1/48 Suchoi Su-34 Part 1

by Armin Knes

First of all....it took two months (intensive work, nearly everyday) to build this plane!!! The next few pictures will show you how I did it.  The first picture on the right shows my reference drawing. I did this by myself using  autoCAD,...of course with a little help: http://win.www.airwar.ru/other/draw/su34.html   First I cut the old frontcockpit off the Su-33, next I cut the new nose in a 1mm plastic sheet and bring it in position. Then I cut the new and bigger gearbays and the new wingbase.  Next I formed the new neck with plasticframes (picture 2 and 3).

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  Then I charge the interstice with plasticine (green and white stuff in picture 4). I brought this plasticine in the correct form and then I covered it with 1 cm plasticstrips (picture 5). 

  Next I charge the gaps with  a mixture of filler and aceton-glue ( picture 6 and 7).

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...and then came the big work: with sandpaper, I brought the hole new fuselage in the correct form, and this took  about 3 weeks !!!!!

  Next part was the air intake (picture 8). There was "only" the bottom, the lips and of course the inside to reshape. I also did additional air intakes, two per unit, inside, and a lower overflow gap.

  The cockpit I did, except the K-36 ejection seats from Pavla, by myself....also the canopy frames (picture 9, 10 and 11).

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  In picture 12 you can see the model before I painted it.  In picture 13 and 14 you can see the all the small parts, like wapons, main- and frontgear, gearbay doors, flaps and so on....

  The gear and the gearbaydoors I did also by myself. This was a relatively easy job, except the big main gearbay doors: therefore I took the front of an old F-105 fuel tank.

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The last picture shows the plane nearly finished, but more in part two....

Armin