SebastianP

The flight lead in the box art has the ECM antennas on the intake corners that were deleted on the SM, so maybe it's just the same jet pre-modernization? Remember, a lot of the Su-27SM jets are rebuilds, not new manufacture.

Every Hasegawa 1/48 "F-15E" prior to the 2010 boxing (the current white box) had the old CFTs, up to and including the Ace Combat/idolm@ster special release from 2009. In 1/72, it continued a couple of years longer, and the first kit with new CFTs was the F-15I "Ra'am". In other words, you don't need to go *that* far back to find one with CFTs more suited to an F-15C. Also, Hasegawa has released the 1/72 kit as a single-seater with CFTs at least once, in the form of the "57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" boxing from 2013, though that kit didn't include the bomb sprue that holds

That's for an 1/48 scale kit (haven't checked which one), it will definitely not fit this one. Also, at the moment the only kind of aftermarket products I'd expect to even fit this kit would be weapons, since it can most likely be safely assumed that it will have the same stores stations as the Su-33 and Su-27SM kits, anything else is pretty much up in the air at this point, especially since the Su-27UB twin-seater isn't out yet AFAIK.

Hasegawa includes the CFT hardpoints in all of their 1/48 Eagle kits - they're on the C runner, with the fuel tanks, missiles and tail surfaces. They also include the CFT hardpoints in all of their 1/72 Strike Eagle kits - in this case, they're on the H-runner, together with the MERs and the Rockeye bombs, which are still included even in the modern F-15E releases. I have no idea whether the CFTs included in the modern kits have the proper mounting holes for these hardpoints though, so aligning them might be a severe chore if you're starting from a new kit.

I'm going to cry in a corner for a bit and pretend that your model is 1/8 scale instead of 1/48... because that's what it will look like compared to my results I'm sure, and I haven't even started on mine yet.

This is fantastic news, I can't wait to get my hands on these. My only sorrow is that Zvezda molded the top half of their Su-33 in one piece instead of split like the Su-27SM (and most likely this kit) - it will probably take much more surgery than I'm willing to attempt to do a proper Tomcatski with a tandem cockpit and folding wings.... I do hope a non-canard Su-30 with the refuelling probe and offset IRST is in the cards at some point.

I'm pretty certain that all the paint the military uses is mixed more or less right before use, just like how your hardware store does it, and the "inspection" process likely goes something like "test spray the mixed paint, let dry, check against the paint chip in the big binder, and the officer in charge goes "close enough" and you can use it", for pretty much anything other than Have Glass paint and the like. It's inefficient as heck to cart around ready-made paint in the proper shades from the factory, especially when you need paint in the kind of quantities a military paint shed does, and

I don't think this is really the thread for posting wishlists and complaining about other kits. Let's stick to the actual topic, please? Such as, what are *the* most important things to remember while building this beastie? So far, I have the following on my "must buy" list: 1 - a package of assorted metal colors (for the exhausts and engine access panels) 2 - a package of assorted clear colors (for weathering of the above) 3 - the kit-specific masking set Optional extras: 4 - Begemot decal sheet 5 - Mr Paint Su-35S set

Thank you Matt, that puts a few things into perspective for sure. Also, after having reviewed the instructions for the Begemot decals, it looks like all of them are primarily for the early examples with the flare launchers on top of the stinger rather than the configuration that GWH offers, so I'd essentially have to use the kit instructions as my guide for the airframe specific markings anyway... It'll be a year or so before I have to worry about the decals anyway though, at the planned pace for the construction of this thing. 🙂

Thanks for the offer. I have no idea what options are even on the Begemot sheet right now, I was thinking of ordering one together with the masking set and figuring out which one to make after studying it for a bit. The kit decals doesn't even have the option to do the eggplant, so I wasn't considering it before, but if the Begemot sheet has it I'm going to have to think really hard on the matter. 🙂

Thanks for the tip. I'm thinking I'm probably going to be building up my supplies to tackle this over a few months before I start, I'm most likely also going to need to get the Begemot decal sheet given what happen to Matt from Doog's models, and I really need to get some better metallic paints than what I have. Right now though, I'm plain out of cash, as that kit ate my entire hobby budget for this month.

I had the extreme fortune of being able to pick up one of these kits at the local hobby show this weekend, together with a set of Ammo MIG colors for it. I thought I'd read enough reviews to know what to expect, but just seeing it in person (and being able to compare it with another builder's Kitty Hawk build) really made it apparent how much of a gem this kit is. I am probably in way over my head with this kit, but I'm going to take it really slow, contract out some of the bits I usually have trouble with (I'm handing the cockpit over to a friend who's painted a couple of thousan

I *think* so, though pictures of the actual APACHE missile, especially in live configuration, are apparently rare as hen's teeth and I haven't been able to find one yet. The only image I've been able to find of a definite APACHE missile is a flight test article in bright orange that's in a museum somewhere.

Other way around, the APACHE came first, and the SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow are based on the existing APACHE airframe. It's IIRC a lot easier to stick a single warhead in a missile originally designed to carry the same weight in cluster munitions than it is to fit cluster munitions into a weapon originally designed for a unitary warhead, which is the same reason why the JSOW cluster version came first.

If it's the original boxing of the Kitty Hawk kit (with the Russian Air Force decals), I'd save my money and go for the Great Wall Hobby kit, because it lacks the thrust-vectoring nozzles (they're just straight in the kit), and it has the upward-facing flare launchers on the tailboom, which will cost you more to fix than the difference up to the GWH kit. If it's the Chinese Air Force version of the Kitty Hawk kit, which comes with resin replacements for the exhausts and tailboom... I'd still save my money and go for the Great Wall Hobby kit, because the GWH kit looks like a much ea