Ukrainian Su-27S, Trumpeter, 1/144

[Silenoz]

a bit of a contempory subject:

 

Basekit is the Trumpeter Su-27B

 

with some upgrades:
Retrokit cockpit:

 

Shelf Oddity PE

 

Brengun Canopy:

 

Foxbot decals:

 

Master Pitot:

 

Shelf Oddity missiles:

 

 

 

And now crossing my fingers I get it a bit on par with that Harrier....Soon more

So that starting sound has been given.. so far only preparatory work...

the ventral fins are overly thick:

 

a bit of sanding later:

 

Main hull:

 

some surgery later:

 

and some more material removed:

 

and dryfit:

 

Hopefully soon more progress...

[exdraken]

Very nice tiny, but high detail project!

 

[Silenoz]

Thx for interest. Have to wait a bit longer then anticipated on the cockpit parts..

 

Started work on the nosegear...

An original one:

 

Removed some plastic, sanded the wheel cover into shape, added the louvres, split the block that represents the steering mechanism

 

 

I used this pic to clean up the louvres a bit more. The two linkages will be added during painting... they are obscuring the top of the wheel until then..

 

And then tried to add some wires:

 

Still 2 more headlights to add

[Silenoz]

Made some light domes (no lathe, so handwork) :

 

I've started with some sprue, filed the diameter down, made a small hole with a needle, enlarged it with the tip of a knife. Chamfer the outside with a knife and file and cut off...

Glued then with a bit of Revell contacta.. 

 

Backside:

 

Only the wires to the protective cap are missing.

Also some streched sprue on the main landing gear:

 

Received a message that the Retrokit parts are in the mail...

[Silenoz]

thus:

 

a bit about the soldering:

1st step: Remove the skin from the parts with fine sandpaper or a glasfibre pen. Remove the parts from te fret with a sharp knife or scissors. Next up I remove the attachment points by clamping them in some flat pliers and removing these with a fine file.

 

2nd step: apply a bit of flux (S39 Griffon) on the surface and apply tin to the surface. I use 0.8mm wire that i've squeezed flat, to be able to take tiny amounts. 

 

After I do a clean up to remove unequal thicknesses in the tin layer and to remove the flux, to avoid that it coorodes the parts.

 

3rd step:
Put the presoldered pieces onto eachother and heat them. The tin will flow into eachother and connect the pieces, I don't use flux her e for the initial part, only afterwards for the outer contour.

 

Then bend the pieces (bending tool, pliers, .. whatever suits you best). Sometimes it can be necessary to apply some more tin where the plates connect due to the difference in distance by the bending from the outer layer and inner layer.
Bended pieces like the lip is very fragile. I add some extra solder there to reinforce the bend, to avoid it breaking off.

 

The hingeplates were half pretinned to be able to pick them up with tweezers without eventually soldering the pieces to your tweezers (bit like working with CA) and connected with a tiny amount of tin. Then a bit of extra tin was applied with flux to reinforce the connection.

 

mmmhh... PE pieces don't really fit the trumpeter kit dimensionally...

[Silenoz]

Will see how to get on with the PE parts...

Something is off dimensionally, but will see after the hull is assembled and the gear fitted how it will be... teaser... but not a pleaser

 

Meanwhile, put some work in the cockpit:
Removed some molded dials (as a total cockpit, almost impossible to reach) so replaced them with prepainted paper: 

 

Bangseat (mix of retrokit resin and pe)

 

And joystick:

 

Soon to be mounted in the hull

Edited July 29, 2022 by Silenoz

[Silenoz]

Construction of the hull, and fixing the cockpit:

 

 

Some cutting, cutting line should be on the division between the front- and backpart of he hud:

 

And dryfit. The gap is too large, I know:

 

 And preparation for the rear part. Marking the contour, cutting a straight line down, and scraping the inside out

 

And forgot to take a pic of ghe complete assembly.

So the pit fits in the original location tabs, and the hull halves were mated:

 

The gun cover in place:

Doesn't look much, but the primer will reveal what is necessary.. 

The sides and places where parts were removed were filled and sanded. Some scribing was needed 

 

And the entrance of the engines. Just for the idea, it will barely be visible

 

 

And the dryfit of the gearbay doors:

 

Looks better then anticipated..

 

 

To be continued

Edited August 2, 2022 by Silenoz

[Silenoz]

A bit of progress despite the temperatures:

added the bulges for the locking mechanism of the landing gear and the sensors at the entrance of the airducts. It is all dryfit so far, so please don't mind the gap...

 

 

 

To hot to play with paint... so on with the armarment:

 

R-73 short range missiles:

 

these were introduced in the field in 1984. After the German reunification these became available to the West and the performance was a nasty surprise... The kill-ratio and performance was unprecedented. It could find it's target at an angle of 40° with the flying direction, and with a helmet mounted sight it could be expanded to 60°... so an enemy flying almost next to your side... this led to a whole new family of Western missiles like Iris-T, Sidewinder-X etc...

 

 

 

and then ...

 

I couldn't deburr these, with the other PE-parts it is a necessity

 

R-27 Missiles (medium and long range), these are made of somewhat larger parts:

 

 

still a lot to make... 3 r-73's and 4/6 R-27's

[Silenoz]

Preparational work before glueing:

 

Basic PE-fret, sand the corroded layer away

 

Cut the parts loose with a sharp knife:

 

No matter how hard you try, some burrs will always remain. To remove these I use some flat pliers without teeth:

 

then I'll position them like this so the burr is a bit outside:

 

and carefully remove it with a fine file or sanding stick

 

 

5 more to go...

Edited August 19, 2022 by Silenoz