I'm thinking about buying this kit to go with my Italeri 1:72 F/A-22, but the only review I've seen for it has been at ARC. Are there any in-box reviews out there, or if anyone's built it or a similar kit from Zvezda, can you tell me anything about its quality?

I seem to recall it being just as good as the F-22 model. Take that as you will :).

I never finished it 'cause I messed up the paint job and then dropped the damn thing and broke the tail off. That earned it a fast crash-dive into the garbage can.

The more I study the model in the ARC review, the less appealing it becomes. The canopy isn't shaped right (instead of curved, its upper surface is more angular; not as bubble-like as it should be). I'd have to grab a canopy from a more accurate kit to fix the problem. And the nozzles lack a lot of detail, and any they do have is exaggerated.

Of course, I don't know if the guy used the Su-35 or -37 parts when he built his (the tailfins are not correct in any case), but I don't know if it would be worth the $15 to buy the kit.

Okay, I bit the bullet after writing my previous post. I received the kit yesterday, and it met my (not so high) expectations. The panel lines are raised, with moderate-quality detail all throughout. Some details give me pause, like the poor canopy/IRST probe, the wheel wells, and the vertical fins (rudder may not be shaped correctly).

And as I feared, it is too short. It's missing 6mm between the canards and wings, and 3mm between the wings and tailplanes. This gives it a crappy appearance, where the canards are butting against the wing leading edges. I'm going to try to fix it, though.

I'm also going to buy a 1:72 Su-27 kit, possibly Airfix's. I might make a vacform copy of the canopy (provided I can find someone with experience in vacuforming), so I can build both. But despite the problems, I'm going to stick with it. I've wanted a kit of this aircraft for a long time, and short of going to 1:48 and spending over $50 for the SOL conversion set, this is as close as I'll get to the Su-37.