Sukhoi Su-17/22 M-3

Slavo Hazucha
Checking IN, looks like an interesting build with lots of adding & modding! 👍 Great start so far - a pity the cockpit is a bit lo-detail, but if you make it closed, it´s not one of the top-10 (probably not even top-100) cockpits to see in or out of 🙂 The seat details should do the trick 👍

Fly By Jan
Hey Slavo, thanks for the advice. This is my first 48 so I am taking it slowly. I completely agree regarding the cockpit, it is already planned for it to be closed. Cheers!

Maciej Bellos
Following!

Fly By Jan
Welcome Maciej! 🙂

Ben M
I love Sukhois, following.

Fly By Jan
Welcome Ben! 🙂

Nathan Dempsey
Interesting build. Looking good too.

Fly By Jan
Thanks Nathan! 🙂

David Taylor
love the brutish looks of the 22.

Fly By Jan
I love it as well David, a huge bird and a big surface for this cool paint sceme - my favourite part is the lighter green on the nose. Looks hungry for some ground targets... 🙂

Slavo Hazucha
Very nice camo! Freehand all the way?

Jos Jansen
I missed this one....following that's a very nice bird!

Fly By Jan
@Slavo Hello Slavo, very glad to see you checking in! Indeed, the camo is completely freehanded all the way. It was quite a challenge considering my limited experience and the large surface, but also a lot of fun. My index finger is still sore from the airbrush trigger! 🙂

@Jos Hello and welcome, glad to have you onboard! 🙂

The bird just got its clear coat. I am planning to start applying decals today. My attention is also on the small diorama for the model that is currently under construction! 🙂

Ben M
Looks like there's a zillion decals.

James C
Great job on the camouflage and awesome colours 👍

Fly By Jan
@Ben And I swear there are hahaha... I thought I was going to go insane by the time I finished with them. When I get to the weathering I will certainly try to tone the smaller stencils down, especially because most of them are yellow and therefore pose a noticeable contrast on most of the model. 🙂

@James Thank you very much James! 🙂

Clifford Keesler
That looks awesome. How is the kit? I have that one in my stash.

Fly By Jan
@Clifford Thank you very much!
Regarding the kit, there is a couple of factors to what I am about to say. The most important one is that I am a fairly inexperienced modeler, especially with the 1:48 scale and on this level of detail - this is basically me learning as much as I can. The other thing is that I used a lot of aftermarket parts and I also don't have a lot of experience with that, so it impacted the complexity and duration of the build as well.
With that being said my experiences with the kit are fairly mixed. I can tell you the panel lines don't match between a lot of the parts so you are going to have a lot of job getting them in order and the details are not at the highest level - plenty of scratching, especially in the cockpit and some exterior details like chaff dispensers and air intakes. I also had issues with the stencils as some of them are extremely fragile, however, there are extra ones so that saved me in some cases. Overall, it is a kit to learn new skills on, it will definitely take you more to finish it than some other kits. If I could choose now, I would go for the Kitty Hawk, but I don't regret it, as it is shaping out to be a really nice plane! 🙂

Slavo Hazucha
Looking great with all the stencils on! 👍 For "inexperienced" this thing looks pretty cool, actually it looks pretty cool for "very experienced" too 🙂 ... I´ve been building Kopro kit´s in my youth and things never went easy... Looking forward to the approach to the finish line!

Fly By Jan
Thank you very much Slavo and thanks for the continuous support! 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Thanks for the info. I bought resin chaff and flare buckets for all 3 of mine. I also have the Kitty Hawk and Smer versions.

Fly By Jan
That is a good decision. Mine also has resin chaff and flare - it is very detailed and straightforward!.

Clifford Keesler
I also got the resin intake shock cone replacement as the Kitty Hawk one is totally wrong.

Clifford Keesler
I see your chaff and flare buckets now and they do look very nice. Mine are quick boost I believe. I think I will invest in resin scoops as well.

Fly By Jan
Oh yeah, it definitely pays to invest in some scoops as well, I just noticed recently how bad the original ones are so I decided to paint the front end in darker cream yellow to try to replicate them as being covered on ground.
Edit: The intake cone on the Kopro model is also very strange so check it out - mine had very odd uneven lines so I had to sand down the surface.

Clifford Keesler
Will keep that in mind.

Fly By Jan
Well, she is done. I am gonna keep this short. Plenty of mistakes and errors, but also learned a lot in the process. All in all, I am happy with how she turned out when I take my experience into account. Very happy with how the colour modulation and weathering turned out. Can't wait to apply all the new skills on the next project!
EDIT: Credits for the apron and some techniques used on the aircraft go to the Inner Nerd on YT. Especially for the apron. I will link his videos that I used as a reference in my projects if anyone is interested:
Youtube Video
Youtube Video

Slavo Hazucha
Very nice finish - looks like a very meticulously maintained & cleaned soviet aircraft 👍 The camo pattern & colors look great and you pulled off a pretty consistent finish over all + the details added all make very good sense, particularly the flare dispensers look really good - a very nice package indeed, the base & cover included 🙂

Hope to see more coming from you in 48-scale! & the Inner Nerd vids are a really good insp & reference, one of my top-5 youtube scale model channels

Fly By Jan
Thank you very much for the comment and compliments Slavo! 🙂
I will be continuing with the 48, next up is the F6F by Eduard with quite a lot of aftermarket. Once again thanks for the support throughout the project and I'll read you in our upcoming projects... 🙂

Bryn Crandell
An absolutely stunnig build. Came out very nicely. Well done.

Nathan Dempsey
Nicely done. I have this kit as well & its great to see it built up.

Fly By Jan
Thanks Bryn and Nathan! 🙂

David Taylor
got to say it stunning.Would you do the honours on a Mig 19.

Fly By Jan
Thanks a lot David! Hey, I am all about Soviet birds, so it is certainly due somewhere in the future. However, for my next build, I am going across the pond and a bit back in time with a Hellcat! 🙂

Clifford Keesler
That is just beyond words. Stunning is putting it mildly. I hope mine turns out even half as nice.

Fly By Jan
Thanks a lot Clifford, I am sure yours will be amazing as well, as I said it just requires an additional dose of attention and patience. 🙂