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
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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
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