1/72 Berkut Su-27 Flanker  

by Deun Yu

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This is the Berkut Su-27, which is a rebox of the quite decent Nakotne kit.  It has its drawbacks like wrong dimensions (fuselage too short, wing span too big) or raised panel lines but I think it's still a decent kit.  However some changes were done to improve the result.

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The panels lines were removed and rescribed with the knife. This is the first completed model I've done that to.

Most of the other improvements like seat detailing, new HUD, mirrors and mechanism on canopy and air brake followed standard procedures, so nothing really new to mention here. Also the IRST was removed and replaced by a custom made part. The clear parts looked rather bad. They were sanded and polished, then coated with clear paint and Sofix and finally I painted the edges black to make them look thinner.

The LEX were not sharp enough on this kit. I corrected this flaw by sanding them first (making them flatter) and then adding an edge made of resin.

After assembly and smoothing out the steps and gaps it was time for painting the fuselage.

What I wanted was the Suchoi demo jet with the blue "388". Since I had no decals for this number I chose to make the "319". I only had two photos of it, but it looked close enough to the "388" to me so I went with it.  I used decals from the kit and also took some from Revell's Su-34, namely the "Cy"-logo and the numbers.

After that came weathering, then the final flat clear coat and final assembly.

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I pretty much enjoyed constructing this beautiful jet, although it took much longer than I had planned in the beginning - well, it always goes like that I guess. The camo pattern was new to me and my collection in the first place. 

Deun

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Photos and text © by Deun Yu