Kinetic 1/48 Sukhoi Su-33 Flanker

Started by Johannes Gerl · 64 · 6 years ago · 1/48, Flanker, Kinetic, mostrubbishinstructionseverprinted, Su-33, Sukhoi
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    Johannes Gerl said 6 years, 6 months ago:

    Thanks, guys, for the encouraging comments.

    @gkittinger: I'm using Alclad Klear for this project. I've also started to evaluate Mr. P clear products for the Ducati project and I think I like them even more.

    @naviatik, @georgelj: Jep. I too like my models as glossy as possible but flat enough to hide all carrier films. The point is: you never know before you've tried.

    @dirtylittlefokker: David, the model stand is available at a Czech company named JH models (http://www.jhmodels.eu/). I can recommend it wholeheartedly, it works great.

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    Johannes Gerl said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    It has been six weeks since my last post in this group and eventually I’m able to come up with some news.
    The landing gears of this kit are kits on their own. It takes a while to get them aligned and the legendarily bad instructions rather confused me than being a help at all.
    I’ve experimented with small pieces of brass tube to attach the plumbing and it worked pretty well.

    9 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Boris Rakic said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    Very good, Monsieur Gerl! What material did you use for the wires? I used to use copper wire, but found it rather difficult to bend it exactly the way I wanted. Have switched to lead wire since.

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    Johannes Gerl said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    Thanks, Boris.
    I normally prefer styrene rod for the same reason, but the thinnest you can get is 0,5 mm. Lead I don't use for it sounds kind of unhealthy.
    In this case I've used copper wire of 0,2 and 0,3 mm.

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    Johannes Gerl said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    Friends,

    after two months of hesitation I could finally convince myself to put a clear coat on the Su. The concept was to maintain as much sheen as possible, but on the other hand to have it as flat as necessary to just hide the edges of the decal carrier films. To get there I eventually used a mix of 2/3 of Alclad Semi-Matte and 1/3 Alclad Matte. A small number of impertinent decals received a treatment with a local application of Alclad Matte and the resulting transition area was sanded.

    I’m not completely unhappy with the result.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Greg Kittinger said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    Really gorgeous work so far!

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    Johannes Gerl said 6 years, 5 months ago:

    Thank you, Greg.
    Since eventually this clear coat is on, smaller works are proceeding nicely.
    @cchs1052 has recently mentioned a technique to use Flat Base to represent dried salt on his Catalina. I took this idea to represent the whiteish veil that you can sometimes see on the inside of exhausts nozzles.

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Johannes Gerl said 6 years, 4 months ago:

    Very challenging to get these flaps on and not entirely accident free. Next time I build this, I will first install the flaps and then the outer wing.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Martin Dytrych said 6 years, 4 months ago:

    You are doing amazing job! :-O Nozzles look as real as it gets...

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    Richard Mcstay said 6 years, 4 months ago:

    I'll second that on the nozzles! Really impressive!

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    Jeff Bailey said 6 years, 4 months ago:

    Here's another "Great Job" comment for your MIG. As others said, the landing gear are most excellent as are the nozzles.

    Bravo!

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    George Williams said 6 years, 4 months ago:

    I'll "third" that on the nozzles!

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    Johannes Gerl said 6 years, 4 months ago:

    Big thanks for the feedbacks!
    This morning I’ve installed the landing gears. The front one is attached with pins in holes, needless to say that this won’t work once the landing gear bay is installed in the fuselage. I designed a bolt using plastic rod to solve the problem.
    The main gears won’t go on without hassle either. The design isn’t great, it just doesn’t work as intended to align all parts. With some improvising it succeeds at last.

    6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    George Williams said 6 years, 4 months ago:

    Your landing gear is a work of art on its own so I'm glad you managed to install it without damaging any of your detail work. You must be on the home straight now.

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    Greg Kittinger said 6 years, 4 months ago:

    fantastic - what a great looking model this is!