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Hi Friends, @Val_Ukraine , @Procopius My MiG is from IBG 72901 set "MiG-29 in Ukrainian Air Force". IBG reboxed Trumpeter's model with Foxbat decals (it is company from Ukriane). The set contains 3 different camouflage variants, in my opinion the most attractive one is with "tryzub" (harpoon). I added some extra goodies: Eduard's exhaust nozzles, Quinta cockpit and small but very usefull Eduard PE set designed for old Italeri kit. Instead of using digital cammo decal set I used additional masks produced by Foxbat too. I also added some wires, replaced probes and antennas. It was very relaxing build, took me only 3 months. Let's look a little closer: Important remark: I cut and shortened main landing gears. Without it model looks really bad - it's rear side is much too high, as you can see below. In my opinion best solution would be: to shorten all gear struts 1mm and add extra 1,5 mm for front gear. And some photos with Tonka which I finished recently too. She still waits for photo -session: Glory for free and independent Ukraine. Please, help and support brave Ukrainians, they are fighting not only for their own freedom. Thanks for watching and reading, hope you liked my Mig. Best regards, Michal.

The Crew of Stugna-P Anti-Tank Complex (35750) 1:35 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd In Ukrainian, the Стугна-П or Stugna-P, or sometimes Stuhna-P, depending on the translation, is a highly adaptable anti-tank weapon that was originally designed in Belorussia, but after 2014 was fitted with a new control unit of Ukrainian design. It is a capable platform that can attack targets from extremely close to medium range, attacking various types of target that can either be stationary or mobile. Sometimes called Skif, it can penetrate standard or composite armour and Explosive Reactive Armour, and is also able to penetrate bunkers and other soft targets, including helicopters. If there is no incoming fire or other impetus to vacate the area, the missile can be set up by its minimum crew of three and manually guided to target by its operator, but if stealth or absence is good for continued good health, it can be launched in fire-and-forget mode, with no external input required after initial targeting and launch. The weapon is mounted on a tripod in a tubular launcher, and the guidance computer is akin to a ruggedised laptop with a screen and game controller-style joystick. It can be operated remotely by a 50m cable in case there is a chance of the launch plume being spotted by the enemy, firing a HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) round with dual warheads that can penetrate thick armour after detonating appliqué armour with the first charge. It was originally designed with the M1 Abrams in mind during the Cold War, but with a High Explosive fragmentation missile it can be used to create havoc with entrenched troop positions. The Kit This new set combines a Skif unit with a four-man crew, and arrives in a small top-opening box with the usual captive lid attached to the bottom tray. Inside are two sprues, one containing the weapon, the other the parts for the crew. The instruction sheet is printed on glossy paper on both sides of a folded sheet of A3, one side containing a sprue diagram and colour chart, the second page the build steps for the weapon, and the remaining two pages covered with detailed drawings of the figures. Construction of the Stugna-P is a relatively short process, consisting of creating the tripod from three legs, one with the pedestal moulded-in, then making up the missile tube from two halves, building a box that the launch tube sits on from three parts with top and bottom pivots, making up the sighting assembly from six parts, including the lens in a tubular housing, then putting the elements together and joining the two halves of the control “box”, which has additional detailed painting instructions. The weapon is painted either camouflage green or desert sand, then the instructions turn to the figures. The crew are each broken down into torso, arms, legs and head that are moulded separately, plus modern MICH-style helmets, pouches and bags, four AK derivative rifles and a pistol in a holster. The figures are crisply sculpted and are wearing modern combat gear, including MOLLE loop vests and pouches, covered helmets, combat boots and tactical gloves. There are also four sets of goggles to strap to the helmets or over the crew’s eyes if you’re no good at faces, or think they need protecting from debris kicked up by a missile launch. The figures are shown as drawings with arrows pointing out the part numbers and paint letter codes that correspond to the table on the front of the booklet in ICM, Revell and Tamiya systems. To assist with painting the figures’ uniforms, a swatch of digital camouflage that is worn by many of the Ukrainian soldiers is printed with the figure drawings, although I’ll be looking for some camouflage decals to ease the task when I get around to building this set. Conclusion The Ukrainian flag swatch and slogan on the front of the box is good to see, the figures and launcher are finely moulded, and should build up into an excellent model either for display on your shelves or within a diorama. Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

Just started the Heller 2014 release SU-27, searched round found Ukraine color scheme, and now guess what -yes Heller announce the 2023 release of a Ukrainian Digital Camo version Grrrr. Ah well remember Niven's revelation - the perversity of the Universe tends to a maximum! Anyway searching round I couldn't find any reference to Nose weight for this. There's nothing mentioned in the instructions. So after taping the main structure together and some careful balancing on a kitchen scale, I estimate about 30g is needed (1oz in old money). Fortunately there's plenty of room in the nose cone and under the cockpit. Incidentally the instructions are a seriously confusing mix of color numbers and part numbers, with every part labelled with a color number and a part number.... Some people may welcome this but I find it annoying and unhelpful, especially since the color numbers are all for a Russian version. The ukrainian version is different in several respects - the cockpit colors, etc. Still we struggle on. I mean really if that's the worst we have to deal with, we're pretty lucky. Pics to follow. Slava Ukraini!

Curtiss-Wright CW-21B Interceptor (DW48046) 1:48 Dora Wings This little-known light-weight fighter was developed as a private project by Curtiss-Wright with a similar ethos to the Japanese Zero, which was under development almost simultaneously half-way around the world. It was intended to be unbeatable to altitude, outclimbing anything from the era, in order to take down bombers or reconnaissance aircraft before they could reach their target. It was supposed to climb away from its attackers so had little in the way of protection for either the pilot or the fuel tanks, and wasn’t all that heavily armed either, with just two guns in the nose of either .30 or .50 calibre, synchronised with the rotation of the propeller. As expected, the US Army Air Corps were disinterested, but the intent had been to export the type anyway, so Curtiss were unconcerned, although one tester was less than complimentary about the difficult landing characteristics of the aircraft, stating that it took a genius to land it safely. In 1940 a small shipment was sent to China as part of an export agreement, with three transported pre-assembled, the remaining airframes to be constructed on arrival, totalling 30 in all. The Chinese liked them a lot more than the Americans, and put them into limited use where they claimed a few kills. Curtiss were looking to improve the design to gain wider appeal, so two additional sub-variants were created, one dropping the Wright R-1820 Cyclone engine in favour of a V-12 Allison motor, which remained a paper project. The other variant was the CW-21B, which changed the retraction of the main gear from rearward to inward, removing the need for fairings under the wings, and giving the gear a more traditional look. The tail-wheel was also made semi-retractable, remaining in the airflow with a fairing surrounding it to minimise disturbance. An order of 24 was made by the Netherlands, but after the country was overcome in short order by the Nazis Blitzkrieg tactics, the order was transferred to the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army where they served valiantly, but were overcome by sheer numbers of Japanese aircraft. Before long they were all either destroyed or no longer airworthy, save for one that was used as a liaison hack, the eventual fate of which is unknown. The Kit This is a brand-new tooling from Dora Wings, and it’s an awesome achievement for them to continue to release new products while the Ukraine is still at war, and Eugen is doing his duty for his country. The kit arrives in a small top-opening box with a painting of the type on the front, having just downed a Japanese fighter. Inside is a resealable bag with six rectangular sprues in a medium grey styrene, a small sprue of clear parts, a decal sheet, vinyl canopy masks, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE), and the instruction booklet in A5, printed on glossy paper in colour, with profiles on the rear pages. Detail is excellent, continually improving since their debut, with fine panel lines, raised and engraved details, and inclusion of aspects such as PE and masks that many companies consider extras. Construction begins with the instrument panel, which has a decal for the dials, and is applied to a C-shaped frame, adding some small PE toggles to the dash. A lower stack of instruments is installed between the legs of the frame, from which the rudder pedals hang, and another C-shaped frame glues on behind it, making it free-standing like an easel. The pilot’s seat is a single part that has a pair of PE lap belts slung over the sides, and both assemblies are joined to the floor, which has the control column and a lever installed, plus a bulkhead behind the pilot’s seat. Preparation of the fuselage begins with detailing the insides of the cockpit sidewall on the starboard side with a throttle quadrant and a few levers, and adding more details to the port side. The area around the tail-wheel is a separate insert with ribbing moulded onto the inner faces to allow the original CW-21 to be made from the same fuselage halves. The halves remain separate for now, as the engine must be built first, as it resides inside, so let’s get on with that. The input pathway for the engine is moulded almost complete, but has two missing L-shaped tubes glued into place to finish it off, as is the push-rod wheel, which also has the bell-housing moulded into it, and magneto fixed to the top of it. The 9-cylinder radial engine is made of front and rear halves, with the gaps filled between the cylinders by inserts moulded into the front. The two halves are closed up around the prop-shaft, allowing the propeller to rotate if you don’t overdo the glue. The intake array attaches to the rear with a cylindrical spacer behind it, and the exhaust collectors are made up from two parts each side, with the impression of a hollow lip given by clever moulding. You could deepen the hole to add realism, or just paint the inner black. The two assemblies fix to the engine at the rear, one each side, with the push-rods at the front, and another ring at the rear, joining the three N-shaped mounts that fix to a D-shaped bulkhead behind. Even now, we’re not closing up the fuselage yet. There are wings to be built. As is common with low-wing monoplanes, the underside wing surface is full-width, and the various segments of main gear bay walls insert into position within, performing the additional task of strengthening the shape, accompanied by a short T-shaped spar that also follows and reinforces the dihedral of the wing. The upper wing halves are glued on top, and a central ribbed section covers over the rest of the gear bays. The ailerons are each separate parts, and two small U-shaped ribs are inserted into the bays, and now you can close up the fuselage, trapping the cockpit and engine in position as you do so. A small section of the cowling lip is a separate insert to facilitate adding the gun ports, and a little intake is backed by a trapezoid insert before it is added to the fuselage and the wings are joined to the underside of the fuselage. The fin is moulded into the fuselage, while the elevator fins are fixed by slots and tabs, joined by the separate elevators and the rudder panel, plus a pair of gun barrels that are slipped into the ports in the nose at the same time. The three-bladed prop is a single part to which you add the spinner, and then glue it to the drive-shaft, and the canopy is a single moulding with a spot for the PE ring that has a PE bead inserted into the fuselage in front of the canopy. A pitot probe slides into a hole in the port wing, after which the model is inverted to deal with the gear. The main wheels are each two parts that you can sand a flat into to depict weighting if you wish, and each one mounts on the bottom of the strut, which has a separate oleo scissor-link, and a captive bay door. The inner bay doors each have an L-shaped PE retractor added, and glue to the centreline between the bays along with a retractor for the gear, one part styrene, the other PE. The tail-wheel has a single-sided yoke to which the tiny wheel fits, and the model is completed by adding a clear landing light under each wing, aileron fairings near the wing tips, and a small horn-shaped “thing” between the main gear bays. I don’t profess to know what that is, but is could be a horn, a fuel dump or even a little whistle so people know you’re coming. I’m kidding, by the way. Markings There were only around 50 airframes made, so having three decal options makes for the depiction of a decent proportion of them. They all wear the same basic camouflage, but the operators’ markings help to differentiate them. From the box you can build one of the Following: ‘White Patrol’, Perak Airbase, Java, 2-VLG-IV, September 1941 ‘Yellow Patrol’, Perak Airbase, Java, 2-VLG-IV, September 1941 Ex-Dutch, captured and flown in Japanese markings, Singapore, 1945 I don’t know who prints Dora Wings’ decals, but they have good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. The instrument decal is printed as dials only with a clear film that allows the modeller to paint the panel without having to match colours. Conclusion I’m a fan of Dora Wings, as they’re not frightened of portraying types that you might not have heard of before, and suggest that amongst many other reasons to buy their kits, that’s one of them. This little fighter looks like a baby Corsair with straight wings before its prop grew in, and it will confuse the heck out of anyone that hasn’t heard of it before. The fact that it is also a well-detailed kit is a bonus. Don’t forget that the Ukraine is still not the safest place in the world for anyone, so if you decide to purchase this kit (why wouldn’t you?), it’s possible you might have to be patient due to the vagaries of the situation. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

It’s funny how one can be totally indifferent towards a certain aircraft and then one specific paint scheme sparks the inspiration. I noticed the (mid-90s) splinter scheme on the painting instructions of an ACE decal sheet I saw online and was intrigued, then somewhat disillusioned when I saw the real colors in an Airliners.net photo, then intrigued again after I finally found some pics of the aircraft in service. Of course everyone likes the signature digital camo of the Ukrainian Air Force, but for me the older splinter scheme is just too cool. The new Zvezda Su-25 seemed to be the perfect opportunity to implement this project, and I was delighted that Zvezda brought their A-game to this kit; it's miles above the competition. Cockpit interior details are very basic, but with a closed canopy and the awesome pilot in there, it won't be noticed, and the coaming & HUD are excellent. People who build this with an open canopy will want to use aftermarket parts anyway. The surface details are great, even if the thumb-sized mushroom rivets of the original are clearly under-represented on the model and the execution of panel lines is a bit uneven in certain areas. Part fit and engineering is perfect, and lastly, you can't beat the price, which is about 40 Euros around here. Fuselage construction is a multi-part affair, and I think it’s best to glue only limited sections while ensuring a proper fit. The decals (from Begemot?) are a dream to work with. There's a gazillion stencils to apply, since every panel seems to have it's own ZIP code on the original. The Ukraine markings were taken from a sheet for the Su-17 that I had around. The kit comes with a comprehensive and well-detailed weapon set. Unfortunately, Zvezda decided not to include the clear parts for some of the missiles, so I had to improvise for the S-25 seekers. I added and air duct and mirrors in the canopy and the target camera from an Eduard kit on the HUD, everyhing else is OOB state. Colors are custom mixed Tamiya acrylics and Vallejo Metal Color for the dull aluminium. Thanks for watching, and C & C are welcome!

After reviewing this kit (here) that was sent to me by Eugen of Dora Wings from the Ukraine just before the shutters came down in what is bound to be one of the terrible events of this century (that's all I'll say on the matter, you keep your own counsel), I wanted to thank him for the sample, and sent a message. So far he's not replied, but I hope he's ok. If he manages to read this at some point, I want to send my best wishes to him, his family and friends, and the wider Ukraine. I got the urge to build it, and I'm not too brilliant at resisting urges like that, so I opened up the box again and started hacking parts off. This is the third kit I've started recently, and I'm hoping to get them all through to completion at around the same time because I'm tired of not completing models. I've got the new Eduard Zero going here, and a Wingsy Kits Claud on the go here, which came to a grinding halt when I realised I'd got no suitable paint for the cockpit! I've since got those from Albion Alloys and Air-craft.net, so thanks to both of those lovely folks moving on, I began putting assemblies together on the Vengeance for the long two-seat cockpit that has the bomb bay running along the underside, the tail wheel bay and the engine. all of which will be needed to close up the fuselage. The kit's got some excellent detail from the box, with a lot of PE ready to further improve on that, which has taken me a while to get put together, but I'm not the fastest modeller in the world, and I've been doing other stuff in the background, such as sleeping a lot. The cockpit was made up into what seemed like an infinite number of sub-assemblies, with some of them are total works of art, such as the framework that supports the gunner's seat, which has to be seen to be believed. Surprisingly, I found that easy to put together thanks to the quality of the moulding, scraping away all the mould-lines as I went. The seats were also nice, as was the main panel, with decals to put behind the PE panel, which I did in a one-step process using Klear as both the decal setting solution and glue for the panel, so that everything could be lined up neatly before setting. Here's a group picture of the assemblies, erm, assembled. Sounds like a Marvel film: This all got a squirt of grey primer then a coat of either Gunze Chromate Yellow Primer (C352), or Zinc-Chromate Type-1 (C351), lightened hither and thither and then glossed'n'washed with some Ultimate washes. Some touch-ups, amalgamation of various sub-assemblies and re-gluing back the PE parts to the sidewalls 2 or 3 times (I can't help being clumsy!), I finally got it into position within the fuselage, along with the tail-wheel and its bay. I'm not terribly far off closing up the fuselage now, at which point I'm going to do the same for the Claud, but in the meantime I've put together the engine, which is currently in black primer as I write this. I also built up the engine cowling, partly because I was dying to see how it went together. The short answer is "brilliantly!". The longer answer is still brilliantly, but it took some careful and fun PE wrangling and was only achieved thanks to some exceptional moulding by Dora. The main cowling was in two halves with a separate lip that goes together nicely. I did a little fettling of the joins so they fitted flush, and then turned to the intake in the bottom of the lip. That's a separate styrene part with two PE splitters that fit into little grooves in the main lip. I glued those in first and then added the styrene top section, using plenty of liquid glue to get it to squish out when I put a bit of pressure on it. That worked well, and clean-up was minimal. The cooling flaps are PE and fit into gaps in the rear of the cowling. I cut each one off in turn so I didn't get them confused, annealed each one and rolling them carefully in my rolling tool, using the largest 19mm roller. With a negligible amount of tweaking of the PE, and a bit of scraping of the ends of the gaps, I got each of the four cooling flap sets to fit into the cowling really neatly in the closed position. A lot of the credit goes to Dora's designers, and they're going to look great with a bit of paint on them (the flaps, not the designers!). The half-circle recesses in the rear of the cowling is where the exhaust stubs poke through, and they needed a little bit of work to make them more in-scale with reality. Those were made up and scraped thin the following session, using my Galaxy Model motor tool to get the thickness down, then scraping the edges with a sharp '11 blade. Once I was happy, I melted the interior surface smooth with some liquid glue. They got a coat of black primer at the same time as the engine, and are now brown, waiting for me to put some rusty/hot shades on them. The pic below shows them before they were semi-melted: The next job is to finish up the fuselage closing and paint the engine. Whether I can be bothered to wire up the spark plugs or not remains to be seen. Doing that task on the Zero nearly drove me (more) (than usual). The gear bays have been painted and put to the side, and I've just realised that I've forgotten to take a single picture of them

After a long wait for decals, I have finally put the finishing touches on my Ukrainian airlines Embraer 190. I like this little kit. It's an easyish one to turn around, plus I had some spare AA decals left over from my BA 190 made at the end of last year. (See it here: https://bit.ly/3PwnIlj ) I have included some pre-decal shots too. - Kit went together okay, though needs filler in places. - Made a custom nose landing light from a transparent sprue - Decals from Authentic airliners and Polish eBay user 'bigt1972'. Decals quite thick and fragile but look good when in place. My narrowbody shelf is now full! Feedback welcome. Slava Ukraini! Chris

Would we stop buying kits from Russia and Zvezda to support Ukraine? Would that be an signal to Zwezda that we are not supporting Putin and his actions against Ukraine? /André Braun

This has been a long time coming for me, purchased this Trumpeter 1/72 Su-24M kit back at the beginning of 2018. Then some time later purchased the Foxbot mask set & decals from Authentic. This is something that I've always wanted to see finished in my collection despite being a daunting subject with the airbrush. The Authentic decal set has all the digital markings as decals, but to my eye all the colours just didn't look right, so it just had to airbrushed. The only other aftermarket was the obligatory Master brass pitot. Here's the colors I used, I purchased the Hataka set for the Ukraine digital schemes, but the matches didn't quite match up to what they said should be applied to what. The FS numbers referenced on the Foxbot mask set also didn't match up to actual colors, so i took as many greys as I could & made a sheet of swatches to see how they looked, then selected each one by eye. The base light upper grey was Mig-226 with some added white to the mix as the real color is a really light ivory grey. Next upper colors; Vallejo 70.907 for the blue grey Hataka A189 Hataka A249 Hataka A030 The nose; Hataka A335 The underside was Hataka A334 To my eye all the colors look correct, but taking photos that represent real life is tricky when trying to set the right color temperature on the camera. Taken using a 6400K daylight bulb & white balance set as close to that as I practically could. Thanks for looking, I won't be doing any more digital schemes for a while! Martin

Antonov An-225 Mrija “Cossack” (144-004 for Revell) 1:144 Begemot Decals Revell’s kit of this monster aircraft was released in 2018, and was joined last year by a simplified kit for in-flight only pose, and is now to be seen in a Zvezda box too. The kit is nice, and could be used in conjunction with an ARK Model Buran for an unusual display, as the 225 was a developmnent of the An-124 initially designed to carry the Soviet Space Shuttle to and from the launch pad, but was re-purposed when that was cancelled due to the breakup of the Soviet Union before it had a chance to make its first manned flight. It is a fairly regular site in certain parts of the world, including the UK, as it is now used purely for transport of large or heavy equipment with a maximum take-off weight of over 640 tonnes. This decal set arrives in an unassuming ziplok bag, with two A3 sheets of glossy paper folded in half for the instructions, and a large sheet of decals. The instructions are large due to the fact that there are 6 decal options of a massive aircraft, and the first two pages show the standard top and bottom view, taking up a lot of space for obvious reasons. From the sheet you can build the following: An-225 USSR Contingent Paris Air Show, 1989 – white with red cheat line An-225 USSR Contingent Paris Air Show, 1991 – white with red cheat line An-225 Antonov Bureau at Ukraine MAKS-2001 Airshow - white with red cheat line and Antonov branding An-225 Antonov Airlines heavy lift company, Kiev 2005 - white with red cheat line and Antonov branding An-225 Antonov Airlines heavy lift company, Kiev 2007 - white with red cheat line and new Antonov branding An-225 Antonov Airlines heavy lift company, Kiev 2008 - white with blue cheat line and full Antonov branding You can see all the profiles by visiting the two pages of instructions below at Begemot’s site: http://www.begemotdecals.ru/doc/144-004 An-225 instruction.pdf As we’ve come to expect from Begemot the printing is first rate, with good register, colour density and sharpness, with the little blue hippo logo in the bottom right. There are a small number of silver panels with grilles printed on them in black, plus four circular silver decals surrounded by a 2mm circular line in black. Here the registration has slipped slightly, so if your sheet is affected, just trim the edge with a brand-new blade before applying it, but it’s hardly noticeable, so I doubt anyone would spot it if you left it. Conclusion Begemot have a penchant for producing interesting and unusual subjects, and this one gives the modeller a good spread of options during the career of this unusual and unique aircraft, including the era when it was used for transporting the Buran, which I suspect will make more than a few sales happen. Their attention to decal is excellent, and their decals are always good. You can buy them directly from their site, or pick them up from their local distributors, a list of which you can see here. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hello friends, a little work with acrylic on this Miniature Evolution fig Some picts

Hello Is the any photo or source, which confirm a existence of "chevron" style Ukrainian air force markings, which appeared briefly after gaining independence? Those are covered in Authentic Decals MiG-29 (9-13) Fulcrum C Part I (Nr. 72-03) sheet (link, no. 21 and 37), but unfortunately instruction do not shown roundels positions on wings. I can only assume they will be in place of Soviet stars, and with acute angle aiming back.

Hello guys, just finish this GAZ-66 with his double gun. More picts soon.

Trumpeter [05522] T-64BV Mod.1985 w/Konekt Armour Ukraine Conflict 2014 This vehicle build is purely representative of those currently engaged within this conflict. For those interested, the Full Build can be found HERE Whilst I have not been around on this forum for a while, you can see that I have not been idle. Your views and comments are graciously awaited.