BIG Russian Jet Groupie GB

Dre, that's looking sweet! As for the nose lens, the couple of photos I've seen online appear to give it a dark orange/almost reddish tint. In the paint reference sheet for my Eduard kit, it is also colored red-ish. Here's a pic. Not so good of the lens (camera flash has washed out the color so looks almost gold?) but you can get an idea of the bits behind there:

Speaking of, very cool that you're a photographer. Do you shoot sports only?

Dean, that HUD looks great. I'm going to remember that trick of tinting only the edges. And I can't believe you've moved 28 times. That's crazy. I mean, I thought I had moved a lot before getting on the wife/mortgage/kids train, but...wow.

As for my Frogfoot, got paint on the underside last night:

Next, I'm going to prime the topside in sand and then tackle the four-color camo. As for weathering, I have no idea how much I'm going to do. Guess I'll let the paint job talk to me--when I built the Eduard Su-22, the camo scheme came out too toy-like for my tastes, so I weathered it with washes and a filter to tone things down. I might not have that problem with this scheme, especially because some AKAN acrylics come in pre-faded shades to reflect the typically hard-used Russian bird. :-) And from a reference photo I have of the actual plane, it almost looks like the camo was sprayed on with a rattle can. Who knows?

And yeah, if you look closely you can see the seams on the nacelle bottoms. I consider myself a slightly-above-average builder, but I still can't get rid of seams, especially on fuselage undersides, for some reason. I don't know why, but it drives me nuts.

Cheers!

PB

True, sure take another, and let us all, (all 3 of us lol) see the lens, what is it anyway? Is it an infrared sighting system or something like that? What ever it is photos can be deceiving as colours don't always seem in pictures an they do in reality. So you recommend the kit then Dre?  I can say if you want a Mig 29UB, it's the only 1/32nd offering but having said that it's a lot cheaper than most 1/32 kits, and it does not like to be built so if it sounds like what you're after I strongly recommend my kit.

I looked at that nose glass again and it really depends on the viewing angle to see the work I've done to it.   At least you can't see all the weights behind it...

It does look that way, but no.  Odd, that.

That's a great frame- even the pilot is giving you a thumbs-up on it.

Hey, cool, looks good, the NASCAR and Frogfoot. I have to say the reflective glass is showing as matt yellow is the tape still on it? either way the Frogfoot is looking good. here is a picture of the HUD nearly complete. I scratchbuilt the frame its about the size of a small finger nail so small, but surprisingly easy to make, no issues whatsoever.

Dude, you move too much....  hope you can get it all sorted in time.

Not only am I a BIG Russian Jet GB groupie, I have the Tshirts to prove it!

As for HUD's and such, I've been using a mix of Tamiya clears and just the tiniest amount of silver to try and make those oddly reflective bits of glass.  This is the window on the front of the Frogfoot- I don't know what does go in there in reality, but on this model there's a ton of lead weight in there so I made this a reflective glass element to hide those weights.  Looks OK to me as it isn't a key point of interest.

And as for the Frogfoot itself, this is where she is- waiting on me to finish those gear doors and canopies.   I need to fix the front strut as it has become dangerously unstable.

As for NASCAR- they had a hella-big wreck on the last lap of their race yesterday at Daytona and a bunch of fans got injured by debris- not good.   I only have to deal with them twice a year in Bristol- March and August they race about 12 miles from house and I get to spend the week hanging out and shooting it.   Bristol is a half-mile short track instead of a 2-mile superspeedway like Daytona.

A little something from last year...  Denny Hamlin doing burnouts as his crew celebrates his win in the night race in August.  

This is the next stage of the build, the extra detail for the cockpit, I have to make the rest of the HUD as it has a frame, which is not included in the kit. also the insides of the canopy frame, I have to say at this stage where 95% of the model is complete it is satisfying to make the added extras as it's possible to see all the work after it has come together, and the model looks far better than had it been made straight from the box. Also I always use clear green on the edges of the HUD glass as I think it looks much more like glass rather than leave it clear, even though it may not be accurate I still prefer to do it this way, I saw a guy in FSM do this a long time ago and thought it was a brilliant idea, so ever since I have been doing it. Anyway, I am glad this GB will be continuing, I have many builds and not as much time as I had hoped. I might also be moving house soon again (28 times including Navy, and Army service) too many moves. So thats not until September and I would say it's no problem but I have been in my new place for 6 months and I started building this when I moved in, so 6 monthst to go. Can I build another before I may have to move again? I will certainly try! I hope to see more pictures from you guys, Dre, I hev never seen Nascar but have heard of it, perhaps you should show us a picture of where the race is, and your awesome frogfoot please, and the SU-22 Vance, for that matter what kit is the SU-22? I don't have one and want one lol, and the 1/48 Frogfoot but I may get the 1/32 offering from Hobby Space. I will try with a cheaper Kit first, and if all is well I will get the Frogfoot. Anyway Ihope to see the pictures from you guys, Porkbits too. Hope you like mine, and if you didnt see the Russian Army video you should watch it it's either on this page or the last page, those are scary guys, real hardcore!

I have added scratch built detail to the windscreen frame, my camera sucks at close range only an actual image of the whole aircraft would be of any quality. So here is a picture that shows the frame and you can see what I have made as there's nothing on the kit

Lol, I sawmit on a comedy TV show last night and thought it was hilarious, I imagine during the cold war this kind of footage would not exactly portrayed them as ruthless machines lol, speaking of which now this is open ended I will br putting my mig 21 build on here, and my flanker on Dre's Flanker GB now there is time for both,

Dean, you are seriously twisted!

Dre, Porkbit's, Vance a song from the Russian Army to celebrate the Russian Jet GB limit being removed lol, you have to see this video

Okay, well why not then this was meant to end on Feb 1st then Apr 1st, so now, no end, keep on building I guess, there is only a few of us doing it, so anyone is invited as long as it's Russian and a Jet.

Fine with me! Open-ended is good, since I average about one kit per year, two if I'm tearing up the track. :-)

I'm OK with doing away with a deadline...  that's what I've done on the Flanker GB- it doesn't rate enough traffic to have a deadline and I wouldn't want anyone feeling left out or harried to rush because of a calendar date.

Thanks Dre, good advice on the kit, I must say I wonder well, April is fine for me to wrap it all up, but having said that there only seems to be a few of us, so if you wanna just eliminate the deadline and just keep it going I'm game if you guys are, to be honest if it was not for this I probably would not have built the mig for so long.

I can wrap up the Grach by April 1, and I still have lots more Russian jets I can build, so....  whatever.   Going into March, I'll have to work 3 weekends out of 4 and I won't have much bench time due to work loads...   for this, we can thank NASCAR.

Vance pointed this out some time back- there's tons of decals and stencils for the Su-27's, but many photos don't show that many of them on the aircraft.   I don't know if they get oversprayed and forgotten, or if they fade away from exposure or are never painted on in the first place.

Look at the Ukrainian Frogfoots and Flankers- not too many data stencils or markings on them.

Dean- I'd still get the 1/32 Trumpeter Su-25UB 'B' over any 1/48 version.    It really is a great kit.

Thanks, Dean, that's the ultimate compliment. :-) I was going to mention that at the rate I'm going, probably won't make the April 1 deadline unless you guys extend. After the Frogfoot is finished, I'm going to tackle the 1/48 Su-27 and join that group build.

I almost bought Trumpeter's 1/32, but then did some research and saw how big it really is....!!!

In any event, I have a wife and two three year olds, so guess I've had lots of practice in the patience department, especially in the past seven or eight years. :-)

Post more progress pics of your Frogfoot, Dre, when you have them! I need continued inspiration.

I swear Porkbits, all those decals so small, man it will look good but you must have some serious patience, I doubt at the moment I would be able to stick that many, despite this I want to get a 1/48 Frogfoot, but I have to say so many decals, I would have to really love the subject I'm doing to stick that. Most likely I could do that on a 1/32 Mig 29A or SU 27. I do have a 1/32 F-14D it's the Trumpeter one, nearly 3 years I have had it and not made it, I just think it's such an awesome kit, I don't want to make any mistakes, so perhaps for that kit. Man, I would even say we should extend the GB just to see your Frogfoot finished, and Dre's for that matter. Also Vances Su-22 as well. Saying that is everybody happy with the 1st Apr deadline or do you guys think you have more Russian jets you wanna build?

Nothing like doing the same thing over and over, only to see little progress.

Glad that you're onto the painting stage- that's certainly more fun to do and at the end of the day you can track your progress!   My girlfriend doesn't understand how 1 square inch of detail can take 4 days to paint....

I finally got back to my own Frogfoot yesterday- just three more gear doors and struts, a ton of canopy work, maybe some pigments and this pig is finished...

Close to that! There are these teeny tiny little red crosshair-looking decals (probably "Don't use hook here" indicators or something, about a single millimeter across) that you apply to the base of the fins. There are four on each SIDE of each of the four fins, so that's 32 of just those little guys (was my math right?). Then throw in another set of  9 stencils for the rear fins, one that goes on each side of each rear fin, then you add the five or six stencils that go on each side of the nose, plus the big serial number on one side, plus two other warning stencils that wrap around the entire body of the missile and you've got.....a lot of pain in my shoulders and back this morning. :-)

But I'm done, so now it's on to pre-shading the bottom of the Frogfoot a bit and then spraying the blue/gray. It'll be nice to work on a surface area larger than one micron, that's for sure.

50+ decals per Kh-58??   I didn't have that many in 1/32... except for every access panel or hatch on the airframe.   I guess that the Russians like to read their aircraft as well as fly them.

Thanks, guys! Yeah, Dre, I think there are about 50+ decals on each of those Kh-58s. No joke. And I put on every one of them because I like inflicting pain on myself for some reason.

Vance, that's what I was thinking--the red will be a nice bit of color against the overall green camo scheme. There are also other red bits in airframe decals (especially the tail art, which is very involved), so it should look nice (if not exactly accurate).

Looking good, Porkbits.   There are a lot of decals on those birds...and the missiles...

Love the blast of red that the missiles will give to the finished product.

Wow looks really good so far, I cant wait to see the finished version.

Hey, guys:

I'm still here...! Like I've mentioned, I'm slooooooooow. :-)

Dean, that's an awesome looking Merkava! I salute you armor guys and all the weathering you do. I've been tempted by the Dark Side more than a few times, mostly by German tanks. And thanks for posting that Flanker video. Man, that plane is a BEAST. Just makes me more amped to tackle my Eduard Su-27 (the Frogfoot is just a warm-up).

Dre, this quote cracked me up: ".....when the joy of fuselage seams fades." So poetic!

In any event, I'm almost done with landing gear, ordnance, etc. on the Frogfoot. See pics below. All this PE is giving me fits. Each sub-assembly is like a small kit unto itself. I've spent probably two weeks just on the Kh-58s alone (even though my online research seems to show only the Su-25KT/39 carries them, I'm all "F-it! Gonna have fun with this build"). The decals for only one missile has taken me three days to apply. Sheesh. 

But I should be done decaling the second this week, and then I can start painting the bottom of the bird.

PB

PS--Last pic shows the Eduard pylons in place (except for the Kh-58 rails, which are innermost).

Inspired or not, I do like that clean configuration....  

Here is a video I saw, it's the SU-27UB thought it might give you inspiration Dre for your Russian Air Force!

I know exactly what you mean, I'm the same, If I am not in the mood I will just do a bad job so I don't bother until I actually feel in the right mood

Nah, they're not prohibited but I pulled mine cuz someone in my office called me a show-off for posting them....  people are weird, my cow-orkers even more so.

Armor is fun, or at least i used to think so until a few years back when I just lost the interest in building it...  I'll get back to it one day when the joy of fuselage seams fades.

I still haven't finished that Frogfoot and that's just sad as there is maybe an hour's worth of work left to do.   Just lazy I guess...   but it does leave that time to work on the Flanker a little more.   I have to be in the right mood to sit down and work at the bench- I just can't plop my butt down and get busy.