1/48 OEZ Su-25 

Boscombe Down 1992 

by Mike "WACO" Cabral

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  IPMS USA Nationals 2006

 

This is my completed buildup of a 1/48 Su-25K from 1 Squadron, 30 AC Regiment of the Czech Air Force.  This particular scheme made the airshow rounds, with a debut at Boscombe Down in 1992. 

The kit itself is a knockoff of the OEZ kit by an unknown manufacturer.  To call it a "rough" kit is being kind.  Having read several completed buildups of the OEZ kit, I figured I was in for a challenge, but the kit provided me a few unique opportunities to increase my skills.  Among these were:  complete lack of locating pins, misalignment of all panel lines between left and right halves, residual flash between all parts on the sprues, xerox'ed instructions which included a copy of a coffee cup stain, part number references on the instructions which did not match the parts on the sprues, and outward warping of both fuselage halves.

Did I mention that I got this plastic as a bagged kit, at a swap meet, with no decals?

The cockpit is aftermarket, manufactured by Neomega.  I had never used their product before, and the detail was exceptionally nice, but, more importantly, the cockpit was a "click fit" replacement for the kit original.  I was EXTREMELY impressed with the Neomega pit, and I intend to use more of their products in the future.

Click on images below to see larger images

The markings are from the old Xtradecal sheet, and were given to me almost five years ago by Mike Reeves.  I used Model Master enamels, thinned with lacquer thinner.  I used a Paasche VLS for the gray and yellow undercoats, and an Iwata HP BCS for the blotch brown, green, and blue colors.  The colors were custom mixed to match the photo references I used to complete the scheme.  I make absolutely no claims as to their accuracy, only that they "look right" to my Mark-1, Mod-0 eyeballs. 

I had a great time building this kit.  I selected it as my entry for the 2006 IPMS Nationals based on a challenge I'd made the year before:  every ARC member should attempt to bring a kit to Nationals, regardless of skill level or type of kit.  This was my attempt to hold true to my own challenge.  Unfortunately, I made the decision to build this kit less than three weeks prior to the convention, and it was completely constructed in under 2 1/2 weeks.  There are a few other tweaks to the finished product I would have made, time permitting.  As it is, I was primarily interested in practicing my airbrushing on a complex scheme.

Somewhat surprisingly to me, I was fortunate enough to win a Premiere Award at the 2006 Nationals for this aircraft.  The award was a very nice piece of icing on the cake.  In the end, I was merely happy to have a kit to show off to my friends from ARC at the Nationals, and I look forward to having something at future events as well. 

Waco

Photos and text © by Mike "Waco" Cabral