Tamiya 1/48th NO.43
As there are already several excellent reviews and numerous histories of this aircraft readily available on the internet, I'll confine mine to my experiences building this kit.
This kit is becoming typical of Tamiya's aircraft model
efforts over the last decade, namely excellent and for someone who got
involved with the plastic kits available from 30 years ago, a pure pleasure
to build. The engineering and fit leave absolutely nothing to be desired.
Construction started with the cockpit which consists of a tub with side consoles that have nice raised detail, as does the instrument panel, and a two-piece seat (body w/headrest). Instrument dials and switches were painted and then dry-brushed to bring out the detail. There is also a very good pilot figure included for those that are so inclined.
The fuselage is broken into fore and aft sections along the engine bay line. The completed cockpit was glued into the front fuselage along with the splatter plate. Next the cannon bay with nose wheel well incorporated into it was glued to the bottom of the front fuseluge section. Tamiya (bless them!) include one of their now standard metal ballast which fits in quite well between the front fuseluge and the gun-bay. Next the nose-ring and the three cannons with their barrels drilled out were attached (Of course, I managed to break one of them off during construction). Then the seams, what there is of them, were sanded and then polished with steel wool. There is also a boarding ladder included.
Next up was the wing assembly. You have some choices to make here. You can have the flaps lowered or raised. There is good detail on the inside of the flaps and the flap-wells. You also have the choice of two types of drop-tanks, hanging variety or slipper tanks. You will have to open up the corresponding holes for whichever variant you choose. At this point the wings were attached to the front fuselage. The fit couldn't be better. No seam whatsoever and all that was required was to polish off the marks from the Tenax. The instructions would have you attach the landing gear at this time, but I choose to leave them off till painting and decaling was completed.
Next the engine was assembled and painted. This is a real gem. I painted the metal parts with Testor's non-buffing metalizer and masked them with Parafilm M. I ended up with a very small seam on the exhaust nozzle that I didn't know what to do with because of all the ribbing detail, so I just polished it as best I could with steel wool. Frames are included to allow you to attach it to a bulkhead that fits snugly into the front fuselage. The fit is so good I didn't bother with glue as I wanted the option of displaying the engine enclosed and exposed. With the engine attached, I couldn't fit the rear fuselage to the front properly.
The rear fuselage and it's associated trolley were done next. The fit of the rear fuselage is every bit as good as the front. The speed-brakes can be assembled open or closed. I would have liked to have them open, but the rear fuselage sitting on the trolley doesn't allow this. There is framing detail included inside the rear fuselage which makes the inside seam a real pain to work with.
The canopy was then masked off with parafilm M and after washing the parts, painting began. Tamiya have given us four painting options to choose from. A camouflaged Chinese PLA Air Force version, A Soviet version all-metal with red nose-ring and lightening bolt on the tail as depicted on the box-art, an all-metal North Korean machine and another Chinese version, this one all-metal with a red nose-ring and all red tail section are your four choices. There is also numerous after-market sheets available. Tamiya's decals went on beautifully. I used Testor's Model Master enamels for all the painting, and Tenex with some Humbol Precision Poly Cement for glue.
In conclusion, I don't know how you could ask for a finer
model. It was a joy to build and the fit was so good that if this kit was
the norm, basic skills like filling and scribing would deteriorate from
lack of use.