Scalemates 5th Generation, UAV, and Stealth Groupbuild 2021

Started at long last.
I began with washing the sprues in soapy water and will leave it to dry.
Also I scaled up the camo scheme from the manual and printed it to be able to create the masks I'll need for the pixel camouflage.
Now that I am writing these lines I realize that I probably should see if I scaled it up correctly. 🙂

 

Some PE work. I am new to working with PE parts, I guess I will need some additional tools in the future. 

I glued the triangular PE parts to the wrong place. They should overlap the front dashboard. Realized it when it was too late. 

Correct placement as by instructions... 

Canopy inside and outside masked. 

Did some overall cleaning as well as putty and sanding on the the intakes. 

Intakes colored.  

One of the nozzles. 

Pre-colored PE parts of the cockpit.
This one didn't fit that well, luckily one can not see the overlapping anymore after I glued the pit to the upper half of the airframe 

More pre-colored PE on the seat.
As it is the first time I am really working with PE I am still screwing up some stuff, but it is fun nonetheless.
The cockpit does look a lot more interesing now. 

Front dashboard of the cockpit. put some PE here as well. The HUD is PE, too. Not sure if I bent it correctly but the canopy still fits, so I think it is okay. 

Priming done. Looks good in black but I wont be satisfied without the pixels. 😎 

Done some putty, sanding, rescribing and priming. I need to rework some areas.
As always the primer reveals everything 👀 

Done some putty, sanding, rescribing and priming. I need to rework some areas.
As always the primer reveals everything 👀 

Pre-shading done. 

Missiles are partly painted. The Kh-31 are mor complex in their coloring. They will take some more time and masking tape. 

Masking in progress. Trying the Su-35 colors from mig on this build.  

Second color done. 

Second color done. I need to repaint some areas with the light blue as I did not cover enough area with it.
Additionally, the masking was not that great and I am missing a lot of sharp edges.
The colors are brighter than I imagined at first but I like them.
I wonder how it will look after some wash and oil paint. 

Blurry that one... 

Sloppy, but mixing and spraying of the Light Blue was much better now 🙂 

Took some liberties with the scheme. 

Maybe some more blue would be nice... 

Took some liberties with the scheme. 

Took some liberties with the scheme. 

Much better now. Still some minor corrections necessary. 

Not sure about these two. Parts B71 and B72.
They are part of the nose gear door but it looks like Zvezda did the same part twice on that sprue... 

Missiles after paint, varnish and decals.