Sukhoi Su24 Soviet Front Bomber

Zvezda's Su24 could have been an outstanding kit if not for a few issues. First, the good: The kit's price is very reasonable for the size of the aircraft and the number of parts included. The weapons selection is also good, giving the builder three different types of bombs to carry underneath. You can also arm the aircraft with a pair of air-to-air missiles. A pair of large drop tanks completes the under-wing storage options. This kit does not have any air-to-ground missiles as other boxings of this kit have had. The kit also gives two options for the canopy - a one piece clear part for closed option, and two clear pieces (with convenient mounting tabs) for open option. Decals for two aircraft are included. The landing gear is very sturdy, which is good, as this is a large plane and it needs a bit of weight in the nose to keep it from being a tail sitter. The wings are designed to move, which is cool. Now the issues: While most of the parts fit very well, my copy of the kit did not fit well along the upper and lower fuselage join near the cockpit. I had to use large amounts of putty and much sanding to get it to look reasonable. Many of the scribed panel lines were poorly done along the sides of the fuselage. The upper and lower surface panel lines were uniform and complete, but the side panel lines seemed to get shallow and then just vanish without connecting to their endpoint. I looked at pictures of Trumpeter's 1/72 Su-24, and its engraved panel line detail looks amazing - but that kit costs nearly double the Zvezda kit. The one piece canopy did not fit well, so I went with the two piece open canopy. The decals did not respond well to setting solution. The solution (I tried microsol and solvaset) would cause the decals to shrivel up, as normal, but then only about half the time would the decal eventually smooth down properly. I eventually stopped using the setting solution, and the decals seemed to work ok on flat surfaces. Also, the kit decals did not provide some of the marking shown on the box art, such as the Russian flag on the rudder nor the waving flag symbol near the cockpit. The cockpit is pretty sparse, but I added some scratch built detail and seat harnesses to busy it up. No pilot figures nor boarding ladder are provided. Overall, I would recommend this kit with reservations. The poor fuselage join and the decals were the major issues, but the kit ended up looking impressive in the end.