For
this ‘Fencer,’ I used the now out of production Streem kit. If you
want an accurate Su-24, this is the only game in town. Unlike the Dragon (reboxed
as Revell, Zvezda, etc.) kit, this model actually matches scale drawings almost
perfectly. For the cockpit, I used the Neomega set. I also had an
Eduard PE set and a Dragon ‘Fencer’ at my disposal for detail parts.
The
resin parts from Neomega required some significant fitting, since they are
designed for the Dragon kit. Otherwise, the forward fuselage went together
OK. Due to the design of the forward gear bay, I had to install the
forward gear leg when the fuselage halves were joined. I also removed the
molded lines of the refueling probe, boxed it in, and added the probe from the
Dragon kit. The canopies in the kit were thick and distorted. I used
them as masters to vacuform new pieces.
This
kit needed extensive fitting, sanding, and puttying. It is essentially a
limited run kit. For detailing, I focused on the main gear bay and the air
intakes. I added copper wire and styrene details to the main gear bay.
For the air intakes, Streem has a good representation at the intake face and for
the bottom of the duct. I enclosed the duct with styrene tubing, smoothed
with Milliput, and added some compressor faces from the spares box. For
the turbine and exhaust ducts, I added the Eduard parts to the kit ducts.
I had to use some styrene tubing to create the proper ‘look’ for the turbine
blades. Overall, this had an excellent visual effect on the finished
model.
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The finished model was painted with hand-mixed Tamiya acrylic colors.
After a heavy coat of Future for gloss, I decaled with markings from High Decal,
Linden Hill, those included in the kit, and some spares. Another coat of
Future was applied and then a sludge wash with heavily diluted tempera paints.
The model was finished off with a dull coat from Testors acryl.
The fuel tanks and FAB-250 unguided bomb came from the Dragon kit. The
KAB-500KR TV guided bombs were from Prop & Jet (if they are in production
available from Linden Hill imports) while the R-60 (AA-8 ‘Aphid’) air-to-air
missiles were from a separate Streem weapons set.
This was not an easy build. While this kit had fantastic engraved detail,
the fit was difficult. If you can find one of these rare kits, I would
highly recommend it to those with the experience on limited production kits.
It is certainly far easier to deal with compared to correcting the Dragon Su-24.
Tom
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