Two Russian Bad Boys

As many of you know, I used to love to build models back in high school and early college, and when i moved to Florida, I still had quite a few unbuilt still in their boxes that went into my storage unit. After boredom kicked in from unemployment, I went to the storage unit and pulled out three 1/72 scale birds to work on, A Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut fifth generation demonstrator, a Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-29UB Fulcrum, and a Lockheed F-22A Raptor. Two of those are now complete, and I had mentioned I would post photos of the process. On the Berkut I decided to paint it as the prototype, and to spray paint it. For the MiG-29UB I decided to brush-paint and make it into an East German trainer from Preschen airbase in 1988, partly as a visual aid for the "Fulcrum Project" story.

First off, soak and clean all the parts in warm water to remove any particulates, ESPECIALLY on these birds since they have been in a storage unit for almost eight years.

Then I masked off the Berkut to give her an even coat of flat black.

One of the fun parts of the Su-47 is that her instructions are in Russian. Luckily, I'm still nearly fluent in reading it.

Here the body of the MiG-29UB comes together. Note the scotch tape to hold the parts together as the glue dries.

First color in the NVA camo is on, and she's surrounded by reference aids. While THAT dries off........

The Berkut gets prepped for her second spray coat.

Half of the East German camo scheme is down on the MiG-29UB now....

Decaling the Su-47, note the reference materials.

Camo done on the trainer version of the Fulcrum, awaiting decals.

Both birds fully painted and decal-ed up, ready for their dullcoat spray.

A couple views of the completed MiG-29UB Fulcrum trainer in East German colors. I painted her to represent one of the four UB's the East Germans accepted from the USSR, the only one that was painted in a non-grey camo scheme. I think she looks pretty good, myself, for the bare bones Revell kit I had to work with.

I like this view, even though the damn Bort #s slipped when i applied the dullcoat.

And here is the Su-47 Berkut demonstrator. Obviously, I decided to make her in a takeoff configuration, as the main gear are rotating inward and upward. This kit was from Russia, by Zvezda models, and went together with fairly minimal fuss, though the tails had to be anchored more solidly with putty.

So, hope you enjoyed this brief illustrated modelling tutorial.

As for the F-22A, I am still working on her, but, being the most detailed of the three, she's also giving me the most issues.