1/48 Trumpeter Su 15 TM 'Flagon F'

Gallery Article by Darius Aibara on Dec 30 2003

 

This kit has been residing woefully incomplete on my workbench for about six months, however in a burst of enthusiasm I completed it in in the last two weeks!  The Trumpeter kit itself has been previously described on ARC and is reasonably well detailed apart from the nose profile.  I used the Eduard photoetched detail set for cockpit and airframe details but omitted their photoetched airbrakes as being too much hard work for something that looks OK as moulded by Trumpeter.

Once the fuselage was assembled I operated on the nose using Jan Mikes excellent Su15 article in the ARC gallery as  a reference.  I also extended the nose gear leg to give the correct looking stance to the aircraft.   The nose job complete I spray-primed the model with grey auto primer and then prepared for the bare metal finish.

 

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With a bare metal finish after priming I mask off particular panels and then apply a few coats of silver metallic spray paint (in this case Halfords Nissan Silver).  I then remove the masking tape, which leaves the grey panels showing through, and brush paint Humbrol Metalcote onto small access panels etc.  Finally I polish the whole fuselage with SNJ polishing powder.

The three paint finishes (grey primer, silver and Metalcote) polish up to different shades and reflectance.  The jet pipes and pen-nib tail were painted gunmetal and polished with SNJ powder to give a darker finish.

For something to do I articulated the nose cone attachment using steel pin reinforcement, which enables the cone to be pulled forward and then pivoted to the right to reveal the radar unit within.  The radar unit and mounting was also articulated enabling it to be pointed into the radome as it closes. I used the kit decals for the ubiquitous and iniquitous Red 17.

Darius Aibara

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Photos and text © by Darius Aibara