Tomcat's Christmas Flanker

[Tomcat64]

My entry for the Christmas build will be Zvezda's SU-27SM


Overview
The Sukhoi Su-27 (Russian: Сухой Су-27; NATO reporting name: Flanker) is a twin-engine super-manoeuvrable fighter aircraft designed by Sukhoi. It was intended as a direct competitor for the large United States fourth-generation fighters such as the Grumman F-14 Tomcat and F-15 Eagle, with 3,530-kilometre (1,910 nmi) range, heavy aircraft ordnance, sophisticated avionics and high manoeuvrability. The Su-27 was designed for air superiority missions, and subsequent variants are able to perform almost all aerial warfare operations. It was designed with the Mikoyan MiG-29 as its complement.

The Su-27 entered service with the Soviet Air Forces in 1985. The primary role was long range air defence against American SAC B-1B and B-52G/H bombers, protecting the Soviet coast from aircraft carriers and flying long range fighter escort for Soviet heavy bombers such as the Tu-95 "Bear", Tu-22M "Backfire" and Tu-160 "Blackjack".

There are several related developments of the Su-27 design. The Su-30 is a two-seat, dual-role fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions. The Su-33 'Flanker-D' is a naval fleet defence interceptor for use on aircraft carriers. Further versions include the side-by-side two-seat Su-34 'Fullback' strike/fighter-bomber variant, and the Su-35 'Flanker-E' improved air superiority and multi-role fighter. The Shenyang J-11 is a Chinese licence-built version of the Su-27.


Development
In 1969, the Soviet Union learned of the U.S. Air Force's "F-X" program, which resulted in the F-15 Eagle. The Soviet leadership soon realized that the new American fighter would represent a serious technological advantage over existing Soviet fighters. What was needed was a better-balanced fighter with both good agility and sophisticated systems. In response, the Soviet General Staff issued a requirement for a Perspektivnyy Frontovoy Istrebitel (PFI, literally "Prospective Frontline Fighter", roughly "Advanced Frontline Fighter"). Specifications were extremely ambitious, calling for long range, good short-field performance (including the ability to use austere runways), excellent agility, Mach 2+ speed, and heavy armament. The aerodynamic design for the new aircraft was largely carried out by TsAGI in collaboration with the Sukhoi design bureau.

When the specification proved too challenging and costly for a single aircraft in the number needed, the PFI specification was split into two: the LPFI (Lyogkyi PFI, Lightweight PFI) and the TPFI (Tyazholyi PFI, Heavy PFI). The LPFI program resulted in the Mikoyan MiG-29, a relatively short-range tactical fighter, while the TPFI program was assigned to Sukhoi OKB, which eventually produced the Su-27 and its various derivatives.

The Sukhoi design, which was altered progressively to reflect Soviet awareness of the F-15's specifications, emerged as the T-10 (Sukhoi's 10th design), which first flew on 20 May 1977. The aircraft had a large wing, clipped, with two separate podded engines and a twin tail. The ‘tunnel’ between the two engines, as on the F-14 Tomcat, acts both as an additional lifting surface and hides armament from radar.

Design
The Su-27's basic design is aerodynamically similar to the MiG-29, but it is substantially larger. The wing blends into the fuselage at the leading edge extensions and is essentially a cross between a swept wing and a cropped delta (the delta wing with tips cropped for missile rails or ECM pods). The fighter is also an example of a tailed delta wing configuration, retaining conventional horizontal tail-planes.

The Su-27 had the Soviet Union's first operational fly-by-wire control system, based on the Sukhoi OKB's experience with the T-4 bomber project. Combined with relatively low wing loading and powerful basic flight controls, it makes for an exceptionally agile aircraft, controllable even at very low speeds and high angle of attack. In air shows the aircraft has demonstrated its manoeuvrability with a Cobra (Pugachev’s Cobra) or dynamic deceleration – briefly sustained level flight at a 120° angle of attack.

The naval version of the 'Flanker', the Su-27K (or Su-33), incorporates canards for additional lift, reducing takeoff distances. These canards have also been incorporated in some Su-30s, the Su-35, and the Su-37.

The Su-27 is equipped with a Phazotron N001 Myech coherent Pulse-Doppler radar with track while scan and look-down/shoot-down capability. The fighter also has an OLS-27 infrared search and track (IRST) system in the nose just forward of the cockpit with an 80–100 km range.
The Su-27 is armed with a single 30 mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-1 cannon in the starboard wing-root, and has up to 10 hardpoints for missiles and other weapons. Its standard missile armament for air-to-air combat is a mixture of R-73 (AA-11 Archer) and R-27 (AA-10 'Alamo') missiles, the latter including extended range and infrared homing models.

Variants of the SU-27 have been operated by the following countries: Angola, Belarus, Peoples Republic of China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia (& Soviet Union), Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, United States (yep - they got two of them from Belarus and then bought two more to act as aggressor trainers)

[Tomcat64]

Onto the kit itself, this is my first foray into the world of Zvezda and I have to say first impressions on this one are good.

We've already seen the box art but here it is again for completeness


Inside this is another sturdy, plain brown box


Which contains the individually wrapped sprue frames


Here are the parts - first up the main fuselage sections


And some wings & pylons


Two identical frames of shooty bits plus the pilot & canopy (nice to have ordnance and the driver included)


Instructions & decals - although the instructions show how to build the gear up model the flying base isn't included. Since I want to build this "in flight" I'll sort my own stand out.


Instructions are a foldy out sheet affair and follow the expected build stages, although first glance shows some of the arrows to be a little vague in places






And finally the colour call outs for three schemes. Although my photos in the intro were all Ukrainian I'll be building one of the Russian versions as I don't think I'll have time to try and tackle the digital camo scheme.


Hoping to make a start on this in the coming week

[Twokidsnosleep]

Cool self reliever, I mean Flanker
Good luck with the build

[ElCapitan]

Excellent - I just bought the Revell reboxing of this kit, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes together!

The SU-27 and the Mig-29 have to be the best-looking jet fighters ever designed, in my opinion

[Tomcat64]

Cool self reliever, I mean Flanker
Good luck with the build

Actually to most people over here this is what a "Flanker" looks like

Excellent - I just bought the Revell reboxing of this kit, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes together!

The SU-27 and the Mig-29 have to be the best-looking jet fighters ever designed, in my opinion

Agree about this and the MIG-29 being up there as two of the best looking fighters - I love seeing something as big as the Flanker being chucked around the sky on full beans.

I'll be sure to highlight any hitches on the build for you

[Tomcat64]

In a last ditch attempt to avoid painting the figures for the WW1 GB entry I've made a start on this one this week

Starting off with the ejector seat (well why not) the only thing to note here is that the part call outs for B22 & B57 are the wrong way around, otherwise no dramas aside from being small & fiddly


Onto the tub - I was a little dubious about B50 (throttle control) as the part doesn't look quite like the illustration but I couldn't see anything else that looked similar so went with it hoping that it wasn't another bad call out


Onto the pilot and once built up and installed he seems to rest on the throttle handle ok so I guess it's the right part after all - both pilot and seat are just dry fitted so they can be painted up separately (actually it looks like he's sitting a little high on the seat in this photo so I may need to do some more fiddling later)


I wanted to see how good the fit of the tub was into the upper fuselage so added the instrument panel and fitted the tub with a little white tack - looks like it'll be pretty seamless.


And I can get the driver installed from the top with the tub fitted too if I need to


So with sections 2 & 3 done it was back to section 1 Couple of things here - Zvezda really like lots of heavy sprue gates so getting the big parts off the frame and cleaned up needs some care with the sander to avoid damaging the wing edges and some of the curves. Also I'm ahead of the game here and got my first Snafu in at this point - I've opened up all four sets of locating holes for the underwing pylons, but spotted later that I should only have opened up the outer sets nothing a little filling won't fix and just down to me not paying attention


And here it is with the forward upper section dry fitted to see what it looks like - overall fit has been good and gaps have closed up easily with TET and a little pressure. There are a couple of joints to clean up but again nothing major so far.


Hopefully this weekend I can get some paint on the cockpit, seat & pilot and move the build on a little more.

Thanks as always for looking - have a great weekend folks

[ElCapitan]

Looks fun so far. Not sure what the point of the two part upper fuselage is. How is the join between the two?

[Tomcat64]

Looks fun so far. Not sure what the point of the two part upper fuselage is. How is the join between the two?

Yep it's behaved itself nicely so far

The join between the two sections is good in the dry fit - it's a little flexible so may need some coaxing to get properly lined up before adding TET but don't see any major problems with it. There's definitely no gaping chasms which was my initial worry.

[Timplastic]

They are such a colourful plane
Look forward to seeing it finished

[Homerlovesbeer]

Love your build choice and appreciate the detail you have gone into regarding the history and variants.

I've got a SM Z kit coming from Russia due sometime early Jan sp I'm out for this christmas build unfortunately. Should have my Nissan done in a week though I hope.

[Tomcat64]

They are such a colourful plane
Look forward to seeing it finished

Love your build choice and appreciate the detail you have gone into regarding the history and variants.

I've got a SM Z kit coming from Russia due sometime early Jan sp I'm out for this christmas build unfortunately. Should have my Nissan done in a week though I hope.

Thanks guys

[Tomcat64]

So with some space on the bench I've moved the flanker along a little this week.

Picking up where I left off I spotted some additional cockpit detail later on in the instructions and added it here as I want the cockpit painted up as soon as I could.


The reference photos I found online showed the main cockpit colour to be a blue-grey so I used Vallejo Model Air Faded Photo Recon blue as a reasonable approximation


The decals went down nicely but were very, very shiny but nothing a quick coat of AK Ultra Matte didn't sort out. The pilot & seat were all brush painted with various shades of Model Colour.


I've also made a start on the cans. A strategically placed sprue former made for delicate cutting and sanding on the inside.


I made a bit of a mess with the first go around on the nozzles just being too heavy handed with the airbrush so they were stripped down and started again. Everything was undercoated in Ultimate Black primer, the bright metal is Model Air steel and the darker shade is Metal Colour exhaust manifold


Finally I took a swipe at the intake channels


Research showed up the main parts of the channel were painted with an ikky yellow-green protective paint. So I brush painted Model Colour yellow-green to start with


I then used 1mm Aizu tape as a marker to allow me to setup for masking the required areas off for the internal blue colour


Once I'd got this lined up on all three parts I butted up some Tamiya tape to do the actual masking and then removed the Aizu tape


And sprayed the PR blue before removing all the tape and cling film


Finally these were assembled - one thing to note here is that the upper section of the channel sits in front of the fan and not over the top of it as I tried to fit it in the first place. There was some sanding required on one of the joins but nothing too serious.


So with those assemblies done I'll crack on with the main build and get the cockpit installed later this week with any luck.

Thanks for looking

[Homerlovesbeer]

Beautiful work there Neil. Looks fantastic!

[Tomcat64]

Beautiful work there Neil. Looks fantastic!

Thanks mate

I hate showing close ups in 1/72 as it shows off my lousy brush work.

[Tomcat64]

Managed to get some more time at the bench yesterday evening so here's the pilot & tub installed into the fuselage (needs a bit of dusting)


I then went on and added the upper surfaces - the vertical stabilisers and nose-cone are just dry fitted here to assist masking later on. There's a little filling required but nothing major


And finally the canopy sections were test fitted - all looks good so these will be dusted down and masked before attaching hopefully later this evening. The clear parts are nice & thin but do flex a little when sanding so need careful handling to avoid bends or breaks


That's it for today - I'll clean up the cockpit & canopy and add them later with any luck and then start on the underside.

Thanks as always for looking

[ElCapitan]

Looks fantastic so far. Love that shape!

[Tomcat64]

Looks fantastic so far. Love that shape!

Thanks Rob I just wish I'd spot dust BEFORE taking photos

[digger303]

interesting aircraft these flankers I may try to build one one day and that's coming from a armor guy.
Looking very good.

[Stokesy44]

She sure is a looker, nice work so far boss. What's the old saying, if it looks right, it flies right.

Are you going for the digital camo?

[Tomcat64]

interesting aircraft these flankers I may try to build one one day and that's coming from a armor guy.
Looking very good.

Thanks mate - Armour is definitely where I'm most comfortable and aircraft where I have more to learn as I find out each time I try to tackle one, but I'm definitely enjoying this one

She sure is a looker, nice work so far boss. What's the old saying, if it looks right, it flies right.

Are you going for the digital camo?

Thanks for dropping in mate - good to see you

Nope I'm giving the digital camo a miss this time around and just going for a three tone scheme.

[Tomcat64]

Got some decent time in at the bench over the last couple of days and moved the Flanker along a little more.

First up I re-masked the intakes as I figured it'd be easier to do this before attaching them. I also stuffed a bit of packing foam up the tube to mask that off - thanks to @TommyKillander for that one.


These were then attached underneath along with the closed gear bay doors. The main gear doors were a tight fight and didn't close up entirely so there's a little filling required.


I'm leaving the pylons & small griblies off until the final stages as they'll only get knocked off otherwise so here's the underside with the initial filling and cleanup done


Back up top the canopy sections were masked and added - got a little sanding to do down the port edge


Everything was then given a good dousing in Ultimate Grey primer - the white sections were then painted up in Vallejo Grey-White as I find pure white can be a little too stark sometimes. The tail fin was then masked off and the nose cone put into the "do not touch" section.


I then realised that I was supposed to paint up the exhaust channels before the grey so they were given a coat of Ultimate Black, followed by some steel and then a misting of gold & blue to try and give some heat staining - new to this game so will try again on a later kit when I've got a bit more time


These were then masked off and I also sanded up some of the joints I wasn't happy with - the port leading edge needed some attention as well as a couple of other areas


Ultimate grey was then put back on followed by a couple of coats of Model Air "Flanker light blue" - I flooded a couple of areas down by the tail so they'll need sanding back and retouching but this is pretty much how it'll stay for a couple of days now before masking commences for the camo scheme.


Thanks as always for looking in - have a great Christmas

[TommyKillander]

That looks awesome !


Tommy

[Tomcat64]

That looks awesome !


Tommy

Thanks Tommy!

[Tomcat64]

Spent some time masking and spraying this week... Colours used were all Vallejo Model Air and included "Flanker Light Blue", "Flanker Light Grey" and "Flanker Blue". I've got some tidying up to do (looks like I've got two specific areas where I didn't detack the tape enough). Also need to re-mask and spray the metallic sections on the underside as I've got that demarcation slightly wrong.


The nose cone has been permanently attached and the tail fins just dry-fitted to see if it's all on track - overall not too bad


Aside from the tidy up there's also a couple of metallic panels that I missed so I'll probably brush those in as they're not too big.

Then it's onto decals and ordnance.

Thanks as always for looking

[Tomcat64]

Still chugging away at this one.

I re-masked the engine sections and also the dark blue camo band as I wasn't happy with that and then proceeded with the decalthon… This involved such time-honoured traditions as shrivelling decals, folding decals and the old favourite of dropping it off the bench and knocking the nose off... what festive fun!


The decals were erratic in that some would go down and give plenty of wriggle room and others would grab the surface like a face-hugger from Alien and resist most efforts to move them. Some of them were numbered incorrectly and by my estimation we were also short of about 3 number 20s (hoist points). Anyway - I got most of them down and in place but the one that really caused swearage was the red "box" on the starboard wing. The port one (green arrow) went down fine, but the starboard one just wouldn't play and eventually ended up shrivelling up like a slug in salt. I did consider attempting to paint it in but in the end just decided to put in a bare metal "replacement" panel (red arrow)


As you can see I recovered the nosecone from the carpet monster and fixed the fins on too - all ready for a gloss coat and weathering


I've also made a start on the ordnance so hopefully will have it all done and dusted in another week unless I chuck it off the desk again!

Thanks as always for looking

[ElCapitan]

That camo looks sweet, how did you mask it?

Genius idea painting a replacement panel to fix the decal issue!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Love it
Honestly didn’t see the replacement panel in my visual scan until I read the comments
Excellent solution

[DRUMS01]

Despite the setbacks, you are pulling this off rather well Tomcat.... Nice camouflage and foil work.

Ordnance will set this of just swell.

Ben

[Stokesy44]

That's a sweet looking bird mate. Lovely paint scheme and them Ruskies sure do build em pretty.

[TommyKillander]

Great job, Neil!


Tommy

[Tomcat64]

That camo looks sweet, how did you mask it?

Genius idea painting a replacement panel to fix the decal issue!

Love it
Honestly didn’t see the replacement panel in my visual scan until I read the comments
Excellent solution

Despite the setbacks, you are pulling this off rather well Tomcat.... Nice camouflage and foil work.

Ordnance will set this of just swell.

Ben

That's a sweet looking bird mate. Lovely paint scheme and them Ruskies sure do build em pretty.

Great job, Neil!


Tommy

Thanks guys

@ElCapitan - Rob most of the masking was done with Tamiya tape for curves (the smallest size - I think 2mm?) and then the larger areas were blocked out with standard masking tape & plain paper. I did an overall coat of the very pale blue, followed by masking and the grey sections and then masking again for the darker blue. I left each colour overnight to avoid pulling it back up with the tape.

[Tomcat64]

so hopefully will have it all done and dusted in another week...

Turns out Work happened and it's taken a little longer than a week...

After the initial paint work was done I layed down a coat of Aqua Gloss and then applied a liberal coat of grime wash - here's the wipe halfway through


There was a bit of head scratching going on here as the wash wasn't sitting in the panel lines the way it normally does... anyway after some more fiddling about with various attempts at panel line washing I realised that although the lines were visible I'd obviously been too heavy handed with the clear coat and had filled the finely scribed lines.

Sooo after surviving a vote of no confidence from the cats (on the proviso that I supplied them with extra biscuits) I started working with MiG panel liner and effectively repainted the lines in - first time I've used this stuff and it's taken a while to get the hang of what I'm doing. As a result it's not as neat as it could be in places, and I've definitely ended up with a dirtier bird than I originally intended.

Here it is with the Port wing done


I also found that I could only stick at it for 15-20 minutes a session before losing concentration and screwing things up so it's been a bit time consuming to say the least. Here's how it ended up - I didn't spend too much time & effort on the underside as it won't be seen


As you can see the ordnance was also added, and then everything was given a coat of UltraMatte before adding and finishing up the final gribblies and exhausts


The base was made up of a games workshop flying base with a stem made up from a length of perspex tubing with a short length of perspex rod added into each end to act as a locator.

And that was it done so here are a few reveal shots of the finshed item










And finally after a little playing about with Photoshop


Overall this was a decent kit and the majority of the problems were definitely of my own making.

Thanks as always for looking

[Twokidsnosleep]

Holy $#!+ that is really nice
Man it doesn't look 1/72
Puts mine to shame mate, very well done

[TommyKillander]

Wow!
That looks fantastic

Well done


Tommy

[Tomcat64]

Holy $#!+ that is really nice
Man it doesn't look 1/72
Puts mine to shame mate, very well done

Wow!
That looks fantastic

Well done


Tommy

Thanks guys

And thanks again for the advice on panel lining Tommy - hopefully next time I won't flood the things!

[ElCapitan]

Looks great Neil! Good solution to the panel line problem, and it doesn't look overly dirty at all.

[Kevthemodeller]

Lovely build Neil, you've captured that distinctive look Soviet aircraft have

[Tomcat64]

Looks great Neil! Good solution to the panel line problem, and it doesn't look overly dirty at all.

Lovely build Neil, you've captured that distinctive look Soviet aircraft have

Thanks guys