Sukhoi Su-1 1/72 Amodel In-box Review

 

Su-1 was the first in line of Pavel Sukhoi’s fighters. It was built at the Kharkov aircraft factory (Ukraine). Su-1 made its first flight on 15 June 1940. During the tests Su-1 reached 641 km/h speed at 10000m attitude - it was a prototype of new high attitude fighter.

Let’s have a look in the box of the new kit from Amodel. There are 3 sprues of grey plastic and one with clear injected canopy. The quality of molds is quite good for short-run technology, with little flash. But you will have to replace many of little parts like wheels or cockpit detailing.

The box.

Instructions and decal for one option.

Sprues.

Close-up. Note a really good fabric imitation.

Engraved panel lines are, in my opinion, a little bit too thick.

Another close-up. Wheels definitely have to be replaced with aftermarket.

Canopy. It is not bad, but I will make a vacu one.

BOK-5, 1/72, Scratchbuild (in progress)

This project is unusual. The fuselage of this model is completely made of foil sheets. Here is a link to HyperScale discussion with some more photos. http://www.network54.com/Forum/47751/message/1290080920/Scratchbuild+BOK-5+1-72+in+progress

U7, 1/350, Scratchbuild (in progress)

Today I made a review of my in-progress projects (it is truly sad, but I have a lot of them) in search in search of one or two of them that I can complete in these last days of 2010.
The first one is a German WW I submarine U7. Scratchbuild, of course.

T-50, 1/72, Scratchbuild

This light tank was developed in Soviet Union right before the WW II. T-50’s were produced only in small numbers.
The model was build five years ago from the scratch using the drawings from Russian “Modelist-Konstruktor” magazine. Now I’m making a little diorama with it.

Cheranovsky BiCh-20 “Pioner” and BiCh-21 (SG-1), 1/72, Scratchbuild

Boris Cheranovsky is not as good known among Soviet aircraft constructors as, for example, Sukhoy, Mikoyan or Tupolev, but his works take significant place in history of soviet aviation. Cheranovsky was a pioneer in building soviet “flying wings”. At the beginning of the 1920-th he proposed “Vitalia” plane project. This was a flying wing of parabolic shape. Lately it became his favorite scheme.
This idea was realized in BICH-1 and BICH-2 gliders. In 1924 BICH-2 performed about 30 successful flights at Koktebel airfield in Crimea. But first engine-powered plane BICH-3 had many troubles during tests. Stability problems were solved on BICH-20 “Pioneer”. Next Cheranovsky’s project was a race plane BICH-21. It has another name – СГ-1 (“Race Plane-1”). BICH-21 was build at the end of 1939 for future soviet sport air race of light aircrafts. Tests were held up to summer of 1941.
The article about building these models will be published in Panorama magazine (Austria).

Moskalyov SAM-9 Strela, 1/72, Scratchbuild

First soviet plane with delta wing. Test flights – 1937 year. Model was build from scratch in 2006. Or, maybe, in 2005 – I don’t remember exactly. There are rumors that soon we will have resin kit of this plane from Prop&Jet.

U-997, 1/350, Flagman

One of my latest models. I build it from Flagman kit. They produce three versions of VII type submarines. In my opinion, they are the best in 1/350 scale. Main disadvantage is unifications of main parts. I had to re-shape nose and stern with Tamiya Epoxy Putty.

Artillery, antennas and railings were made from scratch.


I liked camouflage of U-997. After rather long research I have found a photo of her where camouflage is definitely visible. I painted the model by hand with airbrush and added some weathering.