¹⁄48

Su-24M

Building the beast

Let me preface this by saying this is a huge kit! A modeling friend recently moved in with us for a short while and had his Trumpeter 1/32 A-10 with him. The Fencer in this article is 1/48 and yet was almost as big as my friends 1/32 A-10…if that gives you any indication. So…with that being said, make sure you have ample room on your workbench to tackle this beast.
If you followed along on my build log, you probably recall a few hiccups I encountered along the way. These were not pleasant, but all of them were my own doing and I was able to overcome them.
Assembly takes place over twenty one steps and begins with the cockpit. Test shots from a couple years back showed the kit with some really excellent looking bang seats installed. Unfortunately the ones that come with the kit are anything but that. However, there is ample room to swap them out should you decide to. I built this monster strictly OOB to show just what you get inside the massive box. Even using the kit supplied seats, things came out looking pretty nice.
The cockpit is the first item addressed and it is fairly simple and easy to assemble. The clear instrument panel can be handled one of two ways; either by painting the details or by using the kit supplied decals. I opted for the latter, with a twist. There are two areas on the IP that stand proud from the rest of the panel and would have been impossible to get the decal to conform to. I cut these sections out of the decal sheet prior. The IP was painted Russian interior green on the front and flat black on the back. I then added the decal to the front of the IP and adjusted it into position. I applied a little heat from a hair dryer set on low to help soften the decal and then applied a couple drops of Micro sol which aided in snuggling the decal around all the raised details. The two sections I cut out previously were then added where they needed to go. The completed IP looked good and was considerably easier to deal with than painting. I decided to paint the side consoles as the decals just didn’t “do it” for me.
You have a choice in building the nose gear which is what followed next. You are provided a total of four nose landing gear legs to choose from; two in plastic, and two in white metal. I opted for one of the white metal ones as I could already tell this kit was going to have some weight to it. There are two choices for the legs here as well; compressed and uncompressed. I chose the compressed one. Mold lines were minimal on the leg and clean up was easily accomplished with the backside of a #11 blade and some sand paper. The nose gear is very busy looking once all the parts are added to it. A few hydraulic lines would busy this area up even more. One thing I would caution the builder on is step three. The instructions call for adding parts H34, H36, H32, H31, and H24… don’t do it or you will have to deal with these parts getting snagged on everything as you work on the rest of the model. Specifically parts H34 and H36. I added mine and inside of an hour they were history. They sit proud of the fuselage bottom and there is no way to protect them from damage. It is easier to add them last once the rest of the build is complete. The same can be said for the remainder of the nose gear. It is also easier to paint the gear bay prior to assembly. I usually paint mine once assembled/installed. It’s a little difficult to do with this one. Learn from my mistake!