BIG Russian Jet Groupie GB

Keeping this alive since I have a lot of Soviet aircraft underway...

I finally have gotten around to throwing paint at my Frogfoot- After shooting a little cockpit green/blue on the canopy sections I've used a flat black preshade followed with a Chocolat Brun for additional modulation as well since I plan on being fairly aggressive with this simple camo scheme.

I'm going to let this dry while I figure out my color palette for the sand and green camo.

No, they are tasked with building a model and writing a short paper on it, or the pilot, and why they selected that particular kit.   The kits were from all the previous USAF JROTC classes that had completed their assignment- this class has not yet done their kits.

It was cool to see so many aircraft hanging from the ceiling, it was far less heartening to know that 98% of the builders will probably never do another one...   it reminded me of come LHS's that I knew as a kid- models, models everywhere!

Dre

When your time permits, then you ought to do that.   If anything, the process of writing and photographing the article might give you some new insight or clarity of vision...

The Flanker is gone, some of the kids thought it was really cool, a few of them couldn't believe it was OOB and most were happy to dose off while I rambled on.   Several of them from the last class stuck around to ask modeling related questions and seemed eager to learn a few things about getting a better model.  

There were close to 100 aircraft of various scales hanging from the ceiling and a few showed some nascent talent for the hobby but most were obviously completed by first-and-last time builders.  The USAAF/USAF/USN were abundantly represented with a brace of German 109's and a French Mirage of some sort.   Someone had rigged a parachutist jumping from a C-130, some commercial jetliners, a few WWI biplanes with rigging and a nicely rigged Wright Bros. Flyer.  

It was interesting to see that the completed student kits were overwhelmingly built for OOB accuracy and only a few done in "that looks cool to me" styles... the blue Stuka, a harlequin bomber and a pink A-10 were the stand-outs from that school of thought.  

I believe that I failed to adequately stress the importance of patience... I forget that teenagers have a different idea of time than do I.

HS group project?? Cool!

Yep, time to move on to finishing up some other stuff...

I can't believe you managed to get teenagers to listen to anything lol, well I'm glad to see your Flanker was well received and the kids liked it.

When your time permits, then you ought to do that.   If anything, the process of writing and photographing the article might give you some new insight or clarity of vision...

The Flanker is gone, some of the kids thought it was really cool, a few of them couldn't believe it was OOB and most were happy to dose off while I rambled on.   Several of them from the last class stuck around to ask modeling related questions and seemed eager to learn a few things about getting a better model.  

There were close to 100 aircraft of various scales hanging from the ceiling and a few showed some nascent talent for the hobby but most were obviously completed by first-and-last time builders.  The USAAF/USAF/USN were abundantly represented with a brace of German 109's and a French Mirage of some sort.   Someone had rigged a parachutist jumping from a C-130, some commercial jetliners, a few WWI biplanes with rigging and a nicely rigged Wright Bros. Flyer.  

It was interesting to see that the completed student kits were overwhelmingly built for OOB accuracy and only a few done in "that looks cool to me" styles... the blue Stuka, a harlequin bomber and a pink A-10 were the stand-outs from that school of thought.  

I believe that I failed to adequately stress the importance of patience... I forget that teenagers have a different idea of time than do I.

Thanks Dre, well I have to say the Flogger was a very popular model, I took it to a show in Belfast and it was on display in the Model Shop there, I am hoping one day FSM will put a picture of mine in the magazine, but having said that I probably need to reach a higher standard, I have been thinking for a while about doing a build and writing it up and sending it in as a contribution that would be really really great. But I have no time currently, another 12 hour day beckons ahhhhh, see you guys tonight.

Why?   From what I've seen of your work, you should have them in print.   That Flogger still stands out in my mind.

Thanks Dre, that's 9 now, they're probably sick of me by now lol.

Website

Congratulations!!  

Magazine-published, or website-published?? I'll have to take a look at it, have been increasingly interested in the MiG23 lately for some reason.

I just saw my Mig 23 got published on the reader gallery! Very pleased with that!!

I have tried to post them but I'm getting a new camera on Friday so I promise I will get some up online Friday night after a trip to the beer tent outside City Hall lol.

I really want to see some photos of this....

I removed them all and have used Tamiya rust around the rivets the painting is most important on this model so I will really dirty it up and try not to over do it lol, easy to do.

You can always tone down the look of the stencils with a fading overspray- I used one on the Flanker and it added a nice, subtle faded look to the upper surface markings- the red stars look a little paler and pinker than factory fresh.

Also, some of them are in yellow, so they might be there but hard to see and quicker to fade than other colors..  

True, I almost wonder if they use a lower-quality paint for most stencils, filly expecting it to be worn away or overpainted during maintenance. I don't often bother with stencils on my typical small-scale kits. It's a pain and the decal film is just as likely to be noticed as the actual stencil in 1/72 scale.

I don't lol, well I really want to do it as close to the picture as possible so I guess I will remove what I've done a shame but I really want to make it as realistic as possible. So I wonder It does look good with the stencils but not as realistic? soo and some of them have silvered FFS so I think that's  the decider. No stencils. I used super glued one pence pieces as nose weight so I will be using scale aircraft conversions landing gear as plastic I think will not be strong enough.

Yeah, it is 27" long without the pitot tube.   I've left the pitot tube, AOA indicator and other probes and antennae off until late tonight when i get them painted and then installed...  they'll be superglued so they can get knocked off and replaced easily.

As far as the stencils go...   I guess that factory fresh jet has all of them, an operational jet..  I don't know.

I know that the Ukrainian Frogfoots got a respray that seems to have covered over all of the factory stenciling.   I guess that it depends on how much time you want to spend putting them on?

dean27

Yeah it's a massive kit Vance, also Vance you are going to start your Fitter for this GB at some piont aren't you? An unusual choice but good.

Yep, got a Flanker close to decals (for a different GB, but I'll post a finished pic here too) and several others in the close-to-finished stage. I'll be starting the Fitter shortly. I like the "unusual" stuff, especially when talking Cold War & newer aircraft. It's the Italeri boxing of a molding from Bilek.

Ah actually I have one question for anyone who would know, I am doing the stencils for the 1/32 mig and Revell give you about ten thousand million stencils but on the real walk around pictures of the Mig there are none at all, so can I assume thats how it is? or what? I though all jets had markings everywhere as the instructions give loads but on the real thing there's none.

One more thing I have some images I will put online at the weekend that are models I gave to my model shop to keep, it's going to be the Academy 1/48 SU-30MKK looks good to me and is the most recent model I have made before I broke up with my fiancee in March, since then literally I had made nothing and this GB is the first inspiration I got to get myself motivated to build again so I wanna say I know I'm a new-ish member but this forum has introduced me to some seriously great modelers so thanks guys, and I will hopefully be seeing you all in other GB's.

Yeah it's a massive kit Vance, also Vance you are going to start your Fitter for this GB at some piont aren't you? An unusual choice but good.

Dre

To show the actual size of this beast.... and the missiles.

Somehow, I'm not surprised that you look like this....  WOW, I knew that Flanker would be large in 1/32, but, just !!!!!!!!!    I assume you're an average-sized kinda guy, other than your head of course?

Ha ha ha mate it's looking super, I will at some point accumulate all three, but could not afford them all now ha ha, got one question I just noticed Dre, why did you leave the pitot tube off? Is it because it's for a school?

Yes, I put on my best school-picture smile too!

Get one or two- I'd recommend the two-seat versions, either the Su-27 UB C or the Su-30MKK, over this single seater because Trumpeter has supposedly fixed the issues with this one.

Ah Dre so you actually look like that lol, very nice Flanker, I know you say it's not your best work but I think it's looking superb!! i really want one, a lot, I gave my 1/32 mig 23 to a mate of mine yesterday so ihave room now for a new large scale model.

To show the actual size of this beast.... and the missiles.

Man decalling that Mig is painfully slow work, god I know it will be worth it but I have to spread it over a few days or I will go stir crazy!