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Progress so far........


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Thought I may as well move this to a seperate post as the builds progress.........for anyone interested,

Work so far.....

Only big problem to date has been the fact that the port wing trailing edge elevon/flaps were short shot and half the flap was missing. Not really a big problem as the flaps are always powered down when the aircraft is shut down and the flaps always droop. So I hacked off the them off and replaced with seperate flaps made from Plasticard...only trouble is..there are 16 actuators that have to be made to replace the sawn off resin ones, that disintegrated on removal!!!.

So much for simple OOB build...oh well, business as usual.. :wacko:

Here are the offending actuators being re attached..made from Evergreen square rod..

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Now fitted and sanded to shape...

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The topside...flaps have been sanded to give smooth finish..

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All primed and the canards test fitted for correct angle.....( the nose pitot has since been thinned down considerably)..

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Underside took a bit of blending to get right.......the intake ramps and undercarriage bays will be sprayed semi matt aluminium..

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Undercarrige primed , ready for painting..

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After sploshing the paint on, (Alclad, duralumin, dull aluminium and magnessium)...wheels ready for matt varnish. The nose gear landing light lenses will be added at the end.

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Exhausts painted, Alclad again....

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The top coat of Mr Hobby Gunze Aqueous gloss white has been applied and a liberal coating of Klear airbrushed on in preparation for the marathon decalling session that lies ahead...the nose cone is a different shade of white so a smidgeon of light grey was added to the white...

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Tu-144, primed ready for final rub down and Tamiya high gloss acrylic white......excuse the over thick 'nose probe', this isn't the final thing but just used to hold the nose cone whilst airbrushing. It will be a lot thinner than this when finished....

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All those pesky actuators had to be scratchbuilt and refitted... :frantic:

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Edited by general melchett
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Thanks chaps, Chris, I needed something to do whilst awaiting the ' do dahs' for the TSR2 so I thought , why not !!..........but like an idiot I've gone and started a couple of helicopters for the chopper GB, and a load of stealth stuff for the Research and Development SIG, but that's another thread :hypnotised: .......Oh dear, not sure if the medication has kicked in yet............................I'll have a word with matron and see if I can have my old cell with the nice soft walls back :frantic:

Edited by general melchett
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Thanks fellas,

Mike, easy to get carried away with the 'magic lantern images' wot!........ :frantic:

I usually use Equipage, (when I can get hold of them, bl**dy expensive though they are!!!), but in this case I used the kit wheels as they are spot on, the only problem is the attachment of the legs themselves...they sort of dangle weakly against the side walls of the bays!....so brass rod and wire was needed to make the whole thing sound.

Cheers and felicitations from the Onion of Soviet Socialist Republics.... :cheers:

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks chaps, Walrus, the TU-144 is nearly done, the Fiddler is on its 5th re prime and rescribe but should be done in time, however the Ruslan will have to be pulled , just haven't got the time to finish it as well..(something that just struck me...the Charger wont be carrying red stars!!DOH....but it's iconic Soviet stuff!!...so I'll pop a little star on it somewhere!!!) . A lot of my modelling time is taken up with getting articles sorted for Spencers' Model Aviation World 'mag right now...it's surprisingly time consuming...

I'll sort some piccies out over the coming week...

Mike...ummm, sleep...sorry don't know that one!!!....... :hypnotised:

I've kind of got used to doing without it after 27 years of front line A and E duties, emergency call outs, standbys, night shifts, etc and generally leading a strange sort of twilight life...body clock is totally SNAFU to be honest!!! :frantic:....holidays are strange beasts...I tend to fall asleep after checking into the hotel , then wake up again 2 weeks later just in time to check out and get on the plane home!! :banghead:

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A lot of my modelling time is taken up with getting articles sorted for Spencers' Model Aviation World 'mag right now...it's surprisingly time consuming...

WHAT!!! :rant:

putting that capitalist proper gander before builds for the great Soviet :angry:

looking stunning Andy

2 out of three ain't bad as they say

look forward to seeing more :bounce:

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A thousand pardons, mine Komissar Walrusiev!!...what was I thinking!! :doh: ....I shall have myself transported to the salt mines, just south of Scunthorpe immediately and break rocks for the greater party good...The great seven year plan will be compressed into two weeks forthwith........

Up Mother Russia, up the party, up the workers and right up the management!! :jump_fire:

Da svedanya folkski......

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To keep the inner party commitee members happy I release some pictures of the progress on the beloved interceptor 'Fiddler'....many long sessions of 'wet and dry' and filling, not to mention 5 coats of imperial primer and rescribing to get to this stage.......one more rub downski and it's on with the imperialist Alclad airframe aluminium followed by various shades of other capitalist Alclad metals!....

The mighty Charger is in the decalling shop as I write this..........long live the party !!

Melchetskiev...

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Hi general, your taste in subjects and modelling skill is excellent as ever!

You mentioned that the Amodel Fiddler is a bit of a pig and you've done a lot of hacking and filling - what's wrong with the kit accuracy wise as such?

Thanks

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Hi Neil, yep it's a pig !!...main problem is the short run nature of the plastic , thick sprue gates, large number of parts, vague detail on smaller parts, poor surface quality and terrible fit. Having said that I love Amodel kits, mainly coz they cover the aircraft that I've wanted to see in plastic since I was a kid and I know that the major manufacturers wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!.

The Fiddler is one of the largest all injection moulded kits they do, (before they went over to the amazingly improved resin impregnated grp of the huge Amonster range).

The Thing with Amodel though is that they are totally accurate, good research ( well the Monino Air Force Museum is just across the road!!), and very detailed I just wish they would include PE and resin parts in the kit, but I guess that would bump the price a lot further.

To sum it up the Fiddler is very accurate but a real challenge to build well....time and patience are key with this one, but if you do persevere it's a great looking model of a very important Soviet type when finished, the worlds biggest, most powerful interceptor...(BTW, the TU-128 U Pelican trainer version is a very strange looking bird!!)..

Cheers, :cheers:

Andy

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A Superb trio of Russkie hardware you have there General!

Hope youv'e got decent enough storage for the Antonov and 144! they look huge.

I agree with the coolest design comment. I never really took much notice of "Red Star" aviation before this GB but I have to say that the designs are indeed outstanding. I do like the old Blinder and Backfire.

Looking forward to that metallic finish!

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You'd be 2 weeks just stencilling the Ruslan :analintruder:

Looking forward to seeing the Fiddler most... almost bought one the other week and chickened out... seeing it build up well might inspire!

Enjoying watching these develop, the Fiddler has long been a favourite of mine as well but never did get the kit when it was on the shelves :(

Where did you see it for sale Stebos?

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Thanks chaps....Due to circumstances I'm going to have to shelve the Ruslan for now and just concentrate on the Charger and Fiddler....reason,...1) I'm not happy with my choice of grey on the Antonov, thankfully before the decalling has gone on so it's going to need a respray and 2) more importantly, :raincloud:

I managed to badly damage my Iwata Micron airbrush over the weekend and after finding out how much it would cost to repair I've decided to cut my losses and go for a new brush...so I've ordered a new Harder and Steenbeck Infinity after reading the reviews on how wonderful this bit of kit is. Not cheap but then quality never is!!,

Should be here Monday morning and it'll take a bit of getting use to so should be ready for the painting process next week all things being equal,....which they rarely are :jump_fire:

This will mainly affect the Fiddler as it's going to be seriously Alcladded....

Apols for this, but as I've got a bit of time off coming up all may not be lost!!

Stebos,Col Take a deep breath and grab one........it's one seriously cool looking mochine!! :coolio:

Cheers all,

Andy

Edited by general melchett
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Sorry to hear about the ab disaster! :bristow:

Fingers crossed...

Col, I'd seen it at Hannants, but this was a good few months ago. As my stash is about 5x my display space I'm now very careful over the larger kits I pick up, the Fiddler didn't quite make the cut.

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  • 1 month later...

Well chaps, these are the latest shots of the Fiddler taken whilst finishing off with Alclad, duralumin, airframe ali, semi matt ali, magnesium, white ali, dark ali, dull ali and jet exhaust, Tamiya and Gunze acrylic paints...this has been a marathon masking job...consuming 2 rolls of Tamiya tape, and 3 bottles of Alclad!!...

The other models have had to be shelved as this one took so long to get right!!...an absolute pig of a model that fought me every step of the way !!. but it had to be done as along with the Blinder, they are my favourite Soviet jets...

The TU-144 will be finished a bit later as it suffered a catastrophic decals failure right at the end, with the blue stripe on the port side exploding on impact with the water!!...but that's another story, ( a replacement set is on the way from Ivo at Braz, bless him! :speak_cool: )...more on that when they arrive.

For now though this is how the model looked over the last 3 weeks,...

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Getting there......ready for Ash missiles, undercarriage doors, aerials and lights,Klear, decals and semi gloss clear varnish....

As of now it's finished.....in the gallery today...

Cheers,

Andy

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