1/72 Italeri/Zveda S-37

by Carlos Arvizú

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This kit is pretty basic. It's manufactured by Zveda but boxed and distributed by Italeri. Parts fit ok, but some unions leave gaps. I used a lot of  zap a gap and some putty. I didn't have good reference photos when I began to build it, so I sanded some of the shapes to a sleek look (as you can see below). It turned out completely inaccurate, but cool looking. Or at least I think so.
The cockpit is very simple and uses decals for the instruments. I only added a HUD and skipped the, included, pilot figure to speed things up.
The all-black scheme seemed to simple, so I came up with this crazy-polygonal camo. I think it goes well with the odd shaped jet. It may not camouflage the plane, but it breaks up it's shape. I first painted the white areas and masked them. Then I placed the gear well's cover with silly putty. This turned out great as it sealed the wells and was easy to remove.
I used the great cartograph decals included in the kit and added the eagles from an 1/144 A-90 "Ekranoplan".  My only complaint is that some decals are missing. The instructions show more decals than the ones included, that is.

Click on images below to see larger images

I even added my initials (CHAM), in dark gray, to the bottom of the plane :) .
This is a pretty simple, but enjoyable, kit. It's big, for a fighter in the scale, as it measures: 36cm (14in) long, including the antenna, 24cm (9.5 in) wing span and 8.5cm (3.3in) tall.  I was amazed to see it's quite bigger than my F-15E.
I bought one of this kits (no. 1212) about two years ago and the gave it away to a local modeling club raffle. I regretted it later.  Then, last April, I received another kit as a birthday present, by my cousin Oscar. What goes around comes around!

Carlos

Photos and text © by Carlos Arvizú