1/72 YUMO G4 Super Galeb

If someone want to build Ex Yugoslav model of a plane, plane which was designed and made in Yugoslavia, that modeller would have to find resin model manufactured by Aeropoxy, or in case of Galeb G4, You can try to find very rare and obscure model made by Yumo.

Galeb G4 was designed to replace G2 Galeb. Both aircrafts were designed as a training planes an light strike aircraft. As a trainer suggest, planes was with two seats. Initial design and development started in 1973, and it was tested during next couple of years. Prototypes were developoed in Zarkovo, and planes were manufactured in Soko in Mostar. First batch of prototypes flew in december of 1979. Serial production started in 1983. There are statements that about 90 planes were built. In the beginning plane was used for training and from 1990. it came into acro groups. Plane was sold to Myanmar, country that still operates this planes. Afte break out of civil war in Yugoslavia, many planes were inherited by Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and later by Serbia.

The plane was 11.35 meters in length, wing span 9.88m, overall height 4.28m,combat radius 910 km.

Today Serbia Air Force operates 20 G4s, Myanmar 4, Montenegro 4, and there are 2 in Croatia which are used as a training planes.

I have done Mig 21, Mig 29, Soko J22 Orao and I’ve decided many years ago that I will do G4 or G2. We can find both planes on market and they are made from resin by Aeropoxy and L&M Resin Kits. I don’t like resin and vacuform, so I stay out of that “league”, for now at least.

Finally I could obtain one model from Yumo which is made in plastic. I received this very old kit, made in 1997. in Serbia. Some parts were separeted from sprues, glass was slighlty damgaed and fuselage halves were cut and some parts of them removed. With this kit I got PE fret made by Lift Here, resin seats, and resin engine. In the box was very obscure instructions, double printed two pages of A4 with instructuons on just one side. And also decals. Decals made in 1997. and without any protective nag, I though that this is going to be disaster. I got roundels of Serbian aircraft and I used flag from Orao kit, both roundel and decal are made by Lift Here.

First I repaired fuselage and I had to put some putty, then sanding, wet sanding and rescribing. Than I repaired cler parts and polished it with Tamiya polishing compound. I decided to do the closed version and I removed with Proxxon part of the engine because it was very heavy and I wanted to avoid falling on the nose, of course I put some lead into the nose cone.

Cockpit… Cockpit is very spartan, but I used pe from add on. After that I did some dry fit with resin seats. They have lovely detaisl but they had to be trimmed and sanded to fit cockpit and to lay below the glass. After some weathering I closed and glued fuselage… Whatever You do these two halves don’t fit together. I used CA glue for tougher joint and later I had to sand and sand and sand… drink coffe, and sand and sand, and I had to rescribe all the panels of the fuselage. Wings needed adjustment and sanding to fit properly. Air intakes are slightly raised, and they needed some surgery. I drilled some holes for pe parts for better fit. Finally, after few days model was ready for priming.

I primed it and painted it and then I seald it with GX 100. Whole model was painted with Harder and Steenback Evolution Silverline with 0.2 needle, and fine work was done with Infinity CR plus with 0.15 needle. I did whole camo freehand. I had some troubles with correct shade of grey, but I think I did some very close of reaol shade. You can see real plane on runway with some 10 more G4s and they all are going to have different shades of grey, blues and greens… !

I put roundels and flag and they behaved perfectly! Then cam the stencils, stencils 23 years olde, packed without protetion… And they were… Excellent! Really, excellent!

I did some subtle postshading, panel weathring and color modulation and streaks with Abteilung 502 oils.

So, this is it. Very small model with few complications, for expirienced modeller this is much better option than resin, at least it is healthier. Yumo G4 are made in 3 different boxes, first one is this model, second one is the same as this, just new decals for acro gropu, and third is some plastic but model which is 2nd prototype.

These are very rare models, which needs some patience about details and precission. You cannot find them in shops. There are few available on Ebay and other similar sites, but they are very, very expensive. At price of this one Yumo You can buy two Eduard profipacks in 1/48 scale! I had luck to get this one very cheap and from seller in Belgrade, Serbia.

Feel free to comment and suggestions!

Cheers!

15 additional images. Click to enlarge.