ZModel Su27 kit
As here in Finland we did not have any information of the quality
and level of ZModel kits, I decided to order the Su27 kit for evaluation.
As we still have only few modellers in turbines, the kit was ordered with the DF ductings, but the kit can be
converted to turbine use also. The turbine version is actually a bit cheaper. The turbine can be installed internally and
ZModel has the bifurcated pipe for this.
With the kit the following additional items were ordered:
Landing gear units
Wheels
Brakes for main wheels
Struts
Cockpit kit
Here is the kit with the additional items mentioned above.
The fuselage from the belly side.
The kit in general is of OK quality. The obeci sheeted wings and stabs are good.
The formers are milled from good quality plywood.
Formers and wood parts.
The fiberglass work is where ZModel can do better. The fuselage has the panel lines and is
generally OK, but there are a few air bubbles, that have been trapped between the glass and paint layer in the mold
when laminating and now this shows as dents in the surface.
These have to be scraped open and filled with epoxy/microballoon and sanded. In this fuselage there was about 6 such dents.
Also in the tail there was two small holes/cracks in the area where the tail boom joins the exhaust nozzles.
This seems to be the problem of joining the mold halves and is in an area, that will not show that good.
Airbubble in the airbrake under the finger.
The intakes outer parts have to be trimmed to fit to the fuselage, as there has been some extra left when taken out of molds.
The inner parts of intakes were OK and the DF exhaust ducting was also OK,
allthough the laminate is extremely thin, but also light.
Generally the laminate work is light as the fuse with nose and tail boom weighs 1800gram with some carbon reinforcement strips in it.
The airbrake is from a separate mold and fits to the fuse quite nicely. The hatch is a plate type and might
need some work to sit in 100%.
Airbrake and hatch.
The wheels and brakes are from Eurokit and seem to be of good quality.
The main struts are also very good and nice in looks and function.
The nose strut has some handmade components and looks, but the function is good. The mudguard is of fiberglass.
The cockpit kit has the bigger parts in vacform and the instrument and switch panels are of injection molded plastic.
The injected parts seem to have quite a lot of scratches, but are useable.
Gear units, brakes, wing attachment parts, cockpit kit and wheels.
Wheels and struts.
1/8 scale F-18C Hornet and Su27 in 1/9 scale.
For wings and elevators, there is a hardware bag, that has the metal bits for wing attachment and steel shafts for the elevators.
Instructions come in one sheet of paper and are quite short, basically stating, that you should be an experienced builder.
On another sheet, there are some dravings for the positioning of the formers and CG setup etc.
So the main line is, that a normal jet builder will be able to make this kit to fly in Finnish winter months. Some filling and sanding
is needed for the outer surface due to the airbubbles, but generally the surface is ok for paint. Some builders might want to
beef up some parts of the fuselage, especially if a big turbine is used, but it is no problem as the weight will still be in reasonable limits.
This kit is not ARF kit as we have got used to in recent times, but the kit is conventional kit like Yellow Aircraft and JHH kits.
BR,
Jussi