Allow me to quote for the short history given in theinstructions as I know very little about this aircraft. "IDF (IndependentDefense Fighter) was developed since May 1983 by Taiwan. It was first flownsuccessful in May 28, 1990 after fuselage tested of fatigue, circumstance,function, flying-safety and ground running.

"The fighter power is provided by two TFE-1024 turbofanengines with 8000pd thrust. The siyhling radar has ability lo lookup and down sothat it has the functions of scouting around and tracking the gool moving onground, air-mapping, range-finding and so on. The fighter is arived one 20mmrotary cannon with six multiple, and four sky-sword I doss-range anti-aircraftmissiles and two sky-sword II missiles."

Gosh, I love to read what passes for English in Chinese kits!!

Anyway, the aircraft is in full production and is quicklybecoming the predominant fighter in Taiwan, replacing the rather old F-104Gsthat it has been operating and complementing the F-16s also in service. In fact,there is a hint of F-16 in the design of this plane.

This is the first Zhengdefu kitthat I have ever seen. It is also the first kit in any scale that I have seen ofthe indigenous Taiwanese IDF fighter. I am unsure of the cost as I got it at aswap meet. Overall detail is engraved, but rather soft. In fact, it reminds meof the same kind of treatment given to AA models in that it is a bit heavyhanded. Noting that a coat of paint won't fix, but definitely not top of theline stuff. Overall detailing of things like cockpits and wheel wells isadequate, but not state of the art. The cockpit itself is a bit generic withjust a tub, two seats, two control sticks and two instrument panels. Instrumentsand side consoles are supplied as decals. There are oodles of weapons suppliedwith the kit including various rockets, missiles, and bombs. You also have theoption of a pair of drop tanks as well. Good thing as there are four underwingand two wing tip pylons to fill.

The instructions are adequate for the job and include sevenconstruction steps. Color callouts are given in the steps and reference genericcolors. All of the instructions are in both Chinese and in English. Theinstructions show a flight display stand, but one was not in with my kit.Perhaps the previous owner scarfed it up and used it for another project. Aninteresting concept is how the painting instructions are shown. There is nodrawing or color chart for this, only photographs of the completed model on theback of the box. This also serves for decal placement as well. While I guess itworks OK, it wouldn't be my preferred method of doing this.

Thedecals are another thing. The ones in the kit are in register and well produced,though I am not sure how good the decal are. My experience with Chinese kitdecals has shown them to be thin and relativelytransparent, especially reds and yellows. While they work just fine on whiteaircraft, how they will stand up to a multi-color camouflage scheme isproblematical. I can foresee people robbing various decals from other kits andaftermarket sheets. 

Overall it looks like it will make intoa pretty decent kit. How much work it will take is unknown, though the few partsI test fit seemed to fit well enough. I'd think that an F-16B/D resin cockpitwould do well in this kit for those that want to spruce things up a bit in thatarea as the design is quite similar.

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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