Pellsons Perceivings

[Pellson]

Now THATS a good looking aircraft.   

It is, isn't it? A bit like the white Witch of Narnia - numbingly beautiful, but will kill you anytime she like - 'cause she's evil as f...

[Pellson]

Having had a second look at the two Sukhoi kits and their respective noses, my suspicion that some kit maker has been a tad lazy seems confirmed. As you might remember, when comparing the fuselages, I found them rather identical.

. The kit, however, isn't ideal. In particular the nose looks much too narrow, and maybe even a little bit short. Looking at the quite closely related KP Su-7 Fitter sprues, the fuselages are almost identical, but looking at photos, the Fishpot is supposed to be both wider and somewhat longer up ahead.

Looking at photos of the Su-7 and the Su-9, the noses do however differ quite substantially.

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Apparently , something had to be done not only about the length, but also about the intake diameter. Leaving out the intake ring made the outer diameter look better, but it also shortened the already short nose another four mm, further increasing the need for extension. Also, not using the kit intake lip meant to sand out another one from the rather thick fuselage material, but then again, as said, the Cooperativa plastic seems quite cooperative so I went ahead and here we are, and I think it came out quite well, don't you?

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 This one actually did get a green radome. The paint guide for the Amodel Flagon called Humbrol 88 for its radome and it looks the part.

In parallel, I've closed up the Flagon fuselage and readied the Fitter for similar treatment another day. The Firebar, however, is fighting me every step, as an Amodel kit maybe should be expected to do, so that will take a bit longer.

But it's good to be at it again. 

[Rick Lowe]

Glad you are having a resurgence - or renaissance -  of building.

The Firebar does look nice, yes.
And the fix for the nose works well. 

And the comments about Russian Armour Green can be equally applied to WW2 Olive Drab... dogmatic opinions and all...

[zenrat]

Now THATS a good looking aircraft.   

It is, isn't it? A bit like the white Witch of Narnia - numbingly beautiful, but will kill you anytime she like - 'cause she's evil as f...

I was always drawn towards the bad girls...
 

[Pellson]

This weekend, our local town held its annual medieval live festival. Good fun, as usual, despite the absolutely abominable weather. It is striking, however, how much rain a properly woven wool cape will endure without leaking much.

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 Today's been rather rainy as well, and that's always a good excuse to hang out by the building desk, so little by little, the Fishpot has taken shape.
It's a big, brutish aircraft, yet somehow quite elegant in its simplicity. A stovepipe with wings and fins, but a big such!

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While the Cooperativa plastic, as earlier said, is really nice to work with, the parts, at times, do leave something to be desired. The wings are ridiculously thick, despite their trailing edges being quite nice, and the thickness of the stabilators are even worse! The latter are one piece, solidly cast, so I was able to thin them considerably, but the wings had to be left as is in order to fit against the fuselage.
Another issue is the landing gear covers. This kit is definitely not intended to be built gear up, but that's how I build all my aircraft, so out with scrap plastic and filler. Loads of it! And speaking of thinning. The air brakes, four of them grouped around the rear fuselage, were about three times thicker than the depth of corresponding recesses. These, however, I was able to sand down, first from the inside and the the last bit from the outside once glued in place.
Another annoying item is the canopy that just doesn't look right. Luckily, the Fitter kit has an extra canopy, so I stole that, and the result looks quite ok, as you can see.

I've also closed up the two other Sukhoi fuselages, and added the intake ring to the Fitter nose. Fit is so-so, but PSR will prevail. The Amodel Flagon is still a pain, but most parts does fit well once sanded in shape and I think the model will look alright once built.
The Firebar is still sitting in its box, cockpit and engine inlet bullet fairings prebuilt. To fit the latter into the engine gondolas look to be.. interesting.. 

But that's for another day. Tonight, I'm going to be happy about how the Fishpot looks so far, and that's that.

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[Pellson]

Today, I have closed up the Firebar fuselage. That's no minor feat, considering the somewhat less coordinated fit of the cockpit parts and the instrument panels, requiring rather substantial adjustments to be made to make things go together. Also, the fuselage halves total lack of corresponding design of the mating surfaces complicated things somewhat, necessitating abundant use of force and violence in addition to initial reshaping. But I think it'll look good once I de-clamp it tomorrow.

In other news, I have run some PSR on the Fitter nose, but more is needed. It seems my putty prefers thin layers, and so be it. I find it good in most other regards. Also, I sorted the gear covers on the Fitter. If possible, they fit even worse than the Fishpot ones, and as they're bulged, they were a bit more complicated to get reasonably smooth. But it's there, and it's good enough. I've found that attaching these things before mating the wing halves to one another greatly simplifies things, as one then can adjust also from the back side.

Next in line for this treatment is the Flagon, and after that, I think that kit will shape up quite quickly. Famous last words, perhaps (it's an Amodel, remember?) but basically it's wings, fins and stabilators, and some minor things to round it off. No biggie!

The Yak is a bit more work intensive, I think. First and foremost - it has two engine gondolas to build in addition to that fuselage, and judging from the fit of the fuselage parts, I'm in for a proper fight. But I'm looking much forward to seeing it take shape.

Well - as much of my modelling these days seem to mainly consist of shaping a component, then gluing it and then wait for half a day in order to be able to glue next thing on, it might be so that another kit or two is require to deliver enough tasks. There is an old KP MiG-17 on top of the stash, and that won't even take up much desk space.. hmmm.

[Old Wombat]

I find that the "abundant use of force and violence" is frequently under-rated in both modelling & life in general.

[zenrat]

...There is an old KP MiG-17 on top of the stash, and that won't even take up much desk space.. hmmm.

I think i've got one of those as well.  Has the radar nose, yes?

[Pellson]

...There is an old KP MiG-17 on top of the stash, and that won't even take up much desk space.. hmmm.

I think i've got one of those as well.  Has the radar nose, yes?

Yes, indeed. And despite being very, very east European in its kit layout, the shape is said to be very good.

[Rick Lowe]

I find that the "abundant use of force and violence" is frequently under-rated in both modelling & life in general.

Indeed.

Mr Pellson, I may have to pirate that expression...   

[NARSES2]

I find that the "abundant use of force and violence" is frequently under-rated in both modelling & life in general.

I quite often find the threat of such is sufficient 

[NARSES2]

This weekend, our local town held its annual medieval live festival. Good fun, as usual, despite the absolutely abominable weather. It is striking, however, how much rain a properly woven wool cape will endure without leaking much.

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Great photo. Love the fact the dog even got involved 

[Old Wombat]

Oh! That's the Pellson family! I thought it was Gandalf, Frodo & three Elvish maidens!      

[Pellson]

Oh! That's the Pellson family! I thought it was Gandalf, Frodo & three Elvish maidens!      

Perhaps not surprisingly, there are always a few people going all in Tolkien on these events. This year, I met a rather pretty young lady with long, pointy eleven ears, f.I. The large majority, however, are actually wearing rather historically correct outfits.
That said, I can't say the fantasy fans are disturbing anything. Rather, they add a little bit of further colour to the event, and that's all well, I assume.

As the Fitter gear covers had set overnight, today, I managed to both sort the nose and attach wings and stabilators. It's shaping up quite ok, the KP kit being much nicer in shape than the Cooperativa Fishpot, but the plastic is thin, brittle and not at all as easy to work with, so it does take time and care to clean up the pieces.
Also, the cockpit opening seems a tad too large for the canopy, so I will probably have to do something about that. It's not going to be dead easy, but we've sorted worse..

Also, I had second thoughts on the weapon pylons on the Fishpot, realising I had to rework them as I will have the interceptor upgraded a bit, not using the very rudimentary Alkali missiles as the aircraft originally did. And doing that, I took the opportunity to add an under-nose IRST as per the MiG-23 or MiG-25PD and a few other lumps and bumps, now having a completed, if still unpainted Su-9M on my desk. Happy chappy!

So what about the two Amodel kits? Well - the Flagon needed a bit of putty, but it seems I applied some of that stuff a little bit too richly, experiencing softening of the underlying plastic. However, I managed to scrape the worst off, and having let things stabilise during the day, I could get back to the putty, if in more moderate thickness, late this afternoon. It's now left to set, so I'm a little bit excited to see how it turns out tomorrow.

The Firebar - well - I have taken the plunge on the engine gondolas, and it is a mess. A double mess, even, as there are two gondolas. But taking small steps, carefully filing and sanding parts to shape, I'll be getting there with that one too, eventually.

Is that all you've managed today, you might think? Well - I have actually been working as well, and in the afternoon I had to do a stint in the garden, troubleshooting the robot lawnmower's border cable. That was a mess too, but I've located and sorted six cable faults and replaced four more dodgy joints. It should work now, but before I can test it, I need to repair the charging station as well. There's always something..

But now, bedtime.

[Pellson]

Has anyone seen the film "Yesterday"? Having been shut out of here for a good 14 hrs, it seems no one else did, leaving me somewhat frustrated and wondering whether I was the only one experiencing yesterday at all? The rest of the interwebz seemed to work flawlessly so I really hadn't thought it was a local thingy.

Strange.

Anyway - I missed you lot, but I got a little something done on my evil armada of Soviet interceptors. Amongst that, I got on with converting a long time ago built Airfix Flogger from its standard MiG-23S issue to the most recent MLD variant. Fixing the nose, cutting the fins and even making notches in the wing roots. It might not be as perfect as a new RV kit, but it's good enough. And it already has really nice Hasegawa missiles, improving massively on the original Airfix ones, so why not?
The final touch will be to rob an Italeri MiG-27 kit (a Zvezda reboxing) of some R-60 missiles and that twin launcher the come on.  Interestingly, that mud mover kit includes a full set of air-to-air missiles as well as an interceptor radome and engine exhaust, plus some minor stuff. Nice spares!

That Amodel Flagon is coming along, slowly but nicely. The amount of de-flashing and de-spruegating necessary to make the parts fit is unbelievable but once done, the kit builds up very nicely indeed! It is a pity that it's such an unfriendly build, because I have a feeling the result will be very good, without any real modifications.
One thing I've noted while working on it is that when compared with the old PM Flogger kit in my stash, the Amodel one is longer. About a pitot tube longer. I suspect the PM thing was scaled from a measurement that did not include the pitot while the kit maker thought I'd did, much like the famous Italeri B-58. Anyway - I have non-Flagon plans for the PM kit anyway, so no harm done.

Well - the family is down with a rather bad cold that our 14yo dragged home from school the other day. While I seem to cope better than the rest (probably due to my rather intense Covid vaccinations) the others are rather slow, so no bigger adventures this weekend, so I might actually just get some desk time..