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May turn into a GB build: 1/72 Mir MiG-21 SMT


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I've written a little review of a weird old kit that may be of interest to you. It belongs to the big 'KP derived' family. It looks weird in some places (canopy shape, intake) and the panel lines are of the raised kind so a serious modeler would build the Condor kit instead. Since I'm not serious I've started building it anyway (main parts glued, cockpit not painted yet).

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/fishbed/fishbe...ir/mirEng1.html

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Thanks Sebastijan. Luck isn't needed here, abnegation is :D I've added some melted plastic to the lower part of the intake lip to straighten it so that the intake plane will be more or less perpendicular to the fuselage axis. It wasn't...

mirDetailNose.jpg

The canopy shape looks er interesting. Very bisonish. Pics when it will be glued. I will not add any detailing (the kit isn't worth spending too much time on: priority to the Fishpot).

Edited by Laurent
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Wonder if you got it from me?? :D

Nope. Got it on Ebay but it was sold by a French guy. I'm not buying anything from the US any longer because of the USPS shipping fee raise... :cheers:

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I love MiG-21s!!

Who doesn't ? :worship: Perhaps not the F-22 enthusiasts... :P

Personally I love this plane because so many countries used it. Plenty of exotic colourful paint schemes and markings can be applied on Fishbed models. In that sense, the Northrop F-5 Tiger and Chengdu F-7 (Trumpeter ? please make 1/72 & 1/48 kits please !) are pretty neat too.

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Main elements are glued. Overall it looks like a MiG-21...

mirGeneralBuilt.jpg

... even though the profile looks a bit wrong: the spine has a curvature which seems like a mix of bis and SMT... not really hunchback-like...

mirProfileBuilt.jpg

... and the canopy definitely looks even more 'Malcolm Hoodish' than the canopy of the KP kit...

mirDetailNoseBuilt.jpg

As said earlier, I've added plastic after the intake lip ring so that the intake plane is more or less perpendicular to the fuselage axis. You can also notice a thing common to KP derived kits (Plastyk, Innex, Condor...): the nose is kinda skinny (1.5mm missing in intake lip diameter) and conical.

Oh dear. A model kit is supposed to be built right ? It's just a matter of spending the right amount of time/money matching the worthyness of the kit I'd say... And now putty and sanding.

Edited by Laurent
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  • 2 weeks later...

The model has raised panel lines and I did not want to rescribe them. I've painted the model black and applied several coats of Klir on it (the European equivalent of Future) to protect the black paint to a certain extent. The idea is then to paint the camo (using an airbrush so that the paint coats aren't too thick) and rub the model slightly so that the camo paint is removed along the raised panel lines revealing the black paint underneath.

The canopy has been masked using cut Tamiya tape and a Maskol equivalent.

I'm testing Humbrol Acrylic paint on this model. The paint is thinned with water and Pebeo's Diffuser (a product that smoothens the flow in the airbrush and limit the airbrush clogging that happens with water-based acrylics). It's difficult for me to make thin lines with this paint right now so I've given up airbrushing freehand the camo. Patafix (some kind of Blutak) masking is used instead. This technique is nice for 1/72 models because it limits the risk of overfeathering the camo which may happen in freehand airbrushing. Progress...

mirMaskedCanopy.jpg

mirBrownSprayed.jpg

... gotta paint the light green now.

Edited by Laurent
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Soon but I had difficulties. Colour leaks and dark green rubbing off on wet hand.

What shades of Humbrol Acrylics are you using for the kit, Laurent?

I am doing more or less the same thing (Eastern Express MiG-21 SMT) and the instruction sheet in the HDL decals quote the Humbrol enamels: Dark Green 116, Mid Green 114, and Brown 62.

I am buying 116 and 62, but mid green 114 is out of production.

Thanks

Davide

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I am doing more or less the same thing (Eastern Express MiG-21 SMT) and the instruction sheet in the HDL decals quote the Humbrol enamels: Dark Green 116, Mid Green 114, and Brown 62.

I am buying 116 and 62, but mid green 114 is out of production.

I use this model to test Humbrol Acrylics so I use what's available and the colors aren't really accurate. I'm using 63 (which looks too light and not red enough), 78 (which doesn't look green enough), 30 (which looks too dark) and... AAAAARRRGH... I forgot to buy the light blue-grey for the underside ! You'll see the result tomorrow or Sunday.

I had big problems again. I've been too generous when spraying the sand-brown so the paint coat was too thick (I was the first time I sprayed this kind of paint) and the color patches where too extended. When I finished painting and when I started lightly sanding the model to reveal the the black raised panel lines, the brown paint wouldn't go off. I had to be more vigorous when rubbing and of course the two greens coats went in many places. I'm trying to repair the mess (panel lines protected with 0.1-0.3mm masking tape strip and repainting). The model will be very far from magnificent but I did not feel like throwing away the model.

Edited by Laurent
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I use this model to test Humbrol Acrylics so I use what's available so the colors aren't really accurate. I'm using 63 (which looks too light and not red enough), 78 (which doesn't look green enough) and 30 (which looks too dark). You'll see the result tomorrow or Sunday.

I had big problems again. I've been too generous when spraying the sand-brown so the paint coat was too thick (I was the first time I sprayed this kind of paint) and the color patches where too extended. When I finished painting and when I started lightly sanding the model to reveal the the black raised panel lines, the brown paint wouldn't go off. I had to be more vigorous when rubbing and of course the two greens coats went in many places. I'm trying to repair the mess (panel lines protected with 0.1-0.3mm masking tape strip and repainting). The model will be very far from magnificent but I did not feel like throwing away the model.

Thanks for the info, Laurent.

Davide

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  • 1 month later...

The model is almost finished. Flat coat missing as I have problems with my airbrush. This model is a 'it looks good four foots away' build but I'm glad it's finished. The decals came from the Eastern Express kit.

mirFront.jpg

mirSide.jpg

mirRear.JPG

mirBelly.JPG

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