KittyHawk 1/48 Su-35S Flanker by Peter Marshall
I
f you like Flanker variants
in 48th scale, then the last
year or so has been very kind
to me...I mean you, of course...
the Kinetic Su-33, the HobbyBoss
and KittyHawk Su-34s, and now
we have the KittyHawk Su-35S.
On opening the compact box
there are eight sprues of pale grey
plastic, one clear sprue, and a small
sheet of etched brass. The upper and
lower fuselage halves are supplied
as two large pieces, and there is a
rather nice-looking instruction
booklet and three decal sheets.
Four of the main sprues are
devoted to weapons, accounting for
about 430 of the total part count.
The clear sprue has a two-part
canopy (which is a little thick, is
certainly not crystal clear, and has a
seam down the middle) and various
small lights and HUD parts. A lot
of the parts that you might expect
to be made up from two halves,like the horizontal and vertical
tails, the rudders, and the front
and rear wing flaps, are moulded
instead as a large single part.
The detailing on the plastic
looks good, the surface is smooth,
and the details (on the whole) are
sharp but restrained. In a few places
it goes a bit thin (the underside of
the engine nacelles is particularly
noticeable), and there a few bits of
flash and a lot of ejector pins that
need addressing, but overall it’s ok.THE BUILD
Stage 1 covers the cockpit, which
consists of a multipart ejector
seat, 14 or 15 other parts, some
etched belts, and a reasonable
cockpit tub with some good side
console and instrument panel
details. These look like they have
enough relief that even I have
a chance of painting them.FLANKER
A Splintered
14 • SEPTEMBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
BY SACCO DE VRIES
SU-35S FLANKER
BY PETER MARSHALL
1/014-21-FEAT-Flanker-0918.indd 14 16/08/2018 17: