Subject: Re: Fwd: Lucky Model - KP Model 1/48 Su-25K Frogfoot Warzone Afganistan
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Dave Johnson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:27:56 -0800

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
ARC Air - Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.arcair.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dave Johnson 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2011 11:22 AM
  Subject: Fw: Fwd: Lucky Model - KP Model 1/48 Su-25K Frogfoot Warzone Afganistan

  From: Dave Johnson 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 7:12 PM
  To: [email-masked] 
  Subject: Fwd: Lucky Model - KP Model 1/48 Su-25K Frogfoot Warzone Afganistan

  -------- Original Message -------- Subject:  Lucky Model - KP Model 1/48 Su-25K Frogfoot Warzone Afganistan 
        Date:  Wed, 01 Dec 2010 18:57:39 +1300 
        From:  Dave Johnson <[email-masked]> 
        To:  [email-masked] 

                                                                                                                                                  KP Models
  1/48 Su-25K Frogfoot Warzone Afganistan

  Product # KP-J48051  (hhttp://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=KP-J48051) from Lucky Model (www.luckymodel.com)

  Product Article by Dave Johnson on the November 2010

  History -

  The Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot (NATO reporting name) was developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was designed to provide close air support for the Soviet Ground Forces. The first prototype made its maiden flight on 22 February 1975 and after testing, the aircraft went into series production in 1978 at Tbilisi in the Soviet Republic of Georgia. During its more than twenty-five years in service, the Su-25 has seen combat with several air forces. It was heavily involved in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The Iraqi Air Force employed Su-25s against Iran during the 1980-89 Iran-Iraq war. Most of the Iraqi Su-25K were destroyed or fled to Iran in the 1991 during the First Gulf War. 

  The Kit - 

  This is the first time I have seen a KP Models kit or even heard of them. But to my surprise KP Models have been around for a while aswell as the tooling of the Su-25K. In the past it has been released under the KP Models older name of Kopro, and Eduard have used the same tooling in their limited release of the Su-25, that wasn't released  to long ago. The kit comes inside of a top loading style box that holds five light grey sprues and one clear sprue, instruction booklet and huge decal sheet that contains markings for four aircraft and a lot of stencils.

  The molding of the kit is pretty good, with nice crisp panel lines and fine rivet details that recessed, but the actual aircraft features a lot of raised rivets. The land gear feature (s)  nice detail that assemble from multiple parts. There is a bit of flash around the tyres parts, which maybe from the aging tool. The landing gear bays feature pretty much no detail. The cockpit detail is... well ok... The instrument panel is molded on the clear plastic sprue but they do feature molded dial details, but there are no decals for the instruments faces. The seat has to be the worst and feature and has pretty much no detail  (?????) , so a aftermarket resin replacement would be recommended in the ways of a seat or even a cockpit set. The kit includes a pretty good selection of underwing stores of external tanks, gun pods, rockets, bombs, and missiles to fill up those 10 pylons carried underneath those wings.

  Some of the sprue attachment points are pretty hefty, and run on to the part surfaces. So some extra care will be required when removing parts from the sprues. There are a few ejector pin marks on the parts, including some huge ones on the inside of the air intakes. There aren't many alignment pins on the kit so if you have built a few limited release kits you will be fine with this kit. 

  The instructions include 22 nicely done assembly diagrams that are easy to follow, and a weapons loadout chart for the 10 pylons. Colour callouts are also included throughout the instructions, as well as a paint chart with the colour codes from two different paint manufacturers, Humbrol, and Agama, which I have never heard of till today. Also included is the stencil layout and a parts locating diagram within the instructions.

  Overall, the kit is still pretty good up to today's standards and is the best on the market in the way of Su-25 offrings. The cockpit is the only let down, but there is a few aftermarket options on the market that will truly make this kit standout. With the lack on location pins, the kit is really not for beginningers, but surely someone with some experience will be able to build it.

  I would like to thank Lucky Model (www.luckymodel.com) for this review sample.