Trumpeter 1/32 MiG-29C Fulcrum
By Andrea Ferrari
Coming from an ancient age when crude, underdetailed and often semi-imaginary small scale kits from Airfix, Lindberg, Aurora and Frog were the daily and much-desired fare, I often wonder if today’s modelers and Internet rivet-counters – who often I hear whining, complaining and fretting about recent kits – realize how incredibly lucky they are. These days manufacturers offer a wide choice of subjects in a variety of scales and versions which were simply unthinkable of in past (and even relatively recent) times.
Trumpeter’s 1/32 Mig-29C Fulcrum kit is a good example of the times of abundance we are living in: a large-scale, fairly-priced, finely detailed model of a beautiful Soviet-era plane with exceptional fit, razor-thin parts and trailing edges, delicate detailing, crystal-clear transparencies, white metal undercarriage legs, a wide selection of weaponry, a few building options, a small photo-etch fret for superdetailing, two different decal schemes and no flash whatsoever anywhere. What else could one ask for, I wonder? Moreover, after spending fifty years building every possible and conceivable Luftwaffe subject ever produced, I have recently developed a real liking for those sexy Sukhoi and Mikoyan-Gurevich Soviet-era jets, and Trumpeter’s kit of the supremely elegant Mig-29C certainly fits the bill with its sleek profile, heavy payload for added visual interest and pretty decent camouflage scheme.
The kit might have its share of very minor outline errors (as it often happens with Trumpeter, and I am no expert on Soviet-era jets), but I can’t see anything seriously wrong with it. Building was straightforward – as with all Trumpeter kits care must be however taken with the assembly sequence – with the kit decals performing flawlessly after having received a thin coat of clear to avoid folding up or self-destroying during application. No aftermarket items were used. My tentative foray in modern Soviet-era aviation also saw my first use of MRP pre-thinned, airbrush-ready acrylic paints (MRP offers a wide selection of accurate Soviet-era airplane colors) and Flory Models washes – I’m now firmly hooked on both, and once again I wonder if today’s kit builders realize how spoilt they are. The only difficulty I encountered were the Fulcrum’s incredibly delicate, molded-on static dischargers…I’ve lost count of the times I’ve knocked them off!
© Andrea Ferrari 2020
This article was published on Sunday, November 15 2020; Last modified on Sunday, November 15 2020