scooternutz

Yes that wing root can be the devil in the build. My Su-27UB looks like garbage at the roots. Those areas will receive a lot of weathering.

By the way your DH-2 motivated me to get a new build. lbatros D.III 1/32 Roden ROD606 1 $64.79 Albatros D III Detail Set for ROD 1/32 Toms Modelworks TMW514 1 $12.13 WWI Allied & German Instrument Dials (Decal) 1/32 Airscale Model Aircraft Enhancements AIC3209 1 $10.40 Metal Turnbuckles Albatros Type (30) 1/32 GasPatch Models GPT32011 1 $30.39 I pasted the order to others can see how much it would cost to get everything. I can't wait to get on this build. I have all the oils to simulate the wood grain. The only thing is I couldn't find the decals for the patterned wings.

It would. Whatever is cheaper for the kit, the SU-27 or SU-30. Either way I am getting one or the other. I will have a forever entombed kit without a canopy. I just can't seem to find one online. An aftermarket kit would sell as the kit part is not well molded anyway. Zactoman makes one for a single seater.

Fellow modelers: It has been a while since I have made any progress on this big girl. I moved and managed to destroy my canopy and many other things. This model was in a Blue Hawk tough case but all the bits were in a cardboard box. It is unrecoverable. Is there an after market product canopy out there anywhere? If not, after all the work put into it, I will buy another Trumpy Su-27UB just to get that canopy. I won't like it but I will do that. With the after market costs so far, this model is easily 3 or 4 times the original models retail cost. If someone could mold and vacuum form one for me I would pay! Any advice is welcomed. Happy Friday everyone! Thanks!

Wow! Following!

Top half primed. Gonna let her sit for a day or two. Til next time...

Flabbergasted!!!

Getting ready to prime and paint. I haven't been able to model much at all this week. Life has been busy but rewarding. I closed the gear bay and the canopy with white craft glue so when I am done painting I can removed the parts and peel the glue off. I am going to try some Tamiya Surface Primer. My plan is to prime, paint panel lines, paint base colors, semi gloss, decals, semi gloss. For the exhaust nozzles I am planning on using Alclad II. Wish me luck! Til next time...

Beautiful paint! Amazing detail.

Stunning. Love the F-4. You are definitely making her look good!

Thank you all for the kind encouragement. This is a great bunch. There is so much to learn from everyone here.

What a modeling adventure it has been the past couple of days. After assembling the upper and lower fuselage I was ready to get started on my amazing Zacto Intakes. Unfortunately the USPS put the intakes in my post box which sits in the sun and warped my beautiful intakes. During dry fitting I could not get them to line up and even broke a wing trying to bend them into shape. I contacted Zactoman and Out2gtcha for advice. Out2gtcha suggested I contact Zactoman. I sent some pictures to Zactoman and he replied back with some fantastic advice. I had done some things wrong because I went rogue that could have made the intakes fit with a little work. He took time out of his busy day to check all of his molds and write me a full page of possible solutions and what I could have done differently. This goes above and beyond customer service. I will order things from Zactoman just on whim I may get a model to use his products. Here is what I was dealing with: Now what I write next I do not recommend anyone doing unless you know what you are doing and have the right tools. Also the danger of scolding yourself is real. It is very stressful and patience is a must. Going over Zactoman's suggestions I couldn't really use the techniques. I would have to chop the model and add styrene everywhere. And he threw every solution he could at me. Some of his suggestions are going into my knowledge locker. My experience is building ships and I have built a few resin hull ships. Sometimes the hulls are not right and have to heated and twisted so they are true. I decided to go for broke and repair the damage the heat had done to the intakes while in the mailbox. I boiled a pan of water, let stand for one minute and submersed the intakes, one at a time, for 30 to 40 seconds. I tested on a scrap piece of the mold. I used special tongs that are rubber coated and some insulated rubber gloves and pressed the intakes to the airframe re-molding them as they should be. I had already resigned that if I destroyed them, on my own accord, I would be ordering some more. It worked and now my Zactoman intakes fit beautifully. The moral of the story is these intakes are that good and worth drastic measures to get them to work. Had the heat not warped them they would have fit perfect. Before Zactoman and Out2gtcha calmed me down with their advice, I almost boxed her up and got restarted on my Tamiya F-16CJ. This model is not even half done and it has been a fight all the way so far. Til next time...

We will see how that wing blend looks after this evening. I am going to spray some blue on it and see the blemishes that I can't see right now. It feels very smooth and my scribe runs across the seams without any skips.

It is just simply prodigious! I have read your foiling adventures and I really want to try it. You, Sir, make me want to be a better modeler. Thank you so much for sharing!

Fantastic! I learned a lot. Thank you!

The top and bottom fuselage sections are together and I think that may be one of the hardest steps of this build. Clamps, quickset, glue, patience oh my! The halves went together but left some nasty seams on the top wing root. I added some putty to raise the wing a little and feathered it so it slopes down but makes the wing smooth. Only a little putty on the sides. Just glad this step is over. Now it is looking well on its way. Til next time...

If I were to do this again I would stick to the wheel wells that came with the kit and add the detail. Thankfully the wheel well doesn't hold the main gear strut. I would worry that it would not hold.

After a weeks travel to Florida and back I was itching to get back into my model. And my JH jig arrived while I was away. I assembled it the day before, sanded and put a coat of MinWax clear on it. I assembled my wings before I left and the time had come to glue them into place. I dry fitted, just the bottom half, for an hour, contemplating. Those that have built this one know where I am at. After shaving the Aires wheel wells and "ensuring" the top and bottom fuselage fit together I glued the wings to the lower half. I married them with the bottom seams and was feeling pretty confident. Dry fitting the top half the wing root doth not align at all my Lord!! I am freaking at this point. I mean freaking! The seam was too raised to fill or sand and the front slats would have never lined up. The Aires wheel wells were the culprit. The last thing I want to do is pop the wheel wells out and sand the back again. It is already paper thin on both of them. After popping the wells, no choice, out and trashing the lower half I decided to shave the walls of the wells. I would lose some detail but I really had no choice with my skill level. Remember these wells are painted and done. Shaving, sanding, removing old putty, and coming up with a new plan.... The wheel wells were so butchered at this point I used strip styrene to fill in some gaps. I was almost ready to salvage the OOB wheel wells or order some new Aires parts. You can see at the bottom of this picture just how thin I had to make that wall. Rather than use putty again, I filled in the gaps with styrene and CA gap filler. After I would apply the CA use some quick set in a dropper. At this point I did not care if the quick set drooled everywhere. Sanded and ready for whatever is next. Sanding took about two and a half hours due to not exerting too much force and cracking the wells off. Around 0045, early this morning, I washed everything up and am very relieved. The wells lost some detail on the edges and the Zacto intakes will cover most of the well up anyway. I have fitted the halves together and everything works. The wells are a few millimeters off from each other due to my poor chopping skills. Once fully assembled, this offset will be obscure. Till next time....

Stunning! Following!

I want to add: If one decides to build this model with the Zacto intakes it is best to cut the holes before doing any work on the lower half fuselage.

To save any seam filling I may have to do after the intakes are on I decided to fill the holes level with the rest of the fuselage. This way the intakes will have a flat surface to mate with. I glueed some styrene sheet to the back to give me an anchor. I cut some ill fitted styrene to fill the holes and used some CA gap filler to seal it up. Sanded and done. It looks worse than it is. It is really smooth and blended. I will scribe some panel lines in later. Going to take a break for a bit. The pictures span about 5 solid hours of work and it was all cutting and sanding mostly. I am going to finish painting the wheel wells and add the little pieces and move on from there. Til next time....

Fixed the wheel well and my Zacto intakes arrived today. They are everything I could have hoped for and I am more than happy I placed the order. The packaging is top notch and the pieces are just the best. You have to see it to understand what a superb product this intake kit is. Now on to the chop shop! The top left cutout I scribed with a blade but I was putting too much pressure on the fuselage half. I could hear my wheel wells cracking. I decided to finish the cuts with my Dremel. I am not graceful with a Dremel at all. You can see my choppy cuts compared to the nice edge of the scribing. I knew I was going to do some filling and after dry fitting I knew that most of this would be hidden. As you can see I will have to re-scribe some panel lines but I cut these holes out in no time. The Zacto instruction are very clear when it come to what needs to be removed. Here on the top of the intake Zactoman wants you to save some of the air splitter edge to meld with his pieces. I am not that good at chopping a model so I cut the entire splitter off of the fuselage half. I will add some strip styrene to build the splitter so it works. If you looks real close you can see one of my dog hairs on the piece. My dog Kirby lies under my table and feels the need to shake and scatter fine dog hairs everywhere. Swiffer Duster is my best buddy for this.

Following!

Your build progress so far reminds me of when the jets were torn apart at NADEP at NAS Jacksonville more than 25 years ago. Looks really good! Following.

I have spent so much time fitting the AM parts I thought I bought the wrong ones. That is part of it but sheesh!