and other artistic stuff
I’ve started to assemble the front and rear stabilizers. They actually fit quite nicely. However, I first need to sort some of the seams along the body. I don’t want to have them showing behind the stabilizers.
I accidently cut off the tab for the one on the other side by mistake, as I thought it was part of the sprue. I have to sort that, and also figure if they’re supposed to sit in a certain angle when parked.
I repainted the seats and now they look like this.
I got 2 decals to sort for the seats, and then wash and some dry brushing.
The upper rear part of the body was a bit fiddly go get in place as part of it fits in a slot in the engine cover. I decided to get the underside to sit nicely first.
With the underside right, the topside has a small gap, but I think I can push it in place and glue with liquid glue.
According to the instructions, the exhaust pipes are supposed to go in now, but I’ll wait until after the plane is painted.
Putting the front gear bay into place was a bit of a struggle. Partly due to the struts poking out from the bay. Now both are broken. Have to glue them back later.
The struts poking out from the main gear bays are also easy to break, and I think it would have been possible to glue them later. Not so with the front gear bay.
After that I glued the fuselage halves. No great problem with the fit, and I think most of it will be sorted with minor sanding. I had to glue it bit by bit, but quite easy with liquid glue.
The HUD consists of 2 parts of PE that is glued together with the glass pieces, and then glued to the sight. But I decided to glue the etch in place and then paint all in black. Hopefully I can fit the glass later.
Next I’ll sort the canopy and other stuff.
I had to paint the inside of the upper body to match the interior.
Once dry I’ll glue the cockpit and also fit front gear well into lower body, and then glue the body halves together.
The cockpit and the front wheel bay got an oil wash.
The instrument panel got the decal on. A bit fiddly as there wasn’t much space to hold the IP when working with the decal. A bit hard to move around as the decal stuck all the time, but after some work I got it in place.
Using q-tips I removed some of the excess wash, and then I did some weathering with Tamiya weathering sets.
When the weathering was done, I could put the IP in place.
The main wheel bays was mounted into the lower body.
I started out with the exhaust cans, who sits on two separate sprues. Some cleaning up to do. Quite easy to put together and have pretty nice detail.
I must say the instructions are a little sparse when it comes to painting instructions.
Now I need to figure which colours to use for the exhaust pipes.
From the start I just added a few cables in the wheel bays, but after some consideration and checking references, I decided to add a few more details.
I think it turned out pretty good, and will do alright once in place and standing on a shelf.
I started by painting some pre-shade lines on the cockpit and wheel bay parts.
Next the cockpit got at layer of Hu65 which I’ve been told is a good match to the sukhoi cockpit colour.
Once the base color was on I started doing some detail painting. I also painted the seats black and started adding details there too. The main wheel bays got some cables added.
Next the instrument panel will get intrument decals. I didn’t bother with the decals for the side panels, and will only do som dry brushing to pick out details.
Next I’ll paint the cables and give everything a wash and some drybrushing.