Global Scale Modeller

And yet - I went back, stripped the airbrush and cleaned it, put it back together, turned down the air pressure to 20 again and poured neat AK Xtreme Metal in and it sprayed - easy peasy!

I just don't get it. I have to strip my airbrush almost every single time (at least down to removing the needle)...not only is it very time consuming, but it's also expensive - I think I use considerably more cleaner than most people!

Anyway...paint went on absolutely fine. I wonder if it was blowing the thinner through first of all that maybe helped congeal the paint or something.

These were annoying. There was a rather thick sprue in the middle of the engine nozzles

Cutting them out left rather thick pieces to be cut and sanded.

And painting (after some rage!)

The insides were painted using AK Xtreme Metal Gun Metal


And the outside section was painted using AK Xtreme Metal Steel


When it sprayed, the AK Xtreme Metal paint is sublime looking.

I forgot about the wee fiddly bits that come with this model

Here's some sort of sensor (IRST - Infra Red Search and Tracker)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infra-red ... _and_track



As for other sections, I decided to go with Tamiya X-7 Red

You have to be kidding me!!




Thankfully, I had my dremel which I was able to fit a sanding head to and get them sanded off...but what a pita.

And here they are on the fuselage


She is taking shape now

These were such a pain to build. They came in 4 parts and the fit was very, very tricky


But I got them together

So the intakes seemed to have turned out ok in building - really difficult fit though and unclear instructions though.

They don't look too bad on



I was going to have the airbrake open, but 1. there's no detail to speak of there and 2. it's on the ground, so the likelihood of it being open are nil (unless being tested). But anyway, I choose to close it.


Man - it's these bits that get me with modelling. All the tiny wee fiddly bits. Especially where you are left to pretty much guess where the "connections" between the two pieces of plastic are!

Anyway - these things are taking their time
The front undercarriage mech


The wheels (and for some weird reason, the rear wheels came in 3 parts (not including the mech)


This is the front mech hand painted with Tamiya X-11 Chrome and XF-54 Dark Sea Grey


The wheels painted with Tamiya XF-5 Flat Green and XF-85 Rubber Black


And the wheels and mech ready for assembly



It's all taking so long. So many just "useless" bits in the kit. Sometimes I find a bit and think "why is that a separate moulding". But as I said before, it is an old kit. You can get new moulds with a lot of pieces, but they are generally easy to fit. This kit has a lot of parts and they are all quite difficult to put together.

It's definitely turning out to be a patience thing.

I've got a few more wee bits to do, then I'll be looking at spraying the whole model (less undercarriage/doors and weapons)

I'm concerned about the front undercarriage...it's very flimsy given the 10g of weight in the nose!

JudgeDredd wrote:And yet - I went back, stripped the airbrush and cleaned it, put it back together, turned down the air pressure to 20 again and poured neat AK Xtreme Metal in and it sprayed - easy peasy!

I just don't get it. I have to strip my airbrush almost every single time (at least down to removing the needle)...not only is it very time consuming, but it's also expensive - I think I use considerably more cleaner than most people!

out of habit, I do the same

lol - at least yours is habit. I seem to HAVE to do so!

After doing all this tedious work on the wheels, I may well have to do this "wheels up" and stick it on a stand. The parts for the undercarriage doors are just too fiddly

This is what I mean. Rather than the door coming with the "latches" for connecting to the fuselage, you have two tiny little pieces that you have to glue to the door and THEN to the fuselage. It seems like it'll be a severe weak spot and the parts aren't sticking correctly.


I'll keep on with it. I have to paint the fuselage before fitting these parts anyway and then I'll see what I'm going to do. The bits above are not even the most fiddly sections!!

I have put quite a bit of work into the wheels though. I think I've probably spent in excess of 2 hours just cutting, sanding, painting and fitting!


Nose cone and tail sections on

This is starting to look like a Russian Su-27SM now ;D

Taped up and ready to be painted.



For these parts I used damp toilet paper. When damp there's no "dust" off it, it's quite malleable and you can pull it around to fit the hole. I used Tamiya 10mm tape on the intakes.


And I've decided to give the cockpit sides and back a black coat instead of that blue (I think black was the correct colour anyway) hence I've left it uncovered

Still one of the most beautiful aircraft! Can't wait to see her painted up! Jens

Great thread. Love this aircraft too, I have the Trumpeter Shenyang J-11 (Chinese copy) in the stash. We are last minute Sukhoi build buddies so I'm rooting for you

lol - thank you. She is beautiful but she has been challenging. So many fiddly bits for my big sausage fingers!

Got the primer down.

I had mixed results tonight. First, I mixed the Badger primer with thinner until I got the "milky consistency" talked about. Now, I know people say you shouldn't thin primer, but it clogs up my airbrush faster than a rainy day turning up in Glasgow. So I did thin it. But, it kind of clogged anyway.

Also, as it was thinned, the primer on the model looked "patchy". So, I put some fresh primer in and whacked the airbrush up to 40-50psi in the hope that the air blasting it out might stop it clogging...and, hey presto, it seemed to work.

So - primed and ready for painting







I'll be looking to paint tomorrow - at least the main colour with the coat of camo on Wednesday, clear coat on Thursday, decals on Friday with weapons and undercarriage being fitted and clear coat on Saturday. Cutting it very, very fine...but hopefully I will make it as Saturday is the deadline for the GB.

Base colour down. I'm not entirely sure of the colour - but sod it. I'm out of time!

I'm afraid I don't have measurements for colours - measuring isn't working out very well for me. All I can say is I used Tamiya Xf-23 Light Blue, Tamiya XF-20 Medium Grey and Tamiya X-4 Blue. If I was to hazard a guess, the colour I ended up with was probably about 60%, 30%, 10% (in that order) - though I don't suppose the mix matters as it's not likely the right colour.

I'll be doing camo nef. I'm not sure what yet, but whatever I have time for. I love the digital camo out there...but I'm not sure I have time for that, so it'll probably be something simple.

Masked the canopy


Painted the canopy


I also decided to change the colour of the top of the pit...so I had to mask that up


Then I painted it with a mix of Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver, X-1 Black and FX-20 Medium Grey


However, I thought it was a bit too "shiny", so I put some pure X-1 Black on it to take some zing out of it and this is how it's ended up


Next step will be the camo and Klear (tomorrow) followed by metallic painting of the engine nozzles and more Klear on Friday followed by decals on Saturday and fitting all the wee pieces...and done...hopefully just in time. I presume I have until midnight on the 30th April (Saturday).......if not, oops.

If I ever do another one of these, I'll be starting considerably earlier.

I expect this is my last post in the Build thread and I'll post the final result in the Reveal thread sometime on Saturday.

Thank you all for the support, advice, kind comments and patience

Took the Tamiya tape off


Oh dear...slight issue





Luckily, I had a tiny drop of my mixed paint from yesterday...so a patch up was in order and seemed to work.


That's the first time I've had an issue with Tamiya tape taking paint off...especially as I had primer down as well

After my paint scare yesterday, I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to regret this.

I'm going to try and go for a splinter look...nothing too elaborate.




I so hope the tape doesn't pull off the paint. Any ideas on how best to remove the tape? Would putting the model in a cool place before peeling off help? Or a hot place?

Nice work so far, it should turn out awesome!

Thank you and I hope so. I'm just concerned the tape is going to pull some paint off

JudgeDredd wrote:Thank you and I hope so. I'm just concerned the tape is going to pull some paint off

Better luck this time, mate! Jens

Well, that wasn't 100% successful.







So I have some bleed and also some overspray

I'm still relatively upbeat. I have some grey to add which, if placed tactically, can deal with the overspray and bleed....as long as I don't get more bleed.

I think the bleed occurred from me not wanting to press the tape on too hard in case I pulled the base paint off. The overspray was me thinking I could be more controlled about my spraying than I actually can be.

That part was actually the easy part because you just stick random bits of tape on. The next bit I will have to be very accurate with the tape where it meets the white (which will be quite a bit because of the bleed!!).

I'm really sorry to all but it's highly unlikely I'll get this model completed. I will get it done, but it's unlikely to be this weekend. I've chosen a nightmare camo and I've got other little bits to do and decals and more paint and clear applications - all requiring settle time.

The main reason though is I started too late. I underestimated the complexity of the model and when I made the first few bits, I thought it was a breeze. It was only when I got to all the little fiddly bits that I realised I had robbed myself of time.

Special apologies to Paul and Lee - I know you like a good completion percentage. But think about it - I've made your job easier by having one less to judge and you have a HUGE amount to judge.

Congratulations to everyone...there are some amazing models out there and some stunning work. The dedication and attention to detail that some have put in has simply been outstanding.

It's a pity you can't finish in time. Would have loved to see one of my favourite jet fighters in the final reveals. Cheer up and better luck next time, mate! Jens