OEZ 1/48 Sukhoi su7

[yak face]

Heres a kit ive been meaning to start for years . I bought it at the Waddington airshow about 10 years ago for the princely sum of £6 and its been patiently waiting up the loft till now . Its hard to believe this aircraft first flew only ten years after the Tigercat ive just finished . Its a nice kit ,reasonably detailed , recessed panel lines and a choice of four schemes . The only thing im adding is to replace the simplified kit seat with a resin one . Hard to believe a significant aircraft like this and this tooling is the only one ever done in 1/48 ! Its since been reboxed by various makers but if you ever see a 1/48 su7 then its going to be these moulds .

 

[Jakko]

That seat is a great improvement, but judging by the photos of the sprues and parts, the kit as a whole doesn’t look all that bad.

 

[yak face]

That seat is a great improvement, but judging by the photos of the sprues and parts, the kit as a whole doesn’t look all that bad.

Yes its not a bad kit at all jakko , according to scalemates it was tooled in 1989. The cockpit is quite nicely done but the seat was very simple . To say it was widely used by all the soviet bloc plus quite a few African and middle eastern airforces its amazing that theres only ever been this kit in 1/48 . Its a surprisingly large beast too .

 

[Dave Ward]

Tony,
I remember having a go at this a long time ago! I think I had trouble withe the undercarriage, not being strong enough. Quite large - I suppose the equivalent of a F-105.............
Dave

 

[rtfoe]

Hi Tony, I think I have done one in an ESCI reboxed. One and only Russian plane I've built and a rare jet for me. You have your's in an earlier mold which I think is better than the worn out mold I got which made the recessed lines less crisp. Here's a finished pic of it. I have a build blog of it if you'd like to see.
Nice to see it being built and I didn't know it's the only one in 1/48.



Cheers,
Richard

 

[papa 695]

It looks a nice kit Tony, and the resin seat looks very nice indeed.

 

[yak face]

Hi Tony, I think I have done one in an ESCI reboxed. One and only Russian plane I've built and a rare jet for me. You have your's in an earlier mold which I think is better than the worn out mold I got which made the recessed lines less crisp. Here's a finished pic of it. I have a build blog of it if you'd like to see.
Nice to see it being built and I didn't know it's the only one in 1/48.

View attachment 429687

Cheers,
Richard

Looks excellent richard , way to set the bar high !! Hopefully i can do as good a job on mine . I’ll be doing the nat metal soviet version too so plenty of scope for different shaded panels ! One thing you can help me with straightaway is did you put any nose weight in to stop it tail sitting , if so how much ? Cheers tony

 

[JR]

Seeing it's Russian I suppose I should take a front seat Tony.

 

[yak face]

Seeing it's Russian I suppose I should take a front seat Tony.

Da Dzjhon , its about as typically Russian as aircraft get - no nonsense , built like a brick kakathouse and kept in service for far longer than it deserved to be . I mean just look at the ejector seat , unique to the su 7 , it looks like a really heavy duty barbers chair !!I love it though , its just such a straight forward beast of a machine. And its just got to be in the classic cold war bare metal scheme . Cheers tony

 

[rtfoe]

Tony, if you're into Russian planes, take a look at this. It's a Sukhoi too but a lighter version for the future. When you say brute, I believe you as the recent SU's have been big and heavy. I've been close to one and the cockpit is nearly two stories up.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[rtfoe]

Looks excellent richard , way to set the bar high !! Hopefully i can do as good a job on mine . I’ll be doing the nat metal soviet version too so plenty of scope for different shaded panels ! One thing you can help me with straightaway is did you put any nose weight in to stop it tail sitting , if so how much ? Cheers tony

I started the kit with only the fuselage put together long before actually continued years later and completed it. Can't remember the tonnage I used but it was one heavy cigar shaped baton. Just took the plane out and doesn't feel that heavy now. The front undercarriage is strong so I think you can pack the lead.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[rtfoe]

Oh...something my friend from Moscow has photographed and might take your fancy...


Cheers,
Richard

 

[yak face]

Got the cockpit sides painted and stuck to the floor , also the front undercarriage bay which the cockpit sits on . This has given me a chance to dry fit the cockpit and see how the ejector seat fits . Well it didnt ! For a start the armrest were fouling the sides so I cut them off with the razor saw , thinned them and re attached . The seat now fits snugly between the cockpit sides BUT it didnt look right , seeming to stick up too far and the headrest looked too far forward. A quick try confirmed it was way too big to allow the canopy to fit . So my options were use the rubbish kit seat or a bit of surgery and use the kit headrest on the resin seat . So the razor saw came out again and the frankenstein seat now looks correct and more importantly the canopy fits over it!

 

[Jim R]

Hi Tony
£6 - I'll bet the resin seat cost more
Even with the fit issues and the surgery needed the seat looks good. The kit actually looks quite nice. I've not heard of the maker before.
Jim

 

[yak face]

Hi Tony
£6 - I'll bet the resin seat cost more
Even with the fit issues and the surgery needed the seat looks good. The kit actually looks quite nice. I've not heard of the maker before.
Jim

I think it did Jim !! Looking at it now I reckon the seat was for a later su9 or 11 , even though it said su 7 on the packet.Maybe they just got it a bit wrong ? , the headrest just looked far too long , the poor pilot would have finished up with a humpback !

 

[yak face]

Made a start on the instrument panel too , a base of black grey then it was out with the dotting pen to do the instruments with gloss black . A few colours for the switches etc and ill give it a bit more of a tidy up and try and drybrush the dials tomorrow .

 

[rtfoe]

Tony, your instrument panel finish is way better than mine. I totally forgot about the ejection seat height issue. Even the original seat needed thinning at the base. The problem is compounded by the thick plastic of the clear canopy. So I had mine open. Glad you fixed the issue.

Just a little warning...the wing roots need dry fitting to determine the angle of the enhydral. Also be ready for fillers. I decided to glue the top and fill the gap on the underside.

The vertical tail stabiliser also needs a lot of filler at the joint to the fuselage unless you shape a groove to fit the contour of the fuselage.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Tim Marlow]

Good start Tony. Nice IP.

 

[Steve-the-Duck]

Sweet!

 

[yak face]

Tony, your instrument panel finish is way better than mine. I totally forgot about the ejection seat height issue. Even the original seat needed thinning at the base. The problem is compounded by the thick plastic of the clear canopy. So I had mine open. Glad you fixed the issue.

Just a little warning...the wing roots need dry fitting to determine the angle of the enhydral. Also be ready for fillers. I decided to glue the top and fill the gap on the underside.

The vertical tail stabiliser also needs a lot of filler at the joint to the fuselage unless you shape a groove to fit the contour of the fuselage.

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks richard , a few test fits yesterday revealed exactly these problems , i think i might glue the wing tops first the fit the bottoms after and i think i’ll sand a flat on the fuselage to sort the tail. I’ve already glued the two halves of the tail but when offered up to the fuselage the spine is a little wider, if i had known i would have put a bit of plastic card in between to widen the tail at the base. Cheers tony