This model is the result of a
long period of contemplation and planning. Having not built a scale model in
nearly a decade, I had been eyeing a single Academy 1:48 Su-27UB kit in the window
display at a toy store in Bangalore. Kits are extremely hard to come across in
India and the additional material and tools need to be completely imported at
great expense. When I finally decided to go ahead and buy the kit, it had
disappeared from the window display and was not to be found. Frantic searching
finally located the same kit in the corner of the shop's first floor. It was
interesting to note that the price had also gone up considerably since when it
was first spotted by me, years ago.
The Kit
Academy's 1:48 Su-27UB kit
is inaccurate in several ways. The forward fuselage and nose are inaccurate as
is the canopy and there are amazing fit problems near the engine undersides.
Academy was obviously doing an amount of speculation as the kit also comes with
2 'oversize' R-27 'Super-Alamos' in additional to the normal 2 R-27TEs, 2
R-27REs and 2 R-27R1s. The oversize R-27s were thus cut up and reverse
engineered into R-77 Adders for use elsewhere. The kit also includes optional
but useless AA-8 Aphids. The IRST's central placement is also inaccurate and
needs to be to the starboard side of the aircraft. However, this was left
untouched as it came fixed to the windshield. As expected, the cockpit was just
plain rubbish but once again, I decided to focus elsewhere.
Since the Su-30MKI is
multirole, it also needed the intended equipment of an Elta Litening LDP, a
compatible KAB-500L LGB. Also to be included was an Elta EL/L-8222 external
jammer, although the final version of the Su-30MKI will carry this internally.
The version depicted here is an intermediate Mk.2 variant, with no internal
jammer. The KAB-500 LGB is from Tally Ho.
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Construction
At first, the model was to be a
conventional Su-30MK without the canards and other modifications, armed only
with AAMs and painted low-viz gray overall in light of certain news that the
existing fleet of IAF Su-30MKs may get a limited upgrade and not the
full-structural one of MKI standards. However, half-way through, it was decided
to go all out and make this a fully fledged Su-30MKI after much thought. The
Su-30MKI greatly differs from the Su-27UB and Su-30MK. The first part was to
commence suitable surgery in the nose in order to accommodate the IFR probe.
The most complex part was
extending the LERX and adding canards. For the LERX extension, the SOL
conversion kit for the single seat Su-27 was considered but eliminated on the
grounds of it's extreme cost and unconfirmed compatibility. Thus a plastic-balsa
sandwich for each LERX was sculpted as necessary, attached, filled and sanded
for a very long time. This process was quite a nightmare and took its toll on
several panel lines. The canards are genuine Academy plastic, - sculpted out of
the wings of a decade old 1:72 Academy MiG-27 which was in pieces and rotting
away.
I decided to retain the
existing AKU-470 under-intake pylon for the KAB-500L but build a new one for the
Litening pod. The pod itself may be available in the market but is also very
expensive as a stand-alone item. I thus turned to another one of my decade old
models - A Monogram 1:48 F/A-18C which came with an LDP that looks exactly like
the Litening. The LDP was sliced off, filled, repainted and was soon
rechristened as the Litening for the Su-30MKI.
Since liters and liters of
thinner were required, I used local brands of thinner which seemed to work fine.
For paints, I used a mix of Testors, Academy and Decorlack. During painting, my
Paasche airbrush failed more than once and on one occasion, started leaking on
the model. Thinning and scrubbing off the markings and repainting was another
nightmare. Several 'accidents' with the canopy left it FUBAR and little could be
done to fix it at this point. It awaits treatment with some Future Floor finish
when I can get some.
Decals
Decals are from Linden Hill and
are originally for the Su-30MKs SB-002 and SB-011. The most visible error was in
the use of red instead of saffron for the roundels. This was apparently because
IRKUT did not have the appropriate color with them at the time prior to
delivery. The model is depicted as SB-020 of the No.20 "Lightnings"
squadron, as a Mk.2 variant, not up to full standards. Slight grime and smut on
the airframe was added at a later stage, using MN Star Dust Weathering pigments.
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Conclusion
Not one of the best but certainly
one of the worlds first as there are not many other Su-30MKI models around,
although Polly Singh does have one here on ARC. Not totally
satisfactory but it was an attempt and the experience, spanning more than a
year, will be used to improve upon other models in the future.
B Harry
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