1/72 Su-24 & Su-27/33

[Gondor44]

I'm looking for information as to which model/manufacturer makes the best kits of these two aircraft in 1/72.

 

Now when I say best kits I am willing to trade some accuracy for ease of build but I certainly want a model that looks like the aircraft in question.

 

I have a couple of Su-27's which I want to replace. I have just built the Airfix rendition which I think from just looking at it by itself is wrong at least in the forward fuselage shape and I have heard that most other kits are wrong in the shape of where the hump/spine flows into the fuselage so help with all members of each family would be appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Gondor

[Procopius]

For the Su-24, Trumpeter's Su-24M is probably the best in 1/72. Zvezda's Su-27SM is supposed to be the best Flanker, trailed at some distance by Trumpeter.

[Creepy Pete]

The good sir above is right. For the Su-33, Hasegawa does a very decent kit.

[Gondor44]

9 minutes ago, Procopius said:

For the Su-24, Trumpeter's Su-24M is probably the best in 1/72. Zvezda's Su-27SM is supposed to be the best Flanker, trailed at some distance by Trumpeter.

 

What about the side by side variants of the Su-27 and the naval versions. I intend to collect kits to enable me to build most versions/developments

 

Gondor

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, Gondor44 said:

 

What about the side by side variants of the Su-27 and the naval versions. I intend to collect kits to enable me to build most versions/developments

 

Gondor

 

By side-by-side, do you mean the Su-34 Fullback? The new Trumpeter Su-34 is somewhat more accurate than the Italeri/Revell/Zvezda kit, but the Trumpeter's most egregious error is very visible: the nose looks weird.

 

Zvezda also does an Su-33; it's probably a bit less easy to build than the Hasegawa kit but more accurate. Be sure you're getting the new-tool Zvezda one if you go that route -- a prior kit was an Italeri rebox and pretty dire.

[Gondor44]

So this would be the best Su-27 https://www.scalemates.com/kits/174035-zvezda-7295-su-27sm 

 

and this as the Su-33 https://www.scalemates.com/kits/972241-zvezda-7297-sukhoi-su-33-flanker-d

 

and this as the Su-32 https://www.scalemates.com/kits/176221-zvezda-7250-russian-frontline-bomber-su-32fn

 

and this one for the Su-24? https://www.scalemates.com/kits/949553-trumpeter-01673-su-24m-fencer-d

 

Gondor

[Flankerman]

Gondor,

 

Yes to the first two choices - that third choice is the Italeri Su-34 reboxed by Zvezda, yes to the fourth choice.

 

A couple of things to note.......

 

The Zvezda Su-27SM is only operated by the Russian AF (and with slight mods Indonesia) - no other marking choices.

 

The Trumpeter Su-34 is supposed to be better than the Italeri (Zvezda re-boxed) kit - but it is WAY more expensive and has nose shape issues.

 

FWIW, my build of the Zvezda Su-27SM is here. the Italeri Su34 is here... 

 

Not yet built, the Zvezda Su-33 is here.... whilst the also unfinished Trumpeter Su-33 is here... (it also contains a link to the finished Trumpeter J-15 - which is a Chinese Su-33).

 

Finally, (are you still with me?) - Hasegawa's finished Su-33 is here.

 

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you - Happy Flankering.

 

Ken

[AngstROM]

Perhaps worth noting that the Zvezda and Trumpeter -33s have a wing-fold option out of the box, if that's an issue. The Trumpeter one looks the better effort in this respect to my eye, but nowhere near as refined as the aftermarket Wolfpack Design resin set for the Hasegawa kit. Also, Trumpeter once again provide you with a comprehensive weapons set plus a few aircraft bits in the same box! Admittedly, a bunch of these may be of no use for a salt-water Flanker, but if you have a few VVS projects in the offing they could be very handy.

On the debit side, I believe Flankerman has already documented the 'parked' flap/slat deficiencies of the Chinese tooling (possibly on this very site?), but I would be very much obliged if he will be kind enough to confirm this here -I seem to recollect that, strangely, the same problem did not apply to the J-15, since there is an extra sprue in the box for that one, but I dare not rely too much on memory!

 

Flanker on, Dude!

[Gondor44]

14 hours ago, Flankerman said:

Gondor,

 

Yes to the first two choices - that third choice is the Italeri Su-34 reboxed by Zvezda, yes to the fourth choice.

 

A couple of things to note.......

 

The Zvezda Su-27SM is only operated by the Russian AF (and with slight mods Indonesia) - no other marking choices.

 

The Trumpeter Su-34 is supposed to be better than the Italeri (Zvezda re-boxed) kit - but it is WAY more expensive and has nose shape issues.

 

FWIW, my build of the Zvezda Su-27SM is here. the Italeri Su34 is here... 

 

Not yet built, the Zvezda Su-33 is here.... whilst the also unfinished Trumpeter Su-33 is here... (it also contains a link to the finished Trumpeter J-15 - which is a Chinese Su-33).

 

Finally, (are you still with me?) - Hasegawa's finished Su-33 is here.

 

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you - Happy Flankering.

 

Ken

 

Ken, No you have not overwhelmed me at all.

 

I have remembered seeing a conversion set which I bought by NAZA Model Art which is a 1/72 Su-30MKM exterior conversion set for the Trumpeter Su-30MKK kit which I may give a go though I have not built a decent member of this family of aircraft yet to give it a decent go of.

 

Gondor

[Captain Condor]

For the Su-24 the Strim kit is still available in Russia boxed as a Zlinek kit. The transparencies are different and there are no decals but the kit itself is the same molding. I have both versions and have compared them. The price in Russia is just over £10 at current exchange rates if you can find a shop to send one over.

Below are a couple of shops which have them. I have used both in the past but only for deliveries to a Russian address.

http://www.hobbyforyou.ru/catalog/4541-35836.html

http://model-ka.ru/products/frontovoj-bombardirovschik-vvs-rossii-su-24m-strim-172

[Rob de Bie]

On 6/8/2017 at 10:41 PM, Captain Condor said:

For the Su-24 the Strim kit is still available in Russia boxed as a Zlinek kit. The transparencies are different and there are no decals but the kit itself is the same molding. I have both versions and have compared them. The price in Russia is just over £10 at current exchange rates if you can find a shop to send one over.

Below are a couple of shops which have them. I have used both in the past but only for deliveries to a Russian address.

 

Interesting! I have to ask: are other models by Strim / VES still available, especially the 1/72 Su-15 ?

Rob

[Apex]

I don't think the Su-15 is available. It was also reboxed by Gran but that is not available either. A rather labor intensive kit, I should say.

 

EDIT: The kit is listed here: http://www.ritmonexx.ru/Samolet-Su15TM-p-35317.html Maybe you can contact them and ask if they can find one for you.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Apex

[Rob de Bie]

1 hour ago, Apex said:

I don't think the Su-15 is available. It was also reboxed by Gran but that is not available either. A rather labor intensive kit, I should say.

 

EDIT: The kit is listed here: http://www.ritmonexx.ru/Samolet-Su15TM-p-35317.html Maybe you can contact them and ask if they can find one for you.

 

Apex, thanks for checking! Yes, the VES / Gran Su-15TM is labour-intensive, but I still like it a lot! I find the level of detail unbelievable for a kit of that age and (limited) mould technology. It's too ambitious in many places, for example scribed rivets on vertical faces of the mould, so the mould will scratch the hell out of the part when it's ejected. Plus a fuselage in I don't know how many parts. Still, it's probably my respect for the designer and the mould maker that makes me like this kit a lot :-)

 

Rob

[Captain Condor]

I am currently battling with the Zlinek boxing of the VES Su-15 kit which my wife got for me late last year when she was in Russia. It does seem to have disappeared from many of the sites since then. Some of the casting is a bit iffy even compared to the VES castings, the main wheels for instance are unusable but luckily replaceable with after market ones. Some of the seat was also missing but I had a resin seat ready for it. The main castings for the fuselage appear ok and the front fuselage castings went together quite well. I am hoping to make up Blue 23 using the Mig-23 cannon pod.

For some strange reason the Su-15 kit was more expensive than the Su-24 but still less than 1000 roubles which at that time was around £10.

I also have the Gran boxing of the Su-15 which has a lot of flash on it though the castings themselves seem slightly better than the Zlinek ones.

[Rob de Bie]

1 hour ago, Captain Condor said:

I am currently battling with the Zlinek boxing of the VES Su-15 kit which my wife got for me late last year when she was in Russia. It does seem to have disappeared from many of the sites since then. Some of the casting is a bit iffy even compared to the VES castings, the main wheels for instance are unusable but luckily replaceable with after market ones. Some of the seat was also missing but I had a resin seat ready for it. The main castings for the fuselage appear ok and the front fuselage castings went together quite well. I am hoping to make up Blue 23 using the Mig-23 cannon pod.

For some strange reason the Su-15 kit was more expensive than the Su-24 but still less than 1000 roubles which at that time was around £10.

I also have the Gran boxing of the Su-15 which has a lot of flash on it though the castings themselves seem slightly better than the Zlinek ones.

 

Thanks for sharing your experiences with the various boxings of this kit. It sounds like the mould wasn't made to last very long!

 

So far, I only assembled the center fuselage, being super-extra-careful to do it correctly, because it's so easy to create an ill-fitting assembly. And then, blasphemy maybe, I will remove all rivets. I don't like rivets, I don't see them on the real thing, and many disappeared already in the assembly process. I'm very curious how the model will then look!

Rob

[Gondor44]

I take it from the comments about the VES Su-15 kit that its a resin kit or am I misunderstanding people?

 

Maybe I should try and change the title to include other modern or certainly modern-ish Soviet aircraft as I do have in interest in collecting kits which would allow me to build at least one of each main type, so feel free to cause a certain amount of thread drift guys

 

Gondor

[Rob de Bie]

12 hours ago, Gondor44 said:

I take it from the comments about the VES Su-15 kit that its a resin kit or am I misunderstanding people?

 

Maybe I should try and change the title to include other modern or certainly modern-ish Soviet aircraft as I do have in interest in collecting kits which would allow me to build at least one of each main type, so feel free to cause a certain amount of thread drift guys

 

Gondor, sorry for slightly hi-jacking your thread - I jumped in because hardly anyone knows or builds the VES / Gran / Zlinek Su-15TM kit. It's not a resin kit, it's injection moulded, but judging from the mould decay over the various issues, and even the damage in my first issue, it was a limited run mould. It's a bit like a High Planes kit: underneath the flash there's a sweet model hiding.

 

Rob

[Gondor44]

Thanks for the clarification Rob, a little flash never heart anyone and don't worry about hi-jacking the thread, the knowledge of the information you have given is great

 

Gondor

[Phantome]

On 5/29/2017 at 8:02 PM, Procopius said:

For the Su-24, Trumpeter's Su-24M is probably the best in 1/72. Zvezda's Su-27SM is supposed to be the best Flanker, trailed at some distance by Trumpeter.

 

Just a slight caveat: Zvezda is the only one who produces a Su-27SM - this is not a variant that Trumpeter has done (yet).

 

That said, the general consensus is that it is the most accurate Flanker so far produced in 1/72. I am currently building one and I must say, the fit of the kit is absolutely fabulous but I'm slightly disappointed at the surface detail; Zvezda refuses to do rivets on their modern kit and for an aircraft the size of a Flanker, the detailing looks a bit plain in some parts because some of the panels are so big. Undercarriage bay detail is also disappointingly sparse.

[Hook]

On dinsdag 20 juni 2017 at 0:49 PM, Phantome said:

I'm slightly disappointed at the surface detail; Zvezda refuses to do rivets on their modern kit

 

At the risk of stirring up a controversy of Stones-vs-Beatles-like proportions: how many rivets can you actually see on a photo of a real Flanker at a distance comparative to 1/72nd scale..?

 

I actually prefer the lack of rivets.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[drake122]

I don't mind no rivets, but the panel lines on Zvezda's Su-27SM and Su-33 could be a bit deeper, more precise. They don't take wash too well in my experience.

[Gondor44]

I don't mind a lack of rivets either, one thing that does confuse me is what the differences are between the various versions of Su-27 et all and who operates which so that I know what to do to any particular kit to make what I want?

 

Gondor

[Phantome]

18 hours ago, Hook said:

 

At the risk of stirring up a controversy of Stones-vs-Beatles-like proportions: how many rivets can you actually see on a photo of a real Flanker at a distance comparative to 1/72nd scale..?

 

I actually prefer the lack of rivets.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

 

By that logic, why use stencils? Most aren't visible at a distance either...

 

Zvezda clearly has the engineering capability to produce a kit with rivets and I don't see why some of them can't be used to break the monotony. I am not keen on excessive riveting myself since few companies can pull it off with the necessary subtlety in this scale (Tamiya and Eduard) but the Su-27 is a BIG aircraft. It's horizontal stabilizers are half as big as a MiG-29's wing. When you put in your mat you realize that a bit more detailing would definitely have helped make up for all the flat space.

 

 

[Nigel Bunker]

We spend years dissuading kit manufacturers from putting rivets on aircraft and now people want them back.

 

The manufacturers must be shaking their heads nd thinking of that old Chas & Dave song "Ain't No Pleasing You "

[Hook]

22 hours ago, Phantome said:

 

By that logic, why use stencils? Most aren't visible at a distance either...

 

Indeed, I tend to apply only the stencils similarly visible on photographs.

 

Just my opinion, of course, to each his own and all that, but a miriad of stencils that do not appear when viewd at a realistic diastance makes a model look toylike to me.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre