Eight winged Seraphiel - Chengdu J-20 1/48 from Meng Models

[BorisAlexandrov]

Chengdu J-20's often jokingly referred to as the eight winged seraphiel or eight winged angel among military reporters and editors for its eight control surfaces seen from this perspective:

 

 

This thing is huge for a fighter jet. Really sleek and stretched build too.

 

 

 

 

 

Kit used: Meng LS-002 1/48 J-20 that was just freshly released (Yup, the only one on scalemates.com that marked the kit completed. That's me alright). I got it from one of my suppliers based outside Shanghai and it took USPS quite a while to deliver it to me.

 

IMO this is the go-to kit if you want to build a J-20 and it's far better than the 1/48 Trumpeter kit rescaled from 1/72. Every part just snaps into position perfectly and the details are great, almost got me thinking it's a Tamiya kit I'm building. Another plus is that the tactical number decal is just 10 0-9 wildcard digits, making it possible to replicate any airframe you see at airshows. The clear red parts for . I've got nothing to complain about this kit except a lack of clear parts for position lights. Not a fans of painting clear red/green onto regular grey plastic parts with brushes.

[Electric Indigo]

Very unique airframe, looks like a mighty impressive kit. Do you have another 1/48 kit to put next to it for size?

[BorisAlexandrov]

4 minutes ago, Electric Indigo said:

Very unique airframe, looks like a mighty impressive kit. Do you have another 1/48 kit to put next to it for size?

Actually yes I do (ignore the Ducati in the background ))))

 

I'm suddenly craving for some more Battlefield 4 upon taking this shot.

 

 

This mighty beast is almost as wide as Su-57, which is essentially a larger version of an already huge flanker, and a lot longer than it. The bulky and sleek build is mainly for its internal fuel. There are multiple versions of its range and fuel capacity, but legend has it that its internal fuel is well over 15 tons.

 

One of the features that Chinese medias boast about the most about J-20 is its capability to supercruise and create a huge area of denial over the Asia-Pacific region. I guess that's why it's designed this way.

[GiampieroSilvestri]

Beautiful Chengdu J-20 and Splendid Sukhoi Su-57!

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

[BorisAlexandrov]

On 11/15/2023 at 10:28 AM, GiampieroSilvestri said:

Beautiful Chengdu J-20 and Splendid Sukhoi Su-57!

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

Thanks! I'll post another thread about my Su-57 real soon.

[bissyboat]

Gorgeous Chengdu. ⚓🙌

[exdraken]

Great work!

What about this spliter scheme?

 

What's your opinions regarding landingear, weapons bay and weapons? I know, not relevant for in flight 😉

 

[BorisAlexandrov]

44 minutes ago, exdraken said:

Great work!

What about this spliter scheme?

 

What's your opinions regarding landingear, weapons bay and weapons? I know, not relevant for in flight 😉

 

The low-vis spliter scheme is more commonly seen on prototypes and earlier batches of J-20. Imo it's got a more "premium" vibe than the regular curved camouflage and makes anything look more modern when applied.

 

The landing gears and lights are well molded and I think they'll look splendid after a few washes with either oil paint or enamel, but the gear wells look very bland and could really use a bit more plumbing and tubing details. I doubt if there's going to be any upgrade kits later however, given the limited knowledge we have about this airframe.

 

All the missiles are slide-molded and pretty easy to clean, and there are even dedicated clear parts for PL-10 missiles' infrared-seeking heads. Pretty sure several coats of clear red would make them look like actual missiles! It's a shame that only four PL-15s (Chinese counterpart of AIM-120 late C/D) are provided for the belly bay. Given that the PL-21s (Chinese counterpart of AIM-260 or meteor, very long range Fox 3) are still cloaked in mystery and no one actually knows what they really look like, it's a pretty normal choice for Meng to make.