Scale aviation modeller international

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

014-21-FEAT-Flanker-0918.indd 20 16/08/2018 17: