Gudkov Gu-VRD - Now Finished

[McGreig]

Y' know compared to my Unicrap kit of the Lockheed YO-3A your kit looks GOOD!

Yes, consistency is another major problem with Unicraft.

Apart from the (extremely) poor fit and the jet pipe, the Gu-VRD is actually not a bad kit - the main parts are not distorted and the engraved detail is OK. However, I'm also building Unicraft's Sukhoi Su-VRD and that had short moulding round the rear fuselage, deep and irregular panel lines that had to be filled and very rough wing leading and trailing edges (as well as the normal fit problems).

And, while I haven't seen the YO-3A, the MiG SKAT UAV is very poor with poorly defined "zig-zag" stealth weapons bay doors that don't fit the poorly defined weapons bays and an air intake that is so poorly moulded that it has to be removed with a razor saw and rebuilt from scratch. Likewise, the Sukhoi Su-10 bomber has engines which appear to be unusable.

But the Bolkhovitinov S, which I'm also building for this GB, is quite good apart from the normal fit issues, as is the Kalinin K-15 rocket plane that I built a few years ago:

[Mossie]

I'll extend the timescale for you mate  Seriously go on, you know you want to 

No, I'm not sure I do...

Yes, you should build it - Cheranovsky's designs are wonderful - they look like real world Whiffs. For example, (going off topic for a moment but, hey, its my thread):

Go on then, with Chris holding me and you kicking I think I might have to!

In all seriousness, I've been looking it over and I've convinced myself it's not that bad .  One of the fuselage halves has slightly banana'd, which can be corrected with a bit of light sanding.  One wing has a slight gull wing (which it should), the other is inexplicably flat but I should be able to sort that fairly easily with a razor saw.  A lot of clean up will be required, but nothing serious.  I might need a bit of Milliput on the rudder fairing as the two sides don't quite match.  Overall, it's looks like a pretty good match to the plans I've seen.  Probably worth all the work to have of Cheranovsky's lovely little designs on my display shelf.   What better kit to break my resin duck!

I remember that Sea Vixen bash, it's fantastic and very much in the spirit of the unamed Cheranovsky project that floats around in publications.  That wood and card model is excellent also, I look forward to seeing you putting it in plastic.  I'm very fond of Cheranovsky aircraft and if all goes well, I might attempt a scratch build of another project.

I'll agree with Jim, the one other Unicraft (V-7 Feurball) I have is pretty poor compared to this one.  Mold slippage on the tip jet parts, the semi spherical dome that is anything but, it's a simple kit too and could be much better.

[McGreig]

Well, the cockpit seal/join has now been sanded down.





Admittedly, the pictures don't seem to show much change, but I'm very relieved to have got that bit of the build out of the way. The poor fit of the canopy was exacerbated by my over-enthusiastic trimming on one side and Clearfix had to fill a rather larger gap than I would have liked. However, the combination of white paint, Squadron White filler and gentle but repeated sanding seems to have worked and the canopy is now sealed and blended into the fuselage

Wonder how it would look with a close-cowled radial on the front? ASh-82 perhaps?

I wondered about that too. The design is clearly from the very early days of jet propulsion, when the full implications for the possible location of the crew and the armament hadn't been realised. So the Gu-VRD is essentially a conventional early Forties fighter design with the cockpit in mid-fuselage and the jet engine in pretty much the same place as the piston engine would have gone. If this was an Airfix kit, I'd be tempted to get another one to kitbash a radial engined version or, possibly, a turboprop. However, as it's a Unicraft resin this is unlikely - - -

[McGreig]

Some visible progress now  :

Firstly more work was done on the canopy, finishing the sealing and painting the frames.





I don't like canopies, especially vacforms, at the best of times and I found that they were becoming a choke point in my modelling - at one point I had 20+ kits near completion, all stalled at the point where I was going to paint the canopy frames. To prevent this sort of thing, I now try to paint the canopies before starting anything else (or, if vacforms, as soon as they are fixed in place).

Fortunately, although a little touching up is needed, the Gudkov's vacform canopy is OK and I can move on to the next stage:





Although the Unicraft undercarriage was usable, I thought that a plastic one would be stronger and would look a bit better. The undercarriage legs are quite long and stalky but I found an ideal replacement set in an Academy Fw-190A. This is a well produced, nicely fitting kit but it is far from accurate and it was easy to sacrifice it for this project.

Next - add the u/c doors, guns and aerial and then painting.

[NARSES2]

Enjoying this build. Must admit I tend to replace the undercarriage with Igor's kits as well

[McGreig]

At last, painting has started. Once the red has been masked off the aircraft will be finished in the late war light grey/dark grey fighter scheme.

[McGreig]

Well, after a two week hiatus, the Gudkov is finished  





On the basis of the 1943 design period, and a potential first flight in 1944, I've gone for the later war two greys scheme, rather than green or green/black.





All things considered, this hasn't been the problem build that I expected and I'm very pleased with the result.





It was finished in time to go on the Soviet SIG stand at Southern Expo where it attracted err,well, uhm - - -approximately zero interest I did see a couple of people take photos of it but no-one asked me about it - - -

[Dizzyfugu]

This looks so odd and cool at the same time...  Love the air intake arrangement and the highlight you set with red around it. Nice piece, worthy entry! 

[PR19_Kit]

An excellent piece of work. 

The big heat shield aft of the exhaust looks particularly realistic, and as for the Joe Publics at Southern Expo, don't worry about it too  much. That's the usual response to any model that looks like it could have existed, but one that they can't bring to mind. 

[Mossie]

Looks great!  Like the camo, don't know why, but I was expecting a silver finish.

Got to get back to my BiCH-17, I've been working on it in fits and starts

[Captain Canada]

What a little beauty ! Would have caused quite the fright over the battlefield ! Love the colours....look perfect together.

[The Wooksta!]

Nice.  Personally I'd have went for a North Korean scheme.

[McGreig]

Nice.  Personally I'd have went for a North Korean scheme.

I had considered Chinese or Soviet aerobatic colours and, if it had been an Airfix kit, I might have gone down that route, knowing that I'd be able to build a few more in different schemes. However, although I think that I have another of these lurking in the stash, the chances of me building it are minimal so I thought that I'd stick with WW II Soviet.

What a little beauty !

It's a bit tubby but surprisingly elegant and streamlined. Not at all what I expected from looking at the box top or the collection of parts before assembly!

[NARSES2]

I like that, a lot. Most aircraft look good in that scheme and indeed I've just fitted the canopy to one in a very similar one 

Whose paints have you used on her ? I use White Ensign for Soviet (and French) colours

[lancer]

WOW!! That looks bloody amazing. Excellent build