1:48 Su-22UM-3K 707 Tiger 2017

The 707 in stripes

The Su-22UM-3K is the two-seat training version of the Polish attack aircraft with a variable-geometry wing. Unlike the single-seat machines it has a lengthened nose and a second seat, so even as a model it comes across quite differently. It is precisely the two-seaters that Polish airmen repeatedly chose for bold schemes for the international meetings of tiger units, because their longer fuselage gives the artwork more room.

The tiger tradition on the Polish Fitters

The Polish unit that operates the Su-22 belongs to the association of tiger squadrons and sends a machine in a themed coat to their annual gathering. Schemes from these meetings tend to be exceptionally complicated: the stripes run across the whole airframe, flow around the wing in both positions and have to line up on the moving sections as well. For the builder that means more work than with an ordinary operational scheme, but the result is among the most striking that can be built on Polish equipment.

For a modeler the Fitter has one peculiarity: the wing can be built at two different sweep angles, and that choice decides how the artwork on the upper surface lines up. It pays to make up your mind before gluing, not with the sheet already in hand. A spread wing shows more of the motif, while a swept one emphasizes the slender silhouette of the machine in flight.

The scope of the sheet and the build

Among this manufacturer's decals in this scale the sheet ranks right at the top for extent, which matches the amount of printed area in a whole-airframe tiger pattern. Count on careful planning of the order of application and on the fact that large pieces are better divided into smaller sections. The machine itself is not in the package.