Kinetic Super Étendard (SuE/SEM) 1:48

[Mike]

Super Étendard (SuE/SEM)
1:48 Kinetic

The Super Étendard was a development from the original Dassault Étendard, after the Jaguar M was killed off due to its poor handling on one engine, which led to its replacement by a single engined design. Typical Politics. The SuE had a new more powerful engine, modernised and more capable avionics, plus a new wing design. Later upgrades saw the integration of newer technologies to improve its lethality, plus a vastly improved radar for threat detection.

Although the original French buy was scaled back due to budgetary restraints, there were some export successes with sales to Argentina and a small loan of aircraft to the Iraqi airforce, which still led to a total of less than one hundred airframes. The Argentinian SuEs are perhaps the most famous, after one of their aircraft unleashed an Exocet missile that hit the Atlantic Conveyor during the Falklands War, which brought the name of the Super Étendard to the fore, but didn't lead to any further sales.

The later Super Étendard Modernisé extended the service life of the ageing airframes, although their eventual drawdown in favour of the newer Rafale M is due very soon.


The Kit
This is a new tooling from the Kinetic stable, and will no doubt be welcome due to the age of the only other SuE kit in this scale. It arrives in a large box with a painting of the aircraft trapping on with flaps and arrestor hook deployed. Inside are five sprues in mid grey styrene, one in clear, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a large decal sheet and the combined instruction booklet/painting guide. Two of the sprues are taken up by weapons, which is fairly standard with Kinetic, as they tend to be on the generous side. The kit is well detailed throughout, although some of the panel lines and rivets on the airframe may be a little pronounced for some, but this is easily reduced by a few coats of primer and some buffing if it bothers you.

Shockingly, construction starts with the cockpit (It's not really shocking, is it?), and there is plenty of detail moulded in, although no instrument panel decals are included. This is easily fixed by adding some of those lovely Airscale decals after checking your references. The tub has side console detail moulded in, and you add rudder pedals, control column, and a two part aft bulkhead, after which you can add a choice of SuE or SeM control panel and Martin Baker Mk.6 ejection seat. This is a nice rendition of the seat, but doesn't include the forest of seat belts that typify the type. The nose gear bay sits directly behind the cockpit, so that is built up at the same time, from a three part assembly, which requires you to insert the nose gear leg into holes in the sides before you install it in the fuselage. This should survive the build, as it is pretty sturdy due to the navalisation of the real thing. For completeness the main gear bays are built up as a single unit with a bulkhead between them.

Before the fuselage can be closed up you have to decide whether you will be having your pretend engine in operation or not, as this affects which inserts you use for the blow-in doors of the auxiliary intakes. The air-brake bays are also added from the inside, just under the wing-roots. The last item for construction before closure are the intakes themselves, which go full-depth, and use some sensible seam-lines to ensure that there is nothing to sand inside. Each intake has a C-shaped part, with a single flat piece making the inner face, with one intake being the mirror image of the other, joining toward the rear to make a single trunk that feed the engine. The main gear bay attaches to the underside of the intake pair and the engine front blocks the view into the fuselage for those that actually peer down these tortuous tubes. The cockpit, nose gear bay, intake/main bay assembly and a single piece exhaust tube are all then slapped into the starboard side of the fuselage on their various ledges, after which you can close the fuselage. Do check your intake apertures on the fuselage before you do though, as there may be a little flash in there like there was on my review sample. A small scrap-diagram shows how everything should look when assembled, so check that and make any necessary adjustments during the dry-fit phase to make sure of a good overall fit. After closure, the instructions invite you to detail the fuselage with canopy, refuelling probe, lots of aerials and blade antennae, plus air-brakes and their struts, but much of this is probably best left for later once you have the wings on and any seams dealt with. The intake lips, tail-bullet and windscreen are probably all you will fit before adding the wings, but that's entirely up to you.

The wings can be depicted folded for under-deck stowage, or deployed for flight, and can also be shown with the flaps up or down, just by swapping out the straight actuator fairings for cranked versions. The leading edges of the wings are separate, and fit onto tabs at the front of the main wing area. The spoilers are PE parts and can be posed open or closed, although you may have to add a little detail within the bay if you do. With your chosen wing position complete, they are fitted to the fuselage root via a pair of shirt dumpy tabs, which means that you might need to keep an eye on the joint as it sets up to get the right anhedral as it is in this case. The elevators have PE swash-plates, and separate rear sections, with tabs that project through the PE and into the base of the tail.

The main gear legs are single struts with moulded-in oleo-scissors, plus an additional strut that further damps the main oleo. These fit into sockets in the drop-in outer bay sections moulded into the wings. The inner bay doors are captive to the centreline under the fuselage, and the outers hinge at the outboard edge of the bay.

As usual with Kinetic there a boatload of weapons and pylons included in the kit, and with these being French specific, the spares could well be handy down the line. In the box you get:

4 x R550 Magic 2
2 x In-Flight "Buddy" refuelling pod
2 x Damocles Pod
2 x Barracuda ECM pod
2 x PHIMAT pod
2 x underwing fuel tanks
2 x under fuselage fuel tanks
2 x 625 litre fuel tanks
2 x AM39 Exocet anti-shipping missiles

A full page shows what goes where, and shows the appropriate pylon or adapter is used, but as always – check your references to see which constitutes a realistic load if you are going for accuracy.


Markings
The box includes a large decal sheet, which will allow you to model one of five options from the box, with sufficient variety over and above the standard grey/white. From the box you can build one of the following:

• SuE Aéronavale 1980s – grey over white.
• SEM Aéronavale Afghanistan Missions, 2008 – all over grey.
• SEM Aéronavale Libyan Missions 2001 All over light grey with dark grey camo on upper surface. 6 airframes of 17F aboard Charles de Gaulle.
• SuE Argentine Navy, 1980s – Grey over white.
• SuE Iraqi Air Force 1983-85 – Grey over white.
  

In total there are ten airframes on that listing, but with the addition of a substantial number of serials, more could be depicted if the urge takes you. The decals are printed by Cartograf with the usual good register, sharpness and colour density, plus a closely-cropped glossy carrier film.


Conclusion
A welcome modern tooling of this intriguing aircraft, which should be simple enough to build into a good model, resulting in a lot more seen on the forums and tables. A set of seatbelts and instrument decals would have been appreciated, but a modern, well-detailed tooling of a SuE is the main thrust of the review!

Review sample courtesy of

[AntPhillips]

Great review Mike, and the kit does look good on the sprues, there's a nice selection of underwing stores with enough left overs too, although personally I'd have preferred it if they could have included some of the unique French air to ground weapons at the expense of the second Exocet, as the SuE usually only carried one of them.

[Antoine]

[Mike]

Cool video, and if you didn't want one before, you probably will now What's the vapour coming out from behind the pilot at 1:23 & 2:49?

[Julien]

Great review Mike, and the kit does look good on the sprues, there's a nice selection of underwing stores with enough left overs too, although personally I'd have preferred it if they could have included some of the unique French air to ground weapons at the expense of the second Exocet, as the SuE usually only carried one of them.

I dont think they wanted to include two missiles, its just that they doubled the sprue.

[Laurent]

What's the vapour coming out from behind the pilot at 1:23 & 2:49?

ECS. Chasse Embarquée Youtube videos showing SEM cockpit shots often show condensation coming out...

2:22 on

Edited February 12, 2016 by Laurent

[niki]

Arghhhh...

Well done, Antoine and Laurent! You have just increased Kinetic's sales by at least one box...

Thank you [NOT!],

Niki [having previously sworn not to let himself tempted by all this new 1/48 SuE stuff and ultimately failed miserably...]

[Antoine]

Cool video, and if you didn't want one before, you probably will now What's the vapour coming out from behind the pilot at 1:23 & 2:49?

SEM is equiped with cockpit deodorant spray activated during high G manoeuvers.

French pilots, you know.

[Antoine]

Another one.

Cat shot with a foreign pilot in exchange....

[Mike]

SEM is equiped with cockpit deodorant spray activated during high G manoeuvers.

French pilots, you know.

very good. I'm guessing that it's some kind of pressure relief valve for the speed jeans, or cette pilot ici had a bit of a windy pop-pops on the day?

[Laurent]

Cat shot with a foreign pilot in exchange....

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that the pilot was German. He did what mustn't be done when the plane is being catapulted: touch the stick before the aircraft is airborne (tailplane catapult configuration makes the plane take off by itself). He pulled it, the plane stalled. The pilot was picked up.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Laurent

[Antoine]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that the pilot was German.

I didn't want to say it, did you have to?

Marineflieger, yes.

Pilot rescued, but I'm wondering what happened to him then? Not much was disclosed.

Some years ago, I've tried to find the Defense-Accident investigation bureau's report, but without success.

Usually, those reports are available to the public, but... not this one! Go figure!

Mmmh, wondering, what's the equivalent cost for a SEM... in beer?

[redcap]

Good videos and a cracking soundtrack in the first one. Never heard it before; who is the artist?

Gary

[Antoine]

That's Within Temptation, a metal prog group, with Sharon Den Adel as a singer.

Album The Unforgiving, the song is Faster.

[redcap]

That's Within Temptation, a metal prog group, with Sharon Den Adel as a singer.

Album The Unforgiving, the song is Faster.

Thanks Antoine and a great choice of music to accompany the footage.

Gary

[Greg B]

very good. I'm guessing that it's some kind of pressure relief valve for the speed jeans, or cette pilot ici had a bit of a windy pop-pops on the day?

Just the air conditioning vents pushing out cold dense air into a warmer cockpit. You get it a bit on passenger aircraft in the tropics, looks like dry ice coming out of the vents.

[John_W]

SEM is equiped with cockpit deodorant spray activated during high G manoeuvers.

French pilots, you know.

And emergency rations contain a bagute, some foi gras and a half bottle of red wine, all wrapped in a red check table cloth.

[Antoine]

And emergency rations contain a bagute, some foi gras and a half bottle of red wine, all wrapped in a red check table cloth.

Baguette, bordel!

And why half a bottle only?

[Julien]

No self respecting French Pilot would eject with only a half bottle!

[Billydick]

Another one.

Cat shot with a foreign pilot in exchange....

Good ol' MB mk 6 ejection seat . Not sure the "Benny Hill" music was appropriate though. Hope the pilot was ok though ....

BillyD

[Antoine]

He was, no sweat.

Ejection just in time (you can hear control on the radio ordering him to), good chute, and Pedro gives him a ride back on the deck.

[kpc7676]

Lovely kit, will hope to put mine towards the top of the build pile soon.

[eng]

Ref the mist in the cockpit, I was going to suggest it was just colder air from the ECS.

I've managed to get snowflakes out of the cockpit air vents on the 737 by running the packs at full cold when the outside air temp is very low, created much amusement during a long and boring cabin pressure test!

Eng

[ReccePhreak]

Nice looking kit. Too bad they decided not to include the CRM280 recce pack, nor the chaff/flare pods.

Maybe AMK will include them in their kit?

Larry

[Laurent]

Nice looking kit. Too bad they decided not to include the CRM280 recce pack, nor the chaff/flare pods.

Something may be brewing: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=289763&view=findpost&p=2778223