johncrow

So after 15 minutes I'm burned out on sanding and shaping. Time to jump to some other task. I had a couple hours of interrupted solitude (during the day, no less) so I figured I could get something done. I'm not a detail fanatic, but I don't like the chintzy hinges used to attach the rudder to the vertical stab. I'm not saying my solution is right, but I think it's much better than stock. I carved out the small areas on the rudder and used small pieces of plastic to represent the hinges. Upon close inspection, it looks like small pieces of plastic, but from a foot away (much much better than my usual standard) it doesn't look bad. I also cropped the top of the vertical stab a bit. I spent way too much time looking at various refs and pics to try and figure out exactly how much to trim. Refs were not in agreement, and pics are sometimes hard to rely on depending on angles, lighting, etc., so I went with TLAR- that looks about right. I also removed the giant rivets/fasteners in the W-shaped pattern on top of the stab. I think they are present on the real deal, but Trump's hubcap-sized representation is not even close. They don't show much, if at all, in pics of the real thing. I may add some later, we'll see. I will re-work the static discharger/antenna/light/doodads close to the end of the build....they'd just get broken off if I worked them now. Thanks for stopping by, jp

Thanks guys, much appreciated. jp

I began work on the canard shoulder/attachment areas. I started with some plastic card, and then the first application of Milliput. I have much more to do here, but it's a start. I did this late at night when I had a few minutes, and apparently skipped the part of the process where the uncured Milliput is smoothed with water....guess I'm not all there late at night. I'm glad my hobby is not brain surgery. So I have some more sanding and shaping to do.... Thanks, jp

I think I'm just about done with the wings...at least for now. There are a few old rivets to fill in again, and I may add some here and there. It's not completely accurate for an Su-33, or an Su-27 for that matter. I figure it's about an Su-28.5, panel and rivet-wise. I also took a few liberties with scribing in the new full-span flaps. I found several different drawings of this jet, and they all were slightly different. But I'm happy with the way they turned out. Here's a bit better shot of one of the wings. My rivets don't show quite like the originals, but in the flesh, so to speak, they don't look too bad. The next step will be to add the wing fold hinge detail. I've got a basic idea of what I want to do, but have to work out a couple of details yet. I installed the stellar Zacto intakes. I removed the little antenna mounting pad do-dads that the Su-33 doesn't have. From a couple feet away, you can hardly tell the difference between my replacement rivets, and Zactoman's originals. I didn't get a pic of them, at least yet, so you'll have to trust me on that. I also shot some paint, thinking it was going to be easier to get the nooks and crannies now. But I do think the paint is a little too blue. Some of the pictures I was using for reference seem to be of an airshow jet. The service jets seem to be a little grayer. Or greyer. I haven't decided which. I also began modifying the tail. I cut out the stock 'stinger', and cut out the bulge on the bottom of the boattail. I glued some card in its place, and will fill and smooth it. I haven't totally worked this out, either, but I think I'm going to use the Zacto early stinger as a starting point, and modify it to look something like what the Su-33 has. If I can bring myself to hack up such a beautiful piece of resin... Until next time, jp

I'm in for two!

More progress on the wings. I've penciled in the flaps/flaperons in preparation for scribing. The split flaps still need the....little tabs that stick out over the hinges. I'm not yet sure how I'll scribe those. I'm a bit ham-handed with scribing so I've got to work out a way to make those look at least OK. Interesting.....I was using CA to fill rivets and panel lines that will not be needed. I thought if I added some blue food coloring to the CA it would make it much easier to see my progress. It most certainly did. And it also caused the bottle of CA to heat up and burst. Guess I should've paid more attention in chemistry class. See you again in a week or two. jp

I've had a few minutes here and there, and have made just a bit of progress. I've glued the flaps to the wings, and added a bit of plastic to the wing root area to account for the increased chord. I used some liquid glue and stretched sprue to fill the gap between the flaps and wings. Now to prime, fill, and scribe. I know the panel lines etc. are unlike those of an Su-27. My scribe job will be a mash-up of the 27 and 33. Thanks for looking, jp

Thanks for the input, Ryan. You sold me...I think I will try and scribe some believable lines first and see how it turns out. Sure will be easier! jp

Anyone ever have a sump pump failure? It's quite exciting, among other things. As a result, the basement is gutted and I have no real access to most of my tools and supplies. The good news is nothing except carpet padding and some wood trim was lost. Needless to say, the new pump is alarmed! It'll take me a month or two to get things put back together. Progress on this build has been slowed...but not stopped. Here is my temporary work bench One thing I was able to do is begin work on the wings. I've broadened the chord by inserting some plastic strip. I'm not sure if it's accurate or not; I found several drawings that were all just a bit different. But it's close enough. I'll restore and add panel line and rivet detail later. The black lines show (approximately) where the cuts for the wing fold and flaps will be. Here's my plan: Glue on the leading edge flaps and trailing edge flaps. Fill the areas between the trailing edge flaps and the wings. Then cut out the new flaps, and reassemble them to the wing. I think this will look better than just scribing in the flap lines. I'm not going to have them extended. Too much work, and I won't pull it off anyhow! Does anyone have any other ideas for this? I'd appreciate any input. Thanks for looking, jp

If Chris said he planned to release this conversion set....I'd shelve this immediately!

Did I mention I'm slow? But I do have a bit of progress to show. I had a few minutes the other night and I thought enclosing the empty refueling probe housing would be an easy and quick thing to do. I glued an inch or so of half a Maverick missile from the Trump A-10 kit to the inside of the fuselage. Looks much better than an empty hole, if not completely accurate. But in my haste to maximize the 10 minutes I had, I never thought to paint the thing. On the other hand, half of it will be covered, and the other half will have the probe so I'll be OK I think if I just shoot some paint in there later. Not a great shot at all...but I'm no photog and don't have time for the hobbies I DO like. Must be the cellphone camera anyhow.... I originally intended to build this canopy closed, but that would hide the amazing Zactodetail of the canopy framing. So I'm going canopy up...which means I have to pay more attention to the cockpit. I spent a few precious minutes making a 32nd scale map of South Chlamydia to put in the map holder...and realized when I took the pic it is long gone. Details and I don't always get along. The area behind the seat is in progress; now that I'm going canopy up I feel I should work on the seam there a bit. That's inwork. Thanks for looking, jp

Now this is the conversion I REALLY wanted to do. No way I could pull this off though. Looking forward to this one! jp

I've more or less completed the IP...anything else I do will have a pretty good chance of making it look worse. So aside from redoing the display screen in the upper right (dang dust....) I'm calling it done. I've got the tub and sidewalls mostly done, and will be shoehorning it into the fuselage upper half shortly. A pic or two to follow. jp

Thanks Rogiér, I've had that bookmarked for some time, and it has provided much inspiration. Many of his ideas I will be using on my build. I've been working on the Avionix Su-27 cockpit, and will have a couple pictures soon. I know that the Su-33 cockpit is not exactly the same as the Su-27, but it is very close, and I'll be using the set as-is. jp

Thanks for the support, folks. Rogiér- The 3 things that will be toughest for me are the wingfolds, the different stinger, and those canards! I have some (hopefully good) ideas how to proceed.

Ever since Trumpeter came out with the 1/32 Flanker, I've hoped for a Su-33. Much like the self-maintaining lawn I've been dreaming of, I don't think it's going to happen. I've been contemplating trying this conversion for years. Some of the things involved I think are beyond me, but I think the chances of pulling it off are high enough to give it a shot. I very rarely share my work; I build for me. I'm going to start a WIP for a couple of reasons, though. I have a tendency to start something and lose interest in it, so I'm hoping having a thread to keep updated may guilt me into keeping with the build. Plus, there are a few aspects of this project I haven't completely figured out yet. I've got some ideas, but when I get to that point I'll be looking for advice. There's nowhere I've seen with a greater knowledge base than here at LSP. But be warned…absolute accuracy is rarely my goal. My modeling time is limited; my job, three daughters, and wife take priority. So maybe I won't spend a whole lot of time on that wheel well if I know the model will sit on a bottom shelf when done. I don't let people look up my intakes anymore, so I may not address the seam in there. This project will have a lot of scribing and rescribing, and some of it will be fantasy. I'll address most of the differences between the vanilla Flanker and the Su-33, but not all. Then, too, modeling is not in the same category as most of the other things in life. I can't half-a my job, my family, or friends. (I may throttle back a bit on yardwork though.) My hobby, however, is a different story. Modeling is an outlet where I can do things however I want. If I feel like cutting that corner, I will. I think even an expert modeler would look at one of my models and say “That's supposed to be an XYZâ€. I'm fine with that. So let's get on with it. As things progress, I'll be getting help from Zactomodels, Avionix, Aires, and a couple of others. I debated on how to address the addition of the IFR probe and offset IRST on the nose. I decided to cast a copy of the 32nd Su-30 nose and graft it onto the 33. I know the shape of the IFR probe door/opening is not completely accurate but I know it'll look much better than anything else I try. It turns out the upper fuselage of the Su-30 kit is a bit deeper than that of the 27 kit. I had to trim 3-4mm from the bottom of my cast nose piece. Other than that, it seems to fit quite well. I had to slice the mold in order to remove the master. You can see the effect that had on the resulting cast, but it only took a couple minutes with a sanding stick to clean it up. Not too bad...think it'll look OK with the Zacto radome. Epoxy setting... For some reason, the uncropped versions of the pics are showing up in the post, though they are not the ones saved in Photobucket. It's late...I'll figure it out later! Thanks for looking, jp

In no particular order: Su-34 MiG-29 F-102 F-106 F-101 jp