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Fox One 1/144 Chinese J-20

By Matt Bittner

Introduction

It wasn't long ago when the world first heard of the new Chinese "stealth fighter", the J-20. If you Google "Chinese J-20" you can find images of the two prototypes and some speculation of its capabilities. Since not much is known about it, that's all there is - speculation.

Fox One decided to take those images and create a resin kit of the J-20, releasing it for sale during what's known as "Wonder Fest" in Japan. However, they were kind enough to send one along so Internet Modeler could provide a review of it.

The Kit

Not much to the kit. Fox One wanted to release the kit quickly, so all wheel wells and the cockpit are closed. In addition, there are only nine pieces - the main fuselage, the vertical tail surfaces, the fins on the underside, rear fuselage, intake covers and exhausts. The kit also comes with a set of decals which are for the two machines in all the photos. Since the canopy is part of the main fuselage - which is opaque - the cockpit is closed, Fox One would have you paint it a gold color. I instead may opt for the more usual "light blue".

All pieces require a modicum of clean-up. Not much, there's just some flash around the edges. Once cleaned up, and all pieces added, then it's down to painting the entire aircraft black. Instead of "pure black" I may opt for a slighter lighter shade, with maybe a drop or two of dark blue thrown in. In addition, you may want to get the fit on the exhausts as tight as possible, that way you can paint them off the main model and add them at the end.

Conclusion

You will find no other kit, currently, of the Chinese J-20 but this 1/144 resin kit put out by Fox One. It's an excellent kit, with plenty of detail, but be aware that unless you put in some serious time, it will be built gear-up and cockpit closed and opaque. Not a problem if you just want something to show, and maybe place above the upcoming Pit Road Sukhoi T-50 and F-35, and/or Trumpeter F-22. An excellent choice.

Fox One has a blog of how they produced the model. In addition, you can purchase the model from RADJAPAN.

Many, many thanks to Fox One for the review kit.