Scale Aviation Modeller International – March 2019

wheel well and the engine

more or less ills the rear of the

nacelle, so the kit compressor

and exhaust are undersized.

Not something I was going to

tackle, if I could have found a

set of the Two Mikes intake

and exhaust covers, I might

have bought them, as it is, I

had to live with it. The nacelles

themselves required some

iller along the seams (I’ve

been using Mr Surfacer for

this kind of thing recently)

and after sanding down quite

a lot of detail needed adding

back. I did one at a time,

using the other as a reference

for how they should look.

Stage 7 has you make up the

two-part (upper and lower)

wings and attach them to the

nacelles, adding a ring to the

intake front. I added the ring,

the it is ine, but I left the

wings of for now as I felt that

would make a fairly unwieldy

assembly, and complicate

attaching them to the fuselage.

Anyway, there are other things

to do with the wings later. And

so, to Stages 8 and 9 which have

you cut the rear from the two

fuselage halves. I’m not sure

I needed a before and an after

stage, it’s not that complicated

that it needs one picture to

show you the fuselages being

cut and another what they

look like after, but I could

have used a little more detail

on where, exactly, to make

the cut. I decided it ‘must’ be

along the panel line and cut

accordingly, we’ll see if it’s in

the right place later. This was

something that struck me at a

few points, there’s a lot of space

in the instructions but often the

parts you’re interested in are

shown quite small and in the

distance, as it were. Maybe I’ve

been spoilt by the instructions

of the recent Zoukei-Mura

kits I’ve made! Anyway...

Stages 10-13 cover the

nose gear, again I think most

manufacturers would have

done that in one stage, maybe

two at most, but that’s being

very picky. Then, inally, we get

to the cockpit area, stages 14-

24. The irst four deal with the
    two seats, I made one up and
    decided that no amount of etch

(unless it completely replaced

the plastic), was really going

to help, so I dug out a couple

of resin seats. The only K-36s I

had were a set of True Details

ones, 48404, they’re smaller

than the kit parts but they’re

a lot better detail wise, and I

always think if you’re going

to do anything to dress up the

cockpit the seats are a good

place to start. The cockpit tub

is made up of a loor, bulkheads

behind each pilot, rudder

pedals (with etch), control

columns, side consoles and

inner fuselage panels. It looks

quite nice, if a little lacking in

detail behind the seats but I

thought it would paint up OK.

But what colour to paint it in?

COCKPIT COLOURS

The instructions call

for FS34227, which is an

interesting green shade,

identiied as RLM99 by some

internet searches. Pictures of

the real thing on the web are

not exactly common and often

contradictory (grey/green,

green/blue, grey/blue etc.) but

do seem to show the interior at

the lighter, calmer end of the

turquoise/blue-green shades

we love so much in soviet

cockpits. Well I do anyway, it’s

a change from grey or black.

So, I went with a mix of several

colours from a set of AKAH

paints the editor had provided,

using #47309 ‘Modern Russian

Air Force’, applicable to Su-

32/34 apparently. Whether I can

use any of them on the airframe

we’ve have to ind out later but

for now I was fairly happy with

the overall cockpit colour (even

if it was a little blue, perhaps),

and I picked out details on the

side panels and sidewalls as

best I could and looked at the

instrument panels. You have

the option of a couple of thick

clear pieces that would require

careful painting, or some etch

and ilm parts which will also

need some painting and some

bending but should look a lot

better. I went with the etch

and painted it up and then

looked to get things in place.

Then, as the instructions

would have you do, you make

up the cockpit into one

inished assembly and

it it into the fuselage

half. However, given

the almost total lack of

locating aids I thought

that would end badly.

Oddly the control

columns do have a

locating pin on their

base but there are no

corresponding holes

in the loor - go igure. I then

attached the side consoles

(the loor has some lines on it

to aid their positioning), the

rear bulkhead and the rudder

pedals, and itted this in place

on top of the nose gear well, in

the right fuselage half using

one of the fuselage side panels

as a guide to help positioning. I

then itted the middle bulkhead

(using the cockpit dividing

section to set the angle and

support it while the glue set)

and then the two right side

cockpit sidewalls. I then turned

to the instrument panels,

the instrument panel ilms

are identiied A-D but there’s

nothing on the instructions

to say which goes where.

Fortunately, it’s fairly obvious,

and I considered installing

them. But while staring at the

parts it occurred to me that

something was missing from

the etch for the front panel.

While the rear panel has a large

upper central section to fold-

out slightly (it would be nice if

the instructions made it more

obvious how the etch folds) the

front panel has a large space,

where the (clear) plastic part

has the relevant details. This

required some iling of the

clear panel part, so the etch

could attach to it and the centre

section. Maybe I misunderstood

the instructions (they are

MARCH 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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