Beyond The Sprues
Current and Finished Projects => Physical Models => Aero-space => Topic started by: Sentinel Chicken on June 04, 2012, 12:44:36 PM
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(http://www.airlinebuzz.com/chickenworks/Buzz/Build05_120603.jpg)
As my Hughes/Kaiser PBK-1 Tarpon build crosses the halfway point, it's time to start another build to keep me from losing interest in the patrol bomber Spruce Goose. I picked up this kit at the Squadron Open House and even though it's 1/144, it's surprising just how large an aircraft the Shenyang J-8 Finback is. It makes the MiG-21 look positively diminutive by comparison and I have one of the Eduard 1/144 MiG-21 two packs that recently was added to the stash. This is the Trumpeter Finback- looks like a pretty decent kit, the main drawback being the panel lines are too prominent. The missiles look too simplistic and don't match what you see on the box art. No worries, I probably won't even use them. From what I can see from a cursory review of the sprues, the overall shape looks good. I'll be building this one nearly out of the box but as a strike aircraft with extra ordinance/weapons pylons and perhaps some targeting pods. I'll leave the user nation a mystery and see if you can guess it as I progress with this build.
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The Trumpeter F8, which is still the only way to actually get a 1/144 Su-15 TM! As you say, its got problems but plenty of potential too. I used to scoop these up off of evilbay at the price of drive-through burgers and flagonize them on commission by local 144 fans.
Although in the "promised" stage for 4 years, miniwing.cz has yet to release their 1/144 SU-15tm flagon kit. On their plus side, Miniwing has released some remarkable 144 resins like both CF-100 Canuck and CF-105 Arrow, plus a recent superb Su-24 Fencer!
Here is a Flagon kit from F8 convert, parked in front of a HAS dio.
(http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/232/8/e/place_to_park_your_airplanes_by_russc1-d477gar.jpg)
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LOVING THE DIO !! :D
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A strike Finback? Cool! 8) Will it have a MiG-27-style platypus nose? :P
Look out for the main landing gear legs. I think Trumpeter wants you to install them with the wheels on the outboard side of the legs, while they should be inboard of the legs. I know it's a whif, but it's an easy thing to correct (if you're so inclined).
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The Trumpeter F8, which is still the only way to actually get a 1/144 Su-15 TM! As you say, its got problems but plenty of potential too. I used to scoop these up off of evilbay at the price of drive-through burgers and flagonize them on commission by local 144 fans.
Although in the "promised" stage for 4 years, miniwing.cz has yet to release their 1/144 SU-15tm flagon kit. On their plus side, Miniwing has released some remarkable 144 resins like both CF-100 Canuck and CF-105 Arrow, plus a recent superb Su-24 Fencer!
Here is a Flagon kit from F8 convert, parked in front of a HAS dio.
([url]http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/232/8/e/place_to_park_your_airplanes_by_russc1-d477gar.jpg[/url])
Impressive Flagonization. The camo'd Flagons were striking, maybe because you didn't see many PVO interceptors in camo (which is why the camo'd Wild Weasel Foxbats are uber-awesome in my book). The kit does have lot of whiff potential. My original plan was to give the Finback swing-wings, but I may pick up a second kit to that particular kitbash at a later date.
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A strike Finback? Cool! 8) Will it have a MiG-27-style platypus nose? :P
Look out for the main landing gear legs. I think Trumpeter wants you to install them with the wheels on the outboard side of the legs, while they should be inboard of the legs. I know it's a whif, but it's an easy thing to correct (if you're so inclined).
Thanks for the heads up on the main landing gear legs. They look oddly *thick* for the scale, but whatever. I thought about a MiG-27 platypus nose, but wanted to try to avoid any significant kitbashing on this one as it's on the heels of my PBK-1 Tarpon build. That does give me another idea, though. And possibly the need to get a third Finback kit........you people are such enablers.
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Day off today. So between shuttling Chicklets to their various summer activities, I had some model building time shoehorned into the day so far. Latest progress:
(http://www.airlinebuzz.com/chickenworks/Buzz/Build05_120604a.jpg)
Even though the Shenyang J-8II Finback-B is a big aircraft, it's still a small build in 1/144 scale and given just how much of my bench the PBK-1 Tarpon build takes up, this one feels microscopic. The wings and tailplanes are part of the upper half of the fuselage, the fit of the lower half into all of this is so-so but not as sea-urchins-in-a-Speedo horrifying as the 1/200 Spruce Goose kit's issues that I'm using for the previous build. The engines and nose radome are separate parts and their fit is so-so as well but *easily* remedied. Cockpit detail is very sparse, just a simple seat. But I don't like working on cockpits all that much, but I'll do enough so that with the canopy in place it will be presentable and something *I* can live with.
(http://www.airlinebuzz.com/chickenworks/Buzz/Build05_120604b.jpg)
The lateral box intakes on this kit suck. There's two broad tabs which go across the inlet intake, the lower one fits into a slot on the side of the fuselage. So that's gonna have to be fixed. The upper part is the right intake as it looks right off the sprue. The lower part is the left intake which I've suitably reworked- I've cut away both of those obnoxious tabs, used a needle file to thin the intake lip and then used thin styrene sheet to add back those intake fairings so it looks more presentable. The scrap shot on the left shows how the intake should look. They're internal fences that keep the airflow going into the intake straight as it passes the variable geometry ramp on the fuselage side of the intake box. With those two big tabs gone, the intake box fits much better on the fuselage assembly. I probably could have used thinner styrene for those internal fences, but my middle-aged Mark One eyeballs do impose some limitations on my ambition in this scale.
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Those intakes look sooooooo much better! :)
If you build another Finback, how about getting one of the cheapo Trumpeter F-7MG or F-7EB kits and using the other panels of their cranked-delta wings for the Finback? I've seen a whif profile of such a thing somewhere on the interwebs and it looked really great.
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Those intakes look sooooooo much better! :)
If you build another Finback, how about getting one of the cheapo Trumpeter F-7MG or F-7EB kits and using the other panels of their cranked-delta wings for the Finback? I've seen a whif profile of such a thing somewhere on the interwebs and it looked really great.
Seen that one also, it works really well. The F7 M is a fun little build itself and takes the "Mig-21 knockoff" to a whole new level.
All the Trumpeter 144 kits are great parts birds, and pretty much anything out of the parts pin (as long as you can get a right and left side!) can push out the double delta. Also at 144 scale, even styrene stock can be carved to the profile if needed. Anything can be used because the surface of these kits have to be treated so heavily anyway to remove the panel canals and the 6" sink hole rivets.
Hmmmm how about a VG Finback? You got a super idea there, Mr Chicken! I'd hatch that one.
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Impressive Flagonization. The camo'd Flagons were striking, maybe because you didn't see many PVO interceptors in camo (which is why the camo'd Wild Weasel Foxbats are uber-awesome in my book). The kit does have lot of whiff potential. My original plan was to give the Finback swing-wings, but I may pick up a second kit to that particular kitbash at a later date.
Thanks, although I wish I had taken some more close up pics before "adopting " out that one.
Yes, I made a WW Mig-25 also! and as a way to use up a really rough Minicraft Foxbat kit. On it and all of these Trump kits, I would drill out the exhausts and then play scale o rama and find some good resin engine inserts from 1/72 smaller engines or whiff up some homemade ones by wrapping 5 thousandths styrene stock around a dowel rod, clamping and putting in boiling water for a bit (spaghetti day was fun at my house!) to get the shape. Then detail the insides with plastic strips, rings etc.
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Love Camo Foxbats as well!! You are knocking them out Mr. Chicken!!
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Latest progress shots of my 1/144 strike Finback-B:
(http://www.airlinebuzz.com/chickenworks/Buzz/Build05_120609a.jpg)
Wow, the panel lines on this small kit are huge. I guess I could go and fill all those trenches in, but that's more putty-sand-repeat than I resolved myself to do on this build. If this were 1:1 scale, we probably could stash a large sack of Twiglets in those panel lines. The intakes required more sanding than expected to get them to blend better into the intake trunks on the sides of the fuselage. The intake boxes were sharp edged and there's a gradual transition from sharp edge to rounded.
The exhausts don't fit great into the fuselage but it's acceptable to me with what I plan to do with this build. Are all Trumpeter 1/144 kits this craptastic? I always hear good things about the larger scale kits and now am wondering if it's worth spending the coin on the 1/144 Tu-16 Badger kit.
(http://www.airlinebuzz.com/chickenworks/Buzz/Build05_120609b.jpg)
Underside view. The ventral fin was one piece and had two pairs of intakes moulded into each side. I have no clue where they got that idea to do that as that resembles nothing at all on the folding fin assembly of the real Finback-B. Trumpeter's based in China, right? There's tons of Finback-B pics on the 'Net and ten to one they could have had someone actually physically go look at a 1:1 specimen. Whatever. Sanded those little bastards off and then cut the fin. Like the MiG-23/27, the Finback-B's fin folds to the right when the landing gear is extended. On the older Finback-A, there were two smaller ventral fins that were fixed.
I'm not terribly impressed with the pylons in the kit, I may scratchbuild my own out of styrene sheet instead.
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That's coming along nicely, Mr Chicken! From what I've heard, Trumpeter can be hit-or-miss, depending on the kit and it pays to research a little before you buy. Here's a review of Trumpeter's Tu-16 (http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/tru/kit_tru_3908.shtml) over on cybermodeler. The sprue shots don't show the heavily engraved drainage ditches your poor Finback is afflicted with.
Looking forward already to your next update,
Brian da Basher
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Those panel lines look wide enough to fly down... :o
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Those panel lines look wide enough to fly down... :o
I'm quite certain there's one panel line on the top of the fuselage that has a 2 meter thermal exhaust port at the very end.
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I knew it!!!
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Here you go, Greg: http://youtu.be/3F1d3QWsyk0 (http://youtu.be/3F1d3QWsyk0)
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought my Dark Lord of the Sith could protect a small thermal exhaust port that's only two meters wide. That thing wasn't even fully paid off yet!"
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And who the HELL put these sea urchins in my Speedos???????
:D
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I refuse to comment ...
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(http://www.airlinebuzz.com/chickenworks/Buzz/Build05_120611.jpg)
Decided to do a mix of scratchbuilt pylons and kit pylons. The four smaller wing pylons came with the kit. They're nothing great but I didn't feel like scratchbuilding that many pylons. Yep, somedays I'm just a lazy what-if builder. The smaller ones are missile stations on the real Finback-B, but in this whiff build I'll have the outboard ones carrying self-defense IR missiles and the inboard ones bombs of some sort. The larger pylons are scratchbuilt and for this build the wing would have been structurally strengthened for these stations to take heavier loads. On the real world Finback-B these stations could also mount external tanks. For this build, I'll put LGBs there.
The stub pylons under the intakes are not a feature of the real world Finback-B. The left one will be carrying a laser targeting pod, the smaller right one some sort of imaginary ECM pod.
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Nice work on the pylons, Mr Chicken! Detail like that can really add to a model!
Brian da Basher
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Latest progress:
(http://www.airlinebuzz.com/chickenworks/Buzz/Build05_120619.jpg)
I decided to brush paint the camo scheme and that will either be a total disaster or it could work out for me, we'll see. It's been a royal pain in the ass to try and match the camo scheme I wanted to use for this build and what I have done so far may be a big clue for some of you. The difficult aspect was matching what on the real world is a grayish-tan color and I had tried several candidates which didn't work worth squat for me. Either to dark, too light, or too brown. The brownish-gray patches on the model are what I ended up with and to be honest, I'm sort of sick trying to get that one color matched. That was one reason I didn't want to airbrush this, I knew I was in for a round of trial and error.
The next hurdle will be the markings. I have some decal paper will give a shot for the first time at inkjet printing some custom markings.
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That's some outstanding paintwork, Mr Chicken!
Brian da Basher
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Looks like Greece to me. The Ghost Gray scheme of the HAF?
Cheers,
Logan
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I was trying to emulate this camo scheme:
(http://lepidoptera.datahosting.com.br/fcm/mais-admin/Uploads/a359c80ff380c1f5e17f6739ec6df855.jpg)
It will be a TNI-AU strike Finback-B with black low-viz markings.
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That's a truly stunning scheme, Mr Chicken!
I'm tempted to borrow it...
Looking forward to more,
Brian da Basher
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Indonesian Finback...Yowsers!!! :o
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Great call on the scheme :)