BIG Russian Jet Groupie GB

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...

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?

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 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 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'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.

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

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.

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

Dean, you are seriously twisted!

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,

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

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!

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.  

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

Ha ha ha, yeah Porkbits I can't believe it either! It might be 29 in September, but maybe not I will have to see what happens. Also that Frogfoot looks great, but seams can be a pain in, I have to say though, I cannot see them on your model, but if you are ever having trouble with a seam, do you remember the 1/32 Su37 I made from the SU-27 kit?

Well just reshaping the front of that using plasticard and filler was time consuming. It took the best part of 3 months just to get it blended in, literally daily applications of filling and sanding, it was frustrating but seams have to be dealt with. Also another thing I learned with seams, after you sand them, and have filled them and sanded them again, put superglue over the finished seam, nice and thick. try not to get it all over the model just the seam. Then sand it and as you do gradually put less pressure on it as it smooths out. Believe me you will have a super smooth seamless surface. The dried filler is porous so it will absorb a bit of the glue and stick really well. let it dry and try it, I think your problems with seams will quite literally disappear lol!

Porkbits- that is shaping up nicely.   No matter the scale, an Su-25 is going to have a lot of seams.         I think that mine has close to 30" of seams between the fuselage and nacelles alone....

Let the paint talk to you?  That sounds like something I'd do...

Thanks for the nose photo- I have no idea what that is in there, but I can easily add a red-ish tint to it.

I shoot for a daily newspaper, so I cover everything but racing/sports is one of my specialties.

Dean, that Su-37 is still awesome!!   I've got the Trumpy MiG-29M that I need to return to one day... I'm not as enamored by them as I am the Flanker family, so it will probably be the only one in my collection.

Thanks Dre, well here is another couple of pictures of the cockpit, I tried to get a few better ones of sidewall detail but the pilots are in the way so I could not, but here you can see the finished HUD and the windscreen frame detail.

That's really well done there, Dean.   I'm afraid that it'll break just looking at it!

Where did you find the 1/32 aircrew??

They are from Hannants, afterwards I found that there is also an Actual Mig 29 pilot available, but I kept them anyway, I forget the make, possibly PJ productions, Yeah the plastic I used is actually paper thin but its glued to the side of the glass HUD so its strong enough.

"Strong enough" lol.   I'll have to start (attempt) some figgies one day....  they're the little element that helps provide a sense of scale.

There are new pilots here Dre, an SU27 pilot

www.hannants.co.uk/.../MST32024

soviet pilot in high altitude suit

www.hannants.co.uk/.../MST32029

in fact Dre just check this link out there seems to be a lot of new pilots in 1/32 scale

www.hannants.co.uk/.../index.php

Thanks, Dean and Dre! You know how it goes--you can see every little flaw in your build, even if no one else can. :-) Especially when you first take photos.

Dean, nice pit and figures! I tend not to use figures only because I'm not sure I could paint them well enough. Making people look like people is hard. :-) And thanks for the seam-filling advice...I actually started using super glue during my last build (Su-22) and now I'm a convert. It does sand really smooth and covers better than putty. And, man, I still have to comment that your Su-37 is HUGE lol. I'd have to hang it from the ceiling or keep it my shed.

After some initial problems, I got the first coat on the upper surfaces of the Frogfoot this afternoon. I expect to lay down the second coat sometime Thursday, then start the camo. I started painting and something wasn't right with the color (it was more yellow than brown) and coverage. After some cursing at my airbrush, I realized I was using an older bottle of AKAN and the pigments weren't mixed properly. Duh. I hope I'm not the only one who does dumb stuff like that!

PB

Found this promo video from the Russian AF thought you might wanna see it, it's the SU-27 again.

Dean - extension?!? (Feels like that's my middle name right now!  ) Would be greatly appreciated as I've just been running flat-out recently & haven't had "eye-power" left to trust myself to do much more than look at kits the past two weeks. I'm still hoping for April 1st-ish, but, well …..  I'm just glad the Russian Army has approved our deadline elimination program! Nice work on the HUD, love seeing the little details added.

Dre! Where did you track down the Soviets-tees?!?? Looks like airship swag? Frogfoot looking good.

Porkbits - Your Frogfoot is shaping up well too. Lots of ground-attack machinery in here right now if you add my Su22 to the mix.

Vance, anything (and I do mean anything) is available through the web...  but I got these from Redbubble.com. 

ITAR/TASS--- In a rare public announcement Friday, the Politburo has declared a new 5-Year Plan to increase the readiness of all VVS units through aggressive production of new and older fighters.   Production numbers are not yet revealed, but it is assumed that many factories are expected to make use of the new guidelines and the removal of deadlines to comply with this new directive.   Furthermore, the existence of fighter production factories in foreign areas not under control of the Party are expressly denied, although there are rumors of modern Soviet aircraft under construction in Ireland, Canada, the US and other non-aligned countries.