Su-30SM WIP

Robin (WhiteGlint)
I plan to build Mihaly's Su-30SM, too.
Watching with interest. 👍

Harry
@WhiteGllint Good to see you again! I finally have the chance to build models after a few months of intense school. I'll make sure to record any problems I encountered along the way.

Nils Steyaert
"ive seen pilots like you in every generation, and i felled every last one of them!"
following 🙂

Harry
July 2nd update:
Working on this kit has been annoying, maybe I am spoiled by other modern kits. There were just a lot of body work. Every time I scribe something, I need to do twice the amount of filling and sanding, and the process repeats time after time. working with PE was also a bit unpleasant, I ended up cutting off some of the protruding PE parts and rescribed the details. The canopy also gave me a ton of troubles. At first the two halves don't fit onto the rail. Then I snapped off the back end while trying to fit it onto the fuselage, and had to glue and fill it. It conformed perfectly at the time but somehow warped itself back to the old state. Long story short, I'm glad it's finally ready for painting. There will be a lot of imperfections once it's done, and they will haunt my dreams forever.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Sounds like she gives you some real headaches. But that makes a good result even more impressive.
Thanks for the detailed reports on this kit.

Regarding your custom decals, especially the aircraft number: did you extract the number and other decals from game files?
Like the the white erusian roundel? Couldn't find that one anywhere.

Dave Flitton
Watching. A shame that you had so many gaps and an ill-fitting canopy

Harry
@WhiteGlint I used Amarillo USAF font to type the numbers. The rest of the roundels are found on Google, with some simple editing. I could share the psd files if you're interested!

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Aw man, sometimes I feel really dumb. Sure, editing is also an option.
I installed Gimp some time ago, especially for projects like these, where you need custom decals.
But until now I didn't really find the time to learn how to use it.

And thanks for the tip with the font. It helps me a lot with my Mi-26 project as well! 🙂
If you don't mind, I am very interested in the psd.

Harry
@WhiteGlint drive.google.com/fil..1L2/view?usp=sharing

Let me know if you can download it

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Downloaded. Thanks a lot, kengdad. 👍

Harry
More update:

There will be more rain in the next few days, so not much else can be done. The orange came out beautifully and the other main colors came out great in my test mixes, I finally feel good about this model, after all the frustrations with body work. My custom ordered decals are being held by Canada Post for about a week now, so no updates on Galm 2 or other projects yet. Hopefully they'll remember to deliver it within this week.

Yavuz Engin
I'm in. Watching. 🙂

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Coming along nicely.
I wonder how she looks without masking tape.

Francky
Nice to see I am not the only one confronted with the difference between what I experience, and what the reviews on the web claim 🙂 This promises to become a nice Flanker though

Harry
@Francky A lot of the frustration stemmed from me trying to fix the shallow panel lines (it's not worth it), so perhaps the kit is not as problematic as I previously let on. But there were some noticeable fit issues around the nose, canopy, and the wings. Of course none of these problems would show up in an in-box review, even a horrible Italeri kit can look nice on the sprues. But overall, I think this kit just needs (and deserves) some time and attention to make it work.

Robert Podkoński
It looks like you have overcome all the obstacles, Kengdad... Congrats!

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Looks really nice with the decals. Really love the white erusian emblem on the orange wingtips.
It sucks that the paint on the engines came off. 🙁
Is it better with the lacquer now?

Harry
@WhiteGlint Yes, I used Mr. Color Super Metallic this time, it's just as shiny and a lot more sturdier. Some more enamel paint came off during the weathering process, luckily it doesn't warrant a respray. I should probably put my Xtreme Metal paints away for now.

NorK
@pic 78 and the white lines: I try to have a not too sharp bent in the backdrop between the bottom and the back wall. Never get rid of it completely, but an as large as possible radius in the bend and playing round with angles between light and camera can reduce it significantly.

Paweł W.
?????

Harry
@All Completed album posted under the project