Su-9 first generation-Orel 1/33 scale

[YOAVHOZMI]

good work Isaac...the bird looks beautiful.

YOAV

[Isaac]

Originally Posted by YOAVHOZMI

good work Isaac...the bird looks beautiful.

YOAV

Yoav


Thanks, It turned out better than I expected.


Isaac

[Isaac]

There is no commercially available vacuformed canopy for this kit. So the options are to make my own mold, or look for something similar. I happened to have a spare GPM Me-262 canopy which looked like it is similar to what this Su-9 needed ( with some modifications ).

Here is the kit canopy frame and the GPM canopy


I did print a copy of the frame just to check the overall compatibility of the canopy and found it to be good enough.


cut the kit frame


glue the frame on.


the lower center frame looks bad and will be modified later on when I glue it to the fuselage.



initial fit to the fuselage ( no glue ).


At this point, set the canopy aside to work on the cockpit interior.



Isaac

[Isaac]

Recall that during the fuselage construction, the cockpit detail was not done yet in order to allow me to assemble the forward and aft sections. Now we can add it in thru the cockpit opening. I was selective as to what goes in. Some small parts can't be seen thru the opening and are omitted . Especially inside the side walls which curve away from the eye.


Here is the seat. Very plain and bland. No colors. just grey....


add the side panels, joy stick and seat.


kind of boring interior, but this was an experimental aircraft.


Isaac

[Isaac]

The canopy is now trimmed to fit this fuselage. I knew that the sides will need help since the Me-262 canopy is larger and fits a flat upper fuselage of that plane. So the side center frames need to be changed for this model.








Isaac

[Isaac]

Here are some pics of the model with the canopy on..





That's all for now. Going to eat breakfast now.


Isaac

[MacSongLi]

The canopy looks like a good fit. It really turned out to be a great looking model.


Gary

[Isaac]

Originally Posted by MacSongLi

The canopy looks like a good fit. It really turned out to be a great looking model.


Gary

Yes it has. It along with some other models will be used as a display in the US Air Force museum this Saturday. I will be giving short lectures on the evolution of jet powered aircraft.

Paper models at USAF museum family day Aug 18



Isaac

[Isaac]

I looked at the kit wheels ( complicated ) and also making it my way using laminated circular cardstock. However, I checked my supply of wheels and saw a set for a 1/33 scale F-4 Phantom that are the right size, but wrong shape. Since those are resin wheels it would be easy for me to shape them later on.


Here are the Phantom wheel set


and compared to the kit's wheel diameter



and this is how the wheels are stowed in their wheel wells.


just an FYI, the Me-262 wheels are too large and the nose gear has a single wheel, where it requires two wheels for the SU-9


Isaac

[Isaac]

I wanted to demonstrate the way the may gear retract into the wing and fuselage. Of interest is that unlike conventional retraction, the wheel rotates relative to the strut by 90 degrees and is stowed vertically in the fuselage.

Please load all the photos and then you can play the sequence by clicking each picture fast forward to see a full retract and extension of the mechanism.




This vignette is for demonstration purposes only. The final gear will be fixed in a down position.

as an FYI, the Mig-21 uses the same sequence as well.


Isaac