Great Wall Hobbies 1/48 “Su-27 Flanker-B Heavy Fighter Service in China”
Started mid-June, completed 21 September. My usual three month project.
This is a large kit chock full of goodies. In addition to the basics the following are included:
Resin wingtip ECM pods, nose landing gear door, landing lights and slam antennae
Pre-cut canopy masks for inside and outside
Thin PE sheets for reinforcement plates
Machined metal nose probe
Four sheets of decals including stenciling in Russian ad Chinese
External stores include R-27ER (Sparrow equivalent), R-27 ET (IR and radar guided version), R-73E (Sidewinder equivalent, B-13L rocket pods (Lau-10 equivalent). Pylons, launchers And rails are also included.
Although some areas seem over-engineered, (each main landing gear consists of 12 parts, nose gear has 19 parts) the fit is exceptional with a few exceptions – primarily around the nose radome.
The only aftermarket parts I used are Quinta cockpit (because I always do) and Reskit exhaust nozzle (because I’m not a fan of gluing nozzles together from eight petals).
Decals for eight (8) aircraft are included with large color-printed finish and marking details included for each.
Lately I have started with external stores and pylons including assembly, painting and decals before starting the airframe.
Decaling took three days for external stores (144 decals) and five days for the airframe (297) decals. There are probably another 50 tiny decals (approximately 1mm diameter) that I left out. The decals are apparently printed by GWH. They are thin, flat finish with very minimal carrier film. There are a lot of decals but they are well organized on four sheets and the instructions are very specific.
I used Mission Models paint, primer and gloss clear coat followed by a finish coat of Liquitex Satin Varnish.
The result in an impressively large model. I have included a photo of the primed Su with a 1/48 ZM F-4C for comparison. All in all a satisfying build. Once completed, picking the model up without breaking something off is a problem. But it is safely in it’s box after the photo sessions.
