1:48 Su-57 Felon Splinter Camo

A machine that claims the fifth generation

The Su-57 is the Russian answer to Western fighters with reduced observability. Compared with the older Flankers it has a flatter fuselage, recessed air intakes and a lifting surface shaped so that reflections are concentrated into just a few directions. The finish nicknamed hard-edged underlines that intention visually.

The sharp angle as the essence of the pattern

While a classic camouflage works with soft transitions, a hard-edged pattern rests on the opposite: the fields are bounded by straight lines that intersect at sharp vertices. It is exactly those vertices that are practically unattainable when spraying freehand. A cut stencil can keep them equally sharp on the fin, on the wing and on the outer panel of the fuselage.

1:48 as a sensible compromise

At this reduction the airframe of the Su-57 is around forty centimeters long. It is a format in which an ordinary airbrush is still comfortable to work with, and at the same time the color fields are large enough for their edges to read as edges and not as a merged line. Smaller formats of the same scheme exist, but on them the angles gradually lose their legibility.

Building recommendation

The base tone is applied to the whole airframe, then it is masked and the second and possibly the third tone are added. At sharp vertices it is advisable to press the stencil down lightly at the point, so that paint does not get under it. Before removal it is advisable to wait until the paint loses its gloss, otherwise the edge tears. The model and the paints are not part of the delivery.