BIG Russian Jet Groupie GB

Thanks, Dre. I agree....and I was leaning that direction anyway. You have to pick your battles with these limited run kits, so I'll leave gear as-is (and save some money in the process on the metal replacement). I can definitely live with it; I'm obssesive with detail, but only to a point. :-)

Looking at pics also reminds me I need to a put a light wash on the struts. :-)

Yeah, that's a problem.   Looks like you're going to either live with it, or chop off a large amount of that nice, flat mounting base (which will undoubtedly weaken the whole structure).  Luckily the gear doors, once mounted, will hide a large portion of the issue!

Me, I'd live with the problem as the solution doesn't appear to be a good idea.   I don't know if the AM metal gear would fix this or not, sorry.  

Sure...!

Here's the gear:

Here are the locating holes--the front one is stuck waaay up in the nose, so can't see it:

And here are various views of how the gear fits currently (with locating tabs shaved off, since the gear doesn't sit forward enough to hit the front locating hole, which is way up inside the nose, and movement of the gear base forward is blocked by the danged strut):

They do sit proudly with their noses up in the air.   What are they, stuck up or sumthin'?

Could you post some pics of the situation?   We might be able to troubleshoot it with visuals.

Glad I could help! :-)

Yeah, I don't think that main gear door should be down.

Not sure if I should just cut down the gear length a bit. Worried that in the process, the nose will end up sitting too low. From pics, looks like Frogfoots sit with noses pointing up quite a bit.

After looking at that linked model, and then googling some real-life single-seat A's, I have to conclude that dude's landing gear is not set deep enough into his model.  Also of note- that the two nose gear doors open to either side of the wheel well,  which is also true of the two-seater- something that Trumpeter got wrong and that I have to fix on mine (if possible, as the shape may be wrong to swap sides).

Trumpeter also pooched the wing pylons- they show and load-out 8, but the wings have locating holes for an additional, smaller pylon at the outermost position.   Time to hunt some sprues.... damnit!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm glad that you asked that question, Pork; it's leading me to fix some stuff I was unaware of... and I thought I was close to finished.

Yep. Here's a link to a build of the Eduard kit:

www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/.../00.shtm

If you look at pics of the nose gear, you can see the exposed strut (look at the last photo on the Web page), so apparently this guy had the same issue.

Not sure what to do.....

That front strut ought to be well hidden inside the nose of the aircraft, leaving the main strut exposed.

Aha! Yeah, I'm burning through my sandpaper supply like mad with this re-popped kit. :-) Kind of weird especially considering the plastic is so soft. Oh well.

The gear issue I'm encountering with the Kopro kit is that the locating holes for the nose gear are too far forward in the nose well, so the locating tabs for the gear assembly won't reach (if that makes any sense). I've cut the locating tabs off the nose gear assembly for now, so it shouldn't be an issue, but wondering if I did something wrong when attaching the nose gear wheel well to fuselage half.

As for the accuracy issue I mentioned, the nose gear has a front strut that's not visible on the real a/c, but is on the model. Not a huge deal, I guess, so debating whether or not the SAC gear is worth the cost.

I suppose I could also cut off that strut on the kit nose gear so it doesn't show......

Porkbits I can tell you from the SAC landing gear that it slotted in with no issues whatsoever and thats a Revell kit, which are notorious for not wanting to be built, you could spend double the price of the kit on sandpaper ffs! But anyway PB it's worth the money definitely.

~ssshhhhh!!!~  

Vance, spending all your time 'over there' isn't helping either.... ;-)

I really need to get my tail in gear on my Su22 before I run outta time. Got all distracted by a Seafire that needed my attention...

Hee! Not much to tease, really.

I've finished painting the landing gear (I swear I've spent five hours on just the nose gear alone and I'm still not finished. I've also noticed that the kit nose gear is inaccurate, so I'm pondering the SAC aftermarket replacement as a do-over, but not sure it will fit without figuring out how to shave off the large metal locating tabs), the wheels, and just started the resin ejection seat which will probably take me 10 to 20 hours lol. I'm slow.

When I've made good progress on the seat, I'll post some pics. :-)

C'mon Pork, don't tease!

Nice canopy, Dre! Plugging away on my Frogfoot. Pics soon.

Oh right just like me then, but I do one at a time and no more.

Thanks, it's been fun thus far.

Great work Dre!

I've been working on this Su-25UB since May of last year, so that's 8 months of taking my time.

The MiG-21 took about 3 months (rush job) and that Flanker was about 10 months in the making, with about 5 months of actual bench time invested with the rest as shelf time.

I work on lots of things concurrently so my production output seems high, but I actually work very slowly.  

Ah I have been tempted to just rush the Mig 29 for the same reason but I always stop myself and say you have been making this since September dont screw it up now.

Maybe, but only 2 of them were worth a damn.   Some were just done to be rid of them.

Dre you have completed I don't know how many models in the space of time it has taken me to do one.

A little more work from the weekend- mostly canopy stuff like adding sealing strips made from lead foil to the two sections that open and adding an overhead shade for the instructor.   If I were a thinking man, I'd have masked and painted the inside of these parts!!   I hate that little chunk of plastic on the rear piece as it serves no purpose other than mess up my model.

and the shade for the backseat driver...  I'm going for an improvised, cheap look- something done on the fly to keep a cranky old fart happy in his dotage.   The little divots around the edge are to represent simple snap-buttons.

Weapons are mounted and I'm closing in on the gear doors and actuators...  close to finished.

Found this MIG-21 music video thought I'd share it with you MIG fans!

Yeah totally some inspiring images, the desert camo looks great but I think mine will be an Eastern European or Luftwaffe one.

Have you been looking at the new MiG-21's that are showing up on the boards?   Wow....there's some slick work out there.

Lol, ok well when you have finished the  airforce you are making let me know and we can come up with dates for the GB.

That's spooky, PB.   That was an eerie day to be sure.

Dean, any time later for that GB is great.   I've got to finish the Frogger, the Flanker, a brace of FW 190's and maybe that Fulcrum...  so yeah, it can wait.

Yep, thanks so much for your service, everyone!

I almost never travel for my job here in the States, and the one time I did went to NY on....9/11. Was actually in Long Island City, but close enough.

I still can't believe my team made it out. Somehow someone found a cab to take us to Port Jefferson, where we caught the last ferry to Connecticut. My co-worker's mother picked us up (she just happened to live in the area), then drove us to the local airport, where we rented a van and drove home to Boston. Very eerie seeing no cars on all the major highways. That was a long day, for sure.

In any event, worst part was leaving NY and not knowing if my sister was OK (she was, I later found out). She's lived in Manhattan for years. Definitely a great town, just have to take it for what it is.:-)

PB