Sukhoi T-50 Pak-Fa - 1:48 HpH Models

[Mike]

Sukhoi T-50 Pak-Fa
1:48 HpH Models

The Pak-Fa is to be the successor to the mighty Mig-29 series that is currently under development in Russia, and is currently in flight testing using (now) five prototype airframes. Toward the end of the 80s, the replacement for the then new Mig-29s and Su-27s were mooted, and Sukhoi were given the lead on the project. They have created a fifth generation jet that shares some design cues with the Flanker, especially to the rear, but also looks quite similar to the American Low-Observability ("stealthy") aircraft due to the nature of the science requiring sharp angles and flat panels to deflect the radar emissions anywhere other than back to the source.

It is estimated that it will enter service in 5 to 10 years, but it embodies all the new "next gen" technologies you'd expect from a fifth generation jet including super-cruise, deep integration with a digital battle-space, advanced cockpit controls and internal weapons storage between the engine humps on the underside. The new engines have vectored thrust capability in the vertical axis, a great deal of which is under computer control to reduce the workload on the pilot during combat manoeuvres. Another totally new lightweight engine is scheduled for later production batches to give a better power to weight ratio, and this is currently in preparation for the bench-testing phase of development.

The Kit
This is the first kit of the Pak-Fa in this scale to my knowledge, although resin and injection moulded offerings have been available in 1:72 for a while now. The kit represents the aircraft as it stood in development at the time, and clearly won't pass muster as an "in-service" airframe down the line due to the likely changes made between now and then. It does however do a jolly good job of depicting the aircraft as it stands now, and will allow Whiffers to have a field day thinking up possible export users and adapting it to their heart's content.

This is a true multi-media product, which is a specialism of HpH who have some incredible projects under their belts and in production, such as the enormous 1:32 Catalina and brand new 1:32 De Havilland Hornet that we'll be reviewing shortly. The kit arrives in an unassuming flat white box with a profile and plan view of the aircraft on the front, sporting the later splinter pattern that looks so good on it. Inside the box are several card dividers that hold all the bagged parts in position and stop the fuselage from drifting around, thereby avoiding damage. Some bubble-wrap further protects the contents, and on removal of the bagged instructions, decals and Photo-Etch (PE) sheet there's a moment of wonder when you first see the fuselage… although it should better be referred to as the Airframe, because it is a one-piece fibre-glass moulding of the almost complete fuselage and wings. That’s correct – it's all in one piece, with flashed over openings for cockpit, wheel bays and parts of the engine intakes. The only holes that aren't flashed over are a section of the intakes and exhaust holes, both of which need a little additional work to remove sections before construction. In addition to this monolithic chunk of highly detailed fibreglass, there are four large bags of resin parts, a bag containing two canopies and coloured resin wingtip lights, a separately bagged PE sheet, and a small sheet of canopy masks. The A4 instruction booklet is a very professional affair, and if you're used to the style of the CMK and MPM instructions, you'll recognise them right away. MPM and HpH have a good working relationship, although they are separate companies.

Construction starts with removing the aforementioned sections of the fuselage monolith. The nose gear bay, cockpit opening, the main gear bays in the sides of the engine bulges, and a little trimming of the intake apertures are necessary, plus a shortening of the exhaust cowling to accommodate the resin parts and generally give a sharp transition between fibreglass body and the detail parts. Firstly, a word or two about the fuselage. Although a fibreglass fuselage and wings doesn't immediately suggest good detail, HpH have managed to incorporate as much detail as you would expect from a resin or even injection moulded kit, presumably by laying down a detail-hugging resin layer in the moulds before adding the fibreglass matting to the inside. The resulting skin is thin and strong, whilst being detailed enough to need no further work other than to complete the tidying of the join between the upper and lower halves, which has been roughly sanded to shape for you at the factory. A few slight scuffs to the surface were evident on my sample, which is to be expected for the size and relatively high degree of handling required during the mating process, and shouldn't be an issue. Most of mine were simple scratches that could be buffed out in a few seconds, but going over the airframe with a fine-tooth comb is always a good idea, as is checking fit of the resin parts before construction begins in earnest.

Clean-up of the resin parts should be fairly easy, as a lot of them have been wafer cast in groups to a high standard. The rest have casting blocks that need sawing off and tidying up, which should probably keep you busy for an hour or two, and please do remember to wear a mask when cutting the resin and fibreglass parts, as very fine dust isn't too good for your lungs.

The cockpit and nose gear bay are built up first, and the simple shell of the cockpit tub is detailed with side panels that you can either paint or decal, rudder pedals, control column, and of course the main instrument panel, which fits into the coaming, and is detailed by adding decals and PE parts. The large HUD glass will need to be made from some spare acetate sheet, and fits into a PE frame on top of the coaming. The pilot's ejection seat is a feast for the eyes, having a great deal of detail moulded in such as belts and cushions, to which are added the head box, arms, controls and additional parts on the rear, all of which are given paint call-out letters with a key on the inside sheet of the instructions. The nose gear bay is already very well detailed, but a bottle is added, and it then slots into the bay from the open cockpit aperture above it. The cockpit should slide into the aperture and is located correctly by adding the rear deck and the coaming, plus a pair of sidewall parts to detail up that area. You are advised to add a little nose weight too, for which there is plenty of room in the tip of the radome.

The intakes are next, and these superbly detailed single parts are mated to intake trunking that is made up from two halves separated vertically. The engine front and bullet-fairing are placed at the end, and the whole assembly is inserted through the intake hole, while the main gear bay roof is slotted in at the outer side where it mates with the moulded in inner walls that are present on the outsides of the trunking. A bit of test-fitting won't go amiss here to save any disasters while fitting the parts. The gear bays are then detailed with a number of parts, and of course this is repeated on the other side. A pair of PE vents on the front weapons bay doors are added, and a small cut-out behind the cockpit is detailed with a set of PE louvers that are installed before the cockpit is inserted. The T-50 is a large aircraft, and there are bound to be some worrying about the longevity of the gear legs on a mixed media kit. HpH have thought of this, and the main gear legs are built up from two sections, one of which has a metal insert that sleeves within the thicker upper part, the hole for which will need extending with a drill, providing plenty of strength to the legs. They are cleverly moulded with part of the gear bay detail around them, which gives a very strong bond with the bays to stabilise your Pak-Fa when it is finished. Separate two-part oleo-scissor links are added, and two-part retraction jacks attach to a hinge-point on the bay roof, and all that remains is to add the wheels, which have separate tyres and two-piece hubs, all of which is superbly detailed. The large wheel bay doors are hinged outwards, and a scrap diagram shows the correct angle when open and on the ground. The nose-gear leg doesn't appear to have a metal core, but if you don't overdo the nose weight, it shouldn't be an issue. Two landing lights are added to the leg, plus a resin and PE detail part, before the mudguard is built up from PE parts that although it looks a little tricky to construct, should give a great look to the assembly once installed. The twin nose wheels are built up in the same way as the main wheels, and they glue onto the T-shaped axle before the mudguard is installed. It fixes into a pair of cradles in the bay, and a retraction jack with captive bay door is added, then the three remaining doors are installed, with their orientation shown in another scrap diagram.

The exhausts are very well detailed, and both inner and outer petals are depicted, with the inner petals inserted through the centre of the outer, plus a short trunk consisting of a single cylinder that is well detailed in its interior. At the rear a PE afterburner ring and rear face of the engine are added, and once complete, a ring slips over the back to butt up against the rear of the exhaust nozzles, allowing the whole assembly to be slotted snugly into the holes in the fuselage. A blade antenna sits on the pen-nib fairing between the exhausts, and a pair of vents glue to the aft deck just inside the rudder fairings that are placed over their engraved location markers, with PE splitters added to sloped intake at the front. The twin rudders sit atop the fairings, linked by a length of wire that you will need to supply yourself. There is a marking for a hole visible on the rudder parts, and a corresponding hole should be marked and drilled on the fairings, ensuring that the two parts meet up with the aerodynamic fairing at the base. Another scrap drawing shows the correct angle of the tails, which are canted out as part of the radar countermeasures. A small triangle is marked at the tip of each wing to be cut out and filled with the coloured resin wingtip lights that are supplied with the kit.

The remaining job is to complete the cockpit and canopy, adding the leading edge canard-like winglets that add to the aircraft's manoeuvrability and a gaggle of PE antennae in the process, both on the sides and underneath the cockpit, with some small parts added just aft of the canopy. The canopy is supplied as a thick vacformed blister, of which you get two in case of accident, and to this you add the rear framework in resin inside the canopy, and then form the PE outer frames around it, which will work best if you anneal them in a lighter flame first to make them more flexible. If you intend to pose the canopy open, it would be best to cut the canopy carefully after installing the resin inner frame, perhaps marking the cut-line by using it as a template. You have two anyway, so you have a little margin for error. If you do cut the canopy, remember to put some Blutak inside to hold it rigid and prevent any rips, and cut it carefully using a very sharp blade and several passes, or a razor saw with a fine tooth, to ensure you have the best chance of not slipping and making a mess. Whatever you decide, there are a set of masks in the box to help with painting the outer framing, with a cut-out for the infrared blister that you fix to the fuselage on the starboard edge of the windscreen. Painting the rear of that black will save you having a resin-coloured blob showing through your windscreen after construction, I suspect. Russian pitot probes can be vicious looking things, and this one is no different. You'll need to make the probe part yourself from some telescoping fine tube, but measurements for the lengths are provided, although diameters would have also been of use. To this you add a total of 12 PE vanes at 90^o to eachother, which will require some patience and a steady hand. Drill a hole in the tip of the nose, and slide it into place, and you're done.

Markings
Only one scheme is provided on the decal sheet, as this is the only scheme worn by this new jet other than its initial flights in bare primer, showing off lots of shades of zinc chromate, which would be a tempting alternative. The scheme shows Blue 51 in a three tone white/light grey-blue/dark grey-blue splinter scheme that extends across the whole airframe apart from the panelling forward of the exhausts, which is bare metal in the same style as its predecessor, the Mig-29. The aircraft wears a small blue 51 on the lower fuselage just under the cockpit, and low-viz red-stars in outline only. It also has a set of colourful red/yellow warning stripes each side of the intake lips, a plethora of stencils across the airframe, with a profusion of walkway markings in red on the upper fuselage and wings that will keep you busy for quite a while.

The decals are well printed by an un-named company, and are clear with good colour density, however the yellow seems to have been printed slightly out of register, leaving a few small decals off-centre. It's a minor thing affecting only a few decals however, and reasonably easy to correct with trimming or small scraps of yellow decal.

A set of instrument panel decals are also supplied on the sheet, including side panels, the main instrument panel and the MFDs. Some of the red walkway decals are quite complex in shape, so some care will be needed in applying them, as the carrier film is quite thin.

Conclusion
This is a stunning multi-media kit of the newly minted Pak-Fa, and it appeals right from the moment you open the box. Multi-media isn't for everyone however, so ensure that you have the necessary skills or at least the desire to push your skills before attempting it, especially the cutting out of the fibreglass sections, which will probably be best done with either a pointed razor saw, chain-drilling, or with a Dremel tool and a suitable bit. Fibreglass dust is pretty nasty, so do it outside with a good quality respirator at the very least, as you don't want any of that in your lungs. Wash both the fibreglass and resin parts before you even think about construction to remove any mould release and sanding residue that will otherwise make paint adhesion more difficult and spoil your fun.

It's a shame that the few lengths of brass and telescoping tube weren't included, but having a PE sheet that bear all the hall-marks of an Eduard production, and a set of masks makes up for that little inconvenience, and just in case you need a further sweetener (pardon the pun), there is a little Belgian chocolate in the box in the shape of a weird looking aircraft. I can confirm that it tastes good!

This is not a cheap kit, but it is a good one. HpH specialise in large mouldings, as evidenced by their Catalina, and their work is excellent so worth the expense. If you simply must have a Pak-Fa in your cabinet at 1:48, this is the kit for you, and once built and painted it will draw a ready audience because it is LARGE and handsome.

Highly recommended to experienced modellers.

More info here.

Review sample courtesy of

[Mike]

Build thread now online here

[Shar2]

That does look very nice, but I wouldn't trust myself with having to dremel out so much excess fiberglass.

[Panzer Vor!!!]

So this is why you were grinning like a Cheshire cat at Telford . Shar2 said you got a PAK I thought he meant a anti tank gun