Manufacturer – Kitty Hawk
Kit Number – KH80141
Scale - 1/48
Price - ¥10,350 • US $97 • £73 • €83 from Hobbylink Japan
When Kitty Hawk fist announced that they were developing a kit of the Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback strike bomber, it caused quite a lot of interest, being as a subject that many modellers have been eager to see released. We've had to wait quite a while for it to arrive, and in the meantime, we've seen a rival offering released by Hobbyboss. But now Kitty Hawk's version is at long last hitting hobby store shelves, so we can finally see if the extra time they took tweaking the details has paid off.
Review: Zactomodels 48th scale Khibiny ECM Pods for Kitty Hawk/ HobbyBoss Su-34
Reviews Galaxy Models 48th & 72nd SU-34 / Su-35S / F-35B Paint Masking Sets
Construction Guide Pt.I: Kitty Hawk 1/48th scale Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback
Construction Guide Pt.2: Kitty Hawk 1/48th scale Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback
The Sukhoi Su-34, or Fullback to give it it's NATO reporting name, is a two-seat all-weather strike fighter and front-line bomber developed from the mighty Su-27 Flanker.
Before we jump into the box, I'll tell you a little story about my relationship with this aircraft, at least in model form. When I was a kid, back in the '80's, I was building kits all the time, but as I got older other things, as is often the case, started to take over my free time (read alcohol and girls). Time passed and, although I'd bought the occasional modelling magazine from time to time, I hadn't built a kit in over 20 years. Then, in 2012, I was watching a documentary on Russian aircraft and on came the Fullback. It's a design I've always loved since the first time I saw it in the mid-'90's, mainly due to its distinct looks together with my general liking for anything with a red star on it. The thought suddenly entered my head that it would be really cool to make a model of one, although I had no idea if one was even available. After a quick search online I found the old 1/72 Italeri kit and, without giving much thought as to what I was getting into, ordered it together with a handful of paints and a cheap airbrush. At the time, I had no real plans to get back into modelling in a serious way, but as it turned out I've never stopped since. So, without that old Italeri Fullback, I wouldn't be writing this review today, or indeed any of the others I've done in the past. That kit's certainly got a lot to answer for.
Okay, back to business. The kit comes in a large, but not over-large, box. You certainly shouldn't have any problems finding space for it in your stash. Under the attractive artwork on the top, you'll find a sturdy box full to the brim with parts. Eleven sprues moulded in a light grey styrene plus a further one in clear. The main upper and lower hull come individually packaged and free from any runners, only requiring a few remnants of the moulding gates to be removed. Beyond the plastic parts, there are two pairs of resin jet exhausts, giving you a choice of either open or closed nozzles. Finally, you'll find a medium-sized photo etch sheet, three separate decal sheets and the instruction manual.
Sprue B
No sprue A, which is probably assigned to the fuselage parts, so we begin with B. Here you'll find the main wing sections, together with parts for the landing gear. Kitty Hawk has gone down the road of having separate wings, rather than integrating them with the fuselage, as other manufacturers often do with this styles of blended wing aircraft. Hopefully, this won't be an issue during assembly. They have at least set the lower wing section inboard from the leading and trailing edges, so there's no awkward seam to clean. Having said that, there's very little leading and trailing edge anyway, as you're provided with separate full-width slats and flaperons, which are also on this sprue.
Here we've got the vertical tails and horizontal stabilisers, the two halves of the stinger tail, cockpit parts, radar and nose cone. The tails are single-part mouldings apart from the lower inside panel. Having that panel separate means the small intakes on the front edge of the tails and the shroud at the back covering the stabiliser hinges can be moulded open. The nose cone has that annoying trait, shared by so many kit manufacturers, of being moulded vertically, then twisted over on the sprue which can often cause damage to the part, Fortunately here, the gates are on the end of the cone, and twisting the part over hasn't caused any issues.
Quite a few parts on here including several small and delicate ones, so be careful when handling it. The main parts here are the two intake tunnels. These each have a separate roof panel to add, but are otherwise single pieces, which should minimise seam clean-up. You'll also find the landing gear doors on here, together with the main instrument panel.
E and F come joined together, so we'll look at them as one. Here you'll find the remainder of the detail parts for the aircraft, including the engines, wheels, ejection seats and the forward canards.
You are supplied with three different weapons sprues, with two copies of each of those, so six sprues in total. As far as I can tell, these are the same sprues that Kitty Hawk have included with previous releases of Russian aircraft in this scale, and as such, not all the weapons may be applicable for the Su-34. There's plenty of choices though, with around 45 different munitions.
The clear sprue is mainly taken up with the large canopy piece, but you'll also find the HUD screens and landing lights.
The fuselage halves are almost full length, with only the nose cone and stinger to add at the front and rear respectively. The moulding quality is very good, with fine panel lines and rivet detail. There are however a couple of areas where a slight step has been left by the sections of the slide mould used to form the parts. Not a huge deal, but it will need scraping/sanding back, which will probably also entail a little re-scribing of panel lines.
It's a very nice touch by Kitty Hawk to include the nozzles in resin form, and also to provide the option of either open or closed versions. These come in their own little container for added protection; another nice touch from KH.
The PE sheet isn't huge by any means, but it supplies a nice assortment of details. You'll find the seat harnesses, the vents and chaff/flare dispenser for the stinger tail and panel details for the intake tunnels.
No less than three sheets of decals are included, the largest of which is purely for the weapons. The mid-size sheet holds the markings for the aircraft itself, while the smallest sheet supplies the instrument panels and emblems for two of the schemes. The printing looks to be fine, with opaque colours and good registry. The instrument panel decals suffer from that trait so common with modern jet kits; having the display screen lit up. Fine for an aircraft in flight, but not really appropriate for one on the ground. The instruments will look better painted anyway, so not a big deal.
The assembly manual comes in a stapled A4 booklet, which also incorporates the painting guides for the aircraft and weapons. These come in fold-out sections in the centre and back of the booklet, and it's probably best to remove them for easier reference when you get to the painting stages.
Fullbacks don't feature a great variety of marking schemes. You've got the choice of the older 3-tone blue/green camo or the more recent dark grey over blue finish. Despite that, Kitty Hawk have still managed to give you a choice of four schemes; two in the blue camo (Red 02 and Red 03), both of which carry nose (or at least cabin) art, one in dark grey (Red 22) and a final option in a factory yellow primer. 4-view illustrations are included for each scheme with paint references from the Gunze Mr Color range, although for certain shades you only get an FS number.
Andy Moore
Thank you to Kittyhawk for sending this kit to Andy - Stay tuned as he starts to build it, and hopefully make an even better kit from this new model than his last Fullback kit - we will see how he goes...
