Su-33

Slavo Hazucha
I`ll better check in here - cool topic in any case & I really look forward to see those nozzles built!

Steven Van Dyck
Welcome, I was expecting you, Slavo!

Jos Jansen
Iam in Steven...!

Michael Phillips
Nice, count me in! I built this kit recently, so if you have any questions for me. fire away. Be sure to look closely at the upper fuselage and rear vertical stabilizers, some early kits had issues with short shots. Be warned, the kit included instructions are the worst I have ever seen, and the PDF version is a little better, but still is the #2 worst instructions I have seen. I built mine pretty much completely out of order because it made way more sense to do it that way than the instructions would have you do. Also, take very close care when attaching the nose cone. Mine did not fit well at all. Maybe you will have more luck than me.

Anyway, excited to see you tackle this!

Steven Van Dyck
Thank you, guys, I decided today to start on the cockpit and I understand the critics, because I already found 2 errors in the first page. When comparing to pictures this can be pointed out. I have to keep apart the prepainted PE until after the black primer. Some of the Eduard replacement parts are worse than the kit, so I'll be selective.

Slavo Hazucha
I hear what you are talking about - Both my recent Sukhoi models had decent K-36 seats OOB and I used the Eduard belts only, which generally do the job... But at the next opportunity I'd like to try out another one, Aires or Metallic Details maybe...

Are you doing an open pit or is that up to decission yet? Keep the progress coming! 👍😉

Kim Branders
Following nice start.

Steven Van Dyck
Welcome, Kim. I just ordered the dedicated Hataka paint set: HTK-AS83 Ultimate Su-33 „F..D” paint set, Hataka Hobby , Acrylic, 6x 17ml and also Gunze air superiority blue for the pit. The Hataka approach to paint sets seems complicated to me, they have the same set in different paint types so I hope I get something that can be thinned with Tamiya X20a or the like.

Steven Van Dyck
Cockpit has been painted and covered in Eduard jewelry. Now what to do, raze the Kinetic panellines for the blank Eduard PE plate with canopy lock detail or not? Why has Eduard forgotten the rivet details? And why do the locks seem overscale?

Jens
So I like to sit down, I'm curious how the kit can be built, I have only built 2 models of Kinetic, E 2C and Intruder, both with very mixed feelings, I'm really curious 🙂

Steven Van Dyck
Hi, Jens, have a seat. I also built one of the Kinetic Hawkeyes, check out modelbrouwers.nl/php...php?t=31707&f=1

Steven Van Dyck
By the way, I can answer Slavo's question, the canopy will probably be open.

Slavo Hazucha
Nice cockpit progress Steven - the Eduard PE are really a two-faced topic - nice print, even some surface structure to go with, but the base blue color is just off... I don´t know what point they are trying to make in Sukhois (they seem to get the MiG´s rel. right), but "their" blue just is not right... I helped this a little bit on My Su-34 with a blue wash, but still, it´s hard to get the right color balance there...

The seat & belts treatment looks really good too 👍

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Slavo. I was pkanning a blue wash on the cockpit walls, I'll touch up the Eduard parts too. Keep an eye on the newsfeed, today I opened a helicopter kit. But my package contained Hataka varnish and not thinner, my error, so I have to make a new order.

Steven Van Dyck
Today, the air intakes are closed up. I chose for open grilles and closed FOD-meshes, as I wanted to do the Dream Model opened thrust vectors. As a reference for this I used arcforums.com/forums..99152-su-27-intakes/ but I did not enhance the detail in the intakes to avoid damage to the very fine PE mesh. You also find a scheme on one pic of how I think the intake can only completely be glued after the fuselage is stressed. This will happen when both fuselage halves are joined. I can not yet do this as long as pieces of the cockpit keep turning up in that instructon booklet. So I started to build other components. The rockets are great with their quadruple slide mould method. I got to painting one already.

Steven Van Dyck
After all, I didn't find the Alamo rockets that great when I painted them. I am replacing them with Eduard ones, because the fins seem too thick. The R73's I keep in, because they are finer and have some PE, but I also ordered ECM-pods and a ladder. I also decided to keep the Kinetic cockpit detail and make my own canopy locks out of metal foil. Combined with the Eduard hooks they look like the real thing and I managed to recuperate the Eduard cockpit back cover.

Steven Van Dyck
I had to paint the wheelbays before assembling the fuselage halves, because of some areas very hard to get at. a small PE part has to be fixed to the doors, and not to the fuselage as in the manual.

Slavo Hazucha
A pity with the OOB R-27's - the Hobby Boss AA-sprues I had so far were actually rather good, GWH too...

As for the wheelbays, are you sure about the red front bay? The sunken portions on the main ones can be red on a Su-33 (the flat parts going back along the intakes/engines should be grey though - but I have never seen a full red front wheelbay on a Flanker - doors yes, but not the actual bay.

a nice Photo source i.e. here:

scalemodels.ru/modul..p;show=12&min=24

Just mentioning... The details on the door insides do look really nice!

Steven Van Dyck
I didn't pay enough attention to the color markings, it said RLM65 for the wheelbay. I'll respray it grey first and then blue. Thanks for the remark. I will be comparing the R27 with my new ones for accuracy, they come with the pylons too and there I saw some photo etch parts missing in the kit:

[img1]

I'm also having a hard time joining both halves seamlessly, took me a few hours to glue and compress.

Steven Van Dyck
I did a review of the Eduard Alamos, the Res-Kit Sorbtsiya and the Plusmodel ladder. All seems very well. The main reason why you should replace the Alamo rockets from the kit, is the large amount of decals (100+!) that is provided with Eduard. Also, the fins are not particularly thinner, but the edges are noticeably filleted. This looks slimmer. The ECM pods have the riveting completely different from the kit and I seem to notice they should indeed be raised in stead of engraved. The ladder will be a nice color mark on the finished model. Then I built the landing gear, which is fine but completely misguided in the manual. I think there are about 4 errors in one step and also it's completely unclear where to fit the parts, so this has to be compared to reference pics. The tail end did not fit smooth, so this is solved with plasticard and will be sanded later. The canopy is in the process of being polished after removing the moulding seam. The last pictures show an old Italeri Su-34 in 1/72 I revisited.

Steven Van Dyck
The DreamModel vector thrust pipes are constructed. It was really a joy to build. Perfect fit, easy locating of the parts and no damage while bending.

Steven Van Dyck
The engine insides are now tackled This is really the hardest bit, everything has to be aligned multiple times before it can be glued. The instructions are not clear as to where the PE should be connected. I hope I did it right. The wings are also constructed, should I save space and bend them upward or not?

Steven Van Dyck
I built the Plusmodel ladder. It looks OK to me, though on pictures it shows up a little skinnier. Once cleaned up it builds very fast and sturdy. Bad news is that the Res-kit Sorbtsiyas do not reach the level of the Kinetic ones, so they are dumped. The big issue is the wrong pointy cone shape on the extremities and the absence of a small air inlet.

Slavo Hazucha
The ladder may be just slightly on the chubby side, but it still looks good and is not "2D" as a PE would be... Good question with the wings, I guess it depends on the situation you want to depict with the ladder on & co... I personally like the additional flaps segments on the 33 fully deployed, quite a difference to other Flankers... Looking forward to see the nozzles in color, the metalwork looks really impressive 👍