Su-47 Berkut with 3D printed parts - Hobbyboss/MHM 1:72

[Serkan Sen]

Here is another work in progress which will be most probably never completed and take its place in Hall of Shame on my workbench... This is an MHM/Hobbyboss Su-47 Berkut kit in 1/72 scale.  My intention is to build this kit from OOB and place it in the display asap. In overall it seems not so bad but I am quite sure that I will have to deal with a lot of troubles during this build.

 

Here are the kit sprues:

 

At first glance this build shouldn't be so difficult and can be finished very quickly but we will see...

 

Serkan

[Serkan Sen]

The fuselage halves were removed from sprue:

 

And after placing cockpit tub the all parts were glued together:

 

But the intake has no detail and has to be closed with intake covers:

 

Also the nozzles are for AL-31 rather than real Soloviev D-30 installed on Berkut:

 

Let's see if I can manage to modify kit nozzle to D-30 form:

 

But what I can say that this build won't be an OOB anymore...

 

Serkan

[billn53]

15 minutes ago, Serkan Sen said:

 

But what I can say that this build won't be an OOB anymore...

 

Are any of your builds ever OOB?

[Serkan Sen]

20 hours ago, billn53 said:

Are any of your builds ever OOB?

Actually no 🙂

 

I have slightly modified this thread's title because it seems that I have to add some 3D printed parts. First of all I have started with intake FOD covers:

 

I have first extracted the FOD contours from the real aircraft and then created 3D model using these outlines. What I noticed that the kit intake shape does not match with the real aircraft. The real intake width is wider than the height. But its opposite in the kit: 

 

 

But it is a lot of effort to fix the intake geometry issue. Therefore I will keep the shape as is...

 

Next step is the nozzles which is really challenging.

 

Serkan

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by Serkan Sen

[Neffan]

Hi Serkan, really interesting. I think the next step will not be difficult for you... ;-)   

Neffan

[Serkan Sen]

On 6/26/2021 at 5:11 PM, Neffan said:

Hi Serkan, really interesting. I think the next step will not be difficult for you... 😉  

Neffan

Although the nozzle looks very simple it has a lot of details when you look closer. I have almost finished modelling.

Serkan

Edited August 25, 2021 by Serkan Sen

[Serkan Sen]

The nozzle modelling done:

 

Next is to print the parts and see the result.

 

Serkan

 

[Serkan Sen]

The CAD models were imported to 3D printer software and then sent to printer:

 

Here are the printed parts:

 

As the kit inlet planform is a bit different than the actual inlet, I have printed the FOD covers in three sizes.

 

Next is to perform fit test.

[Neffan]

😉👍

[Marklo]

Nice build, I’m nearly finished the Trumpeter 1/144 th kit and it is completely oob. 

[Serkan Sen]

3 hours ago, Marklo said:

Nice build, I’m nearly finished the Trumpeter 1/144 th kit and it is completely oob. 

OOB build was also my intention to be able to build at least one model in a week but I couldn't ignore such an obvious problem with nozzles.

[Serkan Sen]

Here are the 3D printed parts assembled on model.

 

First intake covers:

 

And the new D-30 nozzles:

 

The new nozzle has improved the kit significantly:

 

Next is the start paint job...

 

Serkan

 

[Web99]

I remember seeing this thread say originally OOB, how things change I’ll be watching with interest 😏

[Marklo]

37 minutes ago, Serkan Sen said:

but I couldn't ignore such an obvious problem with nozzles.

That’s the one thing I like about 1:144 I don’t notice the inaccuracies  

 

This is where my Berkut currently is. I might see if I can copy your FOD doors as they’ll add a nice bit of colour to the build but it’ll be old style plastic carving  still being 1/144 I’ll get away with less detail than yours.

Edited June 27, 2021 by Marklo

[Robert]

Hi Serkan, once again you amaze me with your technique and details. As you pointed out the intakes are wrong but thought, could you not 3D print a set to see how much a difference it would make. Also I wonder if the parts would fit the Italeri/Revell kit?

 

Regards

Robert

[Serkan Sen]

57 minutes ago, Robert said:

Hi Serkan, once again you amaze me with your technique and details. As you pointed out the intakes are wrong but thought, could you not 3D print a set to see how much a difference it would make. Also I wonder if the parts would fit the Italeri/Revell kit?

 

Regards

Robert

Thanks Robert,

If have had noticed at the beginning that the intakes have wrong shape, I would have corrected them at very beginning. But unfortunately it is too late to do such modification because I have started to paint the aircraft. My original intention was to build this plane in few days and get motivated for all ongoing/pending modification projects.

I will check if I have still have Italeri/Revell in my stash. If I am not wrong it is a reboxed Zvezda kit.

Serkan

[Serkan Sen]

2 hours ago, Web99 said:

I remember seeing this thread say originally OOB, how things change I’ll be watching with interest 😏

That's true. This was my original aim. But building this model with such obvious error would not be acceptable. 😁

[Serkan Sen]

2 hours ago, Marklo said:

That’s the one thing I like about 1:144 I don’t notice the inaccuracies  

But even in 1:144 scale the nozzle seems right if my old eyes see correctly. 🤓

[Serkan Sen]

The painting job for this aircraft is very simple. First paint the panels and doors in white, mask them and finally paint entire aircraft to black. But here is the problem: how to mask all these white panels?

Here is the answer: design an artwork to make vinyl masks:

 

Next is to apply vinyl masks and paint cockpit and canopy area...

 

Serkan

Edited June 27, 2021 by Serkan Sen

[SallysDad]

Looks interesting.... and interesting plane!

Eagar to see your paint results.

[Serkan Sen]

The vinyl masks were placed:

 

Note that the clear parts were masked on both sides. The cockpit and inside of the canopy parts were painted light blue/gray:

 

Next step is to paint entire aircraft black...

 

Serkan

Edited June 28, 2021 by Serkan Sen

[Serkan Sen]

The masked parts were painted to black:

 

When the paint was fully dried, the landing gear bays were masked for dirty white:

 

Serkan

[Serkan Sen]

Except canopy all masks were removed:

 

Next step is to work on landing gear parts..

 

Serkan

[Gidge]

Looking good.

 

The original turned up recently in a rather sorry state.

https://www.dmarge.com/2021/06/russian-drone-pilot-soviet-union-aircraft-boneyards-fighter-jet.html?fbclid=IwAR3BJiFWG0ycJ7z2UZsjGZc2pb63BFqorfxD75e1xz1RWnN42oHCZcOOmXQ

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQRJPN2nkSZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[RidgeRunner]

3 hours ago, Gidge said:

Looking good.

 

The original turned up recently in a rather sorry state.

https://www.dmarge.com/2021/06/russian-drone-pilot-soviet-union-aircraft-boneyards-fighter-jet.html?fbclid=IwAR3BJiFWG0ycJ7z2UZsjGZc2pb63BFqorfxD75e1xz1RWnN42oHCZcOOmXQ

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQRJPN2nkSZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

That looks more like Zhukovsky to me, in much the same state that it has been in for years. I can't imagine the Russians would let the Berkut go to Ukraine.

 

Martin