Trumpeter 1/48 Sukhoi Su-9

[JonMW]

I was planning on joining this GB with a Mig 21 since I've been wanting to build one for a wile. But when I got to my LHS today they didn't have any in stock so I picked up this instead. The kit looks really nice with some crisp details, I might see if I can find a seat or PE set for the cockpit as I would like to have some belts, the rest of the cockpit looks pretty good.












Nice with a jet plane with almost no decals!

[Avgas]

Now that's the definition of an aluminium tube with wings on!

[chief5437]

Very nice! Good luck buddy

[Nige201980]

Nice mate good luck with it.

[JonMW]

I thought I would start this build a bit slow until I have decided what to do with the cockpit. The weakest points on this kit is the cockpit and wheels, the wheels are lacking a lot of details and would really benefit from an upgrade. Now I wanted to try something new that I have been thinking about for some time. To do this I mounted the kit wheels on some styrene, also mounted the wheels for my F-16 build.



I then made a silicon mold. Instead of using resin I used Monster clay to fill the mold, this is a pretty hard oil based clay that can be heated in the microwave until it becomes liquid and you can pour it.





After letting the mold cool down to room temperature slow I put it in the freezer to get clay hard to get it pout of the mold without distorting.





To add some bolt details I used small mashined bolts from Tuner Model Manufactory and pushed them into the clay. Now I messed up one of them, but this is only a test. The last thing I've done is push the tire onto a flat surface to get a whighted look, since it's clay it will bulge out on the sides like a tire would. I'm pretty happy with how it looks, just need to make one that I don't mess up the bolts, then I can make some resin copies.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Your build threads are always so cool to look in on....I learn new stuff every time

[JonMW]

It#s high time to start doing some actual work on this now. Have done a bit more on the wheels, still not really happy with them but I think it's better then the kit ones, maybe not accurate but a bit more interesting.


First I looked at a lot of different PE that I have both for future projects and left over ones to try to find some details.


Borrowed some brake disk details from a couple of 1/20 Formula 1 cars.


Mounted the two wheels on thin sheet of plastic with a bar at the bottom. This is done so I didn't have to do a two part mold,the sheet makes it so that the mold is split inside so the wheels can be removed. If I didn't have it I would have to get the resin in the mold through a 1x3 mm hole and then get the wheel out of the same hole. This way you can open the mold and everything is much easier.


And a test casting of the wheels. I'm pretty happy with the front one but I'll do a bit more work on the main one.


Next up is the cockpit. The kit one has some details, but it's far from what it should look like and the seat is bit off.




And the fit is not the best, the gap between the cockpit sidewall and fuselage is way too big, especially for a pretty new kit.




I bought a resin seat but it seems to a little bit larger then the kit one and the cockpit tub.


It's also way too long, it you cut off the sides of the cockpit tub the pilot would almost have the control stick right up his bottom. So I had to sand the back of the seat a bit to push it rearward. A reason for this is that the kit is a bit shorter then it should be. Although it's a lot longer then Trumpeter thinks it is.


The box says the kit is 209 mm long, my cutting mat says 320 for the fuselage, 345 including the tail fin and it should be 362 mm. It is the right diameter, just a bit too short, and it seems that the seat was made in the correct size.


So I cut out the side panels and made some new ones from plastic sheet, I also extended the floor a bit as the kit one ends where the instrument panel is. My plan for this is to keep the instrument panel but add some details to the top of it and use the top of the control stick and make it a bit longer as it is also a bit short. The rest will be scratch build, so we'll see how that goes.

[patrickroos]

Nice progress!!!

[JonMW]

With most of my other projects finally done it's time to get back to this. I have dine a bit more work on the cockpit. I scratch build the sides using sheets and rods of plastic, I then added some left over PE parts, resin connectors, turned metal switches and some random wires, I will add a couple of decals when it's painted. It's loosely based on some reference photos I found but I took some artistic license as well to fit the material I had and what I thought looked good. So now the nice resin seat fits as it should.

[Always48]

wow!

feel a bit embarrassed about my rough old pit now ! that is simply stunning work. i know how much of a pita this kit pit is!

[JonMW]

Not a lot of work, but it's slowly coming along. There is a big gap between the two fuselage halves in front and behind the cockpit, these will be a bit had to fill so I decided to cover them with some sheet instead.



First I covered the area with some masking tape.



Then painting the bottom edge of the canopies with a slow drying paint and putting them in place to leave a mark where to cut.



And cutting out the plastic sheet. This way the canopy still sits in the right spot and not too high.



Next up is trying to make the canopy actually fit over the seat.

[TommyKillander]

Great job done sofar!

Cockpit looks awesome with those lever switches and the resin bangseat

Keep up the good work!


Tommy

[JonMW]

It's time to post some progress on this. The cockpit has been painted, forgot to take any pictures of it. The fuselage and wings where assembled, the fit is really nice only needing a little bit of filler. It was then primed in stynylrez black primer, given a goat of Alclad gloss back base and finally painted in Alclad aluminium. I then used Tamiya smoke to darken some of the panels, this was layered really thin to give different shades to different panels. Also a couple of panels where done in AK duraluminium, which has a bit of copper/gold color to it. Next up is the markings, I'm thinking of trying to paint the stars and larger numbers so I can add a bit of chipping to those instead of having nice perfect decals.

[Always48]

Thats looking great Jon

[JonMW]

Time for some markings, started with applying some Tamiya tape over the decals and then cutting out the masks. I did this for all the stars and the numbers on the nose.





With the masks applied I used a sponge and dabbed some liquid latex over the markings and then painted them red.







Next up is start with the weathering.

[Avgas]

I'm liking the different colour panels, doing a great job.

[Always48]

nice work on using the decals as stencils, i ended up robbing a couple of stars from another kit, but they were extremely fragile that ive had to order some just to finish of 1 wing! These jets really come to life when weathered. Mine has easily become my favourite when i stand it next to my others and its not even finished yet.

[Schoof]

Only a week and a halve left..... hope it's enough time for you

[shortCummins]

great idea for the markings

[JonMW]

Finally time for the reveal http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.php?f=451&t=17885