First flown in November 1946, powered by the Russian equivalent of the Jumo 004 that powered the Me 262, the Su 9 incorporated a number of new ideas. It used JATO bottles to shorten the take-off and a parachute to shorten the landing run. It was also fitted with an ejector seat. During flight test the controls were found to be too heavy and so powered controls were fitted. Other designs reached production status before it was ready so testing ended in May 1948.
I have been very pleased with Prop & Jet kits in the past because of the high quality of the fit and finish of the resin parts which put most other makers to shame. This one was not so good. The finish and the moulding of the parts was still excellent but there were some significant issues with the fit.
The lower wing is moulded in one piece, the upper surfaces are added and then it is supposed to fit into the fuselage. This was difficult as it was easy to get it slewed fore and aft. Nor was it easy to get it lined up laterally. The final straw was that one was faced with fitting the wing with the lower surface lined up with the fuselage and having a gap between the top surface and the fuselage or vice versa. I chose the latter option since the bottom section is well hidden by the engine nacelles. The wing to fuselage fairings had to be carved to fit.
Having got that done the rest of the assembly proceeded without much trouble until I tried to fit the canopy. It sat at an odd angle, the reason being that one side of the rim was significantly lower than the other and had to be built up by at least a millimeter.
When complete I found that despite supposedly adding the specified 10 grams of weight to the nose it was a tail sitter. Fortunately there was a very large nosewheel u/c bay into which a large lump of lead could be added. Maybe I made an error but it is an area to be watched.
The decals were excellent, the only problem being that there a very few of them and half of those are hidden under the wing!
The finish is basically Alclad Aluminium over Alclad gloss black base with control surfaces in semi-matt aluminium. Some parts of the nacelles are Alclad Steel.
There is an option to fit the JATO bottles but I haven't taken it up as yet.
One amazing thing about this kit is that the delicate looking u/c legs are moulded around a metal core!
Don't be put off by any of the criticism. The kit is far superior to most limited production resin models and the problems can be fixed without too much effort.
Edit: Since posting this I have been in contact with Musa and he says that he has checked several kits from different batches and found no problems. Also if you look at the assembled model 'in the raw' in the 'News from Prop & Jet" it does not appear to have the problems that I found. I am puzzled. Perhaps I was unlucky to get a faulty one.
