Mig-37SMT - Finished!! (pics pg6)

[jalles]

When I saw this Soviet Group Build I knew I had to join in!  I'm going to start out with Testors/Italeri's 1/72 Mig-37 and I hope to do the following:

• Get rid of the laser designator in the nose and re-shape it for a radar set
• Add some sort of IRST or ETOS
• Lengthen the fuselage by about an inch
• Scratch build new weapons bays and under-carriage openings
• Remove all unnecessary strakes and vents
• Scratch build new wings and stablizers
• Make it more "stealthy" looking

The main reason for fuselage stretch is to get a bigger internal weapons load, I'm hoping to get 4 FAB-500KR's inside.  I'd love to get 2 R-73's in there too but I don't see how I'd cram them in.

[jalles]

Prior to performing the fuselage stretch I'm getting the bottom smooth.  I'm trying to make it look as "stealthy" as possible so I'm getting rid of the air intakes around the exhaust and the protrusions on the gear bay doors.  Although it will have the under carriage and weapons bays open, I don't want to deal with with all of the internal structures of the kit part so I may wind up vacu-forming a copy and using that.  I lost the forward weapons bay doors so I just filled it in with styrene.



I'm sharping up the nose, getting rid of the laser designator in lieu of a radar.  I'm hoping to add an IRST of some sort if I have time



Finally, I'm getting rid of the top side vents around the exhaust.  I thought about filling that area in but decided just to cut it out and I'll replace it with styrene.  I'm also gluing and filling the air brakes and removing the strakes on top of the air brakes as well as shorting the fairing behind the cockpit.

[JasonW]

Welcome aboard jalles! Looking forward with interest to where this build is going. Very promising start, I like the ideas you have for this kit.

[zenrat]

Cool.  Looking forward to see what you do with this.

[Snowtrooper]

With such an extensive change list, there will hardly anything of the original plane left! Fascinating to see how this will turn out, and I'm especially interested in how you're going to handle the lengthening of the fuselage - I've always dreaded the idea of extending a complex shape (as opposed to roughly circular or ovoid "regular" fuselage).

[DogfighterZen]

Cool, i like this a lot! I've had a similar idea for new wings and nose a couple of years ago when i first bought the kit, and by what i see, it would be different from your idea... i also thought of dragging it out for this GB so i'm watching this with interest.

[jalles]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the replies!  I'm facing the fuselage stretch with a bit of trepidation.  I'm worried it's going to make it look ungainly, but I really think the plane is just too small.

I can't wait to see how all the other entries in this GB turn out!

[Captain Canada]

Looks good so far ! As far as the stretch goes, I say go for it. I've blown so many GB deadlines by sitting around thinking about it.....

[jalles]

Not a whole lot of progress, but i did manage to reshape the air intakes



The cylindrical radar receivers (or whatever they are) probably wouldn't have been too good on a stealth plane, nor the perpendicular part of the intake so I got rid of both.

I also filled in the rear vents



It's hard to see in the picture, but I've managed to maintain most of the surface shaping

Finally I was thinking of using this bang seat I had in the stash

[Dizzyfugu]

Sleek! I like the new, pointed nose a lot. 

[DogfighterZen]

Sleek! I like the new, pointed nose a lot. 

Same here, this is gonna look much better than the original one.

[jalles]

So I finally took the plunge and started the fuselage stretch.  Obviously I had to cut the top and bottom apart.



At this point I was hoping all the cuts where perpendicular and horizontal.  Next I taped the pieces down to my cutting board at the right distances and orientation and then glued in some supports.



Then I added some tabs to support the styrene sheets that would fill in the open areas caused by the stretch.  I was going to use .040 thick styrene to fill in the open areas, so I placed the tabs .040 from the outer surface hoping my filler pieces would sit flush with the outer outline.



Finally, I filled in the lengthened portions with sheet styrene. The tabs largely worked as I had hoped.



It looks a little funky right now, I'm hoping after some filler, sanding, and a coat of primer it will look okay.

[TheChronicOne]

This is some good looking work so far!! Nicely done and welcome. 

[DogfighterZen]

Very nice work!

[sandiego89]

Ohhh shaping up nicely!