MiG-23M Flogger B

Trumpeter, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Mick Evans

Trumpeter's 1/48 scale MiG-23M Flogger B is available online from Squadron.com

This is a totally new and up to date kit from Trumpeter and is a welcome addition to modellers interested in 1/48 scale Russian aircraft model kits.  Previous to this release from Trumpeter the only available kit was the very old basic and inaccurate Esci/Hobbycraft kit.  While there were many detail and correction update kits available to correct the old Esci kit it was a lot of work.  This new kit is amazing and certainly is a major improvement. 

On opening the box we are presented with a very beautifully engraved and detailed kit.  There are approximately 345 finely engraved grey coloured injection moulded plastic parts, 10 clear injection moulded parts, and 22 etched metal parts in this kit.  The grey plastic parts are contained on 14 trees.  Buy a couple of these kits and you will never have to worry about Soviet ground attack weapons for your kits for a long time.

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Thumbnail panels:

The plastic parts have absolutely no flash at all and the surface detail is crisply moulded displaying fine panel lines and rivet detail.  The surface of the parts has no moulding imperfections and the moulding that this manufacturer is applying to their kits these days is nothing short of superb.

Cockpit detail is sufficient for this scale and can be totally painted including all knobs and dials or you can paint the base colour and use the decals supplied as an overlay.  The ejection seat has 7 parts in its makeup while the cockpit has 10 parts used in its construction. 

The fuselage is built as three pieces, the two halves capture the nicely detailed main wheel well, cockpit, nose wheel well intake trunking and engine after burner section prior to the fitment of the upper fuselage part which contains the main wing carry through box and wing swing mechanism.  The wing carry through box is interesting as it provides two geared wheels to allow the wings to interlock and swing.  The kit does not have extended flaps and leading edge slats so the wings can be moved but not if the wing drop tanks are fitted. The engine afterburner nozzle is supplied in both the open and closed position.

Speed brakes are supplied to be position in the open or closed positions while the complex undercarriage system is accurately portrayed.  The final assembly is the nicely portrayed twin gun pod.

Finally this kit has a comprehensive selection of external weapons including:

•2 x APU-23 wing glove pylons
•6 x standard stores pylons
•2 x APU-60-1 missile rails
•2 x APU-60-2 twin missile rails
•2 x K-13-type missile rails
•2 x R-23R (AA-7 Apex) radar guided air to air missiles
•2 x R-23T (AA-7 Apex) Infra-red air to air missiles
•2 x R-13M (AA-2 Atoll) Infra-red air to air missiles
•2 x R-13M1 (AA-2 Atoll) Infra-red air to air missiles
•2 x R-3R (AA-2 Atoll) radar-guided air to air missiles
•4 x R-60 (AA-8 Aphid) Infra-red air to air missiles
•1 PTB-800 centre line fuel drop tank
•2 x non pivoting wing fuel drop tanks

The instruction sheet is made up of a detailed black and white explosive assembly view that details the assembly of the kit while the colour scheme is printed on a glossy colour sheet.

Markings

The two colour schemes are provided on a glossy colour sheet detailing the colours required for the provided scheme.

The kit comes with one colour scheme which is an overall light grey scheme with serial number yellow 14.  A second decal sheet provides a set of comprehensive stencils for all of the weapons included in the box.

This is a very important release from Trumpeter and fits in nicely with their other Russian aircraft kit releases.  The weapons inclusion is very large allowing you to fit almost nay configuration you wish display the model in, this is certainly an area that some of the other manufacturers could improve in.  A build review will follow when I have completed the kit.

Kit purchased by reviewer.

Review Text Copyright © 2013 by Mick Evans
Images Copyright © 2013 by Brett Green
Page Created 4 March, 2013
Last updated 4 March, 2013

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