1/48 Trumpeter Su-24 Fencer

Gallery Article by Mukund Vora on Jan 10 2013

 

 

Hi there !

This is one real big kit ! It has a total of over 750 parts and enough weapon choices to make a couple of more kits! Trumpeter excelled themselves in this model’s manufacture. The mouldings were crisp, the fit was excellent overall and there was virtually no need for any filler. The build is a slow time consuming process, not made any easier due to some moulding faults. The tail assembly does not sit flush entirely with the rear engine decking as its supposed to, so I had to crazy glue it in place by pushing the decking up with a pen, so that the tail fused flush with it. The only problem were the rubber wing glove covers which are fine as long as you don’t sweep the variable geometry wings, then they fit too tight with the wing surfaces, resulting in the paint being scratched. Also, for a scale so large, you would have expected Trumpeter to make the outer wing pylons to swivel, but they don’t.  The decals were spread over two sheets and there are over 100 stencilling decals and they were superb, went on easily and the decaling instructions were in colour and very precise.

 

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Enough criticisms. The kit otherwise builds beautifully, with virtually no need for filler and minimal sanding. The moldings are crisp and bang-on perfectly matched. The undercarriage are works of art, really superb.  The undercarriage details were fantastic and despite the complexity of the assemblies, they went together like a dream, and the finished product was great. The ejection seats comprised of 11 parts each !! too complex and they could have been simplified.  Amazingly, NO photoetched seatbelts!  I used Model Master paints -- Light blue, Russian dark earth and Forrest green.  As for the weapons, you can’t praise the options enough. There are simply too many varied options. You have enough left over for maybe another 7/8 Russian models, all wonderfully moulded, with great details.  I can’t praise them enough, I haven’t completed all of them yet.

All in all, the results speak for themselves.  It took about a week of modelling to complete the kit.  I really enjoyed the build of what is an excellent kit, despite its small problems.  Well done, Trumpeter!!  Overall, Trumpeter has come miles from its earlier kits and they are improving with every new issue. 

Hope you enjoy the photos.

Mukund Vora

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Photos and text © by Mukund Vora