Stokey Pete

Be sure to give yourself LOTS of space to display it.

Please do, id be delighted to see it up there.

Good evening all. May I present to you, my big Sukhoi Flanker. I acquired this monster kit from fellow LSP’er @LSP_Ray sometime last year. It came with pretty much all of the aftermarket bits and bobs available from @Zactoman , Aires, some Reskit exhausts, to which I also added Foxbot Decals and digital camouflage painting masks for the finish. We all know the kits shortcomings, and we all know how exquisite the resin ‘fixes’ are. I’ve done nothing more than add the resin parts to the build, with no modifications other than is necessary to make them all fit neatly. I’ve built this with it being attractive, as opposed to it being totally accurate. The build was pretty straightforward, but following my own order of construction to save me work later down the line. Many hours of sanding and dry fitting gave me a relatively tidy seam finish all round. Painting has been exclusively done with MRP paints. Weathering done with a mix of oil paint washes of various colours, some very light panel lightening and dirtying up in random places. Metallic areas are all MRP metallic paints, with a bunch of pastels used randomly inside the exhausts. I can’t recommend the Foxbot masks and their decals highly enough. But lots of care and time must be taken with them, they’re extremely delicate and things can go wrong very quickly if one rushes. I had many a test piece of old kits to try out all the things I wanted to do with the final finish, just to make sure it all worked without a hitch. The photo’s are the best I’m afraid. I only have a compact point and shoot camera to use these days, rather than when I had DSLR kit and a studio space. Enjoy.

This is so good! I’ve the same kit to attack at some time down the line. Always good to have excellent build threads to refer to.

At least if you made it like a Typhoon, it would look more like one than the current Typhoon kits available.

I can’t cope when I see this. I’d so love a 1/32 Bucc’ but don’t feel I have the skill to pull off what you have with this kit.

Excellent! We’re being treated to a pheast of phantom loveliness recently.

Love this. I have a big love of paint schemes away from the ‘norm’. You’re inspiring me to find an unusual Phatntom scheme to try out now.

A sure fire showstopper right there. Loving the processes and progress.

Properly built……counts me out

What an incredible coincidence with the dates for shipping. I’ve just finished the giant Flanker, and have an empty bench…….

I gotta say, it looks crazy good with those Zactomodels goodies hanging from it. I’ve only ever seen a couple of grainy images of Ukrainian Flankers with missile loads, so imagine it’s not a frequent occurrence. I imagine this load is highly unlikely to have been seen on any UkAF jet, but they’re too good not to put on the build. Great looks vs accuracy. Looks win every time for me.

To be honest, nor do I. The bulk of the paintwork was pretty straightforward. The madness started when I had to do repair and touch up work to tighten up some of the edges. It felt like I was going in circles at times.

Well, after 9 months or so, I’m calling it just about done. Excuse the rough pic’s, once I’ve got it onto some sort of temporary stand, and the missiles are hung from it, I’ll photograph it a bit better. For now, I’m just breathing a big sigh that it’s over, bar a few housekeeping jobs on it. It’s been, without doubt, the toughest paint scheme I’ve ever put onto a jet. It’s been exhausting at times, and on more than one occasion, came close to seeing if it could really fly.

I’m useless with dioramas. I simply try and mount the finished model in a dynamic looking flight pose for the type. A wooden/acrylic base, with clear rods for supports. Nothing fancy really.

Gear integrity won’t be tested for mine, it’s going gear up. Spares will be made available to those in need.

Are you going going to paint it, or leave it in all its bare metal glory?

New FB update with some photo’s of production parts have been posted by Jetmads. They’re expecting to be shipping at the end of July. Getting excited yet?

Getting up close and personal with the T2 a couple of summers ago.

D’ya know something, I never thought to consider how vast that thing would look, just up until I saw those photos of that section in your hand. That’s truly immense, and hugely impressive work. Hats off to you sir. Should it find its way to a table in the UK, I would love to see it.

That’s and outstanding build. Love it!

I usually put my favourite movies on the tablet. Music distracts me, but silence does too, so I use it as background noise.

It was an unexpected bonus to the mirage kit. I was originally going to hang 4 Flightpath missiles on it, but they’re really heavy resin/pe lumps to dangle from the wings so sought alternatives for weeks, until I realised that I already had a pair.

As far as I can tell, there’s no discernible difference between the 2, besides the name. I used them from my Mirage kit, and a couple from Flightpath to dress up my GR.1 test bed.

I’m calling engine 1 done. I can almost smell the Avtur burning.