Man, this has been a real dog of a kit. Most parts were warped, lots and lots of sinkholes, and detail was reminiscent of a Fisher-Price toy. I have never, ever worked so hard to make a sow’s ear into a silk purse. Note: the parts were made in Latvia.
There is worse news: I bought the Zvezda Su-27 kit, hoping for an improvement, and it is obvious from the parts that they used the same molds!
It has been a long time since I have enjoyed building a model so little as I have with this monster.
Sorry to hear about you misfortune. I have a couple of dogs I started, and I just shoved’em back in the box and started something else. Maybe one day I’ll plow thru’em and try to make something out of nothing.
Considering all the techniques you honed while turning a rough kit into a silk purse, it kinda makes the little imperfections on production kits seem less intimidating, doesn’t it? [;)]
Ya know, Frank, you’re absolutely right. The elbow grease I put into this definitely improved my craftsmanship. If I put this much work into a better kit, it would be a real head-turner.
Thanks for the perspective.
Brian
I just had a similar experience starting an “AModel” Rutan Voyager. What a joke! thick chunky parts, horrible fit, no detail. I started putting the fuselage together and ended up stuffing it back in the box and throwing it back on the shelf.
Nothing can dampen your enthusiasm like opening the box to disciver that the parts bear little resemblance to the plane on the box-art.From that point on you have to ask yourself if the kit is worthy of you expending your finite free time to complete.That is why I always check the reviews before making a purchase.And even then to read between the lines in the review to see if the reviewer felt the kit was worthwhile.Many times you can tell that the reviwers in FSM are biting their tongues and are restained from venting their true feelings about the crap kit they just built for the review.
So my question is: Who makes a decent Su-27? I was hoping to pick one up and put in Malaysian markings since they gave CVW-5 pilots some “smarts” while training w/ them a while back. - Calvin
If you’re looking for the best “model”, it is by far the Hasegawa that has also been re-boxed by Revell Germany. It falls together nicely with little fuss. If you are looking for the best “replica”, that would be the Airfix/Heller versions. These have the best overall shape but as kits thay are dogs by todays high standards. Nowhere near as bad as the Encore but still a lot of putty will be required. All this is IMHO, of course.
Sorry about your mishap…this looks like a brief review of various Su-27 and similar plane kits out there, by different companies…looks like Hasegawa and Italeri might offer a better build…you might wish to check it out. Good luck!
Brian,
You’re right - turning a pig into a beautiful model enhances your skills enormously.
But I’d rather spend more money on a better quality model - I find that I just don’t have the time to spend 100 extra hours on a crap model anymore - I’d rather have a better starting point to begin with.
Good luck mate - hope your Su-27 turns out better than you would have hoped.