The Su-47 is, to many people, a spaceship of an aircraft. It is an aircraft that mystifies, and captures the imagination. With it’s forward swept wings combined with a long fuselage and canards – it’s defiantly an extremely unique aircraft.

The aircraft was a test bed for forward swpt wings, something the Russian aviation industry is still exploring. Including a jet trainer (privately funded outside of the UAC) that we may soon see grace the skies.

The kit I got came from Italeri. It was originally release, as far as I can see, in 2001. It appears to be a re-boxing or re-release of the original Zvezda kit. I bought mine second hand from my local model store for €12. I actually saw it a few times sat amongst the second hand pile, and once I started exploring the History of Canard Jets in scale I just knew I had to go and buy it.

The construction is insanely simple. In fact, I’d go as far as to say this is hands down the easiest kit I’ve ever put together. The cockpit is sparse and decal dependent – which is perfect for a girl like me, who cares very little about the cockpit in this scale. The fuselage comes in two halves, and the wings, tail sections, and canards just pop on after.

It was insanely easy to put together. I did it in a small amount of free time I had after work, and it instantly took shape.

After completing the main construction, I taped off the nose and used a spray can (aka rattle can) to get the rich black look of the beast. I then did the reverse on the nose and sprayed it white. Due to a bit of carelessness, I managed to knock the nose whilst drying, resulting in it ultimately being ruined. I hand painted it again, and managed to leave a lovely lipstick mark on it. It was then painted again. Essentially, what I’m saying is, if you see this in the wild please don’t judge the nose too much – I know it was a terrible job. That isn’t the models fault though – just my own!

The model was essentially done at this point. I had painted some white lines on the forward fuselage and canard section, to make pictures I had seen online. The instructions gave a different paint scheme, and I wasn’t sure which to go with. Mine probably has ended up somewhat an amalgamation of the two, but I do really like the end look.

The undercarriage construction was also really simple. It is robust enough to feel safe with such a big model too. However, it certainly shows it’s age in comparison to newer kits currently coming onto the market. But, in my opinion, Italeri suffer in this regard even now compared to the newest kits from other manufacturers.

I ultimately decided to go with a matt finish on my model, though I may later replace this with a satin finish, though I do like the current end result.

Would I recommend this kit? I would absolutely. It’s such an interesting and unique subject that I think would also make some fantastic ‘what-if’ projects (including generic sci-fi variants).

Would I pay more than I paid for it? Absolutely not. I would not recommend you spend much on this kit. It’s lovely, but it’s really old and shows it! But, given it’s age, I doubt you’ll find it for more than €10-15 anyway – especially if you mainly shop at model shows!