Hi gang! It’s been a while. Been busy blogging and pretending to be a photographer.
But a few months ago, I heard my work bench calling me and curiously I answered it. For the longest time I have wanted to build a few Sea Flankers but with my ideas. The problem was I never had a good starting point for my builds. Years later, I do now. So, the two ideas I have that I will be building is first, a two seat Su-33 with the seating like a Su-30. And the other is a carrier based Su-34 much like the Su-33 UBK. For the two seat Su-33, I’m going to use Kinetic 1/48 Su-33 kit along with cockpit area of Academy’s 1/48 Su-27 UB kit. The hardest part will be mating the cockpit area of the UB to the Su-33. The cockpits (tubs, seats and display panels) of the 27 UB are not to my liking, so I will replace it with Wolfpack design Su-30 resin cockpit. I also plan on putting some GE F-110 engines on her like the F-14 B/D.
For the carrier based Su-34, I’ll be using Hobby Boss Su-34 kit. I know Kittyhawk just release their kits, but I’m not impressed with any of their kits. I hate the fact that they tend break up the fuselage into what I feel is too many pieces. Making more seams having to address. Butanywho… Where was I?
Oh yeah, my naval Su-34. I order to fold her wings, I got a second Kinetic Su-33. The wing folds on the kit are well thought out and looks great. And it would easier to graft them to the Su-34 then try and scratch build them. I love the side-by-side seating of the Su-34 but was never a fan of its nose. I want to reshape it to look more like the Su-33 UBK. More round like all its flanker sisters. And like the Su-33 UBK, my Sea Su-34 will have thrust-vectoring nozzles. I’m going to shorten the tail boom for carrier operations as well.
I’ve been very inspired about these builds and been working on them since July. So much so, I was not going to make a work in progress thread and just post images of the finished model. It sometime turns into a chore doing a work in progress post while building. Build, photos, build, photos, edit, write, edit, post, reply, reply and then go back to building. Truth be told, I had a lot to figure out for both builds. Like how am I going to graft the Su-27 UB cockpit area to the Su-33 fuselage? And would the wings of the Su-33 even fit on the fuselage of the Su-34? Having to stop and go through the motions of a work in progress post would had really put a damper on my creativity and progress.
I did and have been taking photos of my progress and feel I’m at a point of most of the of
“How in the F@#K am I going to do” this is over. After this weekend's progress, the models are really starting to come together and take shape. After some thought, I see no joy in waiting until the end of the builds and showing the finish models. And being that I have a few months of past progress, it will be easier for me to keep building with passion and still share it with you all.
Here’s good teaser image. And Yes! You can fit an Academy Su-27 UB cockpit area onto a Kinetic Su-33 fuselage. In the lower, you can see I chopped the nose off the Su-34 and place a foam blank to be reshaped. The spare Su-33 in also in the image as well but more about her later!
Until later,
Steven L 
