johncrow

Don- How has your F's landing gear behaved over the years? Any sagging noted? I have a couple of these kits but have not really had much interest in building them, until I saw your build...missed in back then. Very inspiring, and informative. If those main gear legs suffer the same ills as the Academy gear, wonder if any aftermarket metal will be offered? jp

RF-4B...for sure...some of the colorful ones.

Harry Caray called....

OK, I came to the conclusion that this thing has to be finished. I haven't finished anything in 3 years...so I'm pressing on with little regard for warts and inaccuracies. I managed to knock off one of the vertical stabs (among other things) while manhandling the thing while repeatedly touching up all the problems resulting from my manhandling...I finally said 'enough'. If you can't see it from three...or ten feet away, it ain't there. Before reattaching the stab, I thought I'd try out some decals. The flag is from a sheet off eBay, the numbers and stencils from the Su-27UB kit, the star from a Linden Hill sheet, and the tiger from my printer. This was all intended as just a test to see how things looked...but I think I'll keep it. I need a shot or two more of Micro Sol, and I'm not completely thrilled with the opacity of the white on the tiger. A keen observer will note the tiger is missing his right side whiskers. I tried to brush paint them in with rotten results, so see paragraph #1 above. There's one more decal to put on...some sort of Sukhoi emblem or something, that I'll do when I scare up some clear decal paper. Applying decals will continue. I hope to get the weapons, landing gear, canopy, etc. put on the model soon. Thanks for stopping by, jp

I'm in for a set. jp

Progress has slowed...I had a bit of a run-in with a snowblower in February...and the snowblower came out on top. The good news is I still have 205 of the 206 bones I was born with though. Not so good news is my left hand is mostly out of commission for a while. Long-term prognoses is good, though. A full recovery is expected. No pics of THAT work in progress will be shown to protect the squeamish! Though I have plenty of time for modeling right now, there's not a whole lot I can do. However.... I have gotten a couple small things done. Our own Ilya pointed out my errors in marking the tailhook...and I've more or less corrected them. I printed out the correct decals and put them on...but still got it wrong. They should not be centered, but closer to the bottom edge. But that is where they will stay. This is basically the ends of an F-14 tailhook spliced on to a piece of square styrene, but it's going to be close enough. As always, thanks for stopping by. jp

Lovely...any chance you could detail how you got the exhaust/metal areas so convincing? jp

This is one kit....probably the only one...that will benefit from the SAC gear. (Though G-Factor would be even better.) The mains, in particular, are quite weak. I've built 5 or 6 of these kits over the last decade or two, and the mains failed on most of them. I replaced the mains on several with SAC gear. The oldest is about 5 years old now, and is holding up fine, no sagging. Yet, anyway. jp

Yes please!

I really hope this is gonna happen..... courtesy of ARC, you've got to translate the Turkish http://www.kokpit.aero/tan-model-baris-tansoy-hangar-sohbetleri

Thanks Matt! Yes, I'm thankful for the time she and I can spend together doing something we both enjoy...beats the heck out of playing with "My Little Pony"! I appreciate that, Gazzas. I feel it is still a bit over-the-top, but my hope is that the final weathering will tone it down a bit. I hope to get to that point soon!

Thank you, dutik, I appreicate your stopping by. Very kind of you, themongoose. I hope to report more progress soon! Thanks a lot, Marcell111. Your work is very inspiring to me.

Wow, it's been three months. I've been able to get a few small things done...just not a lot of time to fool with this. Here's a catch-all, haphazard, poor-quality pic to show where I'm at. I've taken care of the A-A refueling probe and cover, basically finished the burner cans, got started on the beeee-u-tiful Zacto missiles, finished the wingfolds, and started the BMF areas at the tail. I also have nearly finished the windscreen and IRST...man, what a giant pain that turned out to be. It will not be 100% accurate, but nothing on this build is. It will be close, though. My three-year-old daughter's Testor's Banshee snuck in there....I gotta tell you, I have more fun helping her with that than messing with my builds. No worrying about seams, scuffed clear parts, perfect paint jobs....and still there's that sense of accomplishment. She can't wait to hang it from her bedroom ceiling. Her seven-year-old sister wants to build one now. Anyhow, hope the new year gives you all what you hope for, jp

Not much progress for the amount of work put into this, but there is some. I originally was going to use a resin copy of the IRST from the Trumpeter Su-30 kit, but that just didn't look right. I cast a copy of the IRST from the Wolfpack Su-30 upgrade set and it looks much better. Still not 100% accurate but much better than the first attempt. The windscreen is not yet glued down, and it does require a bit more work to get fit better, but it's getting close. A big hurdle yet is now I have to blend in the right side fuselage/IRST area. Once again, thanks for stopping by. jp

Time to get serious about this canopy and windscreen...cannot put it off any longer, sigh. This is where I'm at. I have my vac-formed windscreen sitting on my resin copy of the front upper fuselage of the Trumeter Su-30 kit, with a resin copy of the IRST from the same kit. And oh yeah, the dash courtesy of Aires, via my spares bin. (Not sure how I ended up with some leftover Aires cockpit parts....I'm pretty certain I started this ride with an Avionix resin cockpit...but who knows, it's been a long time.) These parts are not attached yet, just put in place for planning purposes. And FYI, that hair in front of the windscreen is just a visitor. Wow, these closeups are harsh....more riveting and scribing to do. Maybe. And I also, for the fourth time, have to repair the fuselage right under the windscreen; it keeps breaking loose. One more casualty of my clumsiness. I'm using the stock canopy, which doesn't match up with my vac windscreen. Thus, I'm going canopy open where it's not really noticeable. At the start of all this, I intended to use the Zacto windscreen and canopy, but couldn't come up with a way to make the windscreen work with the offset IRST. At least no way with a reasonable chance of NOT screwing up one his gems. So, even though the Zacto canopy detail is much better than the Aires, I'm going with another stray (broken) Aires part with the kit canopy. I did add a bit of styrene to the front edge of the canopy, and I'll fair in the ends as soon as the glue sets up. I added some rivets to the Aires canopy part which are not at all visible...ah well. I think if I try to make them more prominent I have a pretty good chance of wrecking things, so they will remain as-is. The resin part is not yet glued to the canopy. I'll add the resin bow to the edge of the windscreen. I realized these are not pics of much progress, but more of what I intend to do. I think it's my way of ensuring I don't back out! (I have a Wolfpack resin Su-30 conversion set, and I have considered sawing off my nose and using it instead...but that may just turn a mash-up into a hatchet job.) As always, thanks for stopping by. jp