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A Flanker a week keeps the modelling Gods happy (1/72 Revell Su-27SM)


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And here is a Flanker I pulled off in a week and a day. It is actually the first Flanker I do with the standard 3-tone scheme (I built a previous SM with the bright blue two-tone). I cut some corners with weathering and pre-paint rituals to get it done so quickly as I saw this as a test build for further Flankers. As usual, I offer the pros and cons of this kit, the reboxed Revell version of the Zvezda kit:

 

Pros:

- The fit, the fit, the fit. This is Tamigawa fit all the way. An absolute delight to build, everything locks on perfectly, most astoundingly the intakes. The words "three-piece intakes" should strike fear into the hearts of any modeler and yet Zvezda pulled this off so brilliantly. I don't think I've ever built a kit this big with such good fit.

- Accuracy. Looks like a Flanker. Comments by our resident Flanker expert (Flankerman) say this is the most accurate Flanker in 1/72 scale and I'll take his word.

- Good assortment of weapons. Lots of R-27s (including both IR and radar versions), R-77s, and two nice Kryptons.

- Very good quality of some parts like the landing gear.

 

Cons:

- Surface detail. Zvezda seems to be allergic to rivets, and for a plane of this size, it makes the surface looks rather plain. Additionally, the panel lines are too small and in many parts, could not get a wash to stick to them.

- Interior detail. The instrument panel decals are great, but would have been better to have raised detail. Wheel wells are absurdly plain. Not even the remotest attempt to reproduce any detail at all.

- Ejection seat. Same as the MiG-29 kits, it's just... oddly engineered.

- I'm on the record on a number of threads here on BM saying the Revell kit has superior decals as the original Zvezda because, oddly, the Zvezda has no missile decals at all whereas Revell does. However, now that I have built the Revell, I have realized that many of the decals are oversized and some of the stencils do not match the real thing. Zvezda's cockpit details are also better. I suggest getting the Zvezda and sourcing missile decals from another kit.

 

Painting was done with AKAN paints from their original Su-27 set. I have issues spraying their acrylics and they have an annoying knack of rubbing off sharper edges like wing roots and leading edges, when handled. I also noticed the light gray did not contrast enough with the pale blue, so I used Tamiya XF-19 instead. I think it's a bit too dark, as early Flankers effectively did not show that big a contrast between the two. Metallics were Vallejo Metal Color, steel for the darker tone and dark aluminum for the contrast as well as the gun panels. The cockpit was painted Vallejo dark blue gray (70.904) which is virtually identical to the Sukhoi color.

 

Overall, I'm still quite pleased. I then randomly sprayed a bit of Gunze smoke to add some irregularity. Panel wash was done with Humbrol.

 

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the pics!

 

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Edited by Phantome
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Fantastic build!  Very nice.

 

Quote

 

Cons:

- Surface detail. Zvezda seems to be allergic to rivets, and for a plane of this size, it makes the surface looks rather plain

 

 

I agree. This is one of the reasons why I keep procrastinating on getting the Zvezda Flanker as well as their Mig-29.  I really like rivets on my Russian aircraft & so I keep trying to decide between the Zvezda ones and the Trumpeter ones. 

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