BIG Russian Jet Groupie GB

Got it, that's what I thought. I will have to work up my nerve to attempt. I'm kind of ham-fisted with sandpaper, and I can easily imagine ending up with a hunk of resin that looks nothing like a nosecone. Maybe I'll use white glue as a temporary affixer, so in case something goes horribly wrong, I can just punt and use the kit nose.

Kinda sucks that you dropped that $$ on AM resin that doesn't fit, PB.

I'll second Dean and say go for the larger nose and then spend a ton of time sanding it down.

Since I wet sand resin whenever possible (that dust is nasty) I wouldn't glue down the nose cone for sanding but keep the fuselage close by for constant test fittings.

I would be strongly tempted to make some kind of clearance template based on the fuselage cross section and use that to gauge the shape and size of the resin as I worked it down...

It does suck, Dre.. :-(

The good news is that I fiddled with the Neomega nose some more and the fit wasn't quite as bad as I originally thought, so I said "F it" and put it on. Fingers crossed that some simple putty/CA will do the trick……

I like the template idea, Dre, thanks for that tip. If the Neomega nose doesn't ending up working, I'll hack it off and try the QB.

I do hope something works out for ya.   I look forward to seeing this one painted up and ready for display.

So do I! :-) Thanks for the encouragement, it's helping me to press on through some of these issues.

Well, here's what I ended up with after sticking on the Neomega nose (the one that's too small), applying CA, and sanding for about three hours. The fit isn't perfect; if you look closely you can see slight steps at the nose/fuselage join, esp at the bottom (the nose doesn't flow perfectly into the fuselage). But I can live with it--between a compromise between slightly bad join and a nose that is completely the wrong shape (ie, the kit nose), I'll take the former.

Also added a couple of fishing sinkers to make sure she isn't a tail-sitter.

Next--rear wings/stabilizers, then I tackle Eduard's Alamo A and B aftermarket missile set. I'm sure that will offer a whole set of different challenges. :-)

PB

I think that your gonna need to go back and add putty to smooth out the join between the fuselage and nose, PB.   IMO, that's too much of a step to leave untreated.... sorry. (I had the exact same issue on my Su-27B sometime back- the kit nose simply didn't match the fuselage cross section- and I wound up using a ton of putty to smooth out the mismatch).

I was thinking the same thing PB the nose looks good, but a little more work and you could have a great join, use some surface primer to check, as it will stand out big time when you add paint, and you don't want to start painting and realise then man, I say do what Dre said. I know we're constantly saying to go back over this but it will be worth it man, I have faith in you PB!

 Wow, tough love intervention! 

But you guys are right--I can make it better. Round 2, let's see what happens…..

OK, second attempt. I know it's not perfect, but I think it's about as good as I'm going to get the fit with this nose, or might have to be, or I'm going to get hung up on a half-a-millimeter shape issue and not finish the rest of the build. :-)

Hope everyone is having a good weekend,

PB

Much better.

Awesome, thanks, Dean. Appreciate the critique. I know you guys want this to turn out as good as I do.

It does look much better, PB.   Is the IP sitting at an odd angle?

Thanks, Dre!

Yeah, the IP is slightly askew. For whatever reason, the attachment points at the ends of the consoles (where the panel attaches) in Eduard's resin cockpit aren't aligned, so the IP is crooked. Unfortunately, I didn't see this until later. It's one of things I'm going to look at again before I paint. The IP cover will hide the panel, so not sure it's worth fixing. I had a hard time wrestling the panel into place.

Would twisting it with tweezers gently so it breaks from the attachment and then putting a drop of glue behind the ip work?

Sorry to hear that.  I'd probably just shove it into place and wind up breaking it....

Well, I grabbed a pair of tweezers and shoved it into place--nothing bad happened and now it's straight. :-)

OK, that problem taken care of.

Now back to the nose. I sprayed some primer which revealed a lot of ugliness. Hope I can smooth it out.

If there's any irregularities in the shape of the nose I would suggest putting some filler in a large amount on the areas where the nose appears to be smaller and the join is obvious, like using the filler as a clay, let it dry and see if you can sand it to shape. It is a hassle but I managed to use filler in that way when I did the SU-37.

Also, to follow onto Dean's advice....   instead of using a fairly aggressive sandpaper, I'd use something around 600 or lower to sand with.  You'll remove far less material so final shaping can be better controlled and it will start polishing the surfaces back to normal for painting.  

You probably hate us now...  but it will be worth the effort to make the front of the plane match the awesomeness of the burner cans.

Ahhhhh - Flanker noses!!!

Dre has a point, though the next Flanker you build PB I am guessing you will post after construction lol.

Has there been a Flanker-family kit released that does include a correct nosecone?  I can't think of one that someone, somewhere didn't whinge on about the shape of the nose.

As far as I am aware of the 1/32 SU-27UB and 30 had correct noses, and I have heard on more recent releases the SU-27B had the nose and canopy corrected, but I have no idea as to the truth. The thing is,  if you're going to release a kit of a subject which has such an obvious problem which can be fixed easily by another manufacturer then why not just make sure and get it right in the first place, I know there are some who will complain about every nut and bolt, but there are sometimes mistakes which are a bit obvious.

Lol @ all of the above. Nah, the advice so far has been really helpful, so no worries! :-) And, yeah, this nose is giving me fits. Sigh. I went back over the lumps and it looks a lot better, so getting there. I have a paper/sanding cloths from 400 all the way down to 12,000, and I've been using the finer grit stuff.

The Academy kit has been around for awhile, so I guess they get a pass, but there's no excuse for new kits to have these type of issues what with CAD and so many resources at hand (Internet, rivet counters, archives, etc, etc.).

Kitty Hawk recently announced a 1/32 OV-10 Bronco, which has been my Holy Grail since I got back into the hobby, and I'm soooo psyched, but my enthusiasm is tempered a bit by KH screwing up their Jaguar and MiG-25 releases. So I'm going to wait for reviews before buying (which I didn't do with the other two, unfortunately).

ANYWAY, I think part of the problem is I need better putty. I'm using a combo of CA and Squadron white (sold here in the States), but it's too grainy. What do you guys use?

Thanks!

I use green putty, it's actually an American company that makes it, though I have heard milliput works. What issues were there with the Mig 25?

Thanks, I'll look into Milliput.

The MiG has a lot of issues, apparently. Some at the rivet-counting level, others that are more obvious. In the end, it looks like a MiG-25, but….here's a link to a long discussion, in case you have some time to kill:

Link

….the posts about the problems appear towards the end.

Off the top of my head, I think the biggest problems are with the intakes, and the burner cans being too short. Then lots of little stuff including wrong parts for the wrong version, color call-outs in instructions being wrong, etc, etc.

Ah people just wanna complain, gives them something to do.

There;s a 1/32 OV-10 coming out?!?   Tell me there's a Mohawk in the pipeline...please.

I had heard that Trumpeter had corrected their 1/32 line after the initial release of the SU-27B, but I've also heard that they still haven't gotten it right for the purists... meh, so long as the rest of the kit looks like a Flanker and the nose isn't off of a MiG-21 then I'm OK.  

PB- the white putty ought to be enough for your needs there as it is finer grain than the green stuff, but I find it to be a lot more brittle than the green.   For surface work (but not true gaps and holes) I mix a vile concoction of white and green putties, sprue shavings and Testor's pink label glue.   This gives the dried putty a little more plasticity, better bonding with the plastic surface and the melted plastic helps smooth out the grain of the putty.   This mix is kind of hard to use, since it is a goopy, runny mess but it does sand and polish real nice.  

Yes! Release date hasn't been given, but here's a link to some early CAD renderings (scroll towards the end of the page to see all of them):

Link

I'm totally geeking out on this kit! I grew up near Camp Lejeune so these things flew over my house daily. Not to mention that I'm a huge fan of ugly planes. :-)

Lol, that does sound like a messy putty cocktail, but I like the sprue shavings. Hm. Maybe I'll try. Right now I thin the white putty with lacquer thinner and hope for the best. 

Try mixing that putty with that pink label glue instead of lacquer thinner- it doesn't evaporate quite as fast and should give you a longer working time before the putty becomes too dry to work.  

Bang seat, done! Now just need to paint the helmet. :-)

Have some Alamo Cs and Archers on order, after I assemble them it'll be time to paint the airframe.

Hope you guys are well.

PB