OEZ N02 1/48 Sukhoi-7 BMK
by [b]Ahson Aftab[/b]
The Su-7 has long been a favorite of mine, just like all the 50's and 60's era jets of the Soviet Union and the U.S. The kit was an OEZ N02 in 1/48 scale, made in Czech Republic. Upon opening the box I was much pleased with the contents and the gigantic size of the parts. There were literally more than a hundred parts, 120 to be exact! The basic shape of the fuselage sections is good with all the panel lines clearly visible and accurate. I compared the wing halves and fuselage halves to the plans shown in the squadron signal 'In action' series and besides a few minor discrepancies, amazingly they were all pretty much accurate with the sole exception of the wing thickness! The wing halves when put together come out a bit too thick. Any way the kit consisted of several different warloads and ordnance options for the aircraft. Their were two UB-16 Rocket pods, Four of the 200 Kg Rocket like projectiles, two 1100lb bombs as well as two of the belly tanks. A boarding ladder is also included. I am going to have to admit that the kit is no Hasegawa/ Tamiya or even an academy quality kit, It just isn't crisp. It is almost my duty to report to you guys that the plastic is a little too thick, especially on the fuselage halves! The other problem I found was the surface details such as panel lines rivets etc, are not as pronounced and vivid as you will find in the above mentioned Japanese kits. These problems can be fixed though with a little work. You can almost certainly rescribe some of the inaccurate panel lines.
Moving on, the kit could be built in either the SU-7 BKL (unfortunately the native version) or the SU-7 BMK the export variant, that I chose to build. That's when I ran into a brick wall! The bulges on the lower part of the main under carriage wheel wells had to be removed. This was a dangerous proposition. Nevertheless the extremely unclear and vague instructions, which by the way are probably the worst I have ever seen, instruct you to cut the bulges! Yeah sure? After shelving the project for a few days and thinking over it. I found that the best solution was to sand them down using the good old DREMEL tool with its infinite attachments. This worked out perfectly and I sanded those suckers down to the level of the main fuselage level. With the help of some Squadron putty I was back on track! When I proceeded to join the fuselage halves together I had done a good 1/2-hour worth of sanding. The burner can is a gigantic cylinder and I sprayed it before hand, inside and out with the regular burnt metal mix. The cockpit is a fairly accurate mix of pieces. The various gauges and switches depicted are fairly accurate, but you pay the price for getting artistic when you have to do research on your own. A great place was Jim Duffy's museum Fitters, at www.victorymodels.com.
With the exception of the ejection seat, which guys once again sucks! It is way too oversize. With the exception of the headrest the thing is too big. A good place to start would be to get an after market SK-1 or it’s like which the SU-7 carried. These things are readily available these days anywhere from Martin Baker to the Lockheed C-1/ C-2, KK-1/ KK-2, K-36 etc and believe it or not they are super high detail. All are available in 1/48 or even 1/72 scales. Any way I kept my lazy boy and proceeded with the fuselage assembly/joining part. The fuselage went together smoothly, but a note of caution here was to be careful of the alignment and orientation of the conical shock cone assembly. I super-glued an over size nut in the back of the cockpit firewall/ bulkhead to act as a counter weight. One should be careful at this juncture since they can place the shock cone in or out too much with regards to the opening/ Intake. Once the fuselage was together the rest of the aircraft went together very easily and is fairly well engineered. The next thing for me was once again running into a Concrete wall this time. Yep that's right! I must have built 4 aircraft in the all metal/ natural metal finish. This time it had to have a killer/ bizarre scheme. After doing some net surfing for a few days I realized that the Indian Fitters in the two tone something were real killers! I mean literally they just stuck out of the crowd of fitters. I would recommend a site called Americo Maia's OKB MIG/ SUKHOI colors and markings, also at the victory models site, under links. It is a great resource on Russian aircraft modeling. The guy has practically every camo scheme used by almost all users every where. There I saw which caught my eye, the two tone Indian Airforce variant. I was suspicious of the colors first so I contacted him and he said well the computer colors are a little off. The real deal is that the lighter one is Humbrol 118, and the darker one is Humbrol 98 or chocolate Brown. I was still not convinced since the aircraft picture is no where to be found.
Then I contacted Rupak and Jagan at Bharat Rakshak, and to my delight it was the right combination. Any way I painted the plane, which went smoothly. Rescribed, the now paint coated panel lines and proceeded with the rest of the assembly. In the end a good coat of Testors Semi Gloss Clear Cote, and I proceeded to put on the decals. The Kit comes with an Indian variant, the popular B817 in the three-tone scheme. I instead cut the tactical # into B871 in the hopes that any thing but B817! That is a popular plane depicted in several aircraft books and magazines. The undercarriage was attached and so were the various stores. At $15 this was really a bargain kit. I don’t recommend it for the inexperienced. Deciphering the vague instructions and the general lack of resources for the SU-7 are all too troubling. The puzzling part was the Humbrol 98. Although it is denoted chocolate, It is really a dark-gray/ dark-Green/ dark brown mix! Very bizarre indeed. It came out to be a truly unique model, and I wouldn't have done it with out help from Jagan, Rupak and Americo. Thanks to all for helping me accurize a rare subject.
Date: 08/25/2006
Owner: Webmaster
Size: 6 items
|