Trumpeter

1/48 SU-24M "Fencer D"

Kit Number:   02835

Reviewed by   Rod Lees, IPMS# 10821

MSRP: $135.00 Website: www.stevenshobby.com First things first: Thanks VERY much to Stevens International and Mike Bass for providing IPMS/USA with this kit. Their continued support is always appreciated. Wow. First comment out of my mouth; I seem to have a suitcase delivered on my front porch inside a cardboard mailing box. Nope. It’s the new Fencer! Happy dance occurs… I slink off to the Bear Cave to open it all up. Trumpeter hit the mark with this one. From subtle surface riveting and panel lines, to overall fit, this is one of the best kits from our friends in China. Well done Trumpeter! Throughout this build, I only was required to use a spot or two of putty; the rest all fit perfectly. And the model looks correct when finished; quite an improvement in 10 years of new kits from this company… I’m impressed! I used World Airpower Journal Vol 39 Winter 1999 for the majority of my reference; there are Russian sites with better pictures and more detail, but I lost all my saved files in a computer crash four years ago. Yep, the on-line entertainment system stole my historical electrons. BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP… When you open the box: the majority of the aircraft is in the first set of runners; a box with the rubber tires, metal landing gear (of which more later), and clear parts is at the end of the box, and the remaining half of the box is FILLED with 1/48 munitions. Even an A-10 "Conceptual loadout" Weenie couldn’t put all the stuff in the box on this jet. That means you have some serious remaining ordinance, no matter what you plan on installing on the bird. I intended to weigh my jet down with standard free-fall weapons like we used to face when I was in USAFE back in the late 1980’s; I did succumb to using two Laser guided weapons to fill out the racks. With the exception of some test articles and a few intercepts over the North Sea, I have yet to see actual load pictures on most SU-24 pix, so I will have to go by what I remember from briefings…Airshow loads don’t count unless you like red ordinance or white with black stripes. Notable items: Wings are geared for movement if you so desire; you’ll have to cut off all the flap/slat tabs and glue them in the retracted position. Same for the overwing rollaron/speed brakes. There is an interesting little rubber part that fits into the wing root behind the flaps; it is intended as a flexible alternative to hard "either retracted or extended" versions like most kits have. I only had to shake the model three times to retrieve these out of their hole during installation (you know, the "part rattling around until it hits the opening" game…) Once in place they look good; as the model has extended wings, I could not test the wing-swing "thang"… Stabilizers are one-part affairs with small attachment axles; I would, in the future, replace these with metal rods to make them a bit less vulnerable to ham fisting…. Exhaust nozzles are either fully open or closed; the flameholder grid is a solid piece so you can’t see the fan blades behind them. The closed nozzle is a bit clunky but works. I expect someone like Aires will provide us with replacements for this, and the wheel wells… but I could be wrong. Same for the Cockpit; resin with Eduard color PE would be perfect… But SOB is ok in this case. Static discharge wicks are molded in place; I noted one wing had one in place, and the other did not… can’t confirm if this asymmetric situation is valid or not, so I just didn’t worry about it, because it wasn’t broken off or missing; it was just not there, and not shown on the 3-view drawings. This kit has several metal parts; two internal braces for the plastic main gear, and two types of nose gear struts, with oleos either in the compressed (loaded) or empty (unloaded) stance. The nose gear struts are petit and well-detailed; I opted for the weighted version due to "my" jet having full munitions and external tanks. The interior benefits from taking time to paint individual switches. Although I expect Eduard or some other company to provide us with a resin/PE interior, I could not get anyone to "fess up" to working on such items, even if I were to pay for them. The kit interior is fine as is; the seats are excellent basic representations of KM-36 seats with molded on harnesses; you could use resin ones for more definition, but I decided to scrounge better "men" for the seats for later and not use any resin. The instrument panel pretty well matches my references; I did remove the bright yellow CRT from the EWO panel, and painted over it with clear green and a touch of black. "Mo betta". The control sticks are excellent miniatures of the actual items; continuing with an "Out of box build" theme, I used what Trumpeter provided. In the end, it was more than adequate (but not as good as Eduard PE!). Before I forget, the canopy clear parts have an interior worth noting; extra bracing and detail is provided, and looks great in the open position. Russian aircraft have a "busy" exterior; lots of lumps, bumps, and antennae; It’s all here. I lost one to "Tweezer click" but it’s on the lower aft section and not noticeable. I also broke off the fuel dump lines which extend from the back of the aircraft; advice is to leave them off until the model is finished. The landing gear is robust and handles the weight of the model well; a bit of additional time with wire and hose material will improve the wheel well "busy factor". Tires are RUBBER (NOT VINYL) and a quick swipe with some 400 W/D abrasive takes the shine off and provides an interesting gray shade. Paint the hubs green (I used Tamiya German light green, AS-23 ) Exterior painting: I used acrylic lacquer flat, followed by gloss. I made a mistake by shooting a generic off-the-shelf lacquer gloss coat over the white (slightly yellowed the appearance, I don’t recommend this in the future unless you use PolyScale); mask the appropriate areas based on your reference, and paint the rest gray. I used Tamiya AS-26 Light Ghost Gray; it is a bit more "blue" than Modelmaster, which makes it more appropriate for the soviet aircraft (and an almost dead-on match). As a note, I prefer Polly-S/Modelmaster Acryl Light and Dark Ghost grays for my USAF requirements; they are more accurate for that use than the Tamiya paint. My eyes and interpretation, yours may differ…. After all the masking was removed from the white, I airbrushed soft edges around various places on the aircraft; took a couple of back-and-forth painting sessions, but in the end it matched my reference pictures. Decals: These worked very well. Two marking options are included; One with standard Bort numbers and Lt Blue gray over white; the second is light blue with tan/green camo on the topside. I opted for an earlier scheme, using Bort numbers from a Kazan Mig 23 sheet. Stenciling is only suggested on some of the items (black lines on yellow boxes), but when placed on the model looks OK. There is a separate sheet with markings for the munitions. An excellent effort; they are user-friendly, and "Micro Sol" snuggled then down into place. Clear coat over, flat coat over that, and remove the masking. Final assembly included installation of slats/flaps, weapons, and the cockpit hatches. Pitot tube was the last item after painting it basic bare metal aluminum… The photos tell the rest.