Academy 1/48 SU-30MK Flanker - Wash on!

[steve149c]

Hi All,

I will be starting this as soon as I get home on Friday!

Manufacturer: Academy (Hobby Model Kits)
Scale: 1/48
Type: Su-30MK Flanker - Special Edition
My Option: SU-30MK, 'Blue 501' on Demonstration Tour, 2006
Notes: This is a reproduction of the newly manufactured dual-seat body & Cockpit, armament R-73, R-77, Kh-31 etc.
Dimensions: Length 452mm, Height 134mm
Extras: Aftermarket Bang out seats (photos in update when I get home)
Paints: Have bought the Akan Soviet paints - which are dead on in colour - but had to get them imported for the States - so the colours should be very good!

Firstly the box - a great frontal shot with good detail. Round the side of the box are more photos - though these are of a model Su-30MK - however a google search of "SU 30 501" shows up some great images.



Open the box and whow!





Sprues -



























PE 1 -



Decals







Instructions - well straight forward enough and very clear.



Am looking forward to getting my teeth into this once the 109 is painted!

All the best

Steve

[Flyingmonster]

What a lovely looking kit!

[paddyboy]

That looks like a real mans kit

Here's me havin' 4 days off and making next to no progress on my Rhino; spending too much time rescuing photos to put up

Can't win 'em all

Have fun with the build; I shall be peeking to see progress on this one

Paddyboy

[steve149c]

Cheers Guys!!

Well with the BF109 almost finished I have started this - finally.

First up, great detail on the pit (for a kit part its great), showing the rears seat.



Next up - again great detail on the instrument panel - upper is the pilot and lower is the rear.



There are also side walls to put it wil nice details

Next up the bang seats - I opted for a set of Wolfpack resin seats as the kit ones were not much good. The Wolfpack are great, main seat and then seperate headpiece, fantastic detailing.





I just hope that my modelling skills have come on far enough for this great kit!

Looking ahead I can see that surgery is required - but I'll keep that for another day. Hopefully get some paint on these tomorrow if times allows.

Thanks for looking

Steve

[paddyboy]

Hi Steve

Looks like you will have real fun detailing those seats

Cheers

Paddyboy

[garyscott]

Looks like a great kit, but that cockpit canopy looks like a bu**er, is that a heavy seam running the length of the transparencies, or just the light looking like a seam?

[steve149c]

Hi All,

Well the fun starts here!! Painting and Surgery - nothing better for a modellers day!!

First up the cockpit tub, walls and bangseats, fans blade and the nose all primed with Vallejo White Primer - went down lovely too.



Next up was the Akan Blue paint for the interior - now Akan sprays straight from the bottle and is a lovely shade of blue, I have gone for one of the later shades of 501 which was much darker than others, later models 502 and 503 had a light grey interior (how common!).



Now the nose - several rumours about whether Academy had corrected this known issue with the Su-27 nose - to me it looks fine, it was seperate from all the sprues - comparission to the photo on the box it looks good - but I have ordered a NeOmega resin nose just to make sure (plus it will add weight to the front and make sure I don't have a tail sitter!).

Thoughts on the shape anyone?





Next up Surgery - to change the common Su-27 to the Su-30MK, I had to remove the front pit area and replace. First up I mated the pieces upsidedown - thus I knew where the exit cut had to be.





Taping it together revealed a panel line to follow.



First time I have ever chopped anything up like this so I was extremely apprehensive to say the least. So old nose off and new one sitting in place. Yes there is a gap - but I am happy with that - for a first attempt it was not a disaster!



Now came the fiddly bit, I taped it all up as best I could for alignment and then tack superglued (medium) the upper corners, aligned and used kicker. Then I repeated for the lower ones, making sure that everything was straight.



Finally a run of superglue and kicker down that gap and it has almost gone. Tomorrows job is to use filler and make it disappear (famous last words). Panel lines in the area are minimal which is great! But I will have to rescribe the panel line that forms the join afterwards.

A view from the inside shows the join, with the superglue.



So that's where I am tonight, major pressure point 1 complete :-)

Cheers for looking

Steve

[tc2324]

The first cut is always the deepest...., or so I`ve heard...

Great work so far Steve.

[steve149c]

Thanks TC - LOL

Small update, spent alot of today getting that join to disappear. First up I masked either side of the seam, then with some Squadron green, slightly thinned with Tamiya X-20A thinners, I applied a thin slither.



Before it set, I removed the masking tape - this was to minimise the area covered in Squadron green, and thus minimise sanding - which inturn minimises damage to the panel lines - which means less rescribing - winner!!



Leaving it to set overnight I set about sanding it down, using the skinny sticks I worked my way down to the smooth and finally polisher. A quick spray of matt black revealed some imperfections - so Mr Surfacer 500 used. I repeated this 3 times, finally on the 4th time I used Mr Surfacer 1000 - and now it has disappeared - one happy chappy here :-)

Starboard Side


Port Side


Whilst all this was going on - I wanted to check that I had got the nose join perfect - only way, to fit the nose - bingo, first time perfect fit - 2 for 2 so far!




Finally I decided that the pit blue that I had used was too dark, my reference photo was abit lighter - so I have opted for light blue faded, which once detailed and wash applied I think will look ok.



Cheers All,

Steve

[tanker]

nice job Steve

[steve149c]

Thanks Tanker - now for the pit, I have worked with the limited photos that I could find (it seems the Russians are still pretty sensitive about the Su-30MK cockpit)

The main screens have had matt black, then PVA and finally a clear blue to show they are screens.

What do you think? Honest answers please - as I would like to know before I seal it and wash it. Thanks in advance

Front Seat Instrument



Front Seat sides



Rear seat



Steve

[tanker]

Cockpit detail is great

[Dan214sqn]

superb work on the cockpit steve

[steve149c]

Thanks Guys,

More detail to come, I was too soft with the dry brushing, so I've had another go. It's sealed with Klear now awaiting setting hard, then a wash. Joysticks are done, just working on the bang seats.

It's coming slowly!

[steve149c]

Hi all,

Well its been steady progress getting the pits completed, and I am rather pleased with them. As 'Blue 501' was a demonstration model it has led to a few of the panels being different colours as she was originally an Su-27! Also it meant that the bang seat had some great colours on the harnesses - plus I decided against a wash as the pit would have been kept pretty clean for demonstration and viewing.

The joystick for the back had to be modified, both in the kit are the same, but the rear one should only have a cobra head with no lower left button, so I sanded this off - doesn't look bad in reality.

So here she is, what do you all think? Its dry fitted at the moment, won't glue it in until I have painted around the pit area.

Front Seat



Forward Bang seat



Both seats from the front



Side



And my favourite, the quarter shot showing all the instrument panelling



As always comments welcomed!!

Cheers

Steve

[Flyingmonster]

Superb detail mate!

[tc2324]

... and about bl00dy time too.....

That is an excellent result Steve and I`m looking forward to the rest of the build.

[steve149c]

Thanks Jamie and TC

Hi all,

With the pit complete I sealed her up and masked her off - always a nice stage, using PVA wood glue, which I find better than regular glue I worked her into place and sealed the outside, plus a quick wipe round with damp cotton bud.



Next up to mate the upper and lower fuselage - and to be honest I didn't have too much difficulty, except the back end. The exhausts/engines lined up wonderful, but the sides next to the horizontal stabilisers was a nightmare - so plenty of Mr Surfacer 500 here - lucky no panel lines in this area.



Moving on - the intakes each had 6 injection markings on - so they had the surfacer treatment and removed.



Before dry fitting, highlighted this problem with the wheel bay, so that is a job for tomorrow.



Then I was rechecking my reference photos for Blue 501 to rescribe around the nose area. When I noticed that the filler cap (can't think of a technical term) was not flush with the fuselage. The kit provides a PE cap, so I set about making a small shim to create this raised panel. A is the PE cap, B is the reference photo and C is the area on the model.



First up some thin clear plastic, and using the PE cap as a scale I created the shape and cut to size - being clear meant that I could overlay one onto the other.



Then I used Tamiya Extra thin and stuck it to the fuselage, taping it down hard as the fuselage has a lovely curl at that point.



Pretty happy - but the morning will tell, I think it might be a little on the large side, but I can cut it back gentley.

Hopefully the morning will provide good results - famous last words.

C&C welcome as always,

Cheers

Steve

[paddyboy]

I said you would have big fun detailing that cockpit

You have not disappointed me

Great work Steve

Well worth your patient approach

Best regards

Paddyboy

[steve149c]

Thanks Paddy - yes I really enjoyed it and learnt alot from it!

Hi All,

Well the small addition didn't exactly go to plan - it was abit thick as already mentioned, and abit too large. So I cut it gently in place (without scratching the fuselage) and then sanded her down.

Abit of Mr Surfacer around the edge that I had developed and I am happy with her - lesson learnt though, Acetate sheet next time. But its another lesson learnt.

Here she is, looks ok, just some tidying up to do - anyone got any suggestions how to square the corners up to make it look more like a welded sheet?





Then the engine intakes assembled and dry fitted in place - again no major problems here - the join at the rear will take some work to fill in.



Looking forward to your thoughts as always

Steve