Phantome

And just to emphasize the nose issue, here's a shot of their promo build Here's the real thing. Subtle... but noticeable.

I also took some shots next to the Trumpeter MiG-29S. I guess you can't really see all the differences from here. You can make out how Trumpeter botched the spine. Still, there's something about it that makes it look better. And here's the nose problem with the Zvezda. Both kits are face to face with quite a big clearing between the two nose antenna. Trumpeter's spine issue is also apparent here.

Long delayed since I finished this over a month ago but here are pics of a 1/72 Zvezda MiG-29S. The aircraft depicted is Red 24 which has the nice Russian flag on the fins and an odd patch of dark green on the nose which offsets the otherwise standard Fulcrum gray/gray-green came scheme. All paints were Akan from their basic MiG-29 set. Decals were from the kit although the specific Red 24 markings came from the very comprehensive Begemot sheet. Now having built both the Zvezda and the Trumpeter MiG-29 (as well as the previous standard-bearer, the Italeri), the obvious question: which is the definitive Fulcrum? The answer is... neither. Both are great kits but both also fall short in some areas. Where Trumpeter wins: - Surface detail. It's gorgeous, riddled with rivets that are small enough to not look overdone. Zvezda doesn't have a single rivet. - Better fit. There are no problematic areas at all. The Zvezda doesn't snap together perfectly in all areas: the wings need some clamping among other things. - Overall better engineering. The exception is the front fuselage joint which is carried over from the Italeri kit. Requires putty and sanding off and re-scribing the delicate panel line detailing. However, the fit of the fins and horizontal stabilizers is much better; the Zvezda has issues with the fins which leave a big gap with the fuselage, almost as big as the Italeri's. Also, the wing is a single piece unlike the Zvezda where the wingtip is separate and has a stub barely one mm thick! Not only does it need filling and sanding since it runs where there is no real life panel line, it means that grabbing the aircraft accidentally by the wingtip is almost asking for a tragedy. - Intakes are a single piece. Zvezda's are a two-piece which leaves a seam on the outer side which is visible. Had the seam been on the inner side it would be less apparent. - Has the open fuselage intakes which IMHO looks better on a Fulcrum even though they're usually not open on the ground (then again, most planes don't have open airbrakes when parked and we still build them as such...) - The decals are easier to handle although may not be 100% accurate - Correct nose neutral profile (see pics below). Zvezda really screwed up the front landing gear as it leaves the aircraft with a nose up profile that is not evident in the real thing. - Cockpit. Aside from the inferior instrument panel decals, Trumpeter's ejection seat is better, the thing with lots of knobs behind the seat (is it the radio equipment?) looks more realistic, and the upright HUD is accurate; Zvezda's is a generic transparency slanted diagonally. Where Zvezda wins: - Accuracy. Trumpeter has a slight bump where the wing meets the fuselage. The rear canopy is too narrow as well (my main gripe). The spine of the MiG-29S is too skinny, whereas Zvezda's has a proper rounded (fatter) shape. This may be a carry over from the canopy issue. - Instrument panels. Ok, both use decals but Zvezda's decals are way nicer in this regard and are also split into various pieces for all the different raised bits. Trumpeter's is just one which means you need to cut it up manually or else it'll be a mess. I also don't understand Trumpeter's obsession with outlines on these decals, makes them look very toy-like. The rest of the cockpit, however, is a bit disappointing. - Decals appear to be more accurate although there seems to be an excess of decals near the engines that I don't seem to notice on the real thing. That said, Zvezda's decals are a PAIN to apply. They are extremely thin and curl easily, and on top of that, there are so many that the decal sheet is packed tight. Note that Trumpeter does not have decals for its fuel tanks which is annoying. Trumpeter is also obsessed with the big black bands around the missiles which don't seem to be used that often these days; Zvezda has the more subtle markings which IMHO look better. - Things under wings: both have fuel tanks and standard Fulcrum AA ordinance, but Zvezda adds some AG ordinance as well. - The engineering of the front fuselage is better: it's a two piece that is sepearate from the rest and joins at the middle rather than the side, thus avoiding having to sand off panel details. Unfortunately, the fit of this is a bit iffy and I found that the starboard side would have needed some thinning otherwise it doesn't align properly with the fuselage. A shame since otherwise this was quite a creative way of avoiding the ugly side seams that are the only main engineering issue in the Trumpeter. - Price. The Zvezda MiG goes for around £18-20. Trumpeter's originally sold for slightly less than that but they've jacked up the price recently and now it's at around £22 or more. - Availability. Very easy to find. Trumpeter's distribution in the UK is very erratic: their basic MiG-29 quietly disappeared a few months after release and their SMT was hardly ever stocked here at all. The MiG-29S has had better availability though. So there it is. Which to pick? If you are an accuracy buff above all else, Zvezda is the obvious choice, the nose up profile being the only obvious fault (and which I suspect could be corrected). However, Trumpeter is the more pleasurable build and if you're willing to look beyond its inaccuracies, looks better once built. P.S. avoid the Revell reboxing of the Zvezda kit. It has only markings for the Russian Falcons, no stencils, no missile markings, etc. It's an absolutely pointless rebox if you ask me. Btw, apologies for my terrible phone camera. One day I'll use a real one istead...

Look into their Su-39 set, those may be more accurate blues. Also the lighter blue seems very close to Vallejo light sea blue. I'm not convinced the digital camo blues are the most accurate for a Lipetsk Flanker... but they still look good

And now for the controversial bit... the paint. I want to do Red 04 which is one of their training aircraft from Liptesk. These came in the two-tone bright blue scheme that is not the standard Flanker camo. I am a fan of Akan paints but unfortunately, they do not have the colors for this specific scheme. So I tried to approximate. I noticed that the Ukrainian digital Flanker blues were very similar to the SM's so I bought these. My impression after painting: the lighter blue is still too dark. Nevertheless from some angles, the real aircraft does approximate this. Oh well. I'm still happy Metal bits were painted with Vallejo metal color which I used for the first time. They are absolutely magnificent. I used Steel following by a highlight of Dark Aluminum. The darker blue was sprayed freehand. Post-shading was done with a lightened version of the blue following by Tamiya smoke after everything else was painted. It was a very quick paint job. Anyway... decals to follow next week

Progress is going far quicker than I expected, here's a couple of pics from this weekend (I did the cockpit and fuselage a few days ago but only posted yesterday). And that's largely because, the fit on this kit is near magical. Seriously. There were some very minor gaps in one of the wings but which were easily filled with acrylic putty. Most impressive was the fit of the intakes. Usually these can be tricky and have some alignment issues. Each one is a three piece affair but they came together great, with no misalignment or gaps. I am somewhat concerned about the panel lines: they are VERY thin and shallow. I'm afraid that a coat of primer + paint will complicate a wash. As a result, I have given it only a very light Vallejo primer coat.

Thanks! It was quite a pleasure building those two kits and I'm happy to see they got very good comments. From your signature, it seems you've also caught the Russian bug...

Well, they sure make them beautiful these days! The Flanker and Fulcrum are gorgeous aircraft, far more pleasing to the eye than any Western ones except perhaps the Rafale (that's just my opinion). Not that they always have been... the MiG-23 is quite unsightly

I decided to go all out and build the fuselage. The fit was fantastic. Everything locked into place with mostly no alignment issues and with minimal filler to be needed. The one downside was that the fuselage front did not align perfectly with the rest. This is unfortunate but I suspect will not be too obvious once painted. Btw, fuselage interior bits were painted with basic Russian gray (the type used for the MiG-23/25/31 fuselage). Not sure if it's 100% accurate but pictures suggest a medium gray for these bits. Btw, I'm having Photobucket issues right now and manually copy/pasted the pics, can everyone see them?

So much hype around Zvezda's Flanker kits that I can't resist giving them a shot, especially if there's a group build involved Note: this is the SIXTH straight Russian/Soviet aircraft that I build. I've probably not had a similar streak before for a single country. This kit comes after a 1/48 Eduard I-16, two Trumpeter MiG-29s (S, and SMT), a Zvezda MiG-29S, and a KP MiG-23M. First impressions out of the box: huge aircraft! lots of pieces! Accuracy of this kit seems very well regarded by the BM community so I won't contest that. I do spot some issues: 1) Lack of cockpit detailing (decals, although they are admittedly quite nice) 2) Lack of ANY rivets. C'mon Zvezda, a few would have been nice. This is a huge aircraft and with such big panels, it could have used some rivets here and there. 3) The canopy while not terrible (like some Revell kits) isn't super smooth. I had a similar observation with their MiG-29S. 4) Wheel well detail is very poor, especially for the front: Zvezda basically didn't bother with this. Anyway, let's get started. I used AKAN for the unique Flanker cockpit color which looks spot on The cockpit decal is quite nice although detailing would have been better. The sparse wheel well detail is somewhat evident too.

It's out in the UK now (it's popped up on eBay). Same price as their MiG-29S which is good (£19-20 range). Given that Trumpeter has recently hiked the price on its MiGs, it's a bit of a bargain, plus the Trumpy SMT has been almost impossible to find here after it was released (and goes for £25+). Don't know what is going on with their distributor but seems to be rather erratic. The Zvezda kit has a ton of ordinance which is great: the Trumpeter kit only has one Krypton missile which is ridiculous. No other air-to-ground missiles or bombs are provided. That said, having built both Zvezda and Trumpeter MiG-29Ss, I can't really say the Zvezda is that much better. I felt the Trumpeter to be somewhat better engineered and has superior surface detail. Both have accuracy issues, although in Zvezda's case, the problem is mainly the "nose up" look since the landing gear is too tall. The Zvezda was a bit of a pain to build and I suspect its flaws will be carried over to the SMT...

Which I am terrible at using...

Indeed, to each their own. Can't please everybody! I prefer the middle ground of a few rivets in certain panels to break the monotony of just lines. I agree that it can be overdone. The exception to this is Tamiya's amazing F-16 kit. It's quite rivet-heavy but they are done so nicely that it looks gorgeous and not-overdone at all. I have never seen better surface detail on a 1/72 kit. Then the flip side to that are some of the short-run manufacturers that go overboard with rivets and without the engineering capability to make them look subtle. My issue with no rivets on the Su-27 is that it's a big plane with big panels. I have done Zvezda's MiG-29 which also lacks rivets but it doesn't look that sparse, because the panels are smaller.

By that logic, why use stencils? Most aren't visible at a distance either... Zvezda clearly has the engineering capability to produce a kit with rivets and I don't see why some of them can't be used to break the monotony. I am not keen on excessive riveting myself since few companies can pull it off with the necessary subtlety in this scale (Tamiya and Eduard) but the Su-27 is a BIG aircraft. It's horizontal stabilizers are half as big as a MiG-29's wing. When you put in your mat you realize that a bit more detailing would definitely have helped make up for all the flat space.

Great stuff! What paints did you use?

Just a slight caveat: Zvezda is the only one who produces a Su-27SM - this is not a variant that Trumpeter has done (yet). That said, the general consensus is that it is the most accurate Flanker so far produced in 1/72. I am currently building one and I must say, the fit of the kit is absolutely fabulous but I'm slightly disappointed at the surface detail; Zvezda refuses to do rivets on their modern kit and for an aircraft the size of a Flanker, the detailing looks a bit plain in some parts because some of the panels are so big. Undercarriage bay detail is also disappointingly sparse.

I am willing to live with the drop tank issue. This kit looks more and more like the best thing in the universe in 2017 And I hope they follow it up with an F-15C!!

Both Vallejo and Lifecolor have the Mod Eagle colors. I've used the latter and they look the part

Ughh, I just noticed the gallery thread is closed. Oh well...

Hi Col. I did. Unfortunately yesterday the site was down every time I tried to log in to post the pictures (kept getting Error 500 notifications). Is there any way to make an exception due to these technical circumstances? If not, no problem, I will post the finished build now regardless. Final comments on kit: Nothing much more to be said aside from the previous gripes. Looks like a MiG-23 to me!

I truly hope my opinion on the matter does not stop you from buying the Academy kit and enjoying it if you think it's so much better. I, on the other hand, will most likely be buying the GWH kit when it comes out. I hope knowing that hasn't ruined your day.

I think the one who didn't understand what I was pointing out is you.

So you need to see a kit physically in front of you before you buy it?

I have a time machine. Or I could have just looked at the sprues which have been posted in this site and elsewhere and concluded the obvious since the Academy is a snap-fit, one-piece canopy, etc... #justsayin

Btw, this is the real plane I was going for, Red 12. I will be adding a drop tank as well as AA-6 and AA-8 missiles from a Dragon armament kit.