1/48 Kitty Hawk Su-22M4 Fitter-K - The Polish Lady

Gallery Article by Michael Phillips on Apr 27 2018

 

      

Hi all, back again!
I just wanted to share my latest completed project, the much maligned Kitty Hawk Su-17/22 Fitter. The boxing is for Su-17M3/M4, but as I understand it, the Su-22M4 is externally identical to the Su-17M4 so that a 22M4 can be built from this box. So I chose to build the new Polish Air Force gray camouflage scheme Su-22M4 Fitter-K. I am sure by now you have heard much about this kit. But this is what I can tell you, from my experience... The engineering leaves one to scratch their head often. Lots of sprue gates in poor locations, 6 piece fuselage, and of course the intake and the shock cone errors. An aftermarket shock cone is an absolute must. I used a HAD Models one, and it is really nice! I highly recommend it. The lower fuselage has an odd banana shape that is not quite right... But that doesn't really bother me as I loaded it up and added the KKR-1T pod underneath. The instructions are ok, but not fantastic. There are some parts numbering errors to watch out for, although I can't remember them exactly.

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On the positive side, the detail is just fantastic. The cockpit detail is one of the best OOB ones I have ever seen. The fit of parts is actually mostly quite good. The wings are really well done, near Tamiya-like engineering and fit there. And here is the kicker, for me... I did actually enjoy building this. Now, granted, I built the 1/48 Revell Tornado just before this, and that thing is a monster to build. This was a walk in the park compared to that. So I may have been a bit influenced by my previous build.

I used ModelMaker decals for this, as they are the only ones available for this scheme. Actually, I only used the numbers from ModelMaker. The Polish insignias did not have crisp edges, so I sourced those from a Techmod MiG-29 sheet. Also, the ModelMaker decals came with no stencils. The stencils for this scheme are different colors than the old scheme, so I did not have those. So I had to just find Russian/Polish stencils from kits and decals in my stash and use ones that looked to be the right color and shape and place them according to what I saw in pics. That made the stenciling of this a major pain in the butt. And I hate stenciling period. LOL

There are some very good pics online of this scheme, and they all seem to be kept quite clean. So I kept my weathering to a minimum here, unlike my previous few builds.

Kit: 1/48 Kitty Hawk Su-17M3/M4
Decals: ModelMaker Polish Fitters, Polish Insignias from Techmod, and random stencils from many Russian/Polish subject kits
Aftermarket: HAD Models Shock Cone, Master Model Pitot
Paints: Gunze Mr. Surfacer Black 1500 (primer base), Tamiya Liquid White Primer (for marble coat), Gunze Aqueous FS 36375 Light Ghost Gray, and Dark SeaGray, Rubber Black, Clear Red, Clear Green, and Smoke, and Alclad II Gloss Black Primer, Hot Metal Violet, Hot Metal Blue, Airframe Aluminum, Pale Burnt Metal, and Burnt Iron. Future Gloss coat for decals and Future+Tamiya XF-21 Flat Base 6:1 ratio for final matte coat. Mig Ammo Deep Gray panel wash.

Michael Phillips

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Photos and text © by Michael Phillips