J-11B by Hobby Boss (OOB)

Slavo Hazucha
Nice start! Seeing such a nice "natural" cockpit without PE's or aftermarket parts is almost a rarity these days... Did the dude come with the kit? I am ordering a Hobby Boss early flanker for my next project, this kit is it's "parent" that's why I am asking...

Bryn Crandell
Great start. The decals did really come out just fine. I agree with Slavo that we seem to see more PE sets used. I guess it depends on how well it will be seen. It's a little tight in there.

Daniel
Thx mates! No, the dude is from the hasegawa USAF set. Made him a new helmet and a cool leather jacket and forced him into chinese service😉
There is no pilot figure in the kit, but I want to do a rolling J-11.
I think the kit is a great choice, only flaws I could find so far:

-Headrest on the bang seat is left open from the back
-intake FOD guards are not designed to be open without extra work
-rear part of the nose gear cover moulded closed
-Pitot tube looks a bit off
-And rubber tires only, which I dont really mind.

This kit was designed to be a "standard" Flanker (and if I am not mistaken there is everything there to build one) but they did a nice job of adding all the chinese bits.
I agree, normally I dont use cockpit decals as well and mostly hand paint, but I could not find any good pictures so they were all I got and I gave them a spin. And was pleasantly surprised, they liked my tamiya mark fit and everything is in one plane, so I could just slap them on there 🙂
But PE would still be much more detailed in the close up, so I agree Bryn

Slavo Hazucha
Hobby Boss decals and Tamiya Mark fit strong seem to be a match made in heaven, same experience here...

Daniel
Got the metal parts done, which was my main challenge on this build... rest is going to be a piece of cake (famous last words😉 )

Michael Phillips
Count me in!!! Fantastic work on the cockpit and pilot, and those nozzles look awesome. Well done!!!

Slavo Hazucha
Excellent job on the nozzles and the upper engine-covers - they seem to come in so many different varieties of heat-coloration & weathering that you can unleash almost your full artistic freedom at them - and you did really well 👍 Things will only look better once the main color is in place and the other pieces of the cake come together😉

Nathan Dempsey
I agree, that's lovely work on the nozzles and engine covers.

Patrick Hagelstein
I had a very positive surprise with Trumpeter (Isn't that Hobby Boss as well?) and Mr. Mark Softer as well and the cockpit of my JF-17 turned out surprisingly well OOB. For the rest, I can only agree with all who applaud your work on the figure, cockpit and exhaust! 👍

Soeren R.
Count me in😉

Daniel
Thanks a lot for stopping by guys and your nice comments! Big motivation for me 👍
Yes, those engines really dont seem to follow any fixed scheme in terms of looks and theres a wide range from silver, bronze, blue to simply flat black. I used some more colorful reference photos for mine so I can still darken them down if it doesnt look right later.
I am working on the wheel wells right now and will update later. (But dont get excited, they wont be half as amazing as those you've seen over at slavo's😉

Slavo Hazucha
Ambition, concentration and meditation are the key to a well made well😉

Daniel
and tolkien right? 😄 well it may be that there is a lack of the first requirement you mentioned but this time I will roll with what hobby boss gave me here, which still is not that bad 🙂

Jos Jansen
Nice Daniel...

Daniel
Primer: check!

Daniel
thx jos!

Slavo Hazucha
Nice progress! Intakes assembly looking really good & smooth - I am atm struggling here with a lot of fitting & sanding... Are those the rubber tires? How did you found working with them?

Daniel
Really happy with this kit so far, everything falls into place, i just need to dab some glue onto it and -boom- Done 😄 Only time I used my trusty old putty was on the side parts beneath the hor. stabs. And on the visible lower intake part - But if I did open intakes there would be a whole bunch of holes and ejector marks waiting inside...
I quite like the rubber tires, I just sanded them a bit with fine grit on the sides and rough grit on the contact surface, made the rims and put them on, fit is perfect, so no probs there 🙂

Daniel
Finished the base paint and a little postshading on the underside. The first time I tried ak real colors, was a bit anxious bc it didnt work as I was told and I had to try different thinners. It looked best with mr.color levelling thinner- but still really weird in the cup - but all turned out well in the end 🙂 Next step is to paint some smaller details.

Daniel
does someone know what those orange stripes are for under+behind the cockpit?

Slavo Hazucha
Daniel I´ll check the orange stripes in my Flanker-bible at home later today...

And it´s some smart looking progress you have made 👍 - the engines sit well in the main color and the surfaces seem as smooth as need be where the eye can see - cheers to Hobby Boss for making the fuselage-wing a one piece, saves a lot. In my build, the intake to lower fuselage link needed some filling + the sting between the engines, which however is not on the standard Flankers. It was a good idea to fill a bit around the air-brake on the spine, this way it looks much smoother & true to the original.

Slavo Hazucha
They are apparently formation flying stripes. 3 positions, not all planes seem to have them, but they appear on a few - your call to add/ignore them... 🙂

Picture from a smart book:

Chinese Flanker stripes | Album by slavatarko

Is there actually a way to post a picture from an iPad directly (from own photos, not something that is already online) - I made an album for this one, could not work it out otherwise...

Daniel
Awesome! Thanks a lot Slavo for looking that up in your flanker bible!
All makes perfect sense now, the lines on the wingtip pylon align with the ones on the nose and the ring on the sting aligns with the line on the rudder…
I am definitely going to paint those, I am always looking for interesting stuff to incorporate 🙂

Daniel
went straight to work on it 🙂

Daniel
So I finished painting and I am doing the decaling now, which works really good, as expected from the cockpit. Stenciling is either hobby boss fantasy or from another J-11 version, doesnt match up with what I see on the references. Also many many mistakes in their decal numbers...So I am trying to match the higher visible ones to what I can identify on the few high res photos I have, the rest is just more or less random to make it look a bit more interesting. But I really like the look of the dark gray with all the red&yellow on it

Eelco Gregoire
Very cool built Daniel

Slavo Hazucha
Great progress Daniel - the formation stripes were a good decision IMO, the added contrast adds a highlight. I think you got all the colors in a very good range, looks as it should 👍 You´re almost there, some reasonable weathering and you´ll have one fine Flanker on the table!

HB decals are in my experience pleasure to work with, I even did not care to use the usual gloss prep in some areas and still walked away with it without silvering or other problems. I hope you had your fun with the squares over the intakes😉

They seem to put a variety of random patterns on stencils, in my kit, some looked like an attempt at cyrillic, some were just thin lines (great...), some dotted lines and some even strangely resembled hebrew letters... 🙂 Trumpeter/Hobby Boss should really invest into a proof reader 😄

Daniel
Thanks guys! Yes, Slavo, same experience here with the stencils. I also got about 50 little chinese "No Steps" (or something like that) but would use exactly 4 of them if I followed the instructions😉 I somehow expected HB to do better here, since this jet is from their home country…
Wheathering-wise I am going to hold myself back, because they all look like they are polished waxed and daily - some wash, some streaks and keeping the semi-gloss look

Daniel
Thx James!

Had kind of a last stretch sprint today and the result is here:

China Flanker completed | Album by halohead (1:48)

Spanjaard
excellent job. fantastic colors in the cans. congrats

Daniel
thank you very much spanjaard, glad you like it!