SU-27 UB “Flanker C” Heavy Fighter

When, for the first time in the 1980’s, I saw photos of the SU-27 I fell in love with those lines. For several reasons, mainly never having found ‘the’ kit, I ended up never building any. Time passed and in 2020 the GWH model (L4827) appeared, in my favourite version, the SU-27 UB at 1:48 scale. Then, I knew the moment had come.

The box, by itself, is impressive, of top quality and with superb box-art. When you open it, the heart beats faster: a huge amount of plastic sprues neatly packaged and with incredible detail, metal pitot, photoetched options, two versions of canopy (one is a full transparent plastic and the other is a plastic frame with transparent canopy parts with vertical casting to reproduce that Omega shape), a case with the missiles, moulded into a whole piece and, my god, hundreds of the finest decals…

I realized that I had one of the best kits I had ever seen. Laborious, but with a potentially very rewarding result.

As usual, I started by carefully studying the instructions, trying to understand the various construction steps, potential precedencies, sub-assemblies, more fragile sets, and so on.

Chosen the version to be built (and after some indecision in relation to another not included in the proposals) and, after a lot of research on the net, gathered photos of the real plane, I started gathering for all the huge set of (39!) colours listed in the instructions.

For some time, I had been curious to try AKAH paints and this subject fully justified this boldness. AKAH paints, created by analysis (with a spectrometer) of the original colours, provide the main and necessary items. The AKAH 46301 pack was chosen. Although they are not easy to obtain, I ended up finding a website that had them available.

BUILDING

Cockpit

As usual (and necessary) I started building the cockpit and seats. Initially I had thought to try the interior set by Quinta Studio but, seeing the detail of the cockpit provided, I realized that this would not be necessary: the detail is superb. The only downfall, which I evaluated less well, are the seat belts. I used the ones in the kit, but eventually it would have justified the purchase of some photoetched ones.

The construction of the cockpit and seats are straightforward and without any problem. This was followed by painting and decals. Whenever possible, I chose to paint, using my trusty marta kolinsky brushes. The detail of the kit is so good that it is possible to paint all the buttons, levers and all. Only very punctually, essentially on the dials, I used decals, adjusted with microsol for a perfect finish. The dials were, after a layer of matt clear coat throughout the cockpit, highlighted with a touch of Glass Coat.

The K-36DM seats were painted and clear coated and decals were applied, followed by a dry-brush and wash.

Landing Gear and wells

Another necessary and previous step for the building, are the landing gear well. The detail of these components (although later barely visible) is at the level of everything else, therefore requiring a few hours of work and painting as all details must be painted and weathered before being placed in the lower fuselage.

I also built the landing gear noting, once again, that the instructions are sometimes unclear. Fortunately, the net provides good pictures of any and all necessary details. Still, dry-fit is advised, and one shall be really careful placing pieces E76-79.

The landing gear, always a prominent detail in a model, is well worked out of the original, just needing to add some cables for greater realism (note that the headlights of the main landing gear are misaligned, as you can see in any photo of the real). The interior of the headlights was painted with silver before the application of glazing with PVA glue. After they were dried, they were kept as they would only be placed at the end of the building.

Engines nacelles

Of simple construction, it is only necessary to choose some pieces according to the chosen position (parked or inflight). After interior painting and assembly, these sets are glued to the lower fuselage.

Fuselage halves

Then came the long-awaited time to close the two parts (upper / lower) of the fuselage and see the beast taking shape.

Note that the kit has the option of having the nose cone open in order to display the radar and, because the manufacturer assumes that the modeler will take this option, the building with the closed nose is not so well planned. So, given that I opted for the closed nose cone version, I thought it best to glue some pieces of sprue to the inside of the fuselage acting as alignment guides.

Added some weight on the nose, fixed the nose cone and the front section of the canopy (which includes a little bit of the fuselage) and protected the latter, I concluded the construction of the fuselage. There followed flaps, slats and several other details and sub-assemblies (tail fins, pylons, etc.) to be placed later.

PAINTING

Time to start pre-painting tasks. That means to painting the interior colour of the canopy and pre-shading the panels, rivet lines, speed brake, mobile areas etc. Although I did not want a heavy weathering effect, I wanted to present an aircraft with some use, as I saw in some photos of the real plane, so I thought the pre-shading would be justified.

Still in the painting chapter, to highlight the engines and nozzles, a very iconic detail in this plane. Although models are sometimes seen with a whole range of fifty shades of blue in this area, I chose, once again, to be guided by photos that showed a much more sober reality. That was my option and each one will do what they think is best, of course.

After this phase, it was time to apply masks in the area of the engines and wheel wells and proceed with the general painting. I started by applying the base colour, outlining the remaining colours of the camouflage, so as not to lose the pre-shading. Then, in stages, and with the help of blu-tack, I applied the other colours.

FINISHING

After painting, I applied a layer of gloss clear coat as a base for the decals. At this point, I still didn't know that I would spend the next 15 (yes, fifteen) hours of work on this model, just putting on the several hundred decals that give it life. Work, however, of the greatest relevance given the final result. And, oh yeah, the decals are great!

To seal the decals and prepare the application of a panel liner, I applied another layer of gloss clear coat.

With the model taking shape, the sub-assemblies building was coming to an end, although with some of the more notorious ones missing, such as the canopy (and the usual seam line sanding and polishing work) and the missiles (a new contract of decals was coming).

As I mentioned earlier, the missiles are presented in a separate box, as good as, and resembling, a box of chocolates :-D  Having chosen the necessary ones, I proceeded to mask and paint the different colours, before proceeding with the whole ritual of placing another couple (!) of hundreds of decals.

At this stage I started the application of panel liner, wash and oils and some clear in between. Following the final semi-gloss clear coat, it was time to paint the navigation lights using clear paints. In order to give the IRST the most real effect possible, I painted the area where it was going to settle with silver and, inside the glass piece, applied a mixture of Smoke and clear Orange.

Thus, the whole set ended, and the assembly of all parts began.

Now came the final reveal 😊 and the obligatory photo shoot.

Hope you like it.

Cheers,

Manuel