feel guilty getting more extras myself, so got a resin exhaust, a new nose (a bit of Rhinoplasty!) and a metal pitot probe. So here is what we have to start with ...

The obligatory box shot

The plastic contents

It doesnt look massively stocked with plastic, I'm sure the extras will make up for that. The fuselage halves here show its not really a tiddler either! Thats a 6" rule in there so a good footlong

A very good decal selection as well and enough stencils to drive me up the wall!

Heres the extras! The Brassin set comes with the kit and the exhausts, nose and probe were extra.

And the etch, nice and comprehensive.

 Although in looking at it I have discovered that the Eduard instructions are actually 1 out for some etch parts, ie calls for part 70 on the etch but it should be 69!

So that’s something I will have to keep an eye on, just hope they dont throw in some Algebraic coefficient functions later to work out what goes where, I think I can handle a single digit time shift! 

 

The cockpit set is, to me, truly exquisite. It does astound me how they can get so much detail into the resin. The seats are masterful and even come with detailed helmets. Just hope I can do it all justice with a lick of paint. Also here is the nosewheel mudguard (I’m assuming it’s a mud/fod guard as that’s what it looks like!)

Here we have the cockpit itself. The only kit parts I add is the control column in the background there.

I think the kit in general builds up pretty well from the basic plastic, this originates from the Academy kit which seems to have favourable reviews and I wouldn’t have thought Eduard would choose a lemon to base their kit off.

I have cracked on with the cockpit already, priming the resin set and giving it a coat of blue. Every picture I have seen of the SU27 cockpit is a different shade of blue, some toned down greyish, others are bright blue. Here I have gone for artistic license and chose Vallejo Air RLM 65, which when sprayed on a grey primer comes out slightly dull and I think it looks pretty reasonable. I do note that these aircraft don’t have that gory turquoise colour though which is a shame as I have loads left over from my MIG build.

Now as of yet I don’t know which version to make, I will cover the options a bit later as I forgot to take a picture of them so will discuss it then. I had already made a start on this before I decided to WIP it on here so I am a bit behind the curve (also typing this up during my lunch hour at work …. Hour? Who am I kidding, my lunch interlude!).

So begins a journey into the abyss of Modern Russian jets, I hope it doesn’t get complicated!

Thats all for now, keep staying safe what with one thing or another!

Bob

[moaning dolphin]

Good day everyone once again, following on from yesterday I thought I would run through the colour options for this kit...

The first is the M1 variant of the Kazakh Air Force, possibly flown by Borats Brother?

I do like the boldness of the colours and decals in this, very Eastern European! Next up is the Russian Navy Air Force (not sure if the Russian Navy has an air force or not? or whether it would have an air arm, I know as a ex British Navy Fleet Air Arm member I would scoff at any connection to the Air Force 😆) as well as the Eritrean version.

And finally we have the Ukrainian version

I like the boldness of the Kazakh one, the green of the Eritrean and the Blue Grey of the Ukraine. I'm not sure if the Russian one is doing it for me, just seems a little insipid, so one down three to go. The jury is still out. I have bought a Mig Ammo Su-33 Russian set way back when:

https://www.migjimenez.com/en/acrylic-colors/602-su-33-colors.html

 

but I dont know if I can make any of these colours work, a little more research is due I reckon!

 

So back to what I did last night, I finished off the rear cockpit, now the instructions have you paint the side console panels black which I diligently masked off and sprayed

Looks pretty good and neat, then did some research and discovered that all the insert panels on the side consoles were the same colour as the rest of the cockpit! So out with the blue and lightly misted over the top which in hindsight gave a nice shade to the whole area. I picked out the raised buttons in black, added a dusting of dirt and installed the instrument panel and Control column, et voila!

I have since installed the rear bulkhead now I just need to find somewhere safe to store it so I dont trash it up!

Well thats it for now, hopefully I can keep the interest going on this, just finish off the front cockpit and then 'Bang' nearly done lol! But just before I go I have a correction to add

 

On 12/1/2020 at 11:52 AM, moaning dolphin said:

Heres the extras! The Brassin set comes with the kit and the exhausts, nose and probe were extra.

I stated that the Brassin set was part of the original kit, however that is not the case. It was included in the package from our kindly BMer but this was an extra, so before you go off and buy this kit off an expensive auction site just beware it doesnt include the wheels! 😁

Cheers now and stay safe

Bob

[Doom3r]

Shame there is no option for the current Ukrainian pixel camo

Edited December 2, 2020 by Doom3r

[moaning dolphin]

19 hours ago, Doom3r said:

Shame there is no option for the current Ukrainian pixel camo

 

Oh lordy! what with those stencils and trying to mask off the pixels, I think that would drive me loopy lol! I've seen some masks for the scheme but I'll just opt for traditional straight/curvy lines 😁

 

So on from yesterday I completed the cockpits with the etch and resin, they have turned out really nice. I was hoping I would get away without removing the casting blocks underneath. The front one is fine, but the back one needs quite a bit removed and as its all built up this will need to be done carefully, maybe tomorrow when I have a steady hand!

 

A bit fuzzy but you get the idea. Next up I looked at the cockpit area on the airframe, this just needs a couple bits of resin and etch to complete and was given a coat of RLM 65 same as the tubs. Its not very clear but there is some framing there on the fuselage side.

Eduard have had another timeshift with these pieces as they are 2 out! So I’m thinking I have some random extras inserted somewhere!

I also added etch to the back of the cockpit and the sills, again giving these a coat of paint. I have some coaming to fit in there but I can do that later, so there is no hurry for that yet. Also looks like i need to re-secure a corner on that back piece!  

Which then leads me onto the next stage

Looks like I am done with the internals already! This is moving along a lot quicker than I thought! Just have to slap the intake faces in and then job done, I’m finished! So looking ahead I need to check out the wheel wells, there is some etch available for the pipework but I may do my own with wire to give it a rounded effect rather than the flat appearance. The other area I need to look at is the intake, most pictures have FOD guards fitted, which is good aircraft husbandry but lousy for us model makers lol. I gather there are a few ramps and accesses in there so will need to do some digging with that. But thats all for now I'm afraid folks. Take care and stay safe!

Bob

[HOUSTON]

Bob,Love your Flanker build.

Its coming along splendidly. 

can't wait to see more. NEAT work so far.

 

[TonyOD]

I really like the look of this one, going to follow if I may! Planning to do an Eritrean Su-27 in 1/72 for next year’s Africa GB and I might be able to learn a thing or two about the aircraft from your experience. I don’t think mine will be anything like as “Nuanced” as yours though!

[moaning dolphin]

8 hours ago, HOUSTON said:

Bob,Love your Flanker build.

Its coming along splendidly. 

can't wait to see more. NEAT work so far.

 

 

1 hour ago, TonyOD said:

I really like the look of this one, going to follow if I may! Planning to do an Eritrean Su-27 in 1/72 for next year’s Africa GB and I might be able to learn a thing or two about the aircraft from your experience. I don’t think mine will be anything like as “Nuanced” as yours though!

 

On 12/2/2020 at 12:49 PM, Doom3r said:

Shame there is no option for the current Ukrainian pixel camo

 

Welcome along! the more the merrier! and you can talk amongst yourselves when I hit the dull bits!

 

Well good news is I reckon I have the paints to do the Ukrainian version, however despite a thorough search, what I don't posses is the patience and dexterity to accurately chop up masking tape to make it look good, so it'll be straight or curvy, deffo not pixeled!

But way before we even think about paint work, I need to button up the fuselage. I had chopped down the cockpit tubs casting blocks (both needed cutting off) and securely glued them into place. Now being a clumsy sausage fingered type of fellow, I needed to protect them as I don't think they would have survived. I started off by just laying over the canopy

As you can see these have a horrid seam line runnning through but that isnt an issue. I will removed that and polish it out later, so to secure the canopy and also protect that from my sausageness I secured it in.

Right job done, I can safely do some serious damage to the fuselage without wrecking the canopy or cockpit, but before everything goes together I wanted to look at the main wheel wells. These are relatively visible once assembled but will be a bugger to work and paint once put together, so we will work them first. One of the foibles of the academy kit is they have a 'shelf' in the wheel well where there shouldn't be one

You can also see I have assembled the intakes as well, but we will ignore that bit for now, Ill come back to them later! I needed them in place so I could mark the cut out and then set to it with scalpel and wet n dry

So that was done, next was to remove the detail from the roof of the wheel well and replace with etch and wire

The layout of the wire is just random and just for interest

I can now paint the inside and then I will assemble the fuselage together, reading the reviews that looks like its going to be another laugh! On the underside there is more raised detail to remove, again I will replace this with wire as opposed to etch, still more removal to be done!

Once I have done that the intakes can just slip in there nicely with no probs at all*

* Who am I kidding lol, they look like a right dogs breakfast! But thats for a later day so for now take care, stay safe and I'll report back soon!

Cheers now

Bob

[exdraken]

Great project!

That was really the package to get back then!

[Flying sailors]

Following this with interest as fancy tackling one for the Africa GB next year, maybe in Angolan markings. Looking good so far. Your a braver guy than me to carve up the fuselage like that! 

[moaning dolphin]

Good day once again everyone! Hope you are all doing well. Had some great news as my daughter has made it home for Christmas at last! She was in Ontario where it is quite bad and entry to Nova Scotia is strict and it looked like if she did come home we would all have to isolate at home together so that meant 2 weeks working from home and having a 17 year old boy under curfew not a good prospect!, luckily we had a friend with a cottage spare so she can isolate in peace and our day goes along normally. So all is well and just another 13 days until she can end isolation!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I added a bit of random detail into the wheel wells. From the limited resources I managed to knock something up that looked quite reasonable. I mean you’re not going to see much anyway but what you can see has rudimentary detail!

I also sprayed up the engine face with a mix of exhaust and ally to give a dull darkish look

Then I went for it! Join this monster together. The plastic being used isn’t the greatest, its quite brittle and hard and takes quite a bit of glue to seal it down. This was not going to be a single take effort so started at the rear and glued down the area just aft of the main wing. I used Tamiya normal glue to get it stuck together and where the join was a bit ropey I filled it with extra thin and worked it closed. Took a bit of time but at least I got it down securely.

I then taped in the kit nose piece and glued down the front third. I used the kit nose as the kit just didnt want to line up very well and it gave it a bit more solidity, so hopefully that will work out when I come to install the resin nose. I did however forget to put the gun muzzle in, I was going to replace it anyway and insert some appropriately sized tubing and the plan was to build something inside to make inserting it easy and give it a solid foundation ...... but forgot! so will have to just make it up at the end lol!

I then glued the wings down, again using thick glue to initialize the contact and then flooding the joins with extra thin. Once I was happy it was all lined up I then just put it aside, left it and walked away!

During that time I did manag to sort out my festive lights!

That is my dog just SITTING there, shes not doing anything else lol.

And then dug out my trusty paint mule as I wanted to see what paints I had that I could make use of. I sprayed one half in white primer, the other grey and used the grey and dark (although doesn’t look too dark!!) from my Mig set and found a darker blue from my Vallejo air collection and this is the result.

Im not bothered about the surface finish on this as I just want see the shades, I’ll be taking a lot longer in the surface prep of the plane, but I think they look ok. I think the grey may be too light, almost white so I may look at a slightly darker shade. But I think I’ll be good for the Kazakh version, I'm going to look to see if I can do the Ukraine version to keep options open (no!..... not the pixel one! Even though I may have the right colours!) Then finally it was time to remove the elastic band and tape and see what I had going on. Not too bad considering. These were the two worse areas.

Nothing that a shed load of 200 grit wet and dry wont sort out! The nose was the worse of the two areas. This needed an emergency in work shave just by the dog leg in the join and because the plastic was hard and brittle it doesn’t look pretty but we can buff that out.

Well it looks like my next couple of days will mainly be consisting of sanding and filling and repeating so it may be a couple of days before I get round to another update, so until then stay safe Y’all!

Bob

[moaning dolphin]

Not much to report on this today, just sanding away

Although the initial thoughts on the fit are favourable, I thought I'd be using a shed load of filler but rubbing down the seams seems to do the job! Got a few projects just wrapping up then back onto this, next up will be the intakes ()

Stay safe all!

Bob