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Sukhoi Su-15TM 'Flagon-F'


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Here's my latest completed build. Third this year; must be on a roll. A good chunk of work was done on it back in 2010 though.

It's Trumpeter's dog of kit of the Sukhoi Su-15TM Flagon-F. For full details and a long list of what I could find wrong with it, as well as more photos, go to http://www.jonbryon.com/Su15TM.html (text not finalised but good enough for the moment!).

I added a Quickboost resin nose, resin fuselage air intakes (not the main intakes) and nose pitot. Wing pitot is brass tube and wire. Nose gear has been lengthened with sprue. Decals are from the first Begemot set. Paint is Alclad Duraluminum with some Aluminium panels; other colours are all Mr Color.

Comments welcome.

Jon

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Nicely done - I like it a lot! Paint and weathering look very effective. I'm currently struggling with the Trumpeter 1/72 "Flagon-A", which is no less doggish just because it's in the smaller scale. I look forward to reading your blog! ;)

John

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Nicely done - I like it a lot! Paint and weathering look very effective. I'm currently struggling with the Trumpeter 1/72 "Flagon-A", which is no less doggish just because it's in the smaller scale. I look forward to reading your blog! ;)

John

Thanks John, and thanks for your help with my earlier queries regarding the decals.

I know that in 1/48 the Flagon-A is much more accurate than the Flagon-F: e.g surface detail, nosegear bay, wings and nose are all roughly correct out of the box, whereas they are all wrong for the TM. I don't know if the 1/72 kit is the same, although at the back of my memory is a vague impression they got something wrong with the tail...or maybe that was the TM? All very confusing!

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At 5am this morning, my wife (responding to a soiled nappy in the kids' bedroom) bumped into the shelf housing this plane and two picture frames fell and flattened it. Currently no undercarriage, a sheared off tailplane, and some missing details. My wife was gutted, but not her fault; I should put it somewhere better! Glad I photographed the model in a good state; the repaired one will not be quite the same...

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Thanks John, and thanks for your help with my earlier queries regarding the decals.

I know that in 1/48 the Flagon-A is much more accurate than the Flagon-F: e.g surface detail, nosegear bay, wings and nose are all roughly correct out of the box, whereas they are all wrong for the TM. I don't know if the 1/72 kit is the same, although at the back of my memory is a vague impression they got something wrong with the tail...or maybe that was the TM? All very confusing!

My pleasure, from one Flagon-lover to another! I hope my input didn't just muddy the waters even more.

You really know your Su-15 kits - yes, the 1/72 Su-15TM Flagon-F kit has the same fin/rudder as the Flagon-A, lacking the smaller of the two electronics fairings below the rudder which should be present on the TM but not the Flagon-A. Sprue D which includes the fin/rudder is identical in both kits. Two things I don't like about the 1/72 versions (besides the errors in the TM):

1) Use of a cockpit coaming insert to cover both the single-seat and the two-seat versions with the same fuselage (sprue A) - this doesn't fit well, and the joint crosses numerous panel lines, so filling the joint and repairing the surface detail is a hassle on a kit which looks so beaufifully-molded in the box.

2) Speaking of molding, it appears that Trumpeter uses a multiple-piece mold set to do the fuselage sprue. This is admirably high-tech and allows them to preserve very sharp panel lines across the joints between the two fuselage halves, but there's a tiny mismatch between the three external parts of the mold, resulting in two small ridges which run most of the length of each fuselage half, again requiring extra work to remove them and to repair the panel lines on the fuselage sides where the ridges cross them.

Other than that, the 1/72 Flagon-A is a pretty decent kit. Regarding the Flagon-F, though, and despite the need for more dry fitting, I think the Amodel Su-15TM might give more satisfying results in the smaller scale.

I'm sorry to hear about your poor wife's accident - she must have been absolutely horrified! Good luck with the repairs!

John

Edited by John Thompson
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