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Academy MiG-21MF in 1/48 scale


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I am sorry to hear about your MiG-21 project Laurent. I hope you finish the Hellcat for your son and then take the plunge with your MiG-21 project.

If you look carefully at the links I have provided you will see that the spine indeed bends upwards a little. It is not noticeable in most photos but in certain angles it becomes evident. It is just a slight arching that goes on to about halfway back on the spine. It is even noticeable on the drawing of the MiG-21 you recommended. It is ever so slight but it is there.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Czech-Repub...next_id=1504361

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Romania---A...next_id=1503886

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Slovakia---...next_id=1496120

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Czech-Repub...next_id=1479394

From the bunch of photos I have studied the elevators are in the neutral position in almost every photo I have seen. There might be exceptions but not many. I glued mine in the neutral position. That is why I chose to drop the flaps a little even if that is uncommon too.

All the best

Martinsson

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Sergei,

Thank you for spotting the rudder! Just in time before painting! Looks like I over-corrected the rudder with PC just because the front edge wasn´t straight. I will fix that.

I have assembled and glued all little parts to the kit. Some are PE from the CMK detail set that are improvements over the kit parts. One issue I spotted was that the vanes protecting the axillary side inlets from gun gasses are way to big. Here is a picture of the original Academy item compared to my adjusted piece:

DSC_1385.jpg

The Academy piece is of course the one on top. Here are two pictures of the PE-parts that I decided to use:

DSC_1394.jpg

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The ventral fin needs replacing because I used the CMK after burner. CMK caught the two air scoops on either side of the ventral fin. I just needed to open them up, just as I did with all air scoops.

DSC_1400.jpg

I have used plenty of resin on this kit: spine, fin, after burner, ventral fin, cockpit (Neomega), wheel wells and wheels. And yet I had to do the nose job myself! Wonder why CMK didn´t decide to cast a new kit in resin....

Finally, here is a picture of the modified front spine. Thanks to Laurent for catching that!

DSC_1407.jpg

All the best

Martinsson

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Perfect my friend,

I am at same point of building on my Mig, but for a couple of days I could just see your progress before to start paint mine........so, hurry up, I am excited to see your progress.

Bye

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Thank you Anders and Jack-Swiss for your encouraging comments.

Davide, you will see paint coming on, hopefully later today and over the weekend. What colors will you make yours? I am really looking forward to see more of your progress! :cheers:

Let´s see how all is coming together under a coat of primer. I use this to prime my kits:

DSC_1420.jpg

This is excellent stuff that dries to a hard and smooth surface. It shrinks a great deal while it dries, yet has a limited filling effect. It easily removes any accidental sanding scrapes but doesn´t fill rivets or panel lines. The spray can has a good nozzle and it is possible to lay the paint with some degree of precision. Since the entire kit is supposed to be covered, the spray can is very quick and requires no cleaning up afterwards. But do use a spray booth because the smell defies description!

Here is the look of the kit under a coat of Gunze primer:

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As usual, the primer coat makes the kit look very nice from 1-2 ft distance but once you stick your nose in really close, the remaining mistakes screams at you! :D But I am getting used to it.... I found imperfections around the wind screen - more sanding and filling. I also needed to deepen a couple of panel lines and open up a row of rivets. Finally, the ventral fin required some extra filling.

See ya soon.

Martinsson

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Great job !!! :cheers:

DSC_1399.jpg

If the part glued just in front of the front landding gear is the base where you will glue the antenna part, just like to say that on my MIG-21 BIS (a Bulgarion one) I glued it a little bit to the rigth (looking to your pic) as shown on Bulgarian MIGs. I don't know if on MIG-21MF is the same....if you do a zoom on the pic below you will see that.

0801615.jpg

Bye.

Edited by PIERRE CHRISTIAN BAUDRU
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Everything primed and the flaws I discovered thanks to the primer are fixed.

Under surfaces should be pale blue, FS 35526. I use Gunze aqueous colors throughout and they have no color corresponding to this FS number. I decided to use H418 RLM78 Light Blue as basis for my mix. This color is too green compared to 35526 which meant that I had to add blue. I chose H45 Light Blue. A few drops of this removed the greenish tint but resulted in a overly saturated blue. Enter the versatile H21 Off White. I don´t have the exact proportions, I just kept on adding white until I matched FS35526 closely. In my haste I forgot to take a photo of the kit painted in this mix! :thumbsup:

The paint dries very quickly with Gunzes Hobby Color Thinner in the mix so I could enter step two after about ten minutes. I don´t fancy pre-shading because I want the first color coat to cover properly and thus represent the correct color without shine through. I know others like pre shading and that it works for them. I like post shading. I used H42 Blue Gray. First relatively light to mark panel lines, rivets and other structural elements. The next step, this time with the same color, is to paint in shadow detail. I do this heavier than the structural details. The final step with H42 is to randomly create darker variations over the panels. In my opinion, it is important not to keep these imperfections within each panel. That inevitably results in a chess board look that is very unrealistic to me. I have yet to see an aircraft where stains confine themselves to within individual panels! Here is what it looks like:

DSC_1423.jpg

Step 3 is to apply high lights. I used H21 Off white, well thinned. It is a bit like dry brushing raised details but with the air brush. I also lighten the sides a bit since they reflect more light in reality compared to surfaces facing down. I also use this color to randomly lighten the surfaces, just like I darkened them with H42.

DSC_1424.jpg

You can see the high lights most clearly around the ventral air brake.

Finally, it is time to apply the original color, well thinned, to bring all the variations together. I shot light coats, checking the result after each pass. It is important to do realistic fading between highlights/shadows and the base color. I overstated the effect a bit since it is the under surfaces because they receive less light than the upper surfaces. The dull coat will also bring down contrast quite a bit so if the variations are too subtle at this stage, they might be very difficult to see after the dull coat. :jaw-dropping: Here is the how I left the under side blue:

DSC_1425.jpg

Anyone´s got a guess as to what markings this kit will feature?

Time to spend time with the family!

Best regards

Martinsson

Edited by Martinsson
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So, next update. The project is currently running surprisingly smooth. I have a good time with my airbrush, Harder & Steenbeck´s Infinity. After this post I think you can guess what country this MiG is coming from!

The base color for the upper surfaces is supposed to be FS15200 Light Blue. As this is an service weary a/C I decided to use flat colors throughout. After looking through my Gunze paint box, I found Gunze H323 Blue Impulse Blue. This color turned out to be an almost perfect match for FS 35200 as you can see in the photo:

DSC_1502.jpg

After this coat was added, I found a couple of areas that needed more filler. As a less smelly alternative to Davide´s Mr Dissolved Putty, I use Vallejo´s acrylic Plastic Putty. I apply it with a cocktail stick, just like Davide, but wipe any excess off immediately. I do that with a wet Q-tip. As long as it is small and not very deep areas that need filling, this works great. Anyway, after this was done I airbrushed thin coats of baby blue to cover the putty.

The baby blue color certainly takes some getting used to! But it gets better after the usual treatment of post shading structural components and adding shadows and highlights. I used H56 Intermediate Blue for structural definition and shadows and H21 Off White for highlights. Finally, I tie it all together with thin mists of H323. Here are the pictures:

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Next step is to apply the second upper surface camouflage color. Stay tuned! :worship:

Martinsson

Edited by Martinsson
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Superb paint finishing,

I like your style very much, because you show that is possible reach the highest result with different approach to painting technique. You declare are not fancy of preshading as I am for example, and in fact you demonstrate you get the top result of faded and wheathered paint on your model.

I hope to reach same result on my model.....an Iraqui bird.

I imagine your bird could be a Vietnam blue tone camuflage.....isn't it? Very interesting subjetc.....it was between my choice...but I was "raped" from Iraqui profile at the end.

Wonderful job my friend. :thumbsup:

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Hello guys!

Yes, it is going to be a Vietnamese MiG-21 in two-tone blue upper camouflage! I couldn´t resist Albatross fantastic markings.

Davide, pre- and post-shading technique is probably just a matter of choice. I have seen what you can accomplish on your magnificent F-16! :thumbsup: There are apparently many ways leading to Rome! :cheers: I prefer post shading because it lets me cover the kit in very opaque layers. From there, I prefer to break up the surfaces by playing with the airbrush.

Edited by Martinsson
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Hello guys!

Yes, it is going to be a Vietnamese MiG-21 in two-tone blue upper camouflage! I couldn´t resist Albatross fantastic markings.

Davide, pre- and post-shading technique is probably just a matter of choice. I have seen what you can accomplish on your magnificent F-16! :monkeydance: There are apparently many ways leading to Rome! :( I prefer post shading because it lets me cover the kit in very opaque layers. From there, I prefer to break up the surfaces by playing with the airbrush.

I am totally agree with you my friend.

I confess I will be jaelous about your Vietnamese camouflage, I change for an Iraqui.....but was big deal to take decision...

Very nice job, again.

Ciao

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Time to stripe the Tiger!

The instructions mention that the dark paint should be similar to PRU blue. That is BS636. The FS equivalent for PRU blue is different depending on the source you look into. I have seen equivalents for FS35189, 35164 and 35190. There are probably even more that I haven´t been running into. I have gotten the impression that PRU Blue was a bit more greenish in hue during WW2 and got a bit more grayish/blueish after the war. It still has a green tint to it but not as much as during the war. This conclusion, of course, can be very wrong. However, I chose to replicate the dark stripes as between FS35190 and 35109 because I found 35190 to be a bit too light for my liking. 35190 is the most bluish of all the PRU-blue equivalents and was thus good as basis for my interpretation of the colors used. I have no photo of this a/c so I am going on a hunch here.

I decided to use Gunze H322 Phtalo Cyanine Blue as base for my mix. I then added some H323 Light Blue to reduce the contrast between light and dark upper surface colors. Finally, I added some H21 Off White to lighten the mix a bit. I went freehand with the airbrush to get a suitably soft demarcation between colors.

DSC_1520.jpg

I used my usual method of adding structure and shadows/high lights with the airbrush. H55 Midnight Blue is the dark color. I see that the white balance is off a bit on this photo. The turquoise hue is over stated!

DSC_1526.jpg

H323 and H21 were used for high lights.. Finally I shot thin mists of my original dark blue mix to blend shadow and high light.

DSC_1527.jpg

DSC_1528.jpg

The dark patches really toned down the baby blue! I am quite happy with that!

See you next time!

Edited by Martinsson
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