upper surfaces matched and
didn’t worry too much (at all,
really) about the slight step
this left on the lower surface,
it seems the wings aren’t quite
thick enough to cover the
mating surface on the nacelles,
though one was closer than the
other. I then itted the pylons
and a couple of resin strakes
under the rear fuselage (I’ve
said it before, and I’ll probably
say it again, some better
locating instructions would
help a lot!) and realistically it
looked like time for some paint.
The observant amongst you will
have noticed that I still haven’t
itted the undercarriage. I had
decided by now that I would get
the kit painted and then worry
about the gear, things were
pretty accessible and igured
it would be at least as easy to
do the painting now as later.ADDING SOME
COLOUR
So, what scheme? The kit
provides markings for three
Russian and one Ukrainian
aircraft, all are pretty similar,
three shades of blue over a
light blue underside, with a
few detail diferences, mostly
in the vertical tail area. Since
doing the Ukrainian Su-
in a splintered blues some
years ago I’ve had a soft spot
for their markings, so I went
with that one. But what are
the colours, and did I have any
of them? The instructionshelpfully cross reference
Humbrol colours (with which
I am at least familiar) and the
AGAMA range (which I am
not). However, every picture
I could ind of -UTGs (all of
them Russian, btw) shows them
in far lighter shades of blue
than the colour instructions
show you or suggest, and all of
them weathered to a greater
or lesser degree (mostly
greater!). I considered buying
AKAN set 47302, speciicallycalled ‘Russian Carrier Aircraft
Su-25UTG’, but instead, as I
did with my Su-33 (in what I
understand to be the spirit of
the eastern European military)
I used what I had and mixed
some stuf to try to get close
to the lighter schemes I had
pictures for. So, the lower
surfaces were painted Xtracolor
X208 RLM76 Lichtblau, and I
used X160 FS15190 Synthetic
Haze Blue for the medium blue,
X146 FS15183 Bright Blue with
a splash of X163 Blue Angels
Blue for the dark blue and
a mix of X208 and X160 forthe lighter blue. Very pretty!
Wrong, I appreciate, as I made
up the colours without ever
seeing pictures of a Ukrainian
example and the pattern is as
much guesswork as anything
else. But pretty nevertheless.
I then masked round the
dielectric panels, painted
them X110, FS14079 SEA Forest
Green, it probably should have
been lighter, so sue me and
returned to the undercarriage.MARCH 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL1/
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