Sukhoi SU-30 MKK

[Out2gtcha]

I had the last few days off and feel like I didn't get a thing done. I spent most all of it working on the Pitz models exhaust cans. They will be great looking in the end I think, but they are definitely not for the beginner, nor the faint of heart.

Thanks again to Mirko @ Pitz who sent me an extra pit O PE, so I have been breaking out every and any weapon in my arsenal to get the textures, patina, colors and alignment right with these.

 

Some things worked……………….some things didn't.

On wit da show………..

 

I started off by trimming away the hard aluminum Pitz compressor blades. They are to be mounted on the face of the OOB Trumpeter piece, so the face of the Trumpy part has to be shaved off.

You can see here the stock OOB Trumpy blade, as well as the OOB Trumpy back with the Pitz models compressor blade mounded –

 

 

 

 

 

Next up were the burner baskets. The Pitz kit calls to use the stock OOB Trumpy baskets, but of course with my severe AMS, I had to make it much harder on myself and make the super fiddly and delicate Eduard PE burner baskets.

 

Here are the OOB Trumpy baskets with the PE parts punched out. You can see how much more delicate (and accurate…..moreso anyway) they are VS the OOB parts –

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the assembled, but not yet painted, PE burner can –

 

 

 

 

 

I then had to move on and address the inner exhaust can that would carry, and be exposed to all of the extreme heat and intense conditions while the engine was in operation. I wanted this to be reflected when someone looked down the engine cans when the model is done. The little and few close ups I have of the 1:1 bird, do reflect colors in the metal, and a fairly typical burnt, ashy flat look to the interior cans.

 

I started off by taking the forward sections of the burner cans where the PE and compressor blades will attach, and sanded them smooth. I leveled the small lip off of the Trumpy part and set to work thinning the interior wall with a variety of different shaped needle files.

 

The OOB part was quite thick and needed a lot of thinning and shaping to get it to eventually blend with the rear PE exhaust exit interior.

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually I got where I thought it should be. You can also see here the small PE secondary compressor fan blades.....also heat treated with the mini torch –

 

 

 

 

 

By now, my PE burner baskets were sufficiently dry, so I painted them, weathered them a bit (as I knew once in, there would be NO chance to do that), glued on the smaller secondary PE compressor blades, and then glued that whole assembly to the main compressor blade fans. I left the main blades with only a bit of very slight weathering to dull their original shine down, as the pics I have usually show them really in clean order –

 

 

 

 

 

The slightly brighter compressor blades also help lighten the engine cans up, so one can see even a tad of all this work.

Next, I took the previously mini-torch colored interior PE panels and painted them with very thin layer of MM jet exhaust, then an even thinner layer of MM burnt iron.

You can see those results on top and left respectively.

 

The bottom/right panel is the same panel, only after a bit of the burnt, fired, and weathered treatment. It doesn't really show the much in these pics, but I'm rather pleased with this outcome, as even after the paint and weathering you can still see the variation in reds, greens and golds coming through -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE in a bit…………

[Guest Peterpools]

Brian

OMG... unbelievable! I have a tough time bending PE parts and not loosing them. The burner baskets look spectacular. Awesome work.

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Peter! Just working on the interior burner cans should have more pics soon.

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Guest Peterpools]

Brian

Looking forward to the next set of photos. Super work

Peter

[PhilB]

No wonder you were knackered when we spoke yesterday!

Glad you got that pe safely on those compressor blades.

I would prolly have crushed them on the bench with my luck.

The pe for the cans looks great. Its very hard to get the colours right in there and you have got a nice burnt look.

Glad to see the pastel chalks on the bench too.

 

Phil

[Out2gtcha]

No wonder you were knackered when we spoke yesterday!

Glad you got that pe safely on those compressor blades.

I would prolly have crushed them on the bench with my luck.

The pe for the cans looks great. Its very hard to get the colours right in there and you have got a nice burnt look.

Glad to see the pastel chalks on the bench too.

 

Phil

 

YAR! Thanks mate. Yes, Im not sure one could get that heat treated, yet chalky burnt look without pastels. VERY handy for that. And as you mentioned, if you put on teh MM flat clear with low enough airbrush pressure, and light enough coats, it really does not destroy the look that much at all.

 

Yeah was REALLY tired when we spoke last............and I only put less than 1/2 of the pics / work I did on the engine burner cans/basket/compressor blades.

Im off to bed now as just back from work (which SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCked!) and need sleepy.

 

I will post the other 1/2 of this weekends exhaust work when I get up in a few hrs.

I also picked up another bottle of the MM jet exhaust metalizer, and a refill of Butane for the torch so I can continue to color up the exterior feathers.

 

B

[Out2gtcha]

Ok, here are the rest of the pics I promised, of the second 1/2 of the work completed over the previous long weekend...........

 

While the burner basket/compressor blade assembly dried, I set to work on the previously thinned and shaped forward burner can pieces.

 

I started by painting these in a layer of MM Jet exhaust, then added thinned layers of deep metallic blue and dark British racing green metallic………….followed by an extra thin layer of the burnt iron.

I tried to capture the noticeable green/blue/iron metallic quality of the exhaust cans in the sunlight coming through the man cave sliding glass doors, but it really doesn't show in the pics. I does however and is however noticeable in person.........even if a bit less so after the interior burnt/weathering treatment –

 

 

 

 

 

Next I gave it the same highlight weathered, burnt and fired treatment I gave the PE interior piece it will match up with.

You can see the before and after weathering. I like it so far. The weathering also seems to do a good gob in highlighting things too –

 

 

 

 

 

While all of THAT mess was drying, I went to work on the exterior and took to smoothing and sanding the interior brass can sections that provide the shape contour and backbone to glue the two layers of external PE exhaust feathers onto. This took quite a while of smoothing, dremeling, sanding and dry-fitting to get right, but it paid off in the end. Also had to make sure I had a good adhesion surface for the two part "JB Weld" glue I'll use to assemble the major parts of the exhaust cans –

 

 

 

 

 

After the brass body was rough sanded, and dry fit well with the exterior feathers, I could move on to shaping that first layer of exterior exhaust feathers. Per Mirkos instructions this has to be very clean not only for glue adhesion purposes, but also for the tight tolerances. I found the PE feathers really only have a very slight margin for error, and things have to be very thin and smooth, for the PE feathers to fit around the brass bell and get no gap in between the wrapped ends of the PE feathers.

I rolled these exterior pieces into shape with an exacto handle and ran a sanding bit down the parts the will have contact and will be gluing surfaces –

 

 

 

 

I wrapped the newly shaped first/interior, exterior layer (if that makes sense) of PE feathers to the brass tube form, and used zip ties, and rubber bands to keep things together and tight……….then I used some small lead shot in medicine cups on a pieces of super smooth flat bathroom tile to keep the tops of the cans even while drying –

 

 

 

 

 

Ill let those pieces dry 24hrs or more.

Next up, I got my inner and PE burner can parts and sanded the gluing surfaces as I did the exterior feathers.

 

After getting all 32 10mm long U channel brass spacers measured, cut, sanded, squared, positioned and finally glued (THAT was a whole process in and of itself!) around the exterior of the INterior feathers, I used the same MO as when gluing the exterior first layers: two part JB Weld and zip ties…..only this time I had to make sure the seam was 110% lined up, with 0 gap at the bottom, keeping that edge even with teh PE, as there could be no weight used here to position things even across the can –

 

 

 

 

One thing of note here...............the glue.

There is quite an excess of it, and size IS of utmost importance here, so the whole burner can assembly will still fit into the fuse engine holes. The tolerances were very tight to begin with, even on the OOB parts, so some grinding/sanding will definitely need to be done here after things are dry, so they will fit. I just figured that the extra bit O glue could be easily sanded/ground down, but the added strength it will give would be worth it.

We shall see...........

 

 

 

 

After separating every other exhaust feather out, from the ones that had the brass U shaped channels on them, I took the Pitz PE locking ring off its PE fret, cleaned it up, and locked it over the previously made bend in the interior. I did a little more weathering to the burner can interior and the interior cans are almost complete……….

 

You can see the before and after of the assembly/weathering process here –

 

 

 

 

 

 

MUCHO more work to go before the whole of the exhaust cans are complete though….

That's all I got done in about 4 days time…………..doesn't FEEL like very much at all, but I hope the work will pay off.

 

Thanks for checkin in on me.

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Out2gtcha]

Also worth noting.........I just picked up a new butane torch refill and some MM metalizer "jet exhaust" so now that both the interior and exterior JB weld parts are dry, I can now weather them both.

I tried using a brass "aging solution" antiquing acid, on the PE parts and even overnight with some sanding, it had 0 effect. Ive come up with a cool weathering treatment for the exterior but cannot use this method on the interior as those parts are already glued so Im going in a different direction with those.

 

Breaking more new ground for myself here but hopefully my Ideas will have the result I think they will. Ill likely start that process this week or weekend. Work is sucking hard core now and im heading to a career fair at my current employers over the next two days, to see if there are any other jobs I can switch over to.............On to updating my resume it looks like!!!

 

Till next time lads,

Brian

Edited June 8, 2011 by Out2gtcha

[Guest]

Man, I'm liking this !! Go Brian, Go ! Just looks killer.....Harv

[PhilB]

WOW! Cable ties!!!!!!

Not taking any prisoners with this one Eh?

Not heard of JB weld here in the ookay.

Better than ca for brass?

 

Just don't drop them!

 

Awesome work amigo!

 

Phil

[TaffyMan]

O MY GOD!!! and double :wow:

 

Thats a kit in it's self - I'm knackered just reading about it.

 

Awesome work keep it going man

 

 

Taff

[Kagemusha]

Amazing, waiting for that update was like waiting for a next episode of The Wire (best TV programme ever ® ), small steps, giant leaps! I wouldn't worry about the different weathering techniques used for the inner and outer parts, I'm sure they'll provide a contrast which will look spectacular, got my fingers crossed it runs smoothly.

[Out2gtcha]

Man, I'm liking this !! Go Brian, Go ! Just looks killer.....Harv

 

Thanks Harv, much appreciated kind words....................as I think you need to keep going on yours so I can steal some techniques!

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Out2gtcha]

WOW! Cable ties!!!!!!

Not taking any prisoners with this one Eh?

Not heard of JB weld here in the ookay.

Better than ca for brass?

 

Just don't drop them!

 

Awesome work amigo!

 

Phil

 

 

Yarp! Zip ties worked awesome for keeping thins stable. It acutally took quite a bit O pressure on the ties to pull things together like I wanted. MUCH MUCH dry fitting and sanding and smoothing to get things seated, as the glue does take up some space and is quite thick.

 

Ah yes.............good Ol JB Weld -

 

 

Its basically a do all, stick literally anything to anything kind of two part epoxy. Its touted as a "cold weld" type glue and it does hold true. The drying time is quite long (15 hrs to put the item back in use at least) but its the strength of the bond and the fact that with a bit O rough sanding will literally hold anything to anything. Glass to metal, metal to metal, metal to plastic, wood to plastic,,,.ect ect.

 

Just be sure whatever your gluing is what you want to glue. Cause one it dries thats IT. Your going to end up ruining whatever you just glued LONG before the bond will ever break. Quite good stuff, as the working time allows for a lot of wiggle room and adjustment of the cans in this case. As their add runs.......................

 

"Dont scrap it! JB Weld it."

 

JB Weld

 

B

[Out2gtcha]

O MY GOD!!! and double :wow:

 

Thats a kit in it's self - I'm knackered just reading about it.

 

Awesome work keep it going man

 

 

Taff

 

Thanks Taff! Yes that last statement of yours is actually VERY true.....................the Pitz cans ARE a little kit in and of themselves.

 

The engineering tolerances put in place by Mirko @ Pitz are VERY tight but I would not expect anything less. The kit is very good, but again NOT for the modeling or PE novice for sure. I also LOVE the fact that Mirkos PE in this case is very thick, as the weathering technique im going to use on the outermost exhaust petals requires me to use extreme heat to go beyond the multi-colored phase of heat treating, and continue to heat and you get a very dark titanium/black tinge that (to my eyes anyway) looks just like the 1:1, and Mirkos PE takes it without issue.

 

This weathering treatment also has 1 other unexpected benefit I found........by taking the heat treatment BEYOND the level where I achieved teh golds, greens and reds, to the titanium level it is by strict definition, annealing the metal. This makes it much easier to work around the forms.

 

Its turning out killer so far (more pics later when I actually have something to show) but of course I ran out of butane for the torch in the middle of it, and only got 1/8th of the outermost petals done.

 

Cheers,

Brian