Trumpeter 1:32 Frogfoot, Ukraine Air Force
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The kit is generally accurate, with the exception of the omission of the characteristic arrow-shaped vanes on the nose probes. Ukrainian aircraft sport indigenous countermeasure dispensers that look generally identical to the ones in the kit except their countermeasure tubes are longer. The kit decals are rubbish-- poor quality and entirely false for the cockpit. Painting instructions are similarly wrong.
Assembly is by-the-book, but the part joins all need to be melted together with plastic weld, clamped and/or puttied over. The only deviation from the instructions is with the main gear doors: the kit has these hanging open, but these are closed and flush with the fuselage at all times except during gear cycling and during heavy maintenance. You should try to cement these shut, but Trumpeter's engineering has one of the gear struts fouling the closure of the door. Close enough, I guess.
Ordnance is comprehensive, but the kit omits the R-60 pylon and rail despite opening a hole in the wing for you. Source the replacement parts from Zactomodels.
So without further ado, here is my laundry list of nitpicks:
-Throw the R-77 / AA-12s away. They look like hot garbage and the Su-25 can't carry them.
-AA-8 launcher rails are MEDIUM GRAY.
-Inner pylons are ALWAYS carrying fuel tanks
-Outer pylons are ALWAYS carrying AA-8s.
-Interior cockpit color is RU AF light blue
-control stick is RU AF light blue and has a flat black boot and tire black griptape. The buttons are black.
-Cockpit is missing defog vents and rearview mirrors on the sides of the canopy. There should be a horizontal handle on the inner left side of the canopy sill, painted red. There is a vertical handle on the right side of the cockpit at the join between the canopy sill and windscreen.
-All toggle switches are silver with either yellow or blue caps.
-The sealant for the canopy glass is brown.
-There is a green tube that runs along the windscreen sill.
-The color for the inside of the canopy glass is RU AF Light Blue, except the immediate front of the windscreen and the overhead mirror, which are black.
-The seat is entirely black. Metal parts may be painted slightly cooler blacks.
-Primer is a sickly yellow olive.
-Decals for left and right cockpit sides are total fabrications. Ignore them.
-For Ukranian Su-25s only, the undercarriage is the same light blue as the cockpit.
-The only mixture of loadouts you may see may be a combination of unguided rockets and iron bombs; I have never seen evidence of the Frogfoot carrying precision guided munitions and iron bombs and unguided rockets, nor have I seen evidence of a mixture of laser-guided rockets, anti-radiation missiles, and unguided rockets. Just because you can do it in DCS doesn't mean it's done in real life.
The DNModels digital mask is fine, save for missing the winged UAF roundel on the fin and the (for me) unusable bort numbers. I had a horrible time aligning the numbers properly and they just didn't seem to be sized correctly. Fundekals Mig-25 bort numbers came to the rescue!
