Codename: FLANKER

 

The above photo appeared in the September 15, 1987 edition of the Chicago Tribune. A rare sighting of the recently introduced 4th Gen Soviet fighter, NATO codenamed FLANKER A. Having had a fascination with the Cold War aviation race, I dug deeper, travelling to downtown Chicago to Kroch's, the go-to bookstore for hard to find items. I was able to pick up a copy of Jane's "Aircraft, Strategy, and Operations of the Soviet Air Force"

 

Published only a year prior to this sighting, the book had only general ideas about the aircraft and its capabilities, but it was visually striking, seeming to have leapfrogged ahead from our Eagles and Tomcats. Its gestation period was a protracted one, taking years and the lives of multiple test pilots, 7 years from specifications to first flight, and another 8 to reach operational service. The secretive Soviets provided little information about their development projects. It would take the fall of the Soviet Union and a debut at an international airshow to demonstrate what this big plane was capable of. The design has since gone through many versions and redesigns, spawning two seat trainers, side-by-side attack versions, and navalized versions for carrier use. And it still serves today, most recently in Syria.

By the nineties enough was known for me to hope someone would come up with a large scale model of the Flanker, and Academy delivered in 1995. 

Now superseded by other more recent versions, in its day having all recessed panel lines, photo etched details, and rubber tires was leading edge. I determined I wouldn't build it until I had the skills to do it justice...

----Life Happens.  26 years pass----

All Things Scale selects Cold War as the theme for the next Group Build. I have an unstarted Flanker. Now is The Time!

I like to advance my skills with each model, and the goal for this one is to try oil-based panel line detailing on an aircraft - I've done it on armor, but this has 10x the details with all those panel lines...and it is a Big Bird, stretching some 18 inches from the tail cone to the pitot probe in the radome.

Like all aircraft models, we start with the cockpit. The model's cockpit details are somewhat simple and generalized, not surprising as I suspect no prototype photos were available when this was in development. There were a few places I could enhance it, and some I simply had to improve.

First off, the kit HUD was simply a chunk. That had to go. I hit the spares box and pulled out some scale HUD frames for US aircraft I hadn't used, and chose one that was similar. It was dipped in chemical blackener, folded, and the projector lens (Simply a depression in the base) was painted green, then covered multiple times with drops of clear gloss until it had depth.

I had to fabricate the top glare shield out of sheet styrene, curved and glued in place. The front reflector was a piece of clear scrap cut to fit the frame.

There are some excellent cockpit detail sets out there, but the time and expense to acquire weren't on my plan for this kit. I'd make do with what the kit provided. 

Painted the panel gray (not the unique Russian interior green, per the photos I had available), instruments were painted black, drybrushed in white to pick out the details, then the "lenses" were treated to drops of clear gloss. My main reference for prototype photos was  

this book, published in 1992, after it had wowed the crowds with the Cobra maneuver and was allowed to be photographed in the West.

The ejection seat was rather spartan, so I added some seat belts made from wine bottle foil, again, based on photos from the Su-27 book. 

They were painted gray and pushed out of the way so the pilot could enter unobstructed. 

Once installed, the fuselage could be closed and the build begin in serious.

This is where I hit my biggest "fit" issues with this kit. I needed putty at the seam between the end of the fuselage fairing and the start of the radome at the nose, and the area directly below the vertical stabs at the rear.  The rear especially took several sessions of putty-dry-sand-repeat.

"whole lotta putty goin' on..."

Next up, forward engine details and ducting. The first stage compressor blades were painted black, then highlighted with Chrome Silver enamel to make the "pop", as they'd be a few inches away from the closest viewing,

 and hidden behind some nice photoetched FOD screens, which I chose to have in the Down position.

I spent some time agonizing over the color of the intake ducting. My reference photo, 

seemed to show a greenish, perhaps anodized finish.  

Many different variants are "correct", but I attempted to match my reference, mixing colors and spraying thinly over silver to achieve an approximation of the look I wanted.

Rear ducting underwent a similar prep, but I used some old Modelmaster metalizer to color the exhaust outside and aft of the afterburner.

Next, I'd deal with the other major issue I had with the kit - The Canopy. Molded in two parts, the large clear pieces fit well, but had a major flaw - a mold parting line straight down the middle of both pieces.

I couldn't leave that alone. But once started, there's no turning back.

File off the ridge.

Remove file marks with wet 320 grit

Remove 320 marks with wet 400 grit

Remove 300 marks with wet 600 grit

Remove 600 marks with bare metal foil plastic polish. Not good enough. Repeat. Several times

That'll do. With the canopy on, we can finish the empennage and other major exterior bits without issue.

I'm leaving off the gear and gear doors, and all instrument probes until last, to save on handling and other breakage risks, and avoid complicated masking (ha ha. See below).

The gear wells get a basic gray finish.  The engines are sprayed with the buffing metalizer enamel mentioned above, and then sealed with the recommended sealer.

The sealer helps keep the mask that would follow from pulling up the metalizer, in which it was successful.

----TRUE CONFESSION----

My paint job is wrong. I had bought a set of Xtracolor paints specifically for this model back when I bought the kit. I chose...poorly. They don't match the paint specs of the kit, or the prototype, in the way I applied them. I admit that freely. But once I noticed, I wasn't doing it over :-(

But I digress...

The size and shape of this bird would require lots of masking. I wanted a fairly sharp demarcation between colors, as I saw in prototype photos, not a feathered edge. No worries, I'd used Silly Putty before for curved masking. But on a plane this size, I couldn't JUST use silly putty. I ended up using parafilm for most of the surface areas; Tamiya tape on the engines and canopy, and silly putty on the edges of the colors. The overall light blue was easy...

I propped it up on my turntable, sprayed...and knocked it down while cleaning up, breaking off an elevator, wing tip hardpoint, and elevator actuator.

Ah well.

Repaired, and masked, it's time for blue-gray, which was darker than I had calculated.

Color 3 was a medium blue, so more masking...

Striking, just not accurate :-(

Having calculated earlier that the radome needed about an ounce+ of weight, the gear went on without issue. The nose gear in particular was elaborate, like the prototype. 

I keep the kit nose supported most of the time, as there's a fair amount of weight over a very slender strut, and no way to fix it but drill and pin if I screw up. Gear doors get sprayed red inside and installed.

Various probes are mounted and painted Aluminum. Radome painted white, ECM panels in the tail painted dark green, gun and surrounding panels painted dark bare metal (More, more, more masking lol).

Once all is dry, time for decals. I chose not to use the sharkmouth motif provided with the kit, and go with a more generic Frontal Aviation look (simply omitted some decals).

Next up, under-wing stores...

Each had to be assembled, then the tailcones drilled out and tapered to a. provide a rocket nozzle and b. give me a way to get them painted, by sticking them on a jig...

...and spraying them white. It required two coats to get decent coverage.

Some Jet Exhaust enamel on the rocket nozzles.

Two missiles featured clear IR seeker head noses, which I handled by painting the missile end dark silver; paiting the center chrome silver,  and once dry, securing the clear hemispherical lens to the missile with a drop of clear gloss enamel.

An assortment of A2A were attached to the launch rails with some gap-filling ACC.

She looks good, now waiting for a clear matt finish, and the panel line detailing. 

To Be Continued...
Well, life got busy in the final week of the group build, so I didn't set aside the time to do the panel line/light weathering I had planned. Here are a set of glamor shots,  5 of which I posted to the group event page. For a change of pace, I photographed them on a large mirror with a white foamcore background, outdoors. The overcast condition in the morning led to some unusual lighting and colors. Here's a look:

Do I have the self-discipline to complete the original plan? Stay tuned and find out...

The U-505 - type IX-C U-Boat; A DIY Rehab Project

 

Many know the story of the capture of the U-505 and it's journey to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, plus it's total refurbishment and placement in it's own unique indoor display.  It was restored close to operating condition in 2019 and as such is the only Type IXC museum U- Boat in existence.

Here is the U-505 just after capture on June 4, 1944.  So this is a modeling blog - let's get to it!

There is not much of a story here other than my brother Bob had this very rough model of unknown (neither of us could recall it) origin.  It is over 14 inches in length making it a scale of approximately 1:200.  The bulky and non-detailed look caused me pause on how I could make something out of this and was it worth the effort?

Missing dive plane arms (note the poorly defined molded-in anchor).

More missing pieces of the stern gear, plus poor excuse for propellers.  Ok, let's get CUTTING.

Snip, snip.  No more railings or guns!

No more submarine net cutter - the IXC did not sport one of those.

The sound of Taps in the background, please,

I researched my stash and I still had quite a few parts from my 1:350 scale DE Buckley.  The extra props were especially appropriate and wonderfully to scale.  The arms are adapted from extra Buckley davits that miraculously were the right length and bend radius!

I was able to snip from the sprue and shape a piece of styrene for the starboard fin.  There is more on this later.

This is rough looking as I cut out a spot for the anchor - also harvested from the Buckley sprue - although it is upside down it is better than the - molded-in - shape!

This is from the U-505 website showing the battle damage that was not repaired as part of any refurbishments.  I attempted to duplicate this in my rehab as can be seen in the next photo.

Whoa, where did this come from.  It was a left over after market 40mm Bofors twin mount with brass barrels.  A little sculpting turned it into the twin 20mm flak mount.  I did a scale conversion and the 1:350 40mm is equal to approx. 22mm in 1:200 scale - close enough!  Based on the armament of the

 U-505 there was 1 x twin 2cm flak 30 AA gun mount, 1 x 3.7cm SK C/30 AA gun and a 10.5 cm SK 32 deck gun; however, the deck gun had been removed as were many North Atlantic, U-Boat deck guns (after 1943).

The pin vise drill was used to attach 26 gauge wire uprights for the upper platform.  My favotite cyano - Loctite Gel - holds the wire to the plastic.  I used a wire drilled into the gun base and through the platform so the gun can rotate.

I was not crazy enough to try and place the railings on in one piece, besides as you will see later there is a ladder between the two platforms. Small drops of cyano and a steady hand with the tweezers were needed to attach the railings.

A ladder is added from some left over PE as well as PE mesh left over from the Buckley.  I used it because the U-505 photos show it.

Not only can you see the mesh in the upper platform railing, but this is also a good photo showing the conning tower markings of the seashell and the submarine on the lower front.  I had no choice but to try and hand paint these, which can be seen later. 

Although more angular that the real thing the upper platform railing is completed and painted.  Model Master Light Ghost Gray was a close match.

A top down view shows an example of left over PE parts used to simulate hatches in the platforms and decking.

I move to the bow and the bow planes snipped and shaped out of bits of sprue, glued to the hull. Then layer on layer of window glue to smooth it out prior to painting. 

Moving back to the stern I took a piece of sprue along with more 26 gauge wire to form up the rudder control spindels.

I started to paint with the dark gray I had on hand but it was not dark enough so I mixed in a bottle of flat black to get a darker gray for the hull and platflorms and conning tower interior.

The stern gear is complete, props painted a mix of gold and yellow to get a bronze color, then the custom dark gray is applied.  Note that the hull is masked (along a specific panel line), after which I applied the dark gray mix to the hull.

Now with the hull painted I continued work on the conning tower.

A few PE pieces were added as steps to the platform.  A piece of masking tape was applied to block out the insignia area for the painting of the conning tower with the Ghost Gray.  I then filled in with green and applied some white in the form of a shell as best I could then used my xacto tip to etch in the flutes of the shell.  Zoom in and it is not great, but to the naked eye about as good as I can do at this scale.  My only error was being too hasty and putting the sub. symbol in the upper instead of lower front of the conning tower.  It took me days of editing this post to notice.  Oh, well, I'm not going back now!!

Masking tape was re-applied to the hull and I carefully used the Ghost Gray for the upper hull to match the conning tower.  It was not as fiddly around the casing hull holes as it might seem.

A coat of the standard dark gray is applied to the deck.  Now I had to move onto the lower, larger platform which was a different challenge.

The uprights were drilled in and glued as with the upper platform, but since I had to add a circular rail in one piece I had to form it and then glue to the uprights.  I picked out strategic uprights and laid toothpicks on the deck so that the circular rail would sit at the correct and even hight.  The rail is laid down on the toothpicks and touched with cyano at the uprights using the tip of my xacto.  I followed with the upper rail using the same toothpick procedure, then filled in the rest of the uprights.

As the cyano dries I just snip off the tails of the uprights.

In order that I don't get too far out of sequence let's review how the 3.7mm Flak gun is developed.  I searched for after market kits, including Shapeways 3D prints.  The gun is out there just not in 1:200 scale, so I had to DIY it.  I had kept the gun I cut off and used it as the base.  I snipped out part of the splinter shield above the barrel then laid on pieces of PE to enlarge the shield and shape it as seen in photos of the 3.7 mm Flak.

I added some other PE bits to simulate what I saw in the photos of the gun, plus shaved down the barrel to make it more to scale (including leaving the muzzle a bit wider).

After painting the 3.7 mm I added a wire spindle as I did with the 20 mm so it can rotate and be removed as necessary to finsh the platform railings.

Here the remaining uprights and railings have been applied with the inclusion of the extra angle braces at the attachment points of the rear HF radio wire.  Some Tamiya Weathering Master rust has been added.  Note the opening left in the railing above the molded steps.

The only purchase made was some 0.5mm styrene rod.  I discovered that wire would be too flexible and would not look good as deck railing.  It turned out to be a good decision.

I measured, cut and bent the ends for the top rail.  I taped it down on wax paper then cut the mid rail to length and at angle and applied a drop of gel and let dry.

I glued the center three uprights first to the molded railing nubs on the hull after which I used thin cement to fuse the uprights with the railings.  I worked my way outwards and snipped off the uprights tails as the thin cement dried.  This photo also shows the front HF radio wire.....

......which is made from my "good for every wire imaginable" spool of monofilament.  I tied a bunch of knots in it, notched the inside edge of the conning tower and glued with cyano.  The bow end of the wire was an easy thread through the nose and glued.

Also note that I have a base!  I was able to adapt the un-used Buckley base!

The HF wire to the stern required some of the styrene rod to form the small tripods, but then it was a simple tie and glue to those and back to the platform railing.

Stern view.

A print out pasted on the base plate and this rehab is nearly done. I am going to try and add a flag to the upper platform.

For an American Flag (the U-505 has been an American ship since June 1944), since I could not find decals, I copied a j.PEG I liked to a Word doc. , shrunk it to scale, flipped it and printed out both sides.  I glued these back to back on a piece of 0.5mm rod and attached it to the upper platform!

The long view showing weathering and final painting of the deck (notice the PE base for the deck gun?).  Once again lightly brushed on the Tamiya rust.

 A final mid-shot and I am calling her done.  If you look at the Museum photos, the dark gray is all the way up to the casing hull openings so you would not see any rust - I kind of like the rust.  

Hey, if I change my mind it is easy to re-paint and move the gray line up😆

This was a challenge I was not sure I was ready for.  To take such a rough old model (Bob and  I figured it is a Revell) and transform it into the U-505 with some detail to boot?  I believe I did Ok and that the old girl would be pleased with the effort.