Focus on Vacforms (in 1/72 scale)
Tupolev Tu-20 Bear B
Contrail
Built with the AS-3 Kangaroo cruise missile.
I also recycled the gun turrets from an Airfix B-29 Superfortress to provide defensive armament. It truly is an impressive model, despite my poor paint job.
Tupolev Tu-20 Bear B
Tupolev TU-16 Badger
Airmodel
Modified to Badger B with scratch built radar nose and scratch built 2 AS-5 Kelt and 1 AS-2 Kipper cruise missile. Both Badgers also received Airfix B-29 gun turrets.
Tupolev TU-16 Badger
Airmodel
Tupolev TU-16 Badger
Airmodel
In Egyptian scheme. Old Mr. Frank did some very good design here. The Egyptian Badger was pretty much built out of the box with only the aftermarket Airmodel AS-1 Kennel Missiles as well as a small mod to the glass radome. I also opened up the bomb bay and armed it with yet more resin Soviet bombs available at the time.
Tupolev TU-16 Badger
Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot
Contrail
Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot
Yakovlev Yak-28 Brewer E
Contrail
YakovlevYak-28 Brewer E
Yakovlev Yak-28 Firebar
Contrail
Inaccurate Sidewinders from other kits were used for the AA-2 Atolls and again scratch built Anabs provided the armament for the Firebar
Yakovlev Yak-28 Firebar
Yakovlev Yak-25
Eagle Talon
Flashlight rounded out the early Yaks
Yakovlev Yak-25
Sukhoi SU-7BM Fitter B
Gerald Elliot
My first ever Vacuform. No going back from this point.
Sukhoi SU-7BM Fitter B
Sukhoi SU-17 Fitter K
Gerald Elliott
The canopy became brown due to exposure to UV light.
Sukhoi SU-17 Fitter K
With wings swung back.
Sukhoi SU-17 Fitter K
Sukhoi SU-24 Fencer
Gerald Elliot
It came out as soon as Air International published the first real pictures of the aircraft flying over the Baltic in 1987.
Sukhoi SU-24 Fencer
By being early, Elliot captured the lines of the aircraft, but got the dimensions about 10-15% too small as the comparison with the Dragon injection moulded kit indicate.
Tupolev TU-28 Fiddler A
Gerald Elliot
AA-5 Ash Missiles from sprue and plasticard.
Tupolev TU-28 Fiddler A
Sukhoi SU-15 Flagon F
Nova Models
Sukhoi SU-15 Flagon F
Sukhoi SU-15 Flagon A,
ID Models
Rebuilt to Flagon A with injection moulded wings from a donor Su-11 Fishpot, reconfigured conical radome, scratch built landing gear and afterburner pots from old pens. It was possibly the most primitive Vac I had ever built, but not even remotely impossible. Mr. ID models once jokingly said at Telford years ago that his critics said that you needed a hammer and chisel to build his models.
Sukhoi SU-15 Flagon A,
Sukhoi SU-17 Fitter C
Gerald Elliot SU-7 BM fuselage and swing wings from the Hobbycraft Canada Fitter D kit. I really enjoyed this conversion. If you can do a vac, you can do anything.
Sukhoi SU-17 Fitter C
A personal journey in model making
Alex Hunger
In the early 1980s there was only a very limited selection of 13 post WWII Soviet military aircraft kits from the usual western injection moulded manufacturers (Airfix Mig-15, Mig-21C Mig-23, Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle; Hasegawa Mig-17, Mig-21C, Mig-23, Mig-25, Mig-27, Mig-29, Heller Mig-19, Matchbox Mig-21)
By the mid-1980s you could supplement that, thanks to Glasnost, through barter with 6 of the Czech KP models (Mig-15, Mig-15UTI, Mig-17, Mig-19, Aero L-29 Dolphin, Aero L-39 Albatross)
The remaining gap could only be filled via Vacuforms until more injection moulded kits came out both East and West after the fall of the Berlin Wall from the Mid 1990s onwards. Modelling is very much a part of geopolitics.
My absolutely first Vacuform as the Gerrald Elliot SU-7BM Fitter B. It was easy enough for a reasonably experienced modeler. Only my poor paint job with rattle can silver disappointed. Also they didn't have Tamiya Tape yet. The kit had nice white metal landing gear and reasonably good instructions. Having broken the ice with this, I continued with the Elliot SU-17 Fitter K where I managed to get the wings to pivot. I was even more pleased with that. Somebody eventually made a resin weapons set. It seemed as if Gerald Elliot could do no wrong.
As soon as photos of the Sukhoi SU-24 Fencer came out in Air International around 1987, Elliot also came out with the Fencer. It went together well, but I later found out it was about 10-15% under scale when the Dragon SU-24 came out (see comparison photo). It received scratch built AS-7 Kerry missiles on the pylons.
The Elliot TU-28 Fiddler also somehow suffered from dimensional issues and seemed stalky. I made the AA-5 Ash Missiles from sprue and plasticard. These 2 ruined Elliot's run of superlative Vacs, but were clearly leading edge at the time, until professional kit makers could do thorough forensics on the remnants of the Soviet Air Force post 1989.
In between, I did the American Archer Models Sukhoi SU-15 Flagon F. The AA-3 Anab Missiles were scratch built, while the 2 AA-8 Aphids came from a later weapons set and 2 modified Hasegawa USAF gun pods were repurposed to look Soviet. That was my favourite vac for a while. I even had it in my office for a while when I was employed in aircraft leasing. My colleagues had 1/100 airline models of B747 and DC10s. Contrail provided the Su-25 Frogfoot. It went together beautifully and again after market resin ordonnance fleshed it out.
After returning from doing a master's degree in the US and doing a stint in the music industry. I returned to modelling, pretty much where I left off 4 years earlier.
Having built the basic available Sukhois, I decided to flesh out the gaps, especially as some injection moulded kits would be able to provide spare parts. The Egyptian Su-17 Fitter C, was made from another Elliot SU-7 Fuselage and wings from a Modelcraft Canada Su-20 Fitter D. The left overs were not wasted.
A bit more of a challenge was the ID Models SU-15 Flagon A, which I frankensteined with commercially available delta wings and a new scratch built conical nose cone. You also needed to make your own landing gear and jet exhausts from old pens.
From there, I moved on to the Yakovlevs. The Contrail Yak-28 Firebar and Brewer were a bit more substantial but also went together well. Inaccurate Sidewinders from other kits were used for the AA-2 Atolls and again scratch built Anabs provided the armament for the Firebar while a resin rocket pod tarted up the Brewer. The American Eagle Talon Yak-25 Flashlight rounded out the early Yaks until more could come to the market in the 2000s.
The big bombers should not be left out. The Contrail TU-20/95 Bear was a supremely well engineered kit with injection moulded contra rotating props and landing gear. I added the radar nose for the guidance of the AS-3 Kanguroo cruise missiles. I also recycled the gun turrets from an Airfix B-29 Superfortress to provide defensive armament. It truly is an impressive model, despite my poor paint job.
The Airmodel Tupolev TU-16 Badgers closed of my Soviet Vac run. Old Mr. Frank did some very good design here. The Egyptian was pretty much built out of the box with only the aftermarket Airmodel AS-1 Kennel Missiles as well as a small mod to the glass radome. I also opened up the bomb bay and armed it with yet more resin Soviet bombs available at the time.
With my second Badger, I made the TU-16 Badger B-Variant with a scratch built radar nose and different scratch built cruise missiles, for my possibly most ambitious project at the time. It needed one Raduga K-10S/ AS-2 Kipper and 2 AS- Kelt cruise missile. Both also received Airfix B-29 gun turrets. There is also a forlorn Myasishchev Bison on the shelf, but it has a lot of damage.
That ended my run with Soviet era Vacuforms as I moved on to other subjects. The skills learned doing these kits allowed me to do a better job on other vacs and to make me confident to do just about any scratch building project I could think of. My Soviet vacs have suffered from house moves and decades of dusts and at least 2 of the least accurate will be replaced in due course by modern Injection moulded kits while the rest will be repaired an upgraded. I never give up on an old model.