SPA Modeler

It's been at least a couple years since I've done a model kit so I've decided to tackle this little aircraft made by a Czech company called Valom.


For this build, I have decided to try out the new glue. S by Deluxe Materials called Plastic Magic 10 Sec glue I acquired some time back. So far, it acts like Tamiya's Thin liquid glue but a bit quicker to dry and holds well.

screenshot software for windows


Box cover




Instruction guide






Sprue (minus the wings, cockpit and fuselage)



Decal sheet, PE, Instrument panel fret




PE sheet includes seatbelts, instrument panel, gear doors, bomb wings and bomb attachment for bomb rack, etc...




Instrument panel fret

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Vacu-form canopies (they provided 2 in kit)

The one on the left after cutting and trimming - holes drilled out for antenna and MG hole, the right - the extra canopy in case I screwed up




Cockpit minus the instrument panel & control stick




Fuselage halves




Wings all buttoned up



What I've learned thus far....

Lots of flash that needs trimming in areas - fuselage, wings (upper and lower) cockpit, etc...

Gear struts are fiddly at best so utmost care will be paid attention in that area especially when PE parts are involved for gear struts.

Fit is poor but I'm looking forward to taking on the challenge and fight my way through to make it a decent looking aircraft.

The biggest challenge is figuring out how to glue fret to PE to cockpit instrument panel. My thinking is paint face of instrument panel white, glue the fret, then paint PE black and glue to panel. Trim excess on fret. Glue instrument panel piece to cockpit as directed.


The canopy is the next challenge since I've never worked with Vacu-form canopies in my life. I will dip it in Future and mask/paint the trim. Just not sure what glue to use to glue to fuselge. I know there's going to be tons of fiddling to get it to sit right. There's no doubt I may have putty involved to fill in tiny gaps.

Great start BlackSheep and really exciting, rare subject !

Following!



- Kari

I did forget one thing. Details are very fine to almost nonexistent. So it looks like I’m looking at raising some panel lines. As far as PE parts go, I may opt out on using the PE side cockpit control panels since you won’t be able to see them anyway. I may save them for another kit instead.

Cool! This is a nice rare subject. And you have not built anything in how long?

Subscribed as well as looking forward to your choice of paints. For example, how will you recreate the Russian Green?

Very interesting story on Wikipedia regarding this pretty unknown Russian plane.

Pretty much misfortune in the planning and timing... If things would have gone differently, might be the Su-6 would have been as famous as the Il-2, who knows.



- Kari

I have Russian Green color paint. In fact, I have in Aeromaster, Testors Model Master and one other brand that may work. Then again, there’s Mission Model paint to fall back on if need be.

Hoping to resume on it later if the family lets me have a little peace and quiet.