Trumpeter 1/350 Su-27K Flanker Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Su-27K (Su-33) Flanker was the Sukhoi OKB (Design Bureau) adaptation of the very versatile Su-27 fighter for carrier operations. The Su-27K was the recipient of a number of improvements to the Su-27 design that later culminated into the Su-35 for land operations, including air refueling, canards for enhanced maneuverability, and updated avionics. The tailhook is the unique feature of this version to trap aboard the carrier.

If you are interested in depicting the recently released aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov with its theoretical compliment of 12 Su-27K fighters on its deck, you're going to need another Flanker set as the Kuznetsov kit comes with only six Su-27Ks. Each Su-27K set comes with six parts trees, each part tree comprising one complete aircraft.

Molded in light gray, black and clear styrene, the kit uses an innovative molding technique where the basic airframe is molded in gray, the landing gear in black, and the canopy in clear. Even in this scale, the outer wing panels are positionable - down for flight configuration or up for deck parking. Very impressive!

Each set also comes with a decal sheet to provide generic markings for each of the six aircraft.

You could build an entire carrier airwing in 1/350 scale with variations in colors and markings in the same shelf space as one 1/32 Su-27 Flanker, and there is not a single IPMS judge with the eyesight to peer into your 1/350 cockpit. Whether you want to use these in an aircraft display or on the deck of your Kuznetsov, these nice little aircraft are quite a value given the color molding innovations that you will not find from any other manufacturer (to date) in 1/350th scale.

My sincere thanks to Stevens International for this review sample!