ICM's 1/72 Sukhoi Su-2 M-88 By Matt Bittner

The Kit

The ICM Su-2 consists of 58 light gray injected molded pieces and 10 injected clear parts.  There are decals for two schemes - an Su-2 ("Red 5") of the 226 Bomber Regiment, South-Western Front, July 1941, and an Su-2 ("White 09") of the 67th Special Corps Squadron, Brovary, June 1941. ICM provides a few of options in this kit as well. First is the "turtledeck"; one piece represents the turtledeck in the "stowed" position, while another piece represents the turtledeck in the "up" position. The other option is for landing gear up - the landing gear covers are one piece and you have to cut them apart if you're going to build it gear down. Same with the tail wheel. There are two parts provided - one for tailwheel up, one for tailwheel down. Finally the last option is for the bomb bay. The doors for the bomb bay can be separated to show it open, or left as is to show it closed.

The exterior detail is very well done.  The fabric surfaces and rivet details are very petite and too scale. Outline wise it's very accurate and really looks like an Su-2.

Construction starts with the engine followed by the cockpit. The cockpit pieces are interesting in that the underside forms the bomb bay, and included in the kit are what appear to be two FAB-50 bombs. Once the cockpit is assembeled you then add it to one fuselage half and close up the fuselage. Then one moves to adding the wings to the fuselge including one wheel well piece per side. Unfortunately the rest of the wheel well is left open and it would be nice to have an aftermarket item to add a complete wheel well. When adding the wings to the fuselage, I would add the wings' underside to the fuselage first before adding the two upper wing pieces. That could help with the fit.

Now construction moves on. The engine is now added (hopefully you remembered to paint it first) along with the cowl and the air scoops under the cowl. The horizontal tail is then added along with all pieces for the tail assembly. Now pieces are added around the cockpit including all clear pieces as well as the option for the turtledeck ("up" or "down").

One potential problem with this kit is how ICM broke up the wings.  I personally don't like kits that have their wings split in a control surface hinge area - which the Su-2 is.  I prefer the kit to be "split" on the leading and trailing edges.  Unfortunately, as already mentioned, the wheel wells aren't boxed in.  It's very easy to see through the entire wing when looking into the wheel well area.

There is one thing that ICM missed. On both sides of the fuselage, right behind the wing root toward the bottom of the fuselage were two "port hole windows" (for lack of a better term) that were used by the back-seater to help with manning the under fuselage "tunnel gun". It's easy to drill these out and at least add something like "Kristal Kleer" to the holes. However, drawings are definitely needed to place these in their proper positions.

Even with these problems it's a nice kit.  The cockpit detail is "decent" if keeping the clear pieces closed.  However, if opening up any of the clear pieces then interior detail will need to be added.  The engine is very well done and looks the part.   The landing gear is really nice and looks like Su-2 gear.

Conclusion

This is a very nice kit. While the early releases had a lot of molding "dimples" throughout most of the surface, the two, newer examples I have show only a couple, easily taken care of. With the aftermarket pieces reviewed elsewhere you can build the ICM Su-2 into any mass-produced version and super detail it to make it a show stopper.