Azeri Su-17M3 in progress
Nicely molded exhaust turbine
Ejection seat consists of, believe it or not, 23 parts! What you see here is 22 parts as I left of the commendably thin ejection seat lever to add at the end. All in all a model inside a model I could say and the level of detail is just great. The only pr
Ejection seat consists of, believe it or not, 23 parts! What you see here is 22 parts as I left of the commendably thin ejection seat lever to add at the end. All in all a model inside a model I could say and the level of detail is just great. The only pr
The exhaust pipe is of correct length and made out of 3 parts. It is a bit tricky to assemble, but for some time lost during the assembly, you get some really nice interior details and the dreadful seam lines that usually plague the exhaust halves, won't
Cockpit and front wheel well details is awesome as well - larger companies should be learning from a small short-run company like Modelsvit.
I've bypassed the instructions a bit here - instead of building the cockpit/front wheel well assembly first and then gluing everything into the fuselage halves, I found it easier to just glue the cockpit halves into each respective fuselage half and build
Just look at the back wall details. Much better than with KittyHawk kit in larger scale. You get two different instrument panels - one with flat surface if you choose decal and one with all the little details if you fancy painting all the little details.
Yours truly taking reference photos at Krumovo AB in Bulgaria
As I suspected adding a few colours and some weathering to the front wheel bay brought out all the details. You even get some decals for this area!
Another view of the front wheel well.
Combination of decals for the side panels and carefully painted details creates a very convincing cockpit right out of the box.
I am really sorry the beautiful details of the back wall will be mostly hidden by the ejection seat.
Vie of the left hand cockpit/wheel well. Modelsvit, unlike so many bigger producers, didn't forget to include throttle lever.
23-piece K-36D ejection seat. I am really sorry that they are painted black with black leather and details get hidden away.
Some drybrushing with Gray brought out details without exaggerating the effect.
not much to report... I was having a bit of a problem with outer wing fences but she's finally taking the shape!
Nice coat of primer makes a whole bunch of difference to the overall looks. Some little touchups were needed but nothing serious.
First top colour. I had some problems determining the right paint to use, as all the photos of this rare birds I found have really bad photo reproduction resulting in colours appearing different from one photo to another.
And first part of splinter camo pattern is applied. No major problems, apart from some slight overspray, but that will be easy to remedy.
And first part of splinter camo pattern is applied. No major problems, apart from some slight overspray, but that will be easy to remedy.
Green splinters applied.
Green splinters applied.
Main camo done!
Main camo done!
Painted the green dielectrics, exhaust and aluminum wing sweep.
Some additional colours applied in form of decals 🙂
Some light wash done, added some details and she's ready for a coat of matt finish.
Just a few details to be added and I'll be calling her done!
Comments
1 18 September 2017, 21:27
Sebastijan VidecThanks for the interest, guys! I am travelling to Bulgaria in a few days so expect the next update sometime next week. But I do intend to visit museum at Krumovo AB so expect some reference photos to go along😉
19 September 2017, 12:03
Łukasz GlińskiNice pic from Bulgaria😉 Btw. I'm just wondering if the Bulgarian Fitters weren't different from the ex-USSR Azerbaijani ones. Probably Bulgarians had the export version (like Poland does).
25 September 2017, 07:03
Sebastijan Videc@Łukasz Gliński The one on the pic is Su-17UM3 while they also used M4s. The one that I am building is M3. There are certainly differences between the air frames, but mainly in the cockpit area and probably some antennas (and the intake at the base of the fin with M4). I expect the engine exhaust, wheel wells and struts and pylons to be the same - the thing that I took most pics of.
25 September 2017, 08:11
Holger KranichWell i take a seat here with a tea, listening to "the jesters race" and enjoy you building this cool and detailed kit!
6 October 2017, 09:21
Sebastijan VidecThanks guys! I'm affraid you'll have to wait a bit more for the next update - unfavroable working schedule and a little kid (2 months old today) take quite a lot of my time now. I can only report that the fuselage halves have been already closed and I started working on the wings.
8 October 2017, 11:00
Gordon SørensenFantastic looking detail and you have really made the most of it. Really like the splinter camo too. Looks great so far, Sebastijan!
12 November 2017, 00:11
Sebastijan VidecThank you Gordon! Quite a lot of paint work (and masking) in front of me.
12 November 2017, 07:24
Spanjaardexcellent cockpit and amazing masking job on that camo! lots of work, I am sure, but it will certainly pay off!
20 November 2017, 00:26
Sebastijan VidecThank you guys! Glad you like her! I'm now busy with painting all the details. All those wing fences and other protruding things make masking a nightmare...
20 November 2017, 21:29
Alistair GrahamVery interesting cammo scheme. Great model. Wonder if I'll see this in real? I'm heading there on business soon.
25 November 2017, 10:09
Sebastijan VidecThanks, guys!
Alistair, I seriously doubt it. From the information I got, all 4 Su-17s in their inventory are stored in hangars, sitting in reserve.
25 November 2017, 11:33
