Zactomodels 1/32 Su-27 Missile Pylons First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Zactomodels is a small aftermarket company that does some of the most incredible engineering and casting to correct selected beloved subjects. This time around, they've added another nice option for the Trumpeter 1/32 Su-27/Su-30 Flanker kits.

As you may recall, Trumpeter produced a magnificent Su-27 Flanker B kit in 1/32 scale, and this has been followed by the Su-27UB trainer and the Su-30MMK strike fighter variants. These kits provide an interesting cross-section of combat variants of the Flanker series and Zactomodels produces a nice range of enhancements for all of them.

One of the problems associated with the Trumpeter kits is the profile of the intake section and how this in turn affects the missile pylons. Zactomodels released an intake set that corrects the profile, but leaves a few glitches behind - the missile pylons.

Zactomodels released replacement wingtip missile rails late last year which correct the shape of the kit's wingtip rails and provides a detail most kit manufacturers overloon on their missile rails - the rails! If you're modeling one of the ECM-equpped Flankers with the Sorbitsya pods on the wingtips, Zactomodels also provides that conversion as well.

This latest release provides the remainder of the under-wing and under-fuselage missile pylons which not only provide the missile rail details, but also correct the shape and details found with the kit's pylons. These pylons are so nice in fact that I wouldn't want to arm these as they look too good empty!

You can see in the images to the right that this set comes with the four under-wing pylons, two intake trunk pylons, and two centerline fuselage pylons, all os which are nicely cast and ready for installation. The middile photo to the right is from the Zactomodels' website and shows the stock Su-27/30 kit with the resulting downward angle of the trunk pylons (seen clearly with the missiles mounted) and the distinctive upward angle of the underwing pylons. The airframe with all of the resin parts show the difference in shape of the intake trunks (available separately) and the proper alignment of all of the missiles to the aircraft centerline. Nice job!

As usual, this is a nice bit of engineering from Zactomodels continue to correct the various glitches in the Trumpeter kit and will look really good whether you opt to arm the model or leave the pylons/rails empty.

You can learn more about this and other project from the Zactomodels website at http://www.zactomodels.com.

My sincere thanks to Zactomodels for this review sample!