1:72 Su-34 Fullback Camouflage Paint Masks Russian Fighter-Bomber (For Trumpeter)

A bomber that grew out of a fighter

The Su-34 grew out of the design of the heavy Su-27 family fighter, but it changed so much that it can be regarded as a type of its own. The crew sits side by side in a roomy armored cabin, which is entered from below past the nose landing gear, and between the seats there is room for a galley and a bunk, because the machine is built for long combat flights. The flattened nose, nicknamed the duck bill, houses the radar and gives the aircraft a look that no other combat machine has. A blue-gray camouflage of several irregular fields covers the fuselage.

Intended use and preparation

The cut self-adhesive elements match the shapes of the individual camouflage fields and are cut to the kit in which the Trumpeter brand covered this type. They are laid onto the base shade only once it has dried completely.

Symmetry as the main benefit

The camouflage scheme of this aircraft is not mirror-symmetrical in every detail, but the main fields on both sides of the fuselage correspond to each other and a viewer subconsciously expects that. This is where the greatest advantage of a stencil lies: the left and the right part came from the same drawing, so it cannot happen that one field is noticeably wider than its counterpart. Anyone tracing the pattern from a photograph has no such certainty.

The weak spot shows around the cockpit. The glazing protrudes from the fuselage here and the transition is very broken up, so the film has to be divided into several smaller pieces around it and pressed carefully against every edge.