Scale aviation modeller international

(Barré) #1
patches, and neither is exactly
like the pictures I found of the
real thing. I suppose it’s possible
that 902 had a couple of versions
of this scheme over time? I went
with the best I could do from
pictures and interpretations of the
instructions where I couldn’t find
any shots of a particular area.

BACK TO CONSTRUCTION
And after all that it was time to
stick some more bits together.
Stages 15 to 17 cover the
assembly of the undercarriage,
which looks pretty good.
I now fitted the canopy. Well,
I say fitted. It doesn’t really. Now
I appreciate why the instructions
only show it fitted open, because
if you try and position it closed it
fouls on the seat. It is also too long,
too tall, and not wide enough
While I was here I looked for the
big, obvious pitots that go each side
of the canopy. Oh. They’re not in

the kit. Or the smaller ones that go
just on the fuselage underside. So
now I had to make some! (Actually,
Quickboost set QB48129 has the two
big pitots for each side of the cockpit
but the set, despite consisting of
these, another air data sensor, and
the single spine aerial is called
Su-27 Flanker B Antennas – Ed)

DECALS
The Begemot decals are madness,
spread across three A5-ish sheets.
There are multiple examples of
many of them so you probably have
in excess of 500 decals to apply
if you want to go all the way.
Unfortunately, while the
instructions are comprehensive,
the decals on the sheet are not in

numerical order (370 is next to 161 is
next to 90 is next to 01a) so hunting
for a particular number is painful.
If you get lucky and pick the right
sheet and start at the right end,
you might find them in seconds.
Pick the right sheet but start at
the wrong end, maybe a minute,
but sometimes I hunted across all
three sheets for over five minutes.

LOADOUT
Time for ordnance and pylons.
There is a lot of stuff to hang
under the wings, and it looks
pretty good. Where the weapons
have alternative seeker heads
(the R27s and the guided bombs)
KittyHawk have provided bodies
and alternative front ends. But I

20 • SEPTEMBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL


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