Trumpeter1:48 - Mikoyan MiG-15bis Fagot-B

If you’re looking for a 1/48 scale model of this iconic jet then Trumpeter are really the only game in town. Tamiya have discontinued their MiG-15 and Revell/Monogram’s adaptation is older than me and I’m quite old.At first glance, this is a faithful recreation of the Tamiya kit, with the same separate fuselage halves, engine detail etc. The moulding detail is pretty good judged on face value, however there are a number of issues with poor fit which will have you reaching for sandpaper and filler. The engine itself requires a lot of work to bring up to standard, so you might as well simply not bother with the removeable tail section.Up front, you’ll notice that plenty of weight is required in the nose, but space is tight so the logical place to weight it down is behind the cockpit. You’ll also notice that the cockpit is very poorly moulded compared with the Tamiya offering and the dashboard is simply a transparency on top of printed plasticard, so detail fetishists will need to research an aftermarket instrument panel.The general fit and finish is quite poor. I tried the usual sanding, filling and scribing route, but there’s no getting away from the fact that you’ll need to trim the cockpit and gun bay down. I also tried screaming obscenities at it, with mixed results but this serves to illustrate that the Tamiya kit is far superior and of comparable price.The other point to make is that Trumpeter could have saved a lot of bother by fitting a die-cast metal wheel/gun bay which would be less prone to warping and would keep the front of the model down.Decals are sparse - there’s no stencils or much else beyond national insignia for North Korea and the Soviet Union.