My Sea Flankers: An Adventure into my Imagination and Insanity!

[Old Wombat]

Love watching your master classes, Steven! Keep it coming!

[FAR148]

Thanks everybody for your kind words and wonderful support! 

Make sure it's all hardened before you try and sand it.  Makes a mess if it hasn't...

Oh, it has been cured for months now. 

How about some progress of my carrier based Su-34? I have always loved the side-by-side seating of the Su-34 but did not care for her nose. I'm going to give mine a nose job. A rounder look like more like the Su-33 UBK. I turned a new rounder nose for her, but the amount of reconstruction to get it to fit is just not worth it.





So, I started looking for other nose ideas and came across an image of a JASDF F-2. Got another piece of high-density foam and started shaping her new nose more like a F-2 radome.



Once I was happy with its shape, I wrapped the joint where it meets the fuselage with some vinyl tape to make it leak proof. Next, I stood her nose down so I could back fill the nose with resin making a plug to ensuring a perfect fit to the body.  The high-density foam that I made the nose from is very porous and needs to be sealed for me to mold it. So, I placed the nose on piece of aluminum foil formed into a tray and pour resin all over top of it then let gravity do the rest.





The cured resin forms a hard and sandable shell around the new nose.



I then molded and casted a master part in resin. I added some lightning strips made from thinly cut Dymo tape and remolded it. A few days later, I wasn't happy with the size of the lightning strips. I used the molded in strip as guides, scribed in and sanded off the rise ones.



Here's her new nose along side the resin coated foam blank.



Thanks for stopping by!
Steven L 

[NARSES2]

Terrific work 

[PR19_Kit]

Utterly amazing, I wish I had that technology at my fingertips. 

[silverwindblade]

Wow, that's some impressive building right there. I love the results, too.

[FAR148]

Thanks Guys for the continued support

This weekend update is about the Bad Girl of the bunch. For the wings of my carrier based Su-34, I needed a 2nd Su-33. I cut the wings from the upper and lower fuselage halves and threw her into what was becoming the "Parts" box. Upset that I used her for her body wings, I started searching for ideas to get her some new wings. I came across hasegawa anime fighter with some wing that would look sexy on her. After some time in photoshop scaling and printing, I came up with this. Not too sure about the placement of the horizontal stabilizer.



This will be my first-time scratch building wings. The issues I foresee is the structure, making sure the wings will be strong and not flimsy. As well as making sure from side to side, they look the same. Pretty girls require a ton of attention and this one is no different. Since she is special, she does not have a traditional air brake. Like most modern fighters, she deflects her flight controls to maximize drag. So, I glued and filled the  kits air brake and rescribed her panel lines.



I printed out her new wings, spray mounted them to some illustration board and cut them out. She is going to the Pretty Girl of the bunch for sure  .



Until next time,
Steven 

[Old Wombat]

Wild!

[chrisonord]

Wow....
I am enthralled with what you are doing with these sukhoi's I really am. Just try not to get abducted by any dubious looking Russians ok
Chris

[silverwindblade]

I started searching for ideas to get her some new wings. I came across hasegawa anime fighter with some wing that would look sexy on her.

Ahh, that looks like the wing planform from the 'Shinden II' fighter from the Ace Combat video game series. Hasegawa released a 1/72nd scale kit of it, I think.
It always interested me with the shape and the design, especially as it was designed by one of my favourite mecha designers, who is also a massive aircraft nut. I would pick one up, but 72nd isn't really my scale.

It looks great on this though, and I'm excited to see what comes of it!

[FAR148]

Thanks guys 

Ahh, that looks like the wing planform from the 'Shinden II' fighter from the Ace Combat video game series.

Good guess but it from Hasegawa Macross 29 VF-31 Siegfried Hayate Custom "Macross Delta"



Thanks for stopping by!
Steven 

[silverwindblade]

Good guess but it from Hasegawa Macross 29 VF-31 Siegfried Hayate Custom "Macross Delta"



Thanks for stopping by!
Steven 

Haha, well, considering how much I love Macross, that makes me feel embarassed that I didn't recognise it, lol

[Dizzyfugu]

That looks almost like a modern Macross Valkyrie!

[FAR148]

Happy Holidays folks!
Here's an update of a bunch of odds and ins.  Let's start with the carrier based Su-34.  Like her Su-33 sister, she has a shorten tail. I cut 42 mm out of her tail and glued it back together.



On to her intakes, the hobbyboss kit has these two panel on the inboard side of the intake that you are suppose of fill with two kit parts. Parts like this never fit properly. And since I'm going make some intake covers so you can not see the next step. I added some styrene backing on the inside of the intakes where the panels go. And filled them with my favorite putty, super glue and baby powder. Once cured, they can be sanded flush and smooth leaving no unsightly seams.





On to my two seat Su-33. The cockpit that came with the Su-27 UB, which was grafted on to the Kinetics Su-33, was not as detail as I would like. So, in its place I got Wolfpack Designs Su-30 cockpit. To ensure the instrument panel of the front cockpit fit into the Su-33, I cut the top portion of the Su-33s instrument panel and glued it to the resin one of the Su-30.



I wanted to paint the cockpit of both my two seat Su-33 and her forward swept wing sister that Russian interior blue. At first, I painted them blue and tried to paint the buttons and nobs with a tooth pick and I was not happy with the results. So, I stripped the paint and started over. But how could paint it blue and still the buttons and nobs clearly painted? Here's what I did! First, I painted the tubs flat black and sealed it with a heavy coat of Future and let it dry overnight. The next day, I then sprayed the interior blue. I then cut a piece of 1/8 dowel rod and super glued a piece a 400-grit sand paper to the circle end of it. (not wrapped around it) Once the blue was good and dry, I run the dowel rod over the buttons and nobs, lightly sanding off the blue and revealing the black underneath. Once I was happy, I gave it another coat of Future. Painted a few buttons red and a light grey to add some visual interest. And gave the tubs a wash in black watercolors. The instrument panels were paint blue first and the dials and screens painted after.



The wheels, the wheel, OMG the wheels! So, the Su-33 kit wheels looks amazing but when you glue them together, there is no way I know of to sand them and not lose any of the surface detail. And the Su-34 wheels are that fake rubber and don't want to use them for its main wheels. I wanted a single piece wheel with some type of tread that I could use for all the main wheels for all my Girls. So, I added a styrene disk to the Su-33 wheels to make them wider. Sanded them smooth, cut some super thin strips of vinyl tape and added it for new tread detail. Added a casting block, mixed up and pour some RTV and molded the wheels. I then casted resin copies for each of my Sea Flankers. I did the same for the nose wheels too.





Back to my two seat Su-33. With the resin tubs painted and finished, its time to put them into place. Fitting them into the Su-27 UB area was not a problem. It was the nose gear bay of the Su-33. The nose gear bay is deep, and the resin tubs are tall. It took a lot of careful grinding with the Dremel before it all came together. The top of the nose gear bay and the bottom of front cockpit tub are paper thin!





Thanks for stopping by and until next post!
Steven 

[Scooterman]

Gobsmacked! 

[NARSES2]

Impressive work