Scale Aviation Modeller International – March 2019

C

an you spell ‘niche’?

Well, with the help

of my spell checker I

can! The Su-25UTG is,

according to the instructions,

a two-seat, carrier-based

combat trainer derivative of the

Su-25UB, difering in having an

arrestor hook and being lighter

thanks to reduced armour and

weaponry (by which I assume

they mean the internal gun

has been deleted). Apparently

twelve were built, and of the

ten remaining ive are operated

by Russia, and the other ive

by the Ukrainian Navy.

THE KIT

In the box there are ive sprues

of a soft dark grey plastic, one

clear sprue, a small sheet of

etch, some resin conversion

parts, a set of masks for

the canopy, a twelve-page

instruction booklet and two

decal sheets. The etch is mostly

for the cockpit, these being the

seat details, instrument panels

(with an acetate sheet with

dials) and a few other parts.

The instruction booklet is

fairly typical with line drawing

stages and a page of stencil

information and four pages of

colour painting and markings

guides to cover the four decal

options at the end. The two

decal sheets cover the stencils

on one and the aircraft speciic

markings on the other. Turning

to the plastic, the detailing

is, as you might expect from

a low pressure injection kit (I

understand the plastic is OEZs),

a little soft but not that bad

with a little lash here and there

and substantial sprue attach

points, the clear parts look nice

and the resin has similar detail

to the plastic so should blend in.

THE BUILD

Construction starts, as usual,

with the cockpit, ... hang on

a minute, it doesn’t! Clearly

KPM are trying to be diicult

as they actually start with

the main undercarriage. And

in the spirit of being diicult

each of the main gear legs is

made up of six parts without

KPMs 1/48 Su-25UTG Soviet Naval Trainer Aircraft by Peter Marshall

TRAINER

TANK-BUSTER

MARCH 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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FE ATURE

BY PETER MARSHALL

SU-25UTG

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