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

[FAR148]

Hi gang! It's been a while. Been busy blogging and pretending to be a photographer.   But a few months ago, I heard my work bench calling me and curiously I answered it. For the longest time I have wanted to build a few Sea Flankers but with my ideas. The problem was I never had a good starting point for my builds. Years later, I do now. So, the two ideas I have that I will be building is first, a two seat Su-33 with the seating like a Su-30. And the other is a carrier based Su-34 much like the Su-33 UBK. For the two seat Su-33, I'm going to use Kinetic 1/48 Su-33 kit along with cockpit area of Academy's 1/48 Su-27 UB kit. The hardest part will be mating the cockpit area of the UB to the Su-33. The cockpits (tubs, seats and display panels) of the 27 UB are not to my liking, so I will replace it with Wolfpack design Su-30 resin cockpit. I also plan on putting some GE F-110 engines on her like the F-14 B/D.

For the carrier based Su-34, I'll be using Hobby Boss Su-34 kit. I know Kittyhawk just release their kits, but I'm not impressed with any of their kits. I hate the fact that they tend break up the fuselage into what I feel is too many pieces. Making more seams having to address. Butanywho... Where was I? Oh yeah, my naval Su-34. I order to fold her wings, I got a second Kinetic Su-33. The wing folds on the kit are well thought out and looks great. And it would easier to graft them to the Su-34 then try and scratch build them. I love the side-by-side seating of the Su-34 but was never a fan of its nose. I want to reshape it to look more like the Su-33 UBK. More round like all its flanker sisters. And like the Su-33 UBK, my Sea Su-34 will have thrust-vectoring nozzles. I'm going to shorten the tail boom for carrier operations as well.

I've been very inspired about these builds and been working on them since July. So much so, I was not going to make a work in progress thread and just post images of the finished model. It sometime turns into a chore doing a work in progress post while building. Build, photos, build, photos, edit, write, edit, post, reply, reply and then go back to building. Truth be told, I had a lot to figure out for both builds. Like how am I going to graft the Su-27 UB cockpit area to the Su-33 fuselage? And would the wings of the Su-33 even fit on the fuselage of the Su-34? Having to stop and go through the motions of a work in progress post would had really put a damper on my creativity and progress.

I did and have been taking photos of my progress and feel I'm at a point of most of the of "How in the F@#K am I going to do" this is over. After this weekend's progress, the models are really starting to come together and take shape. After some thought, I see no joy in waiting until the end of the builds and showing the finish models. And being that I have a few months of past progress, it will be easier for me to keep building with passion and still share it with you all.

Here's good teaser image. And Yes! You can fit an Academy Su-27 UB cockpit area onto a Kinetic Su-33 fuselage. In the lower, you can see I chopped the nose off the Su-34 and place a foam blank to be reshaped. The spare Su-33 in also in the image as well but more about her later!



Until later,
Steven L   

[kerick]

This looks very interesting! I'll be watching!

[McColm]

Great idea

[Cobra]

Looking Cool were You Tempted to Hum the Top Gun Anthem as You started to Build Your Sea Flankers? Keep up the Superb Work Dan

[Old Wombat]

Great to see you back at the bench, Brother Steven!

[NARSES2]

In the lower, you can see I chopped the nose off the Su-34 and place a foam blank to be reshaped. T

Showing my age I assumed it was timber ! What type of foam is it as a matter of interest please ?

[FAR148]

Looking Cool were You Tempted to Hum the Top Gun Anthem as You started to Build Your Sea Flankers? Keep up the Superb Work Dan

I can't lie. I have been humming Top Gun along with quoting it from time to time 

What type of foam is it as a matter of interest please?

It's a high-density polyurethane foam. It is very similar to this stuff https://www.generalplastics.com/products/fr-4500

Thanks for watching!
Steven 

[Air21]

I keep daydreaming about a four place SU-34 like a super EA-6 prowler, I'll be watching this build intently 

[NARSES2]

What type of foam is it as a matter of interest please?

It's a high-density polyurethane foam. It is very similar to this stuff https://www.generalplastics.com/products/fr-4500

Thank you Steven 

[FAR148]

It's the weekend and time to head to my work bench again. So, I want to share with you the madness of grafting Academy's Su-27 UB cockpit area onto Kinetics Su-33 fuselage. I knew it could be done, it would be a matter of accurately cutting and sanding them to get a good joint. Once I got both kits, I marked out the area of the UB I want to cut out. With my Dremel, I started hacking up the UB. What I did was cut way more than what I needed, placed it over top of the Su-33 upper fuselage and started trimming back the UB cockpit area to panel line close to the Su-33.



When I got close to the Su-33 panel line, I  used a file to true up the cuts. I then simply placed the UB cockpit area on top of the Su-33 upper fuselage and with a fine tip felt pen, marked what needed to be cut away from the Su-33 fuselage. Again, with my Dremel, I cut away the single seat area of the Su-33. After some time with a file and some good old fashioned cursing, I got the UB cockpit area to fits. Now to glue it into place. I wanted something I could rescribe and strong. I thought about using my old trusty, super glue and baby powder. Yeah it is great to fill large gaps and I can rescribe it, I don't think it will make a strong joint.



Not sure if you guys know how most liquid cements works. Ambroid Pro Weld, Plastruct Plastic Weld Cement, Plast-I-Weld Liquid Cement, different names but it's the same stuff. They basically melt and bond plastic together. If you have ever put too much on a seam, you know how easily it melts plastic. I'm going to use that melting ability to make some liquid styrene glue/filler. I cut up a bunch of leftover/unused sprue and put it into a glass mixing bottle and then added my liquid cement. Stirring it as it melts the sprue into liquid styrene. I tacked the corner of the UB cockpit area to the Su-33 with some super glue to hold it into position. I then bushed on the liquid styrene into the seam. It does take some time for it to harden. About 24 to 48 hours to be sure. But once it hardens and totally cured, you have two parts that was bonded together with styrene. Styrene you can sand, scribe and paint just like the kit.







Once it was all cured, I started the sanding process. I did use some super glue and baby powder to fill hole as putty. I then airbrushed some Tamiya Flat black as guide coat for sanding and checking surface. During the sanding, I used some vinyl tape to protect surface detail I did not want to lose.









Thanks for stopping by!
Steven 

[kerick]

That is really nice work! I've got to try some of these Russian aircraft. Lots of potential.   

[silverwindblade]

I'm going to be watching how these shape up with interest!

[zenrat]

I call it Sprue-Goo.  Make sure it's all hardened before you try and sand it.  Makes a mess if it hasn't...

[Gondor]

That's great work and you have managed to come up with an Su-33UB too 

Gondor

[su27rules]

Really nice work!!