Sukhoi Su-17/22 M-3
Started working on this beauty. This are the first of the thingy majigs that are gonna go under the belly of the Fitter. Started of by sanding down the leading and trailing edges on the 'tiny wings'. Left is the old, right is the new one!
Same, but this is the back end with larger 'wings' LOL.
Before drilling out the holes entirely.
This is the after pic of a UB-32 rocket pod front and back side. Holes have been drilled for it to look more realistic. Next picture shows the before point - with the filled holes. The middle ring of holes is also drilled out but its not visible in pic.
Finished seat, with some improvised seatbelts and leather for buttocks. The cockpit panels seem low quality unfortunately.
Nose gear bay completed, very tough to put together and center. Next is the fitting process into the fuselage.
Main gear bay currently in the process of fitting.
Nose gear bay cover with aftermarket.
Nose gear strut completed - very challenging to center everything properly.
One of the main gear struts finished. They were actually very fun to put together with the aftermarket kit.
Replaced gear bay side with a more detailed aftermarket panel.
Resin wheels completed. Superb job by the Ukrainian company, perfect fit and no glue needed for the main gear wheels.
Cockpit finished with plenty of mistakes. Missaligned and low seat and forward placed side panels among others. Despite that I am happy as this is my first ever detailed cockpit. The canopy is gonna contain mirrors as well.
The current state of the fuselage. I must mention the fit is rather bad especially at the tail section with a lot of sanding and putty needed. The panel lines also don't align over a large part of the model so it is a bit cumbersome and annoying considering how much time it takes to fix it with my limited experience.
All the tiny bits are prepared for the primer and painting.
Finally all ready for primer and painting. Next up are the engine, nose pointy thing and the gear bays.
All ready bellow as well. Plenty of putty as you can see. A proper headache.
Main gear bay done. Managed to do a lot of details which I am very happy about.
Main gear bay #2
Front gear bay also done!
Milady in all black today! 🙂
She's got some spots on now. The contrast is not as significant as it seems in the pic.
Painting is done and I really enjoyed it. Next up is clear coat and decals!
Underside painted.
3 days of decaling, detailing and clear coats later...
Last time we see her this clean. Weathering incoming.
Apron finished.
Fin 1
Fin 2
Fin 3
Fin 4
Fin 5
Fin 6
Fin 7
Fin 8
Fin 9
Fin 10
Fin 11
Fin 12
Fin 13
Fin 14
Mikady is done. Resting under cover on a temporary spot. Soon to be transfered to the collection.
Comments
1 29 April 2020, 14:10
Slavo HazuchaChecking IN, looks like an interesting build with lots of adding & modding! 👍 Great start so far - a pity the cockpit is a bit lo-detail, but if you make it closed, it´s not one of the top-10 (probably not even top-100) cockpits to see in or out of 🙂 The seat details should do the trick 👍
1 May 2020, 11:27
Fly By JanHey Slavo, thanks for the advice. This is my first 48 so I am taking it slowly. I completely agree regarding the cockpit, it is already planned for it to be closed. Cheers!
1 May 2020, 13:17
Fly By JanI love it as well David, a huge bird and a big surface for this cool paint sceme - my favourite part is the lighter green on the nose. Looks hungry for some ground targets... 🙂
4 June 2020, 19:25
Fly By Jan@Slavo Hello Slavo, very glad to see you checking in! Indeed, the camo is completely freehanded all the way. It was quite a challenge considering my limited experience and the large surface, but also a lot of fun. My index finger is still sore from the airbrush trigger! 🙂
@Jos Hello and welcome, glad to have you onboard! 🙂
The bird just got its clear coat. I am planning to start applying decals today. My attention is also on the small diorama for the model that is currently under construction! 🙂
6 June 2020, 06:51
Fly By Jan@Ben And I swear there are hahaha... I thought I was going to go insane by the time I finished with them. When I get to the weathering I will certainly try to tone the smaller stencils down, especially because most of them are yellow and therefore pose a noticeable contrast on most of the model. 🙂
@James Thank you very much James! 🙂
9 June 2020, 20:26
Fly By Jan@Clifford Thank you very much!
Regarding the kit, there is a couple of factors to what I am about to say. The most important one is that I am a fairly inexperienced modeler, especially with the 1:48 scale and on this level of detail - this is basically me learning as much as I can. The other thing is that I used a lot of aftermarket parts and I also don't have a lot of experience with that, so it impacted the complexity and duration of the build as well.
With that being said my experiences with the kit are fairly mixed. I can tell you the panel lines don't match between a lot of the parts so you are going to have a lot of job getting them in order and the details are not at the highest level - plenty of scratching, especially in the cockpit and some exterior details like chaff dispensers and air intakes. I also had issues with the stencils as some of them are extremely fragile, however, there are extra ones so that saved me in some cases. Overall, it is a kit to learn new skills on, it will definitely take you more to finish it than some other kits. If I could choose now, I would go for the Kitty Hawk, but I don't regret it, as it is shaping out to be a really nice plane! 🙂
10 June 2020, 09:10
Slavo HazuchaLooking great with all the stencils on! 👍 For "inexperienced" this thing looks pretty cool, actually it looks pretty cool for "very experienced" too 🙂 ... I´ve been building Kopro kit´s in my youth and things never went easy... Looking forward to the approach to the finish line!
10 June 2020, 10:33
Clifford KeeslerThanks for the info. I bought resin chaff and flare buckets for all 3 of mine. I also have the Kitty Hawk and Smer versions.
10 June 2020, 20:45
Fly By JanThat is a good decision. Mine also has resin chaff and flare - it is very detailed and straightforward!.
10 June 2020, 22:18
Clifford KeeslerI also got the resin intake shock cone replacement as the Kitty Hawk one is totally wrong.
11 June 2020, 02:20
Clifford KeeslerI see your chaff and flare buckets now and they do look very nice. Mine are quick boost I believe. I think I will invest in resin scoops as well.
11 June 2020, 02:23
Fly By JanOh yeah, it definitely pays to invest in some scoops as well, I just noticed recently how bad the original ones are so I decided to paint the front end in darker cream yellow to try to replicate them as being covered on ground.
Edit: The intake cone on the Kopro model is also very strange so check it out - mine had very odd uneven lines so I had to sand down the surface.
11 June 2020, 08:32
Fly By JanWell, she is done. I am gonna keep this short. Plenty of mistakes and errors, but also learned a lot in the process. All in all, I am happy with how she turned out when I take my experience into account. Very happy with how the colour modulation and weathering turned out. Can't wait to apply all the new skills on the next project!
EDIT: Credits for the apron and some techniques used on the aircraft go to the Inner Nerd on YT. Especially for the apron. I will link his videos that I used as a reference in my projects if anyone is interested:
Youtube Video
Youtube Video
18 June 2020, 10:07
Slavo HazuchaVery nice finish - looks like a very meticulously maintained & cleaned soviet aircraft 👍 The camo pattern & colors look great and you pulled off a pretty consistent finish over all + the details added all make very good sense, particularly the flare dispensers look really good - a very nice package indeed, the base & cover included 🙂
Hope to see more coming from you in 48-scale! & the Inner Nerd vids are a really good insp & reference, one of my top-5 youtube scale model channels
18 June 2020, 11:11
Fly By JanThank you very much for the comment and compliments Slavo! 🙂
I will be continuing with the 48, next up is the F6F by Eduard with quite a lot of aftermarket. Once again thanks for the support throughout the project and I'll read you in our upcoming projects... 🙂
18 June 2020, 11:24
Nathan DempseyNicely done. I have this kit as well & its great to see it built up.
18 June 2020, 13:03
Fly By JanThanks a lot David! Hey, I am all about Soviet birds, so it is certainly due somewhere in the future. However, for my next build, I am going across the pond and a bit back in time with a Hellcat! 🙂
18 June 2020, 17:13
Clifford KeeslerThat is just beyond words. Stunning is putting it mildly. I hope mine turns out even half as nice.
19 June 2020, 01:55
Fly By JanThanks a lot Clifford, I am sure yours will be amazing as well, as I said it just requires an additional dose of attention and patience. 🙂
19 June 2020, 06:06
