Flanker Frenzy 2012

VanceCrozier

 

 

Admitting you have a problem is half the battle!

The other half?  Not caring about it!

Actually I'm thinking of doing these 1/350 birds as doorprizes for the participants of this GB...

Dre

 

VanceCrozier:

 

 

 

Admitting you have a problem is half the battle!

 

 

The other half?  Not caring about it!

 

Actually I'm thinking of doing these 1/350 birds as doorprizes for the participants of this GB...

Opening the mail: "I swear honey, this one was just sent to me...."

OK, now that's funny. 

VanceCrozier

 

Dre:

 

 

VanceCrozier:

 

 

 

Admitting you have a problem is half the battle!

 

 

The other half?  Not caring about it!

 

Actually I'm thinking of doing these 1/350 birds as doorprizes for the participants of this GB...

 

 

Opening the mail: "I swear honey, this one was just sent to me...."

LOL can be expensive if the GB will fill of partecipants especially from differents continents

Bsyamato, while I had those same thoughts I'm not too worried that this GB will be flooded with new members. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more people join in, but a small group is good in it's own manageable way.

But if this GB blows up like some of the WWII-themed GB's do, then I might have to reconsider my plan...

So, who's ready to rock some kits?  I washed the ejection seats last night with a strong mix of Payne's Grey and Burnt Sienna oil paints, it might take a day or two for the oils to dry before I can flat coat them and add some metallic drybrushing.

I'm just cracking open my He-177, which will take up a little room on "the bench", but I may start some cockpit work on the Flankers. I'm thinking about setting up my ejection seats & cockpit areas all at the same time for "economy of paint mixing", maybe the missiles as well.

An He-177?  That's an aesthetically-challenged A/C, innit?  What scale?

I would recommend that assembly line for the missiles, especially if your kits are loaded to the box-top with ordnance like the Trumpeter kits are.  I need to post the finished missiles that I have for the other -27B... they look really sharp with their clear seeker lens. 

I'm so glad that I don't have to try and detail 1/72 stuff anymore... I can't even see things that small without help.

I picked up Airfix's old 1/72 kit this summer. And it's not challenged, it's , uhh, well, "distinct!" I actually kinda like the big wingspan + only two engine nacelles.

My grandfather actually came across one while on their way to Germany:

And it's "Airfix glass" on the nose, so I doubt I'll be adding much to the cockpit unless I track down replacement parts.

Assembly line is the motto for my Flankers, the under-wing goodies for sure, and probably cockpits. The clear seeker lens - are you using plastic or drops of superglue? Something else??

That's a cool photo- is that your granpap?  The He-177 looks to be more of a flying pencil than the Dornier.

The missiles in my kit come in two versions- solid heads w/o seekers and with a clear lens.  A heavy dose of Tamiya clear orange for color and an even heavier dose of Testor's window stuff to glue them down.  A few developed a bubble under the clear lens but it's not so noticeable unless you look for a mistake. 

That's one of the fun issues with these birds- the Trumpy paint chart lists the missiles as all-white with the black bands to indicate a training round but online photo research indicates that the missiles are actually all sorts of black, grey, white, red and whatnot in addition to all-white.  I've been assembling a photo file of all the things that I need to get right on these missiles and everything else Flanker.

That is indeed gramps trying on the Heinkel. It is rather pencillish isn't it!? He (and I!) preferred the looks of the Me262s his unit found.

So clear orange on the whole "eye" of the seeker, or orange behind clear? I'll need to do a little research for the details.

I really need to post some pics, I can't adequately describe this..  but...

On the 1/32 missiles instead of a flat, circular surface to glue the lens onto there is a hole with a stepped lip that the lens is supposed to glue onto.  I painted the entire area flat black, used silver paint to define the lip and then added the window maker stuff to fill the hole and add something to "in there".  Then I painted the inside of the lens with the orange and once dry glued them down with more window goop.  I think that it looks fairly reasonable if not accurate... photos show the orange lens as a nasty, opaque unit but I like the transparent look.

I'll try to get pics up later tonight to show what I'm going on about...

ahhhh, I think I get it (we graphic designers are fairly visual!!). Go ahead & post some pics though. The missiles that come with the Italeri kits look to have good shape/details, but solid noses of course. At 1/72 I could probably snip off the tip, add a little paint, then a drop of clear glue & get almost the same effect.

Why not make life easier and just put down a wee bit of a metallic paint and then add a clear tint over that while preserving the original shape?  If they're sharply pointed then I'd round them down a little as the clear lens are more rounded than pointy.  Might be easier than cutting off the end and then rebuilding it with stuff.

Sorry Dre i can't help about missiles

Vance my greif looks to me in bad way anytime i start another kit on the workbench.... fortunately not glued again the wings and the fritz-x are not operative

Before to start my 34 need to finish a zero, a macchi mc-205 ,a seabat (90% complete) the mig-31 (mig and russian GB's are started from the may of last year then end before this GB ) unfortunately the mig-31 and the macchi have lots of mods planned to do but I will forgive myself (hope the write is correct ) with and high detaild su-34

Good to see that you're keeping busy, Bsyamato.  Wouldn't want you to have too much free time...

What's the general attitude in Italy regarding that clown captain who broke his boat?  Won't there have to be a trial due to the fact that there were fatalities?  I seem to remember reading something about Italian law that says that if there is an accidental death then there will be a trial... but I could be misremebering things.

Was a totally faillure about the ship captain, a wrong rout too near at the coast. The safe of all people was possible if the sos was launched in time. Lots of discussion about these things last days.

he can expect about 15 years of jail and actually the is at house under arresting waiting for the law process.

I know is in italian but hear the conversation between the ship captain and the chief of s.a.r. operation, he intimate to back aboard the ship and take his duty.. and only when all the people was out to leave the ship! the coward instead speak lots of stupid reason to save himself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDpr54i7yss

the low voice is naturally the little captain... lots of sadness for peoples like this that are in charge in important places  

I heard a translation of that conversation on CBC Radio this morning. The next boat he sees will be in the bath-tub in jail. The best excuse he had for being in a lifeboat before everyone was off the ship???

"I tripped and fell in"... 

Once I heard excuse I immediately thought of the "The Front Fell Off" skit...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

Dre

Once I heard excuse I immediately thought of the "The Front Fell Off" skit...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

"Well cardboard's out...." buahahahaa!

No cardboard derivatives either.

btw the honor was saved from lots of other great people aboard and from out

For example the drummer of an onboard band leave his place on the last avaible lifeboat to a child and he died on the ship, another officer on the ship helped till last minuute the ship abandon and was founded 3 days after alive but with a leg breaked for the ship movements .... so was! 

Someone had dubbed the famous conversation replacing the s.a.r. chief (guardia costiera .. coast guard)  with the voice of the full metal jacket sergeant .... LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGfkzV3g41E

I'm glad to hear that some passengers and crew members did what honor and duty required; from what I read today, sea captains are pretty much unanimously condemning the skipper for his (in)actions.  I find it almost unbelievable that such an accident is possible in this wonderous day and age of technology, but they said the same thing back in 1912.  A coworker was a Caribbean cruiseline employee for Carnival back in the 90's and he is blown away by this.

Time to snap some photos...

Here are the Aires resin K-36D ejection seats for the Su-27UB C, washed and awaiting a little drybrushing for wear.

Do that drybrushing, dullcoat and they're done unless someone can point out something needs correcting.  I've found photos that show the two 'cans' beside the headrest to painted on the very front end one of these colors- black, silver or red.  I left them black so the other seat color spots pop more.

And now missiles...  the 1/32 Trumpeter Su-27 B kit has 3 types of missiles-  four R-73 "Archer"  air-to-air missiles and 2 each of R-27 with and without clear seeker heads.

If you look closely enough to the clear heads you'll see all kinds of air bubbles that got trapped under there and part lines galore on the various wings.  I can still fix the part lines but the air bubbles are going to stay.  I've left all the missile bodies a plain white without any banding until I can find definitive photos to finish them.  As far as I can tell, the Russians use the black bands on training units and the live missiles are just plain white. 

My birds don't carry training rounds and I've got a set of Begemot full stencil decals arriving Monday... these are supposed to be every single bit of lettering that might appear on an Su-27B and it's ordnance.  If I don't use the decals on these missiles, I've got so many sets of modern Russian air-delivered ordnance that I'll find a use for them somewhere.

I need to get off my butt and get back onto the -27B.  I'm tantalizingly close to beginning to start thinking about painting it.

these missiles looks huge!! what's the dimension , about a ww2 fighter in 1/72? the clear heads looks great Dre

As in other kits, brands use too thick plastic for missiles fins!! 

The larger R-27 missiles are roughly the size of a decent pen.

I agree that the fin plastic is pretty thick in places, but Trumpy actually made an effort on the R-27's fins to thin them down a bit.  It's the R-73's that have really thick fins.

I've been thinking about cutting thin brass sheet or plastic sheet to make new fins that are more scale correct...  but that's going to be a lot of cutting whereas a few minutes with sandpaper can achive the same effect. 

Glad you like this lot, I've got so many more to do still!

Oh, the 1/350 fleet is in and they are about the same size as those K-36D seats.  Tiny little things.

Since I couldn't resist tearing into the 1/350 kits and starting some, I thought I'd share how small they are.     I think that they're well detailed for the scale, loads of easy fun and I can't wait to finish them.  I could get addicted to microscale aircraft collections...

A shot of the Su-33UB sprue.  That's it- everything for 1 kit and 5 more of these hidden under the white plastic in a $7 dollar box. 

Here's the 6 Su-27K fleet.  The sprue sets are almost identical to the Su-33UB's.  Once the glue has dried, I'll give the fuselages a quick seam-sanding and add the rest of the wings.  I'll paint the wheels seperately but not glue them in.  Like I said, they are pretty much the same size as the 1/32 seats.

These things are more modeling fun than I've had in a while.  I can think of all sorts of curious projects involving 1/350 and smaller scale aircraft...

these small sukhoi are not so small

will try to get one of these micro kits on the next supply order !! an eventually carrier kit for these will be like a blood transfer LOL

The missile heads look convincing to me dre, nicely done. (Seats as well, all that detail in 1/32 is tempting sometimes, then I start thinking..."but where would I put them!?!?! )

Decals arrived from Sprue Bros on Friday night, along with some other goodies. Spent several hours trying to decide which options I'll be using. One of the Ukrainian versions for sure...

nice to see you get some tips Vance good to see some paper reference there! 

Dunno if i posted before but here some russian link about flankers: at the bottom of the pages, keeps eyes open because just above the subject pictures have lots of lonks to zipped files with scale draws

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fighter/su27.html

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fighter/su27ub.html

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fighter/su30.html

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fighter/su33.html

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fighter/su35.html

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fighter/su37.html

and main page about fighters

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/fighter/

and here the bomber

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/bomber/

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/bomber/su34.html

Good things in most pages ,between the pictures have the weapons configuration (just for rivet counters )

Have nice flankers

Vance, if you do a Ukrainian bird, are you going to do the splinter camo or what?  I just picked up my package of Begemot stencil decals from the post office- straight from Mother Russia!- and there are 4 sheets per package with extensive notes and information on placement...  it is going to take weeks to fully place these things.

Bsyamato- I'll check out those links- more photos are good.