Guizhou JL-9 Plateau Eagle
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Decal Review
This is a new tooling from Trumpeter.
For our preview of this kit visit here.
Construction
This, as always starts with the cockpit. In this instance you have a nice tub with separate bulkheads, seats, control columns, instrument panels and side consoles. All of these will benefit from careful detailed painting, as the decal supplied are just not up to the task, so a bit of time, afford and Vallejo acrylics and the detail will spring out at you. The belts on each seat are etched, so stick these down during the early assembly stage then paint the whole seat picking them out in blue. There is no wasted detail in the form of an engine, which is appreciated, you just get a long exhaust pipe with a blanking plate at one end to stop the see-through effect. The instructions would have you build the main and nose wheel bays with the oleos put in place early on, but you can omit the oleos and add them at the end, after painting. The only fit issue I really had was that one of the intakes did not sit right, thus producing a step, but only one of them, which was odd. A little careful trimming and very slight filler put this to right though. Leave off the blade (#C14) and flat (#C13) antenna on the dorsal spine, as they are different colours to the airframe and thus can be painted and then added at the end. Both wings and tailplabes fitted nicely and all your's truly lost was one of the antenna on the tip of the fin (#C20) - buggar! I left off the canopy and painted it separately to add at the end, big mistake though, as I found the windscreen (#D1) does not fit the cut-out and this results in a nice deep gap, which by then I could not fill/sand and repaint, so forewarned is forearmed, add D1 prior to overall painting and deal with the gap there and then. At this stage you add the nose cone and I filled this with the excellent Uschi van der Rosten nose weight putty (see our review here), then added the dorsal spines and vents. All the undercarriage components and ordnance/pylons were painted and weathered separately before being added right at the end. Ordnance wise I went with the PL-8 missiles outboard and the fuel tanks inboard, although the kit also offers PL-9 missiles as an alternative; all of the missiles come with stencil decals.
Colour Options
There are two schemes in the kit, neither of which are identified in any way. They are both from the PLAAF (People's Liberation Army Air Force) and one is white overall the other grey overall, so they are most likely both prototypes. All colours are identified by Mr Hobby, Vallejo, Tamiya and Humbrol colour codes.
I did not fancy the white option, having only just recently built a 1/72nd Valiant for a commission I have had my fill of white for a while, so I opted for the grey machine. Following the instructions this was painted Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Color H308, with all the panel lines etc. accentuated with a version darkened with Extra Dark Sea Grey. The tip of the fin was picked out in green, for which I adopted the excellent Park Green from Tamiya as it is a good match for 'Russian wheel hub green' The nose cone was painted with Rubber Black, again from Tamiya, with contrast given by adding lines etc. of NATO black, also from Tamiya. The exhaust was my usual mix of Alclad II shades; White Aluminium base, with Pale Burnt Metal rings and finally Jet Exhaust for the soot etc.
Decals
These worked very well, even all those stencils etc., just keep a steady head and work through them logically and as long as there are put down over a nice glossy base, they will work well. I used the new Gunze-Sangyo Mr Mark Setter Neo solution and found it worked very well, especially getting the missile body stencils to effectively roll around the mid-section of each.
Final Details
The canopy sections were painted black first, then the same colour as the exterior, then I got all silly and very, very carefully drilled two very small holes in the sill edge of each. These match corresponding holes drilled in the canopy sill itself and allow the open canopy sections to have a better join via wire than a simple butt cement seam. The previously painted antenna were added, as was the pitot (painted black then Chrome from the Alclad II range) and then attached. The final assembly stage needs the model to be turned over and supported level, so you can add the undercarriage, leave it to fully dry for a day, then do the same with the pylons and ordnance/tanks. I say do these a day apart because the inner tanks and undercarriage are very close together, so in fitting one you will inevitably dislodge the other.
Conclusion
This is another excellent kit, a bit off the beaten track for many, but to me that was part of the appeal. It is an odd looking thing though, a cross between a Chinese MiG-21 at the back and a T-38 on steroids at the front!
Our thanks to Pocketbond Ltd (www.pocketbond.co.uk) for the review sample.
This is a new tooling from Trumpeter.
For our preview of this kit visit here.
Construction
This, as always starts with the cockpit. In this instance you have a nice tub with separate bulkheads, seats, control columns, instrument panels and side consoles. All of these will benefit from careful detailed painting, as the decal supplied are just not up to the task, so a bit of time, afford and Vallejo acrylics and the detail will spring out at you. The belts on each seat are etched, so stick these down during the early assembly stage then paint the whole seat picking them out in blue. There is no wasted detail in the form of an engine, which is appreciated, you just get a long exhaust pipe with a blanking plate at one end to stop the see-through effect. The instructions would have you build the main and nose wheel bays with the oleos put in place early on, but you can omit the oleos and add them at the end, after painting. The only fit issue I really had was that one of the intakes did not sit right, thus producing a step, but only one of them, which was odd. A little careful trimming and very slight filler put this to right though. Leave off the blade (#C14) and flat (#C13) antenna on the dorsal spine, as they are different colours to the airframe and thus can be painted and then added at the end. Both wings and tailplabes fitted nicely and all your's truly lost was one of the antenna on the tip of the fin (#C20) - buggar! I left off the canopy and painted it separately to add at the end, big mistake though, as I found the windscreen (#D1) does not fit the cut-out and this results in a nice deep gap, which by then I could not fill/sand and repaint, so forewarned is forearmed, add D1 prior to overall painting and deal with the gap there and then. At this stage you add the nose cone and I filled this with the excellent Uschi van der Rosten nose weight putty (see our review here), then added the dorsal spines and vents. All the undercarriage components and ordnance/pylons were painted and weathered separately before being added right at the end. Ordnance wise I went with the PL-8 missiles outboard and the fuel tanks inboard, although the kit also offers PL-9 missiles as an alternative; all of the missiles come with stencil decals.
Colour Options
There are two schemes in the kit, neither of which are identified in any way. They are both from the PLAAF (People's Liberation Army Air Force) and one is white overall the other grey overall, so they are most likely both prototypes. All colours are identified by Mr Hobby, Vallejo, Tamiya and Humbrol colour codes.
I did not fancy the white option, having only just recently built a 1/72nd Valiant for a commission I have had my fill of white for a while, so I opted for the grey machine. Following the instructions this was painted Gunze-Sangyo Mr Aqueous Color H308, with all the panel lines etc. accentuated with a version darkened with Extra Dark Sea Grey. The tip of the fin was picked out in green, for which I adopted the excellent Park Green from Tamiya as it is a good match for 'Russian wheel hub green' The nose cone was painted with Rubber Black, again from Tamiya, with contrast given by adding lines etc. of NATO black, also from Tamiya. The exhaust was my usual mix of Alclad II shades; White Aluminium base, with Pale Burnt Metal rings and finally Jet Exhaust for the soot etc.
Decals
These worked very well, even all those stencils etc., just keep a steady head and work through them logically and as long as there are put down over a nice glossy base, they will work well. I used the new Gunze-Sangyo Mr Mark Setter Neo solution and found it worked very well, especially getting the missile body stencils to effectively roll around the mid-section of each.
Final Details
The canopy sections were painted black first, then the same colour as the exterior, then I got all silly and very, very carefully drilled two very small holes in the sill edge of each. These match corresponding holes drilled in the canopy sill itself and allow the open canopy sections to have a better join via wire than a simple butt cement seam. The previously painted antenna were added, as was the pitot (painted black then Chrome from the Alclad II range) and then attached. The final assembly stage needs the model to be turned over and supported level, so you can add the undercarriage, leave it to fully dry for a day, then do the same with the pylons and ordnance/tanks. I say do these a day apart because the inner tanks and undercarriage are very close together, so in fitting one you will inevitably dislodge the other.
Conclusion
This is another excellent kit, a bit off the beaten track for many, but to me that was part of the appeal. It is an odd looking thing though, a cross between a Chinese MiG-21 at the back and a T-38 on steroids at the front!
Our thanks to Pocketbond Ltd (www.pocketbond.co.uk) for the review sample.
