Hobby Boss Sukhoi Su-17M4 Fitter-K

[Mike]

Su-17M4 Fitter-K

1:48 Hobby Boss

 

 

The Su-17, with its NATO reporting name Fitter was derived from the earlier Su-7 as a project to improve its low speed handling, particularly during take-off and landing.  It was Sukhoi's first attempt at variable geometry wings, and when it reached service was the Soviet Union's first swing-wing aircraft in service.  To keep the project costs down, the centre section of the wing remained fixed, with the outer able to swing back for high-speed flight, and forward for slow.  A pronounced spine was also added to the rear of the cockpit to carry additional fuel and avionics that were necessary with the advances in aviation.  The first airframes reached service in the early 70s, and were soon replaced by more advanced models with the designation M3 and M4, designated Fitter-H and –K respectively by the Allies.

 

The M4 was based on a larger fuselage and had additional weapons options, developed further and was considered to be the pinnacle of the Fitter line with a heavily upgraded avionics suite including improved targeting, navigation, and yet more weapons options, as well as improved engines.  A downgraded version of the M4 was marketed as the Su-22M4, and was in production until 1990!  Although the Su-17 was withdrawn from Soviet service in the late 1990s, it remained in service much longer in its export guise, where it was used by both Iran and Iraq, Libya and Angola to name but a few, where it had variable success, which likely had as much to do with pilot skill and training as the merits of the airframe.

 

The Kit

It's London buses time again!  We reviewed this same subject by another company in January of this year, and less than half a year later, we're doing it again for the juggernaut that is Hobby Boss.  This is a new tooling from them, and arrives in their standard top opening box with just a hint of the cardboard corrugations showing through the lid.  Inside are fifteen grey sprues, two clear ones, three "rubber" tyres, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a decal sheet, instruction booklet, and two loose leaves of full colour glossy printed painting and markings guide.  The first thing to note is that the fuselage is made from two full-length halves, which will simplify construction and appeal to some over the multi-part fuselage of the other new kit.  Detail seems good throughout, although some of the finer stuff is absent to an extent, such as the riveting around the wing strakes, in the wheel bay, and the lack of separate blow-in doors on the nose sides.  There are other positives that outweigh these minor issues however, such as a more detailed canopy interior, and the lack of a few extraneous surface details that were visible on the other contender.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The nose gear bay is built up first with its gear leg captive from the outset, which I find a little inconvenient, but if you leave off the yoke and wheel, the rest is sturdy enough to survive the build, unless you are really clumsy (like me).  Following on close behind is the cockpit, which assembles around a tub part, with a nicely detailed seat, side consoles and sidewalls, plus decals for the consoles and the instrument panel.  The exhaust is made up from a number of cylinders and has nice detail, as is the intake bullet with its radome and bright green finish.  All these assemblies are inserted into the fuselage as it is closed up, leaving you with a long tube onto which you add the strakes, centreline pylon, sensors and eventually the tail, which has two halves and a moulded-in rudder, but separate blade antennae on each side.  This fits in on two pegs, with the elevators using the same method, and the host of intakes that litter the fuselage sides all nestle into their own positions on the port, with their outlines raised on the surface.  The inner wing panels are next, with the correct thickness obtained by inserting the one-piece wheel bay sidewalls between the halves, which have the bay roof detail (minus copious rivets) moulded into the upper skin.  Strakes and pylons are also added, as are the main gear, which can be left off until later, having a peg/hole fit, two-part hub and those rubber tyres that I'm not all that keen on for no discernible reason.  These glue to the fuselage sides with two large pegs fitting into corresponding holes to keep everything aligned.  A chaffe and flare dispenser is scabbed onto the rear fuselage on the starboard side, and attention shifts to the outer wing panels.

 

 

 

(Specially for Gabor)

 

The outer wings rotate to perform the variable geometry role, and each one has separate slats and ailerons, plus a clear navigation light at the very tip.  You use one set of panels for swept configuration, the alternative set showing them in their fully extended low-speed configuration, which is a neat idea, with the same pin/hole fitting between the inner and outer sections.

 

 

The cockpit needs a coaming, which is built up to include the HUD, which has two clear parts, the display element supported by angled styrene parts.  More sensors are added around the nose with PE parts, and the styrene pitot is further detailed with more small PE parts that have tiny slots into which they fit, making for a more robust finished item than you would initially expect.  Take some care in aligning everything, and it will look good.  The canopy is in two parts, with separate windscreen and canopy, the latter having a combined PE and styrene insert that adds a level of detail that is more pleasing to the eye than simple clear styrene alone.  As a bonus, you get a tow-bar with the kit, which is quite detailed, with plenty of parts to add a little more interest to your finished model.

 

Weapons

Hobby Boss aren't known for being stingy with these, and as you'd expect there are plenty to choose from on a number of sprues, as you see fit.  As always, check your references for likely load-outs if you are going for accuracy, or slap them all on if not.  It's your choice!

 

12 x AB-100 Iron bombs on 2 x MER

2 x AB-250 Iron bombs

2 x FAB-500 Iron bombs

2 x S-24B on adapter rails

2 x R-60MK on adapter rails

2 x B-13L rocket pods

2 x B-8M rocket pods

4 x Fuel Tanks

 

 

 

The back page of the instruction booklet shows the pylon positions of the various options, but as above, check things over before you proceed.  Stencil locations are shown on a separate colour page, with positions and colours all called out.

 

 

Markings

 

Hobby Boss often supply only one option with their kits, but this one has two, and they have even documented which airframes and timescales they relate to, which is good to see.   The decals are printed in house, and are of good quality, although some of the stencils are illegible for one reason or another.  The other decals are in register with good colour density and adequate sharpness, although the yellow seems a little pale to my eyes.  If ultimate detail appeals, you could supplant the kit details with some stencils from your favourite aftermarket decal company, but as a lot of folks don't relish the thought of adding hundreds of tiny decals, it shouldn't be seen as mandatory!  As usual with Hobby Boss, the colours are given in Mr Hobby, Vallejo, Model Master, Tamiya and Humbrol numbers, with a few gaps in the non Mr-Hobby ranges that will require a bit of research to fill.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• Su-17M4 Yellow 27, 20th GvAPIB, Templin (Gross Dölln) Air Base, April 5, 1994.
• Su-17M4R, 886th ORAP, Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, December 1998.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

Hobby Boss's Russian aircraft are often better than their western kits, with the FAA kits of a few years back being the major exception.  I expect this kit to build up pretty easily with no real fit issues due to the relatively simple breakdown of parts, and with a little access to my references, as well as our Walkaround, it does a good job of convincing me that it is reasonably good shapewise, but it is always a bit tricky to make statements like that without first building the kit.  I'd have preferred a bit more detail, but it's nothing too major, and if you have some Archer 3D rivets you could have the missing rivets done in a modelling session.  The captive rudder shouldn't be too difficult to liberate from the fin if you are minded, but remember to leave the bullet at the bottom attached to the fin if you do.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[Antoine]

Thanks Mike.

And mention spéciale for the profiles!

[pommie commie]

I think the Bagram one should be from 1988?

 

 

[Mike]

14 hours ago, Antoine said:

Thanks Mike.

And mention spéciale for the profiles!

 

Your fault! You moaning at me made me start doing them more frequently.

 

12 hours ago, pommie commie said:

I think the Bagram one should be from 1988?

 

Definitely says 1998 on the instructions (I went back to check), so I guess that's a typo on their part that I've just repeated? At least we know now

[Antoine]

On 25/07/2017 at 0:32 PM, Mike said:

 

Your fault! You moaning at me made me start doing them more frequently.

 

That's you encouraging me to moan, then?

[Mike]

4 minutes ago, Antoine said:

 

That's you encouraging me to moan, then?

 

or... nagging, as we generally call it.  Nagging only works on me when I think it has merit though, so if you keep asking for a banana for scale in every pic, it'll never happen

[exdraken]

Nice review, thanks!

[Antoine]

On 26/07/2017 at 6:55 PM, Mike said:

 

or... nagging, as we generally call it.  Nagging only works on me when I think it has merit though, so if you keep asking for a banana for scale in every pic, it'll never happen

 

No way, I don't like banana.

 

Still, I've a problem.

After re-reading both reviews, I can't make a choice between the two kits.

I see quite clearly a solution there, buying both of them!

And there are some chances that it will happen.

But, let's suppose that I've only one budgeted, what would be your advice (appart going to ... you know what)?

[Mike]

Phew... I'm still not decided TBH.  I'm giving one to a mate and keeping the other to build one day when they've invented the immortality machine, and even having them both on hand at once doesn't give me a decisive favourite.  I'll probably just toss a coin in the end

[Antoine]

You really want me to buy the two, then?

[Mike]

in an ideal world, we'd all have two If you wanted one and still can't decide, how about looking at the price comparison, and if that's not decisive, then consider which one will be the easier build.  While you can't say that HB kits build easily absolutely all the time, they do have a preponderance of easily assembled kits in general.

[Antoine]

I've a preference about accuracy over easy build, or even price, at least if there isn't a real gap here (I see a difference of about 15€ in favour of HB at my LHS...).

I'll also check the weapons provided in each boxes.

In fact, I really need to re-read both reviews, but whatever, I foresee this finishing with buying KH M3/M4 and HB UM3.

Let's hope you'll have this last one to review, too.