Sukhoi T-4MS

[Mossie]

I've now finished cleaning up the parts & given them a good rinse.  There are a few repairs to be made due to the odd air bubble, only one real cause for concern on one of the the intakes.  It happens to be on the same part that I broke the corner off (kind of lucky), there was a large air bubble that just disintegrated when I sanded over it.  My only real option is to build up the damaged pieces from plastic card.

I took some delivery of some Mr Dissolved Putty.  I was expecting a normal putty & was surprised to see it was a thick liquid.  I guess the 'dissolved putty' title should have given it away, but I assumed the slightly odd name was an example of 'engrish'.  I've found out it's very literal, apparently some Japanese modellers used to take Tamiya putty & dissolve it in Mr Thinner, Gunze took the idea & sold it a bottle.  I guess I'll see how it works soon...

Oh, & I've found resin can bite!  Like most brittle materials, it's also quite hard & can be sharp.  I managed to snag my thumb on a sharp piece that had been damaged by air bubbles (fortunately not visible) & nicked it.  I'm guessing not many others have done that!

[Mossie]

Here's the damaged engine pod.  My plan is to the remove sections & replace them with plastic card.  My guess is that should work okay, the superglue should bind the polystrene & resin.

[ElectrikBlue]

Wow... that's a big beast you are building here Mossie, wish you good luck!

Have you made your choice about the cockpit/canopy?

[Nick]

You could fix that top hole with some filler I reckon. The broken corner is tricky but is it truly visible when on place on the model?

[nev]

The broken corner is tricky but is it truly visible when on place on the model?

I'd do the same on the other side and come up with some pseudo-technical explination of why the T-4 has this particular aerodynamic feature   "Well, the boundary layer air..."

[thedarkmaster]

I've always found filler to work well with resin as they are both quite forgiving mediums, I reckon you can fill both bits 

[Mossie]

EB, thanks!  Yeah, I've made my choice, I'm going to stick with it oob.

Nick/Nev/Tim, I could put the corner on the inside of the model as the the engine compartments aren't handed. It'd be largely unnoticeable from the top, but would be the moment you turned the model over, or from the front.  I don't think filler would work on the air bubble as it's quite large, but something a bit more robust like Milliput should,   Filler isn't going to work on the corner, Millput might, but it'll probably just knock off again, I think I'll be best off cutting a small section out & replacing it.  Shouldn't be too much of job.

[General Melchet]

Have you got any scrap pieces of resin left over, ie bits of 'flash' on the wheel trees etc ( you get this on most Ani kits), if so use that. I always use the native resin if possible as it melds in perfectly with the kit parts. Drill out the air bubble a little bit and just plug, sand over then smear on Mr Hobby.Same with the missing corner piece.
I've got very used to doing this with just about every Anigrand kit!!! If you haven't any left over bits use some from another kit, plastic takes a lot more work as it's a lot harder and less forgiving when sanded...

[Mossie]

I wondered about that, I guess as you start to sand, the softer resin will wear more easilyUnfortunately I've been very organised & tidy & thrown the bits away.    I'm using all the parts too, so there's nothing I can butcher for couple of chunks of resin.  I do have the Freightdog SR.177 that was manufactured by Anigrand, I cleaned it up but there might be something.  I do have another couple of resin kits, but the grade will be different.  I'll see what I can find.  Thanks Andy!

Another possibility is to use styrene but to undersize it, then I can use filler over the top.

[General Melchet]

PM me your address and I'll get a few bits of scrap off to you, haven't got a lot as I used most of it to patch mine up!!!...but I reckon I've got more than enough to help you out here!!

[thedarkmaster]

I have some resin pouring plugs from a few kits if you need them mate just let me know

[Mossie]

Thanks guys, but I managed to find some bits from a Unicraft kit I have.  Took a bit of working to shape them to fit, a little fiddly being so small.  Here's the completed repairs:

[thedarkmaster]

Looks good mate, dont think it will be too visible where it is 

[General Melchet]

Looks good , it really is the best answer for resin repairs...always try to stick to the same material......once primed and prepped you wont notice it!!

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Nice work, Simon 

Ian