Subject: Re: ARC submission - Amodel 1/72 Sotka
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Terry Chan" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 3 May 2008 15:02:57 -0700

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Terry Chan 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 7:53 AM
  Subject: ARC submission - Amodel 1/72 Sotka

    
  "Amodel 1/72 Sukhoi T-4 Sotka" 

  by "Terry Chan"
  --------------------

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 01.jpg here  

  History
  The T-4, or Project-100, was a Mach 3 capable bomber developed by the Sukhoi design bureau of the former USSR.  It was nicknamed "Sotka" because of its proposed gross weight of 100 tonnes.  Design work began in 1961 with technical specs of Mach 3.0 top speed, Mach 2.8  cruise speed, and a range of 6000 km.  The first prototype "Yellow 101" with an airframe constructed in titanium, was completed in 1971 and flew for the first time in 1972.  Yellow 101 only made 10 flights, breaking the sound barrier only once, when the T-4 program was cancelled in favour of the Tupolev Tu-22M.  Today, the sole surviving Sotka prototype rests in the Monino Museum outside of Moscow.

  The Kit
  This is Russian manufacturer Amodel's first attempt at making big kits using the "Amonster" moniker.  Rumour has it only 200 copies of this kit was made, but I suspect there're more out there.  The main fuselage and wings are molded as a gigantic single piece of fibreglass.  The fibreglass surface is pretty smooth with fairly heavy engraved panel lines.  The rest of the model - front fuselage, leading edges, landing gears etc - were injected molded.  The mold quality of the injection molded parts was subpar with a lot of flash and blemishes.  A very cloudy clear sprue, a decal sheet and the instruction booklet rounds out the kit.

  This is your typical short run Easter European kit.  In case it isn't obvious to you, it's a kit that your should avoid if you expect Japanese precision engineering.  However, if weird Cold War era jets is your cup of tea AND you are ready to spend some time on construction, then this kits fits the bill.

  The Cockpit
  The kit's supplied cockpt was crudely molded and generally un-usable.  Unfortunately these short comings cannot be overlooked because I plan on opening the cockpit hatches.  The kit's cockpit floor and the pilot's instrument panel were retained and highly modified.  Just off the top of my head, the following were used for constructing the rest of the cockpit: random resin chunks, PE pieces from a Hasegawa 1/48 F-18, Pavla 1/72 SU-24 cockpit set, Revell 1/72 SU-34, Classic Airframes Canberra, Trumpeter RA-5C.  Basically the way I built it was "if it fits and it looks good, then it goes in" because there was no reference material available for the Sotka's cockpit.

  The cockpit roof has two tiny windows on the starboard side.  They were blended into the fuselage with CA glue and polished.  The kit's plastic pitot tube was replaced with a commonly found household needle blended into the radome with CA again.

  Click on images below to see larger images
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  Fuselage Construction
  Generally speaking, the parts break down was pretty simple.  In fact it's so simple that this kit could be a weekend project - if it was manufactured by Tamiya.  Unfortuntely the fit of all the plastic and fibreglass pieces was very poor, hence the builder needs to spend an inordinate amount of time filling and sanding.  I really needed to employ all the tricks to deal with the gaps - CA glue, Tamiya putty, Bondo automotive putty, plastic stock... you name it.  Further worsening the situation was as you sand the fibreglass body, you'd inevitably expose even more pin holes, thus throwing you back in the vicious cycle of more filling and sanding again...

  The uneven material hardness of fibreglass, plastic and putty also presented challenges during panel line rescribing.  The fibreglass was very hard, as I dragged my scribing tool from the FG to the softer plastic, the force applied might be too much and the putty would chip off.  Yup, more filling and sanding ensued...  Oh, did I mention this needed to be done in a natural metal finish thus necessitates a smooth finish? 

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  2.jpg here 
  Undercarriage

  Like the rest of the kit, the landing gears were crudely molded.  But if you've come this far to get to the gears, this would be a walk in the park for you.  The wheels had no details on them whatsever, but I just left them as is.  Fortunately the level of details on the gears was acceptable, but the supporting struts were too short and had to be replaced by whatever I could find in the spare box.

  Painting and Decaling

  I found that regular hobby primer (Mr. Surface) doesn't stick well to the fibreglass body, hence I used automative grey primer in a spray can.  It's great stuff and way cheaper than Mr. Surface.

  I use a total of 6 different shades of Alclad for the highly panelized natural metal finish.  Out of the bottle colours were: magnesium, steel, dark aluminum, and aluminum.  There were also a couple of custom mixed shades using magnesium and jet exhaust.  To my dismay, during the intensive masking, some paint was ripped off by the Tamiya masking tape.  So I used 3M Post-it notes as masks during touch up sessions.

  The kit's paint instructions was for the Sotka resting in Monino today with "red 101" decals.  However, I wanted to model "yellow 101" in 1972 during its maiden flight glory.  So the black fin and green radome and fin tips were done using Gunze acrylics.  The 101 bort number was done with yellow paint, and wrapped with black decal strips.

  Conclusion

  This is probably the most difficult model I've built so far.  However, its sheer size (almost 2 ft in length) and the metallic finishes is very satisfying to look at.  I have two more Amonster kits waiting in the stash and I can't wait to start them.

  Click on images below to see larger images

        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 07.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 07.jpg 
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  Photos and text © by "Terry Chan"