Who makes a good 1/72 SU-22 kit?

[Big Kohona]

I won myself a real cool set of Aeromaster decals for this bird, but have no clue as to who makes a good / decent offering of this kit on 1/72. Any input is appreciated. TIA.

[Indra313]

IMO, Italeri is the best bet, but mine got the main gears went too deep in the fitting hole

[Laurent]

There are two 1/72 injected plastic toolings that I'm familiar with (I don't know about the Hobbycraft):

- Pantera (sold by Mastercraft, Eastern Express, SMER, etc): uneven panel lines, misaligned rivets (the guy who did the tooling was perhaps drunk), poorly detailed (cockpit, wheel wells), VG mecanism visible through wing wheel wells, fit problems (extremely poor wing/fuselage and pylons/wings fit), rubbery plastic (in the Mastercraft boxing I had), thick wings, not very accurate (the rear fuselage is a cross between a Lyulka or a Tumanskii equipped aircraft, no laser telemeter window on the nose cone, etc). Pics of my Su-17M3 (on which I've filled up the rivets): pic1, pic2.

- Bilek (sold by Italeri): panel lines not too sharp (à la Italeri), not too bad detailing, some fit problems (pylons/wings), thick wings, not very accurate (poor canopy+windscreen profile, fin intake). Pavla make a vacu canopy to improve the looks. I'm struggling with one: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....howtopic=209271 (the build is in "pause" mode since I have to work on the house in the evenings).

The Bilek/Italeri is the best kit but it requires a lot of work netherless. I hope that one day someone will release a Su-17/22 kit that looks like the real thing OOB.

Edited September 20, 2010 by Laurent

[Laurent]

IMO, Italeri is the best bet, but mine got the main gears went too deep in the fitting hole

The model sits on its ordnance ? I've cut up the landing gear legs so that I'll be able to extend them a bit.

[tiger331]

Good one?

NOBODY...

[Andre]

(I don't know about the Hobbycraft)

Trust me - you don't want to. Both the Pantera snd Bilek kits are Tamigawa compared to the Hobbycraft monstrosities.

Cheers,

Andre

[Indra313]

The model sits on its ordnance ? I've cut up the landing gear legs so that I'll be able to extend them a bit.

I did that too, still, the tail sits too low than it should be. (as if there will be no rotation during takeoff or landing)

[Kevan Vogler]

The old Hobbycraft kits were made well before the Iron Curtain came down and could be built into vague caricatures of something resembling an Su-17/20/22 hybrid. In short, you should charge a shop money to have you take those off their hands.

The Bilek/Italeri kit gets the job done, but it does have the aforementioned low sit issue with it's main landing gear to contend with. It was OK for it's time, but is showing it's age.

I'd really like to see someone like Zvezda or Amodel tool a new Fitter kit.

[Mark M.]

Good one?

NOBODY...

Amen!

I'd love to see this baby done justice in 72nd scale.

Did Kopro not also make one in 72nd? Or was that only 48th? I looked into it once then gave up in disgust at the quality of the options and limited selection.

Now, if they came out with Polish tiger meet markings I'd have to build it, just because that's awesome no matter how hard it is.

[PPT_Ranger]

Saving the HC Su-22 kits (or any ugly/bad kit) for my son when he is old enough to start building models rather than breaking them (he's 2 YO)

[Laurent]

Did Kopro not also make one in 72nd? Or was that only 48th?

48th only. I had it and sold it as I didn't like the canopy shape either.

[Mark M.]

It's an awesome looking airframe, regardless of actual use or capabilities (similar to the F-111, IMHO!), and what we need is a 1/72 scale kit with posable wings, decent gear wells, cockpit, speed brakes, the option to drop flaps and slats, with PE overwing strakes, and an optional 2-seater would be superbly cool.

I had read that the performance was too low for much Soviet use, so they exported it. Hence you find it in many other national markings. Apparently the swing wings added too much weight for the extra thrust to compensate for.

[172flogger]

There is fourth and rare injected plastic tooling from japanese brand GRIFFON:

http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&amp...griffon#p686344

A Griffon kit is best moulded but i don't know nothing about accuracy.

The No.01 Su-22M3 was probably the only kit from Griffon and No.02 Su-22M4 with alternative sprue was not released.

We still need a new accurate Su-17/22 kits with separate fuselages for the Lyuka-engined and Tumanski-engined versions.

How accurate was a russian resin Su-17 kit?

Griffon:

Edited September 21, 2010 by 172flogger

[Laurent]

There is fourth and rare injected plastic tooling from japanese brand GRIFFON:

http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&amp...griffon#p686344

A Griffon kit is best moulded but i don't know nothing about accuracy.

The No.01 Su-22M3 was probably the only kit from Griffon and No.02 Su-22M4 with alternative sprue was not released.

We still need a new accurate Su-17/22 kits with separate fuselages for the Lyuka-engined and Tumanski-engined versions.

How accurate was a russian resin Su-17 kit?

Griffon:

Interesting. Do you own the kit or did you find the photographs on the web (Ebay auction perhaps ?) ?

There were photographs of an old Hungarian (?) very short-run kit on Rumodelism I think but the site is down at the moment.

[172flogger]

Interesting. Do you own the kit or did you find the photographs on the web (Ebay auction perhaps ?) ?

There were photographs of an old Hungarian (?) very short-run kit on Rumodelism I think but the site is down at the moment.

Yes, i own this kit, but is lost somewhere in my kit stash

I will post camparing photos later. I also own crude and very old american LEOMAN resin kit.

Before some time i saw Su-17M3 shortrun or resin kit, probably from some Russian company, but i forgot company name.

[Rob de Bie]

Before some time i saw Su-17M3 shortrun or resin kit, probably from some Russian company, but i forgot company name.

I guess that was the YuMTK kit from Ukraine. I saw it years ago: injection molded, rough with lots of flash, and I believe the fuselage was broken down in several parts.

Rob