Dukie99

I love what you are doing here, your painting is very inspirational. Once I am done with my Su-25, I will do an Intruder, I love mudmovers:) Cheers, David

Looking really sharp. Primer looks as smooth as a baby's butt. Cheers, David

Neo, Shelby, thanks for leaving a note. I finished the pit (minus the bangseat), I needed to add the throttle and the rudder pedals. I am happy with the result. The Aires cockpit set is really a great addition to this kit: awesome detail, easy to assemble, almost no pour plug to remove, and a good fit, definitely one of their better offerings. Before closing the fuselage, I wanted to ensure that I will not get a tailsitter so I poured a mix of steel grain and PVA for a bit more nose weight. i did a rough balance test she should be firmly planted on her feet. and here is the fuselage closed. The cockpit is epoxied on the left side. I plan to glue the engine nacelles before closing the fuselage to ensure a good fit between the nacelle and the fuselage but before doing that I need to clean up the nacelle seams. So far the fit of the fuselage is close to perfect. Cheers, David

Kagemusha and Alain, Thank you for your kind words. I am almost finished with the pit and I am pretty happy with the result even though the macro is unforgiving. it looks better IRL I need to finish the bangseat and add bits and bobs and I can then close up the fuselage. Cheers, David

Here are the main wheel wells painted and epoxied in the engine nacelles. The fit is really good. I need to add a coat of semi-gloss varnish and it will be time to focus on the pit again. very little of this will be seen once the gear doors are glued in place but I know its there. Cheers, David

Small update: I just finished painting and weathering the front gear bay. I still need to add a coat of half-gloss Alclad varnish and then I can epoxy the bay in the fuselage. Although the quality of the Aires wheelbays is great and the fit is excellent compared to some other Aires set, I feel this is a bit of an overkill, unless you want to have all the gear doors hanging down to show the details. In its normal configuration, all the gear doors will be closed except for one in each bay leaving very little to see of the bay details. I will not spend too much time on detail painting of the two main wheel bays and move on. cheers, David

This is just beautifully done, I am drooling...

Thanks Guys for the encouragement. So far this is very enjoyable. Not a lot of progress to show from last week-end. I have almost finished the engines and air duct. As I will not open any panels, the fairly detailed engines provided by Trumpeter will never be seen, so I did not bother adding the details or painting the inside, just the structural bit and the one you will see, meaning the airduct, fan and exhaust. Fan and exhaust are the Aires bit: they look good and the fit is great, no complaint. The airduct has a nasty seam in the middle but fortunately due to the somewhat agricultural nature of soviet jets, on the real jet the two side of the duct are connected by a riveted joints and these joints are part of the Eduard PE set. Very fiddly to glue properly inside the duct but with thin CA, I managed. Fan is painted with Alclad Aluminum, the duct is white aluminum with a dark dirt wash. I am happy with the result Sorry for the crappy pics, who knew taking pictures of air ducts was so complicated... Till next time, Cheers, David

I just bought one, received an e-mail this morning that it has shipped with an ETA end of March. Gotta finish the Whiskey first.

I will definitely get one. I am currently building the Academy AH-W with the Verlinden detail set, master barrels and Werner Wing's vac canopy. The kit is showing its age and lack in détails but the fit is not bad and it has very nicely done positive rivets all over the fuselage. Looking forward to the Viper to display it next to the Whiskey.

Not wanting to make you wait, I will post the progress made over last week. Once I finished my F-15i Ra'am for the desert GB, I jumped right into the Su-25 and with all this AM, there is a lot of sub projects. In no particular order, I worked on the load-out, assembling Harold FAB-100. Delicate assembly but I think they look great and should look even better under a coat of paint. I did some preparatory work for the resin wheel bay, yikes! Cleaned all the resin, primed the major components for the cockpit and front bay and started preparing the inside of the fuselage halves as well as the resin components to fit The quality of the Aires casting is simply awesome: and after some careful prepping work but nothing approaching the work required in my Me-410 project, I am happy to report that the fit of the front bay and the cockpit is excellent, the two halves of fuselage holds all this resin without any tension or gaps. There will be need for some clean-up but overall I am super happy with the fit: Now I can go put some color on the primer. Cheers, David

I decided that I needed a fresh start to this GB and a diversion from the Me-410 (which I will complete before the end of the year), so I will build a Su-25 in the Soviet-Afghan war. When I restarted modeling seven years ago after a 25 year break, it is one of the first kit I bought and I have collected a ton of AM, which I will hopefully put to good use. Box shot: Reference materials: and the AM; full Aires detail set, Eduard exterior set, resin wheels, Zactomodel pylon and AA missile, Aerobonus gunpods, a choice of pitot tubes. Load out has been chosen based on the 4+ publication load-out chart: 16 FAB100 on 4 MER, 2 SPPU-22 gun pods deflected 30° down (one firing forward and the other backward), 2 B8-M1 or UB-16 Rocket pods and 2 R-60 AA missiles. The FAB100 have been specially casted for me by Harold and Mark31 has generously contributed leftover MER from his own Su-25 build. and one motivational shot before we get started: Cheers, David

I would definitely buy a set for each type. Cheers, David

Congrats, very very cool camo. Cheers, David

An amazing build, thank you for sharing. I am hoping that when the ZM HS-129 comes out, you will be kind enough to give it the same treatment and share the build with us. Cheers, David

It is a "HPH-style repackaging", except that the chocolate is bigger and the kit is easier to build... Cheers, David

Carl, awesome result. The camo scheme is very attractive and wonderfully done. I am impressed by the fit of the wings and nacelles, excellent build. I have four 110 in the stash, I need to do one soon, yours is very inspirational. Cheers, David

And it is done. Very happy with it, happy to have finished it in time. It is by no means perfect but it was a very enjoyable build and I can see myself building another one or a F-15C in the future. All paints are MRP, smart bombs are from Eduard, Python 4 are from Isradecals and the Amraam are from Tamya F-16. The pit is OOB with the bits and pieces from the Isracast conversion, the seats are Quickboost. With this one done, I can reattach the Me-410 for the multiengine GB. Final pictures: Thanks to all who have followed the build and encouraged me, it is always appreciated. Cheers, David

Great workmanship showcased by excellent photography.

Congratulations! It is honestly a stunning build. My own builds are never error free, I tend to make small mistakes in my enthousiasm to get things done but once I put the finished model in the display cabinet I tend to forget about these and all is left in my mind is a nice looking model and the good memories of building it. Now that you have finished it, let's hope that Tan model finally releases their long-awaited Sea Flanker. What will be your next project on the bench? Another Russian subject? Cheers, David

Time for an update and thanks Brian for commenting. With so many exciting build in the multi-engine GB, not much traffic on this one but I will finish my F-15i Ra'am. Not too hard to motivate myself because I find this scheme one of the most attractive for the F-15. I finished decaling, glued the targeting pods, fuel tank and landing gears and applied Tamiya Black panel liner to the center lower fuselage (but not the wings where it would look too heavy). Next steps, finishing the loadout, ejection seats and lots of bits and bobs. I should make it before the end of February deadline. A few pics Cheers, David

Time for an update. I have not been very diligent in documenting this build but I have been working on it. I am actually on the homestrech and I have spent almost all my modeling time in the past seven days (which is not much) applying the myriad stencils provided in the Isradecal decal set. I have not counted them but you are talking several hundreds. Very good quality decals and clear instructions so no complaint but you get cross-eyed after a while. Here some pics and I have not finished, I need another two evenings at least. It is big and colorful and I like it a lot. Cheers, David

Thanks, now I have time to finish it and post an update. I am in the middle of applying a gazzilion of stencils... cheers, David

Is this GB getting a one month extension? I am close to finishing my F-15i Ra’am but it is unlikely that I will be done within the next three days. I am also happy to get my build moved to the WIP section if there is no interest in extending this GB. Cheers, David

This looks great, it calls for a cognac and a cigar...I would suggest a coat of transparent orange for that extra cozy feeling... This is the Margaux talking I swear. Cheers, David