Trumpeter's 1/48 scale
MiG-15bis

by Roland Sachsenhofer

MiG-15bis

Trumpeter's 1/48 scale MiG-15bis is available online from Squadron.com

Trumpeter's kit gave me the opportunity to compare the aging Tamiya offering with this MiG-15 from more recent years. To come to the point: Till now I cannot decide which one I have enjoyed more. So let us take a brief look at the various aspects that turns a buildable kit into an enjoyable one.

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The kit layout seems to speak for Trumpeter, as there are various options for opened hatches, variable rudders or, as you see on my example, opened weapon bays. Both kits offer to show the engines exposed from the rear fuselages, but Trumpeters engine assemble is considerably more sophisticated than you will find with the Tamiya kit.

On the other hand I simply loved the perfect fitting accuracy of Tamiya whereas I suffered with Trumpete'rs parts when I all too often had to sand and squeeze them to their destined shape.

Trumpeters parts generally appear quite heavy and a little bit clumsy. I definitely did not like the strange layout of the rear fuselage: it consists of three major parts which I found very difficult to assemble without getting an uneven surface and major gaps.

I did not use the decals from either kit, so I cannot judge their qualities, but I guess Trumpeter would have won: I decided to do the black walkways with decals from the Tamiya kit; unfortunately they shattered into dozens of tiny parts during appliance. Of course this may have been a singularity of this specific kit as there is no doubt about the quality of Tamiya-decals. At last the walkways have been sprayed which is anyway the better idea.

Eduards sets for interior and exterior contributed to the level of detail in general and to the opened weapon bay in particular.

For a second time I used Cutting Edges excellent decal sheet “MiG-15bis “Fagots”, Sheet 3…” My model resembles the mount of Soviet Captain Milayushin, the kill marks refer to his ten victories against UN-Forces.

If you are interested in the building process and the kit, please have a look at the JAM forum:

http://www.razyboard.com/system/morethread-mig-15bis-trumpeter-148-raidenjack-2086023-6303243-0.html

As ever, remarks will be appreciated: ro.sachsenhofer@gmx.at

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2014 by Roland Sachsenhofer
Page Created 7 October, 2014
Last Updated 7 October, 2014

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