Background

The Sukhoi Su-24 “Fencer” has been in service with the Russian air forces for over 40 years. It is a rugged, variable wing sweep bomber that is easy to fly and well-liked by the two-man crew. Several kits have been produced of this aircraft and recently, the Advanced Modeling company has released some decal sets that depict the Fencer in modern markings.

This sheet, “Chelyabinsk Eagles Pt. 1”, along with the Pt. 2 sheet, represents various Su-24 aircraft that are based at the Shagol Air Base, near the city of Chelyabinsk near the border with Kazakhstan. When the regiment was first deployed to Chelyabinsk in September of 2010, the aircraft were painted in a variety of schemes and needed repainting. Before re-paint, at least two of the aircraft featured large eagles on the right side of the nose. It was decided to keep these eagle emblems during the repaint. That is the reason behind the name of this sheet – Chelyabinsk Eagles.

Academy as re-boxed the very good Accurate Miniatures SBD-5 and it has added value to it by providing a mask set and a small photo-etch fret.

Upon opening the box you find 7 plastic sprues -one of them clear-, plus a PE fret for minor details like seatbelts and a really nice mask set to take care of that greenhouse canopy. Please note that the mask set is customized to the open and closed canopy options, meaning you get a full spare set of masks for another SBD in your collection (and who does not have a few of them?). You are provided with markings for 3 Dauntless, one of them a Marine Corps one, with mission tally markings.

Despite the years, the molds hold really well with no flash anywhere to be found and the panel lines remain sharp and well defined.

I previously reviewed Amigo’s 1/72 resin exhaust set for the Mig-21bis and this set is almost identical. Like the previous kit, it comprises five detailed resin parts for the exhaust. The centerpiece of the assembly and the flame holder for the afterburner are slightly different than the corresponding pieces in the R25-300 engine set. All of them are highly detail, both on the inside of the exhaust as well as the exterior. Although the pieces are not numbered, you can identify them by the life-sized drawings on the instructions.

My razor saw made short work of removing the mold bases from the kit parts. Two of the pieces have interior cones attached to the bases, but these are not part of the exhaust. I believe they help in the molding process.