Jump to content

1/48 Sukhoi Su-25K Frogfoot-A, Kovozávody Prostějov


Recommended Posts

Good evening.

 

I am starting a new thread to present my latest build. It's a Su-25K in 1/48th from Kovozávody Prostějov.

 

There is going to be a blog post about that very build on my blog, which means that most of the text and photos in this thread will be the same as in the blog. Any discussions, questions and answers will obviously only be available here, I will not copy them to the blog.

 

Usually before I buy a kit, I look for reviews and builds online, to get an idea about what I should be expecting. This time, however, I wasn't able to find much information about this particular kit, so I decided to do a build review instead of just a build.

 

So, the kit is this one (click on the image to go to Scalemates where they present the kit)

1125345-12741-20-720.jpg

It comprises 5 sprues in grey plastic with decent surface detail on the wings and fuselage, one tree with clear parts, a fret of photo-etched metal and decals. At the moment I have no clue about how the several parts go together, we’ll figure that out further down the way. Right now I can only say that the smaller parts (ejection seat, cockpit tub etc) aren’t very rich in detail. I apologise by the way for posting pictures of some parts already off their sprues, but I decided to write this review only after I began building the kit.

IMG-20200727-191745.jpg IMG-20200727-191849.jpg IMG-20200727-191546.jpg IMG-20200727-191555.jpg IMG-20200725-220421.jpg IMG-20200725-220410.jpg IMG-20200725-220400.jpg IMG-20200725-220336.jpg IMG-20200725-220328.jpg IMG-20200725-220309.jpg IMG-20200725-220258.jpg IMG-20200725-220232.jpg IMG-20200725-220222.jpg IMG-20200725-220207.jpg IMG-20200725-220140.jpg IMG-20200725-220113.jpg

 

I recon that the instructions leaflet isn't very widely available on the net, which is why I scanned it. You can download it here: KPM4805_Su-25K_Frogfoot.

 

The construction begins with the seat. KP’s representation of the NPP Zvezda K-36 ejection seat is very… conceptual, to say the least. Sure, they’ve made an effort, including photo-etched parts, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

IMG-20200725-220656.jpg

 

At first I thought about giving it a shot but my patience is limited, so I opted for a resin replacement instead. Leaving it aside, I moved on to the cockpit itself.

 

It is built up by a total of 10 parts (if I count correctly): One for the floor, one for the back, two for the side consoles and the floor walls, two for the insides of the fuselage walls with some switches and other controls, the main instrument panel in PE, the stick column and the pedals. Quite an impressive break-down of parts, in theory. In practice, very few parts fit well together and to make matters worse, the shape of the parts differs a lot between the drawing and the actual plastic.

 

The floor has etched outlines marking where the seat and the cockpit walls should go. If you glue these carefully, they almost match the outlines. Then you’d assume that the back panel would be a simple fit. But you’d be mistaken. There’s a slope on the right side that almost follows the same angle as the back should have. But the left side is totally perpendicular to the floor, leaving a trapezoid gap between itself, the floor and the back. Now, I haven’t exactly checked my references on Su-25 (I have none), but I am guessing that it shouldn’t look like this. Then again, it can be so in the real plane as well. Might be an opening for the cat to go out and play, for example, just like some suburban houses have small openings at the lower panel of the backdoor to the garden. What do I know?

 

But this kit’s irony doesn’t end there. Try to glue the instrument side walls and you’ll notice that there is only one way to do it: Glue them on the detail of the side consoles. And if that isn’t enough, the right wall doesn’t even fit. Not even close.

 

IMG-20200725-220741.jpg IMG-20200725-220525.jpg

 

So, at this point I simply gave up and ordered a resin cockpit. This is why I wrote that I thought that the kit was inexpensive. But if you add the cost for the aftermarket parts, which in a way are necessary, if you want to build a decent model, then the price tab is a bit higher. But it still costs less than ⅓ of a Tamiya F-14 in same scale.

 

While waiting for the resin parts, I decide to tackle the rest of the steps that I could, without closing the fuselage halves. There’s still a lot of work to do, most of which is preparations, since the parts comprising the model are few. But all of them require careful removing from the sprue trees, cleaning and filing and at times removing the flash. I joined the wing halves, vertical stabiliser, nose gear strut (yes, it comes also in two parts, unknown why) and prepared the fuselage halves and the engine pods. A dry fit shows that the parts go together quite well. It’s true though that the recessed panel lines don’t exactly align when the fuselage halves come together. And that can be a pain to fix. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

 

I also prepared the main landing gear. Filling and sanding was required there too. Each strut of the main gear consists of 6 parts and gluing them together is a really exciting challenge, because there are no location guides whatsoever and the instructions are a bit… liberal, to say the least. I did my best there, we’ll see how it will go when it’s time to glue them in place. The landing gear was painted in Tamiya XF-19 Sky grey, which is most probably the wrong colour, but I couldn’t be bothered more.

In the meantime I was also working on the “engines”, which consist of 5 parts each. There’s not much to be said here really, apart from the fact that the green paint (Tamiya XF-58 Olive green) which I used for the cones is also wrong. It’s the same colour that I used to paint the wheel rims. I also decided to add a bit of detail on the landing gear bay doors. This didn't exactly turned out the way I had hoped it would, but who cares, really? :)

 

IMG-20200727-203130.jpg IMG-20200728-212930.jpg IMG-20200727-201654.jpg IMG-20200727-062228.jpg IMG-20200726-223519.jpg IMG-20200726-095934.jpg IMG-20200726-095919.jpg IMG-20200726-094421.jpg

 

In the mean time, the resin parts arrived: It was a complete cockpit set from Pavla Models (PAVC48002) and the control column and pedals from QuickBoost (QB48722) Because Pavla's is totally horrible, worse than the kit's.

IMG-20200805-212008.jpg IMG-20200805-212035.jpg IMG-20200805-211941.jpg IMG-20200805-211935.jpg IMG-20200805-183222.jpg IMG-20200805-183237.jpg IMG-20200805-183148.jpg IMG-20200805-183139.jpg

 

Generally I have to say that Pavla's set left me with a mixed impression. The cockpit back is clearly much better than the kit's but the side consoles and the cockpit walls aren't really better. I decided to use the kit's cockpit walls and photo-etched instrument panel and everything else from Pavla.

 

Last but not least, the armament.

KP's weapons aren't very elegant in their representation. But I had kept the weapon sprues from KittyHawk's Su-17 and I think I will use them instead:

IMG-20200805-211947.jpg IMG-20200805-211954.jpg

 

This is it for tonight.

Thank you all for your interest. I will try to continue posting detailed (and possibly boring) messages here, to make a thorough presentation.  I hope I won't bore you too much.

 

Until the next post, take care of yourselves!

 

 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you so much. It's a build that will challenge my patience. Not difficult or very demanding, but needs patience to get it right. And lower expectations, compared to what one has with a tamiya kit. I'm enjoying it so far, we'll see how it turns out in the end.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice intro and start. I have set of KP Frogfoots single and two seater versions. I was assuming that KP kits should not be too bad because Eduard has reboxed this kit. But definetely Revell Frogfoot has better details than KP one.

Serkan

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 07/08/2020 at 20:41, Serkan Sen said:

Nice intro and start. I have set of KP Frogfoots single and two seater versions. I was assuming that KP kits should not be too bad because Eduard has reboxed this kit. But definetely Revell Frogfoot has better details than KP one.

Serkan

The Eduard reboxing addresses many of the KP-issues. I've downloaded the instructions from eduard and have seen that they offer many PE parts that replace the rougher plastic bits of the kit, adding plenty of fine detail. But I thought that Edward's kit was a bit too expensive for me at this particular moment, so I went for the cheaper KP instead. I might give Eduard a try next year. For the time being I've bought all the models and accessories that my budget justifies for 2020. :)

 

I hope I'll be able to get some bench time tonight and prime the cockpit, so that I can show some progress before my holidays. :)

 

Thank you all for your interest in my build.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Next Frogfoot,I'm too happy!!!

The KP model is the last reincarnation of the OEZ Letohrad model from 1990.u But it is still the best model, Revell-Monogram is just a caricature.

ResinArt produces a detailed set with a new cabin of the right shape and, of course, Eduard, make that model a real Su-25.

Kitty Hawk armament has bad dimensions,HobbyBoss is better.

If you have any questions, write to me. Frogfoot is my love, I started working on it in October 1989. 🙂

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Oh gee, it's actually been two months and ten days since I posted the presentation of this kit. It may seem like I've totally forgotten the little frogfoot, but I didn't, I've been working on it and taking pictures, I just didn't post anything. But let's take things in the right order.

 

On 14/09/2020 at 11:50, harvy5 said:

Next Frogfoot,I'm too happy!!!

The KP model is the last reincarnation of the OEZ Letohrad model from 1990.u But it is still the best model, Revell-Monogram is just a caricature.

ResinArt produces a detailed set with a new cabin of the right shape and, of course, Eduard, make that model a real Su-25.

Kitty Hawk armament has bad dimensions,HobbyBoss is better.

If you have any questions, write to me. Frogfoot is my love, I started working on it in October 1989. 🙂

 

@harvy5

Thank you for your kind offer. Your build of the 1/32nd Su-25 was my inspiration.

I didn't know that KH armament is so wrong, but I trust your knowledge on the matter. They were however the only ones I have and their detail is much better than KP's, so I think I will use them, or at least a combination. I got very fond of this little aircraft while building this kit, but I still consider it a fairly "rough" model, which in my mind doesn't justify paying more money on after market parts than the cost of the kit itself. Depending on my mood in the future, I might consider buying the Eduard one, in which case I will be more ambitious. But right now, I only want to see it finished. :)

 

So, back to the build.

I think KP's kit is the worst I've built in my adult life. I thought Special Hobby's T-2 was a pain in the butt, but the Su-25 is..... I mean, it's hard to describe this with words. Let's let the photos speak for themselves:

 

Starting at the cockpit:

IMG-20200811-173105.jpg IMG-20200914-212804.jpg  IMG-20200923-225255.jpg


First off, you can see all the different parts, both plastic and resin. I chose the resin floor, side consoles and back (one piece) and the rest comes from the kit, because the detail was more pronounced. The stick and ejection seat are also resin and so is the part over the main instrument panel. The instrument panel itself is PE and is included in the kit.

Fitting everything together DIDN'T go without a fight. Haha! But in the end, painted and weathered, it looks quite ok for me. I was satisfied and moved on.

 

Next step was to put together the two fuselage halves.

The word "together" is wishful thinking, as I seriously doubt that these two parts come from the same kit. 😄

IMG-20200926-210551.jpg IMG-20200926-210525.jpg IMG-20200926-210515.jpg IMG-20200926-204710.jpg IMG-20200926-204656.jpg IMG-20200924-223519.jpg

 

I gave up all the hopes of saving the surface detail of the kit when I saw the level of fit. Filling the gaps with just putty wasn't an option either. So I took styrene sheets , CA-glue and of course model putty and tried to address the issues.

IMG-20200929-211141.jpg IMG-20200929-211121.jpg  IMG-20200927-224206.jpg  IMG-20200926-212629.jpg

 

After many hours and lots of /&"(/¤!¤)("#¤!, the kit looked like this:
IMG-20201004-084833.jpg  IMG-20200926-213851.jpg

 

Then I decided to improve some small details, the things that I believed I could easily fix.

These two fins  under the wingtips are extremely thick. I trashed the kit parts and cut copper sheet to replace them. I also carved the insides of three small air intakes, one at the base of the fin and two on the engines, because the kit parts looked more like bricks than air intakes. The third improvement was to replace the grips on and behind the canopy. They are a bit oversized still, but I think they look better than the kit parts.

IMG-20201004-084932.jpg IMG-20201003-222052.jpg IMG-20201003-221931.jpg IMG-20201003-110825.jpg IMG-20201003-092350.jpg

 

I also replaced those little "wings" that the external fuel tanks have (I understand that they aren't called wings, but I'm too tired now to try to find the right word) with others made of styrene sheet and painted the seat and landing gear struts, where I added metal wire in order to represent something resembling hydraulic tubes for the breaks. Doesn't look very convincing, but I didn't care much.

IMG-20201010-223736.jpg IMG-20201010-161232.jpg IMG-20201009-221011.jpg IMG-20201004-090155.jpg IMG-20201004-085707.jpg

 

And after all that, I started painting.

I primed the whole model with Alclad black primer and then painted with Gunze and Tamiya.

IMG-20201017-214855.jpg IMG-20201017-214827.jpg IMG-20201014-185325.jpg

 

That's it so far, gentlemen. Thank you for coming by and taking a look.

Good night to all. :)

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice work,and in North Korea camo😀!!!

Remove air intakes from eng.nozzles. They weren't there. And the one from the right nozzle, you can use to intake the air conditioning on the R engine.

This is may be to help in finishing. https://ulozto.sk/folder/fpfD7sUp5Xjt

North Korean Frogfoots are from 10th series in Export version. You can do the final details according to Walkaround 1007 and 1027

 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Harvy!

 

Thank you for your feedback. I am afraid I read your answer a bit too late. The model is painted with decals applied which makes corrections slightly unlikely to happen.

That's ok though, since I build two kinds of models: The ones I am satisfied with and really like, that end up in the display case, and those I build just for fun, which I either give away, take with me to work where I turn them into paper weight or I simply keep them home and decorate all sorts of shelves and other places, where they gather dust. This Su-25 will be of the latter type. I am glad I am finishing it, like I said (and I will probably repeat again in the future), it was the worst kit I've ever built in my life I think. Apart from all the construction issues, which I kind of understand and to an extent accept from a short-run kit, what makes this model totally frustrating is its instructions, which pretty much require you to be a clairvoyant in order to guess where to put each part, and especially where to place the (horrible) decals! I guess these aren't issues for you, since you know the aircraft like the inside of your palm, but for me, it was a heck of a journey! Haha.

 

But I will keep an eye on a GWH or a Kitty Hawk Su-25, and if the price is reasonable, I will definitely buy one.

 

Thank you very much for the photos as well. I am keeping these for future reference. :)

 

And with all that said, here's what the model looks like now:

IMG-20201026-220416.jpg IMG-20201025-210054.jpg

 

I am including the second photo, to show something amazing... Haha.

 

You see the hand-written number 43 on one of the doors and traces of another number on the other?

This is a very common practice of mine, to write part numbers on the parts, after I've removed them from the sprues. I always use the same marker and have never had problems before.

This time I wrote the numbers, primed with alclad black primer, painted with Tamiya, applied gloss varnish from a spray can and then the decals. Two weeks have passed between the alclad primer that covered the marker and the decals. And the marker only showed up AFTER I used the decal softener!!! How amazing is that? Hahaha!

But like I said, I don't care. It's just funny to see all the crazy things that suddenly can happen to a model. :)

 

Good night to all. :)

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/26/2020 at 10:23 PM, nasosrr said:

Hello Harvy!

 

Thank you for your feedback. I am afraid I read your answer a bit too late. The model is painted with decals applied which makes corrections slightly unlikely to happen.

That's ok though, since I build two kinds of models: The ones I am satisfied with and really like, that end up in the display case, and those I build just for fun, which I either give away, take with me to work where I turn them into paper weight or I simply keep them home and decorate all sorts of shelves and other places, where they gather dust. This Su-25 will be of the latter type. I am glad I am finishing it, like I said (and I will probably repeat again in the future), it was the worst kit I've ever built in my life I think. Apart from all the construction issues, which I kind of understand and to an extent accept from a short-run kit, what makes this model totally frustrating is its instructions, which pretty much require you to be a clairvoyant in order to guess where to put each part, and especially where to place the (horrible) decals! I guess these aren't issues for you, since you know the aircraft like the inside of your palm, but for me, it was a heck of a journey! Haha.

 

But I will keep an eye on a GWH or a Kitty Hawk Su-25, and if the price is reasonable, I will definitely buy one.

 

Thank you very much for the photos as well. I am keeping these for future reference. :)

 

And with all that said, here's what the model looks like now:

IMG-20201026-220416.jpg IMG-20201025-210054.jpg

 

I am including the second photo, to show something amazing... Haha.

 

You see the hand-written number 43 on one of the doors and traces of another number on the other?

This is a very common practice of mine, to write part numbers on the parts, after I've removed them from the sprues. I always use the same marker and have never had problems before.

This time I wrote the numbers, primed with alclad black primer, painted with Tamiya, applied gloss varnish from a spray can and then the decals. Two weeks have passed between the alclad primer that covered the marker and the decals. And the marker only showed up AFTER I used the decal softener!!! How amazing is that? Hahaha!

But like I said, I don't care. It's just funny to see all the crazy things that suddenly can happen to a model. :)

 

Good night to all. :)

This weekend I returned to Slovakia after 8 years, and I was looking at this model in Shop. The instructions are terrible. Mix of all versions. Added what should not be there, removed what was OK.It's definitely not a version of the Su-25K . 

Therefore, congratulations on a nice model. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Greetings all! (I believe it's too early for "season's greetings", so I'm moving on).

 

I've completed this model, without crushing it with a hammer! You don't know me in person, so you probably don't appreciate the greatness of this achievement. Haha!

 

A few words before I post the photos:

 

This one was EASILY the ABSOLUTELY. WORST. MODEL. I'VE EVER. BUILT!!! Hands down. Yeah, it's true, I'm lazy and I usually don't go for such models, but boy, what a challenge it was to not throw it against the wall!!!

So, you can imagine that as soon as it could be considered "complete", I wasn't exactly keen on spending more time on it.

 

A few details: As soon as the model could stand on its legs it was obvious that it didn't want to do it and particularly on its nose gear. Nowhere in the instructions could I see a warning about this and I usually don't add unnecessary weight in my models "just in case", because I don't want to stress the landing gear. The solution was to drill a hole right in front of the windshield and fill it with "ballast", haha. And then I had to cover it somehow, which I did with a "canvas" I made from milliput.

 

Oh, and I got creative enough to want to try the "salt technique" on it, which turned out to be VEEEERY unrealistic. Haha.

But I don't care, I've built a cute paper-weight and I know it. It hasn't even gone in my display, I've placed it on a shelf where it can gather all the dust it wants. Haha!

 

So, how about that Kitty-Hawk Su-25? Is it any good? When will it be released? :)

 

Have a nice Sunday all.

 

IMG-20201101-132656.jpg IMG-20201108-080046.jpg IMG-20201108-080051.jpg IMG-20201108-080108.jpg IMG-20201108-080114.jpg IMG-20201109-123032.jpg IMG-20201118-230205.jpg IMG-20201119-101630.jpg IMG-20201126-141836.jpg IMG-20201126-141852.jpg IMG-20201126-141910.jpg IMG-20201126-141926.jpg IMG-20201126-142212.jpg IMG-20201126-142234.jpg IMG-20201126-142254.jpg IMG-20201126-142517.jpg

Edited by nasosrr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...