1/72 dragon Su-24MR - Azerbaijan Air Force

[Modelraynz]

Hiya!
Id like to enter a su-24mr from the Azerbaijan air force 🙂

 

Ill be using the dragon kitset, pavla cockpit set, begemot stencils  and linden hill markings:

 

 

I’ve done quite a bit of research on the subject and thought id share in a couple of installments!

 

 

The formation of the Air Force of Azerbaijan came out the collapse of the soviet union. In April 1992 Vaqif Qurbanov hijacked a su-25 from Sital-chay airbase to a nearby local airfield, and after being quietly hidden away from soviet patrols; became the first aircraft of the Azerbaijani Air Force.

Four months earlier the soviet union had ceased to exist; and despite being a newly independent nation, Azerbaijan found itself host to considerable numbers of soviet personal, bases and military equipment. The latter two being of utmost interest to the new republic.

 

A low intensity inter-ethnic conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh had kept regional tensions high since the late 1980s (which at one point had resulted in a soviet military intervention to disastrous effect). Azerbaijan and her neighbor's were acutely aware that in order to gurantee their recent statehood: they required military equipment, in particular heavy weapons.

The newly-founded Russian military and political establishments began negotiations regarding troop withdrawals and military equipment in 1992. However, due to the size and dispersion of military forces across the former Soviet Union, the logistics required would take time to organise and implement– this was compounded by the fact that soldiers and their families were often stationed far from their countries of origin.  

 

As a result; most personnel remained confined to their bases and residential complexes in a state of limbo - technically soldiers without a flag. 

 Some of the more ‘enterprising’ personnel, however, found that a ticket home could be purchased from the sale of the “stateless” stockpiled weapons they had been tasked with protecting – if the depots were not outright raided by the local populous or militia's. 

All was not complete chaos however. The su-25 aviation regiment based at sital-chay outside the capital, Baku achieved a textbook withdrawal: flying out via heavy transport all equipment, personnel and their families, as well as damaging some  of the airbase  infrastructure after their departure. (Aparently the commander himself straffed the base in his Su-25!

 

However the  882nd independant reconnaissance regiment with its MiG-25RB and Su-24MR's would face quite a different expirence ....
 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Modelraynz
Typos

[trickyrich]

welcome along and with a recon Su-24, that is something a bit different and nice to see.

 

An interesting choice of scheme, quite different and great background info as well.

 

Good luck with the build, the Dragon Su-24 is a nice model (built one years ago) and I look forward to seeing her in the gallery.

[Col.]

Not only an interesting subject choice but a facinating bit of history to accompany it. More of both please  

[trickyrich]

it inspired me to drag out my long running build of the 1/48th Trumpeter monster....I had almost forgotten how bad the model was and how much AM stuff I was throwing at it! 

 

Am looking forward to updates on this build.

[Modelraynz]

hey guys!

 

Finally got some progress to show! 🙂  still gotta type out the next chapter of history ( combining 3 Russian accounts through google translate!)  but in the meantime some photos!😎

 

First up the cockpit:  the Pavla cockpit is a must for the dragon/italeri/zvezda kit - to make it accurate for the MR version i removed the lower CRT screen and added some PE consoles in its place:

 

 

 

With base-coat of dark GG on:

 

 

I decided to have a go at scribing - first time; and I think i became the Matchbox trencher! 😄  the blobs of Putty and CA are testament to the mistakes! by the end i started to get the 

knack for delicate scribing, but as it would look out of place, i made it consistently heavy all over - oh well, primer will be my friend on this one

 

 

 

to hide the join between the resin cockpit and the side wall, i added some plastic canopy framing so you cant see down the sides:

 

 

began work on the burner cans with a black basecoat and gunmetal drybrush - will follow with a testors jet exhaust and some washes:

 

 

When I first got this kit it was a su-24 sans suffix - I had the parts for a MR in the spares from long ago:

 

 

Cheers!😉

[Col.]

You're off to a great start with this one. It's progressing on several fronts at once!

[trickyrich]

I like a lot, you inspired me to get mine out!

[Hewy]

Yes good start, I agree, nice kit and bits too