Olimp Models Authentic Decals

1/72 Su-24M Fencer D

Sheet Number: AD-01

Reviewed by  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $7.25 Web site: www.olimpmodelsgroup.com This is Olimp's first decal sheet. Others follow, for the MiG 29, Mi-8/17, Tu-160 and An-12.

The Su-24 is used by Soviet Union, Algeria, Iran, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Libya, Kazakhstan, Russia, Syria, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The markings on this sheet are for 7 different aircraft, 6 Russian and one Ukrainian. There are two possible color schemes, one gray over white and the other green/brown over blue. I really didn't want to do a "plain Jane gray" aircraft, but I also wanted to do the Ukrainian bird. Then a friend noticed that the Ukrainian Fencer has a really neat looking dragon on the intakes. OK, gray it is, but the dragon's coolness makes up for the ho-hum color scheme. The Model The only 1/72 scale Fencer D is from Zvezda. It is currently available from several mail-order companies, and probably your local hobby emporium for $20 or less. There is a Dragon Su-24, but it's the "short nose" Fencer B or C. I asked Dave Morrissette for these decals because I had a Fencer which had been sitting under my work table, partially finished, for about 3 years, and I was waiting for the reason to work on the kit to strike me. I thought these decals would move me off dead center, and get me to finish this kit. Well, that was sort of right. The kit was a Dragon, so I had to pull a Zvezda kit out of the stash, rip the nose off the Dragon kit, and put the long nose on. Yep, the Dragon and Zvezda kits are different, but all the parts interchange. Once the model was painted, I was ready to put on the decals. Painting was moderately simple. I had some trouble deciphering where the white areas on the top of the wing belonged. When I finished, using Yefim Gordin's excellent book on the Fencer, I put on the usual coat of Future. I wasn't close to finished with the build, but I put on decals THEN put on landing gear, under wing stuff, antennas, nose probes, canopies, and other small parts. I have learned that I get fixated on the decals, and I'll break off small and delicate parts. As it was, I managed to scrape one of the Ukrainian national markings on something while putting on another decal, and damaged it. Fortunately I was able to repair it using Testors insignia yellow with a touch of white. It took me several tries to match the color, but that's what we used to have to do before Testors came out with FS match colors.

The Decals The decals are quite thin (note above that I scratched one), adhere nicely, and mold to surface detail. The Ukrainian roundels have to go over a panel line on the bottom, and they snuggle without use of any solvent. I used a bit of white glue mixed with water under all the decals to insure that I could move them and align them. This worked well, and after positioning and alignment, they stayed put after I patted them with a dry tissue. There's a minor mistake in the instructions, which show the Ukrainian tail marking as smaller than it should be. Fortunately the decal IS the correct size, as shown in the Su-24 book's photos. The shield should cover part of the white area at the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer. The aircraft numbers went on OK, as well as the dragons. I tore one of the tail numbers, however, during application. If the spirit moves me, I can use one of the 2s from another aircraft to fix it. After letting the decals dry, I fixed the roundel I damaged, then applied another coat of Future. After letting it set for a half hour, I applied Testors Acrylic flat finish. Finishing the Aircraft Now it was just a case of putting all the fiddly and breakable parts on the Fencer. I took the "finished" photos before I had the aircraft completed, as there are two HUGE drop tanks which go on the wing gloves, and block the view of that dragon. That dragon is why I wanted to do this decal review in the first place. Overall Assessment The decals which come with the Zvezda kit are pretty "vanilla". These add a LOT to the visual interest of a Fencer model. In addition to the Ukrainian decals, the camouflaged aircraft would be quite nice looking, and there are a couple of other Russian Fencers which are interesting. One marking (decal #16) is for "Gefest & T", a company which does upgrades on Russian aircraft, and their logo appears on a number of Fencers in service. There is only one set of Russian national markings and one set of stencils, but with some judicious use of kit decals you can probably do at least 3 or 4 of the 7 aircraft for which markings are provided. For example, the red "speed bird" marking (decal #13) used on the Ukrainian version is also used by "Red 40", the first aircraft shown on the instruction sheet, but one is also provided on the Zvezda decal sheet. Recommended. If you're going to build a Fencer, you don't have a lot of kit choices, and less marking choices. These decals vastly expands the possibilities to build an interesting model. My thanks to Oleg Degtyar and Olimp Models for the excellent decals

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