masked, using Eduard’s mask
set (EX 550), then fitted to the
fuselage. The tail bullet was also
now attached (it sort of snapped
into place in a manner I wasn’t
expecting, which was nice: it’s
worth noting, however, that there
are a lot of pictures showing it
with surface detail, such as vents,
which are not represented),
and the wing fences fitted.
For now, I left off the vertical
tails (very clever engineering to use
the base of the tails to eliminate
the fuselage join in this area), the
horizontal tails, and the leading
and trailing edge wing control
surfaces (though I fitted the
rudders to the vertical tails with
the rudders very slightly offset,
because I could, and what’s the
point of separate control surfaces
if you don’t?), and it’s paint time!PAINTING
Paint-wise, I had been supplied
with a couple of bottles of “acrylic
lacquer” from a Slovakian company
new to me, Mr. Paint (MRP). I have
no idea what an acrylic lacquer
consists of but they come in a jar
identical to the Alclad range, withthe ball bearings for mixing and
are, I assume, intended to be used
straight from the bottle. I was given
MRP-202 Light Blue and MRP-
Eggplant Dark Grey, so that sort of
decided which of the two schemes I
was going to be doing. This wasn’t
a hardship, as it is an interesting
colour scheme, and is unlike
anything else I have ever done.
I first painted and masked the
multitude of what are, I assume,
dielectric panels. They are located
on the wing leading edges and
roots, tops of the tails, leading
edge of the right hand vertical tail,
tip of the tail bullet, fuselage side
below the cockpit, upper surface
behind the cockpit, under thecockpit (including four circular
panels that the instructions don’t
show as a different colour, but some
pictures do), and the radome itself.
As to what colours to do the
panels, well...the instructions
suggest that some are white and
some are grey, but I haven’t found
a proper walk-around of a Su-
34 in “eggplant” yet, so I had to
make do with occasional pictures
I found on the web. One of these
clearly shows them all as grey,
but I then found a few pictures
of “Red 10” (the markings in the
kit), showing both the grey and
white panels the instructions
suggest. So I went with that.
These pictures also clearlyshow that the leading edges of the
wings, vertical tails, and canards
are painted grey, and I assume the
horizontal tails are the same. Other
pictures show different aircraft
with all the panels in white, or
no leading edge grey, or the four
underside circles grey against
the blue etc, etc, etc. It’s all a bit
of a lottery as to whether you can
get this right, I feel, unless you
happen to stumble over a detailed
walk-around of the particular
aircraft you want to model.
I stuck to the paint instructions,
painting and masking the bare
metal areas (BTW, the gun vent
areas on the kit are like nothing
I found pictures of), and then
pre-shaded the panel lines
with black. Once that was dry, I
painted the underside blue. The
MRP-202 sprayed beautifully and
covered really well, considering
how thin it is. It dries almost
immediately (but not in the
nozzle of the airbrush), and you
can handle it very soon after.
I was very impressed with
MRP Paints, but what to clean
the brush with? It says “acrylic
lacquer”, so acrylic thinners, or
lacquer thinners? I searched for
other reviews and came across oneWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • JANUARY 2018 • 11
1/
006-15-FEAT-SU34-0118.indd 11 08/12/2017 16: