Yumo 1/72 Soko G-4 Super Galeb

KIT: Yumo 1/72 Soko G-4 Super Galeb

KIT # ?
PRICE: $20.00
DECALS: 4 options
REVIEWER: Fred Krause

NOTES:

HISTORY

Built as a replacement for the successful G-2A Galeb, development of the SOKO G-4 Super Galeb started in 1973. The
first flight occurred in July of 1978. By 1983 examples were being delivered to the Yugoslav Air Force (JRV), with about
90 total on order. After the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, some aircraft ended up in the hands of the Bosnia-
Serbs. To date, the only export customer is Myanmar (formerly Burma), which uses its six Super Galebs in their intended
role of training and light strike.

THE KIT

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This kit is produced by an outfit called Yumo, which I assume stands for Yugoslav Model Company or something
similar, in Yugoslavia. For your $20 you get 54 parts on two trees of slightly soft, dark gray plastic , and one tree of three
nicely done clear parts. The surface engraving is scribed, and not badly done at all. The panel lines are a tiny bit soft, and
the texture of the entire model is faintly like that of an eggshell. Overall quality seems to be about on par with other Eastern
European kit manufacturers like Bilek, or KP.

Details include a
one piece canopy/
windscreen which must
be cut apart if you wish
to display the canopy
open. The cockpit is
about what you'd expect
for 72nd scale: decals
for the instrument
panels, and so-so
ejection seats. As far as I
know, there are no
aftermarket detail sets
available for this kit. I'm
not sure exactly what
make of ejection seat the
G-4 uses, but it looks
something like a Martin Baker seat. If so, there's probably a resin seat available. Weapons included are two underwing fuel

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tanks, and two rocket pods. A nice centerline gun pod is also provided.

The decal sheet in this kit is a REAL gem! I expected crappy decals, but Yumo came through with a very nicely done
sheet by Propagteam. There are four options included: Yugoslav Air Force before the 1992 break-up, Yugoslav Air Force
after the break-up, Bosnia-Serbs Air Force circa 1992, and Burma Air Force circa 1992. All aircraft except the Burmese
example are in a gray/green/blue scheme. The Burma jet is in an overall dark green/blue bottom scheme. The sheet also
includes extensive stencil markings for all versions (about 150 separate decals!). Overall I'd rate the decals very good.

CONSTRUCTION

The instructions are fairly well laid out in eight exploded views, but there is no indication as to which step is first,
second, etc.... other than their order on the page. No problem for anyone who has built a few kits, but it could be confusing
to a newcomer, or a kid. I decided to keep this build simple, and build it out of the box. I'm a total sucker for small, obscure
air forces, so it was no contest..... Burmese Air Force! I found an excellent color picture of aircraft #371 on page 8 of Air
Forces Monthly magazine's January 1991 issue. This picture proved invaluable in helping me match the blue underside
color, as it is a pre-delivery picture take in Yugoslavia. I decided to keep the weathering on my model to a minimum after
seeing this picture.

As is normally the
case, construction began
with the cockpit. I found
a picture in an old
magazine of the cockpit.
The main instrument
panels were similar to
Euro One gray
(FS36081) and the
cockpit sides were close
to Medium Gray (FS
35237). Well there must
be a lot of differences
between aircraft, or the
Burmese specified
different cockpit colors.
I later found the AFM
picture mentioned above, and it was very evident that the Burmese jets had their cockpits painted a green very close to the
famous MiG turquoise green. Of course I didn't find the pic until after the cockpit was finished, and the fuselage halves
were together. Oh well.... too late now!

The cockpit was glued into one fuselage half, as was the exhaust tube, and some weight in the nose. Test fitting the
fuselage halves with the cockpit in provided the first indication of what would plauge this build..... lousy fit! The cockpit
tub was just too wide to fit in between the fuselage halves. I ended up gluing a piece of scrap .10 thousandths plastic card
between the fuselage halves from the nose, to the rear instrument panel combing, and about 1/4 inch into the spine. This
fixed the problem, but created more later on. Next time I build this kit I will thin the cockpit tub sides down a bit before
gluing it into one fuselage half.

The rest of the non-clear parts went together with no problems, other than questionable fit. The wings, and fuel tanks
went together quickly. One problem I did encounter was the exhaust pipe. I followed the instructions, and glued it to one

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side of the fuselage. Once you get the two halves together, the exhaust tube is decidedly off center. I had to fill one side
with Squadron white putty, and sand it out with sandpaper wrapped around a small dowel. This fixed the gap problem, but
the exhaust is still off center by a little bit. So when you glue the tube in, don't put it flush against the fuselage half! You'll
still have a gap to fill, but at least it won't be off center.

The wings and

intakes went on, and
again the fit was pretty
rotten, especially on the
bottom. After I got them
on, it was time to fill
(with super glue), sand,
and rescribe the
fuselage, wings, and
intake seams. I also took
care of the numerous
large sink holes on the
top of the fuselage
halves. All of this
probably accounted for 40% of the time I spent on this kit. Once that was taken care of, all of the joints were hit with Mr
Surfacer 1000 to help fill any pinholes or other defects. Just when I thought I was done with most of the filling, and
sanding, I fitted the clear nose part on. Once again the fit was really bad with the clear piece being larger in diameter than
the fuselage. Once the super glue had dried, out came the sanding sticks. About 20 minutes later I had it sanded, and buffed
back into a crystal clear nose section, and the correct diameter.

I had to use some Mr Surfacer to fill in the gaps between the flaps, and the wings, which did the trick. Next on were the
flap actuators, wing fences, pylons, and fuselage strakes. Since the canopy/windscreen was going to be left as is (unopened)
I decided to check the fit before I got to the painting of the kit. It was a good thing I did, as once again the fit was bad. As
is, the canopy sits a full 1/16th of an inch above the spine of the jet. I had to break out my trusty bastard file, and file the
bottom of the canopy/windscreen down, test fitting often, until I got reasonable fit. The canopy was then cleaned up, dipped
in Future floor wax, and set aside for a week to dry. Now it was time to paint. I left the rear stabs off, as they would be
painted separately, and angled upwards (like on a shutdown F-16) during final assembly.

CAMOUFLAGE &
MARKINGS

Since I had decided to model the Burmese G4, painting was very straight forward. Following the instructions I painted
the upper pattern FS 34079 Dark Green using Testors Model Masters line of paints. I could not come up with FS 35107 for
the blue color on the bottom. The closest I could get was FS 35102. I decided to mix my own color instead. I started with
about 70% FS 35183 Bright Blue, and added 10% White, 10% RAF Azure Blue, and 10% FS 35237 Medium Gray. This
mix produced a very close match to the picture in AFM 1-91. The blue was sprayed on without any problems. I used

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"worms" of Blu-Tack
putty to produce the
demarcation line
between the green and
blue. This is the best
way I have found to
produce a feather, but
tight demarcation line
for these small scale jets.
Next I masked off the
orange section on the
tail. I first painted this
white to give the orange
that was to follow a
brighter, even, look.
Once that was dried, it
was painted FS 12197
International Orange.
Next to be painted were
all of the black areas on
the wingtips, tail tip, and
nose tip. Finally the
sliver section of the
intakes were painted. I
painted the interior of
the intakes sliver at this
time too. After drying for a day, the entire model was gloss coated with Testors Metalizer Sealer in preparation for decals.
After letting it dry for a day, decaling began.

I had heard a lot of things about Propagteam decals. Mostly that you don't get a lot of time to get them in place before
they set for good, and not to use any kind of setting solvents. Since I had two kits, and two sets of decals, I decided to try
putting one of the national insignias under the wing as a test. I used Microscale's Micro Sol, and did not have any problems
with the decals. As I had heard, I didn't get a lot of time to get them in place, but this really wasn't much of a problem. The
larger decals went on first, and then all 150 odd stencil decals. Decaling took about three evenings worth of work.

After the decals had dried, I used Metalizer Sealer again over the decals. I then used a dark gray wash of Polly Scale
CSX Gray, dish-washing detergent, and water. After the wash had dried, it was removed with damp cotton swabs. For the
most part the panel lines took the wash well, but its not really too visible on the upper surfaces of the model. Once this had
dried I went over the entire model again with Metalizer Sealer, and set it aside to dry. Now it was time for final assembly.

FINAL CONSTRUCTION

Now it was time to add the few remaining parts. The previously painted silver gear legs were installed. Somewhere
during this build I had lost one of the main gear actuators, so I just left them off. The main gear wheel hubs were painted
light gull gray, while the nose wheel hub was left silver. All gear parts went on without any problems, as did the fuel tanks.
I decided to leave the rocket pods off. In the two photos I've managed to find of Burmese G4s, neither had the gun pod

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installed, so I left it off. Next came installing the previously painted ejection seats (using the AFM color photo as a
reference), horizontal stabs, and spine antenna. Last on was the canopy. Even with all of my filing and test fitting, fit was
still not good. Some of this was due to the fact that I had widened the fuselage during construction, but some was due to
sheer poor fit. I had to sand the sides of the front instrument panel combing down to get a fair fit. I glued the clear HUD in
place, and on went the canopy. There were still a few gaps, so I filled them with Microscales Krystal Kleer, which had also
been used to glue the canopy and HUD on. Surprisingly, the single antenna located on each side of the tail was not
included. These are painted white, and are quite prominent. At some point I may scratch build them and put them on the
model. At last my little Super Galeb was done!

CONCLUSIONS

I must admit that this kit ended up being harder to build than I had anticipated. Most of this was due to some areas of
poor fit, and a few due to my own mistakes. However it was an enjoyable build, and certainly builds up into a very nice
model of a somewhat obscure subject. I would recommend this kit to anyone who has some experience with not so great
fitting kits.

October 2003

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