Italeri 1/72 Su-27 Flanker

The Sukhoi Su-27 fighter was developed by the Soviet Union to be the answer to the US F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter.  Entering service in 1985, the Su-27 “Flanker”  design proved to be very adapable and many variants for carrier use, ground attack, etc. were developed from the initial airframe.  In addition, the aircraft was sold to the air forces of other countries.

This is the 1/72 scale Italeri kit.  Seeing the colorful camouflage schemes used by Su-27 units inspired me to try a nifty gray-blue pattern.

Here is the cockpit, I made little seat belts from masking tape.

Painted the engines gunmetal and masked them off.  Painted the cannon panel dark grey.  Painted the nose cone, jet intakes, and wheel wells gloss white and masked them off.  Masked the canopy.

You can see here I tried a few different colors to see what would look good.  Settled on Vallejo Sky Blue 70.973  for the underside and 70.844 Deep Sky Blue 70.961 Light Sea Grey and 70.841 Andrea Blue as the topside camo colors.

Airbrushed the underside light blue and masked off the underside.

Painted the top light grey.

Masked off the sections I wanted left light grey in the camo scheme.  The camo scheme was loosely based on the Ethiopian Air Force Su-27 camo.

After masking, airbrushed the top deep sky blue.

Once again, mask off the parts you want left deep sky blue, then airbrush the top Andrea Blue.

When the masking tape is removed, the camouflage pattern reveals itself!

Here you can see the (R-40?) air to air missiles.  I put the little stripes on them by painting masking tape and cutting it into thin strips.

I used Tamiya Panel Accent black for the panel lines.  I brush painted the entire model with Future floor polish, then added the decals.  I then added another gloss coat before having the courage to apply the panel accent.  I let it dry, then removed the excess with varsol.  There weren’t many recessed panel lines, but the ones that were there stand out nicely.

Overall, a good kit.  Fit was not a big problem, except in the tail assembly.  The camo scheme was a good learning experience, as was the panel accent step.  Debated doing a dull/matt coat at the end, but the aircraft looked pretty snazzy, so I left it.

Paints

Vallejo

70.844 Deep Sky Blue
70.961 Sky Blue
70.973 Light Sea Grey
70.841 Andrea Blue

Tamiya

Black Panel Accent Line Color
X-1 Black
X-2 White
X-6 Orange
X-7 Red
X-10 Gunmetal
X-11 Chrome Silver
XF-1 Flat Black
XF-3 Flat Yellow
XF-16 Flat Aluminum
XF-24 Dark Grey
XF-66 Light Grey
XF-71 Cockpit Green