I'm adding the kit sprue shots here. The Trumpeter box is nice, sturdy and opens like a proper model should... from the top! Packaging is very good and secure with each tree (for the most part) getting its own plastic bag.
The fuselage is somewhat modular with the big tail and the swing wing area housed in different assemblies.
Surface detail is impressively fine! And what is a Trumpeter kit without RIVETS! They look to be pretty subtle though... I like it!
The huge vertical tail gets its own sprue. There some foam protecting some delicate piece... maybe landing gear? Trumpeter is very good at providing foam protection on certain parts including the clear sprues.
Again, the surface detail is very good... finely recessed panel lines, subtle rivets and other details of which I cannot vouch for, accuracy-wise. It LOOKS good though.
The instrument panel is on tail sprue and it looks decent. I've yet to decide whether or not I will be investing in more resin.
The upper mid fuselage is split top/bottom like a clamshell to accommodate the swinging wings. This seems to be the logical way to do it from an engineering perspective.
More fine detailing.
The intake splitters are a bit devoid of detail but there are some photo-etch parts included to add texture here.
Here is the port wing tree. The swing wings are connected via interlocking teeth so that they move in unison.
You can see the slightly pebbly texture that's characteristic of China-manufactured kits from Trumpeter/Hobby Boss. You can also see a smudge of some sort. The plastic here has a light film of greasy material. I will give all of the parts a soapy bath prior to starting work... probably a wise thing to do with all injection molded kits.
The landing gear doors are respectably thin and have some detail molded into the inner faces.
Is this a gun I see? I think the Flogger has a ventral gun pod housing some sort of cannon. I'll have to do a little research to see if this resembles the real thing and if any detail can be added besides drilling out the barrels.
The starboard wing tree with the wheels.
The wheels look decent to me but I will be replacing these with resin wheels from Eduard. I'll do a comparison when I receive the AM wheels.
Here's a tree that has some of the engine exhaust parts as well as the landing gear wells.
The landing gear wells have some decent detail. I've been looking at both the Aires and Eduard resin replacements but I may decide to just dress up the kit parts with wiring.
The ejection seat is a multi-part deal. I'm really leaning towards picking up a resin cockpit or at least a resin KM-1 ejection seat to spiffy up the cockpit.
I'm guessing this to be the ventral gun pod body.
The upper half of the mid-section. The airbrakes can be portrayed open or closed.
Trumpeter has packed ALOT of ordinance with this kit. Six sprues worth! Each of the pictured weapons sprues comes in pairs.
A few smaller sprues are packed separately including the nose cone, exhaust nozzles (open and closed) and intake housings.
I've read that the intakes are inaccurate but I'm not sure its something that bothers me. I may attempt a minor fix but I don't think I'll do any major surgery here.
Superb clear parts by Trumpeter again.
The kit comes with a fret of photo-etched details including harnesses for the ejection seat.
Loads of stenciling decals including a standalone sheet of weapons stenciling.
Finally... the cockpit decals. Not sure if I'm liking these... this seems to be a weakness of the Trumpeter/Hobby Boss kits I've worked on.