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I have always wondered why so few models of this
plane were not among sets of others on various websites. Having visited an
airfield and stood near a group of true Su-24Ms, I was "infected" with
the idea of putting the same plane on my shelf. When you stand beside an Su-24M,
you can feel the greatness and beauty of this bird and many pilots, in spite of
the certain complexities of the plane, have a very warm feeling about it.
I decided to convert the Su-24 Dragon kit. But
that was just the beginning.
I collected much information on this plane from all corners of the Internet,
found many photos there, bought the book "Frontovoy bombardirovshchik
Su-24/Su-24M" ("Front line Bomber Su-24/Su-24M") by S.Moroz, and
also found several 3-view drawings. When the drawings were carefully studied, I
came to the unfavourable conclusion - there will be a hard work ahead, in order
to give the model the correct shape.
Assembly:
The most serious problem of the kit is the wrong
fuselage profile. Its size at all measurements differs from the true plane's
shape, up to 3-4 mm in places, especially in the area behind the wing roots. It
was necessary to saw the bottom half of a fuselage lengthways, remove
superfluous plastic, then stick it back together, and hide any traces of
"violence".:-). Thus, I was able to give the required look to the
fuselage profile.
This modification caused respective modifying of
the geometry of a tail compartment, so it had to be modified completely also.
The exhaust tubes in addition, had to be changed. They were truncated with two
pipes made of foil, then riveted, burned on the fire to a desired color, and
glued inside. IMHO, it is very much like the prototype looked.
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Then I decided to scratchbuild the gear bays.
Already, after the realization of this plan, there came a new idea - what if I
make the gear doors movable?
I regretted it a little later, because this model began to occupy all of my free
time and I thought (even at work) - what kind of wire and where do I need to
insert it next:-). After finally having success with a gear bays, I thought
about doing movable bomb racks on the wings. You can imagine how much pleasure I
received during this process! The real problem was I had to saw off details,
which were supposed to be made movable.
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Next, I began work on the cockpit. Thanks to
Anton Tsupka for sending me the NeOmega's miracle resin cockpit before I've got
the kit. Therefore, I didn't have to worry about this part, thank God. But I did
add more detail attention to the space under a windshield and canopy fastening.
Thanks go to Boris Krotkov for his advise about the canopy hinges.
The wings wanted to lift up at the wingtips from
the very beginning. Therefore they were modified in the area of a gearing and
axis of turn. The result can be seen in the photos.
Now it was possible to glue the fuselage halves
together, attach the back compartment, and solve the problems with the nose
radome. The nose is longer and is slightly inclined downwards on the Su-24M
modification. This was a most difficult problem - extending and lowering the
contours of the nose part. It was not all that difficult to lengthen it - thick
(5 mm) polystyrene sheet was bent using heating from a candle fire and then the
halves were made of it. I had to add about 15 mm in all. Using the thickness of
these inserts, it was also possible "to lower" the radome contours
below also. The canopy was attached and I then installed the refuel probe, which
was cut from a large, chrome paper clip. It was tinted, glued to its protect
bar, and a hole for it was drilled in the nose part.
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Panel lines appeared incorrect on the model;
therefore it was necessary to rescribe all. Fine rivets were made with a pounce
wheel. Large rivets rendered manually with a blunt needle. The ARK-19 antenna's
cover behind the cockpit was made foil. The hemisphere of the IF-station "Mak"
was made from the piece of thick sprue. I made the "Kayra" on the
fuselage bottom. It was also necessary to move the fuselage bomb racks a little
forward and rescribe their panel lines.
At the same time I worked on weapons, I also worked of the landing gears. I used
the wheels from "Elf", and then I have made hydraulics hose on
all struts. I used a part from a photoetched set as a mudguard. The nose strut
has practically been completely scratchbuilt. The main struts were also modified
- I refined some hoses and allocated the hinges. It was necessary to lower the
height of all struts also.
I used weapons from several kits. Kit's bombs
were used, but I cut the fins and made scratchbuilt replacements. The
Kh-25 missiles are from VES almost without any modifying, and the KAB-1500 bomb
was taken from the Su-34 kit (where it named as KAB-500.:-) It received new fins
also. Then, I made two MBDZ racks, but got tired and did not make another two
(as originally planned).:-) Other launch devices, holders, and adapters were
completely scratchbuilt using photos and various drawings. One may ask: why was
it was necessary to make so much, if the real plane was usually loaded either
missiles or bombs? The truth is, I wanted it so that the weapons could be
changed on the model. So, there are small wire pins on each bomb, missile, or
drop fuel tank, and small holes drilled in corresponding racks. Therefore, if I
shall build, say, a Su-25 or Su-17 - I can apply these weapons on them also. And
interchange them from time to time:-)
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Painting:
I did not want to use the prototype paint scheme. I wanted to finish the plane
as a camouflaged Su-24M, but I changed my mind later, when I found a very nice
photo of "Red 42" with the Bulls that were stationed at Lipetsk. I
needed to make a new flare box near the tail and draw the "bulls" on a
piece of unused decal sheet. I had only one photo of this plane with a starboard
view, so I thought out the port view by myself. The model was airbrushed with
various paints from "Hobby".
Decals.
Kit decals were very thick and reacted to solvents very unpleasantly, so I took
the stars and board number "42" from the "Travers'" decal
sheet for the MiG-29. The "Blue Wings" (OKB Sukhoy's emblem) logo was
never "blue" on the Su-24s! There was only one blue emblem on the
original prototype, but it was not blue on production Su-24s. Therefore, I
repainted it to red, which was the correct color. In addition, the instruction
sheet suggests placing two logos, one on each both side of the fuselage, which
is wrong. Only one was applied on the port board.
Weathering:
As per my usual technique, I wet sand after painting up to achieve a weathered
look. After the sanding, I rub dirt in places using pastel chalks and chopped
brush. The largest problem was with the radome. I painted the radome with a
several thin layers of the dark paint and then several layers of white. After
this, I tried to get the right look with sanding. I imitated the locks on the
openings and hatches with red, green and blue dots. All of the small antennas
were glued on the top and bottom of the fuselage. Fuel dump tubes were made of
needles, burned on an open fire for the correct color and glued into predrilled
holes. After all was done, I added the static discharge wires to the tips of the
vertical tail, stabilizers, and wings.
Conclusion:
This kit has so many drawbacks. But I wanted to build the Su-24 very much, so I
put maximum efforts for my time. I hope I have made the plastic look as good as
the live example.
Thanks again to all who helped me.
Andrew
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