I wanted to do a
Flanker in this scale from the time I saw the pair of Su-27s that visited
Langley Air Force Base, Virginia in the summer of 1992 while I was stationed
there. Sure, I was
a little disappointed that both of the visiting Flankers were two-seaters, but I
was impressed none the less.
I mean, how often does a USAF officer get to see a top-of-the-line
Russian fighter at one’s home station on American soil?
There are two
memories of this visit that stand out in my mind.
First was the flyover; two Su-27s escorted by two F-15Cs.
I was very surprised how much more visible the Flankers’ multi-tone
blue/gray colors were against the blue sky than the two-tone, flat gray of the
F-15s. The Eagles
blended into the sky, while the Flankers stood out and with their semi-gloss
paint, actually sparkled in the sunlight; obviously not the desired effect of a
camouflage scheme. The
other thing I recall is their sound as they taxied in.
One sounded like you’d expect a twin-engined jet fighter to sound, but
the other had a rumble-like sound like that of a truck engine mixed in the
jet’s whine. This
was also accompanied by much fluid leakage on one side.
I’m guessing some work was done on that engine before it departed
Langley
So, to satisfy my
Flanker craving, I built Academy’s impressive 1/48th scale Su-27
Flanker. I used the
KMC update set which includes resin and photoetch, interior and exterior
details; Meteor decals; and a brand of paint called Red Star.
I built this kit about six years ago, so I’ve probably forgotten some
of the construction details, but I’ll do my best to tell you guys what I
remember.
In
my experience, models of modern, twin-tail jets are all a little tough to
build. None of them fall
together like a Tamiya P-47 or a Hasegawa Ki-84, probably because of the
complex shapes and abundance of odd angles on modern jets.
This kit was typical in that way; not especially good, but not
especially bad either.
|
Click on
image below to see larger image
|
|
|
I do, however,
remember three tricky parts in construction.
First was fitting the resin KMC cockpit tub into the fuselage.
Being deeper than the kit tub, the floor of the KMC cockpit tub and the
top of the nose gear well had to be sanded to translucency before the fuselage
halves would fit together. It was
pretty tense for a while there, hoping I wouldn’t break through either part.
Looking at the completed model though, you can’t tell.
The next problem,
and the one which took the most time, was the leading edge slats.
The slats, flaps, rudders, and horizontal stabs are all molded separately
and can be positioned as the builder desires.
However, the slats in my kit had ‘S’ curves warped into them, and
that combined with the small attachment points for the slats meant I had to glue
mine shut. As a result, it took
several filling, sanding, and rescribing sessions to get the Slats looking
right.
The final
construction problem I had was the nose gear’s mud guard.
The KMC update came with some photo etch for the mud guard, but in my
opinion, the kit parts looked better. The
problem was that they were split vertically, with seams on all the little slats.
The old Flexi-File was good for sanding those, but the problem was that
the seams kept splitting whenever I tried to sand them.
It took about a half-dozen tries to get the thing right, but I still
think, in this case, the plastic looks better than the photoetch would have.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
Onto painting.
I’m not normally a “color cop”.
I find that most of the time I don’t bother with research and I fall
into the “close enough is good enough” category.
This time however, I actually bought some books and did some research.
The result was, it made finding colors that I thought were close enough
for this kit a real chore. I
started off with Model Master, and thought those colors looked too dark.
I then looked at X-tra Color, and while they were closer, I thought they
were also too dark. Finally, at the 1996 IPMS-USA National Convention in
Virginia Beach, I came across a brand of paint called Red Star and their colors
were exactly what I was looking for. They
even had dielectric green, the color that you find on the wheels, radomes, and
sensor panels of Soviet aircraft.
So, armed with
colors I was happy with, I painted the nose and sensor panels dielectric green,
masked them off and then free-handed the 3-color camouflage scheme through my
Badger 150. Red Star paint is
water based and formulated like the old Polly S.
I know a lot of modelers had a hard time working with the old Polly S,
but it sprays well when thinned with soapy water as long as you remember to wipe
the airbrush tip with a wet Q-tip every few minutes to get rid of paint
build-up.
After the paint had
several days to dry, I put down several coats of Future, then masked off the
areas that were to be painted metal. I
built this kit in the pre-Alclad II days, so I used Model Master Metalizer of
varying shades; titanium, steel, burnt metal and gunmetal, if I recall
correctly. In between metalizer
coats, I masked with low-tack Scotch tape.
To get the bluing on some of the metal panels, I took a little bit of the
translucent liquid that had separated from the pigment in a bottle of Testors
gloss dark blue, thinned it, and misted it over selected panels.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
Another coat of
Future was next, followed by application of the Cutting Edge decals, which went
down with no problem. When the
decals were dry, I cleaned off the model, first with decal solvent, then with
soap and water to get off any decal adhesive and solvent residue.
I sealed the decals with a coat of Future, applied a wash of oil paint
mixed in turpenoid, and then sprayed a finishing coat of Testors Dullcote.
In the meantime, in
between waiting for things to dry, I was working on the air-to-air missiles that
were to be mounted on this model….all 10 of them.
And now it’s time for a little side story.
About 10 years ago at a contest, one of the judges took me aside and told
me that a model of mine he had judged, while pretty good, would be improved
significantly if I took more time and care with the stores.
Clean up the molding lines, paint the detail on them, add some decals
where possible and make them look more realistic.
He was right, I had done a half-assed job on the weapons, so I took his
advice to heart. Just like I always
took the same care with the bottom of a model as I did with the top of it, I now
take that same care with the stores. So, with that in mind, I assembled and as
carefully as I could, painted and decaled four AA-11s, two Alamo As, two Alamo
Bs, and two Alamo Cs. The Alamos,
with their black fins were especially tedious to mask and paint, but worth the
effort. Some decal stripes and a
final light wash livened up the missiles.
Final
assembly of the landing gear, wheels, doors, pylons, missiles and all those
other fiddly parts that go on last, and my Flanker is complete.
The completed model had a limited competitive career, having gone to only
two shows. It took a gold at the
1997 IPMS Region 2 contest in Philadelphia and a second at the 1999 IPMS-USA
Nationals at Orlando. It’s now
retired, and turned to stud on a shelf in my model room, where I hope it’ll
sire a 1/72nd scale
Hasegawa Flanker.
Chip
|
|