Airfix 1/72 scale
Sukhoi Su-27P

by Yufei Mao

Special Hobby's 1/72 scale Firefly Mk.I is available online from Squadron.com

This is a model that I finished in 2008 when there was still no decent 1/72 Flanker kit on the market. Comparably speaking, the Airfix kit has the best shape in all 1/72 ones, but still suffers from several problems such as wrong shaped windshield/canopy, rough details and wrong panel lines.

At the time I got myself a extremely great Su-27 reference---the "Flanker DVD" with tons of detail photos(unfortunately it's OOP now, too), and I decided to make one accurate AND detailed Su-27 as well as I can. And actually to me, it should be a pre-practice before I start with my 1/32 Su-27 project though it may never come up to the schedule.

I used Airfix kit as a base, with such aftermarket goods: PVD metal pitot tube, NeOmega resin cockpit(which designed for Italeri kit actually), Eduard Su-27 PE set(again for Hasegawa kit), Aires resin exhaust nozzles(for Italeri), Equipage resin/rubber tires, MV Product lens, Linden Hill 1/72 "Guardians of North" decal with Su-27 stencil decal, and borrowed the white metal landing gears from Hasegawa Su-27 kit.

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Thumbnail panels:

The homemade goods are Su-27 correct vacuum canopy, resin pylons, resin R-27/R-73 missiles,etc.

I filled the original panel lines of Airfix kit and recribed all of them togther with full rivetting, using "Flanker DVD" photos as my best reliable references.

By the way, the best Su-27 blueprint now you can get is from the AV magzine, but with very little details.
Other plans such as Polygon ones seem to be very detailed but the basic shape is badly inaccurate.
Besides recribing and rivetting, I did many wire works on landing gear bays and on gears. I also scratch-built the tow bar which especially designed for Su-27.

The paint I used are all Gunze Creos Mr. Color lacquer paint. The scheme I chose is the "Blue 41" Su-27P from the Russian Air Force elite squadron, 941st GvIAP which based at Kilp-Yavr airbase, Murmansk Region.

Thoese arctic Flankers are badly weathered so I used not only paints but also pastel to make the camoflouge tone more down.

The whole built took me more than 200 hours and the most exhausting part is the rescribing/rivetting.
But the result is very satisfying and from that, I tried to make full rivetting on 1/72 scale models, only by hand work.

The in-progress thread could also be found in ARC forum by following this link.

The work has been published on the magazine <Fine Scale Modeler> January 2009 issue and Japanese aircraft modelling magazine <Scale Aviation> Vol.76.

Hope you enjoy it and any comments/critiques are welcome!

Text and Images Copyright © 2012 by Yufei Mao
Page Created 28 May, 2012
Last Updated 28 May, 2012

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