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Mig-21 PFM North Vietnam Airforce


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Hello guys.

In my local LHS there was a sale on Zvezda models. I bought both PFM and Bis moedels for a rather low price.

When I opened the box I was surprised with the amount of the details. The Bis model is a bit better then the PFM detail wise.

So, I began with a bit of scratch work.

First I added details to the After burner. Because of the scale I decided on my masking tape.

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Next was the KM-1 ejection seat.

At the time, to my eyes..., the seat head was too steep, and too tall, so I trimmed it off. In retrospect, I removed a bit too much.

I kept adding the seat belts and some bits.

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I also added some structure to the cockpit walls. Here only the first lair, next will be another.

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The cockpit tub is completely voided of details, so I added the oval shape, rudder pedals, buttons, throttle and a gauge to it. Less visible is the hand brake, left to the stick.

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Primed and ready for the Russian interior blue-green color.

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Since I will attempt to model Aircraft number 5066, according to my references, It was delivered to the NVA, after or during 68. By 1968, I believe most Mig-21 cockpits switched to the Blue-green color from the light grey and black console colors.

I wanted a dirty and used cockpit, hence the wash.

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However, in such small detail area, I often tend to accentuate the wash in order to give more shadows to the reliefs.

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assembled, but with some struggle. Zvezda's cockpit tub has two stubs, perhaps to help you locate the main console, but only they know if they ment in front of the console (as details??) or to back the console, which through the console way up front of the nose. So, I simply shaved them off, and located the main console at the proper place.

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Some more problems...

Locating the tub, according to its little pins, makes the whole tub to seat too much to right and not centerline. I helped the tub with a discarded piece of Evergreen. Naturally some led weights were added.

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Edited by Shahar Levi
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Closing the fuselage halves together and... "Me not paying attention..." :cheers:

Zvezda forgot to add a rear bulkhead and they left a nice hole to the back of the ejection seat, and I missed it...

Built my own from scratch, and added the rails for the KM-1 seat.

(see the little holes at the side? I will fix it later.

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I added the wings to fuselage, and added the rings to the under wing antennas. Yeap! They are overscale! :cheers:

The main landing gear was added with some hydraulic lines, and the anti skid "thingy".

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The rear landing gear was given some extra work. I think the "Scissors" mechanism had to be in my kit.

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I also managed to break the the rear fuselage extensions and made new ones.

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Basically, after some filling and re-scribing (But not too much, it is a Soviet aircraft after all :rofl: ), at this stage, the kit was ready for paint.

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I like to start from Black overall.

At this point, the green areas (Model master mix of 80%Medium green and 20% flat green), were masked off.

Also, to emphasis the front metal ring, I painted Humbrol 27003, polished steel, and buffed it to a nice shin.

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Masked again, and now waiting for the NMF finish.

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Please feel free to make any comment. :taunt:

Thanks!!

Edited by Shahar Levi
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Hi. You're doing a beautiful job here ! :rofl:

Please feel free to make any comment. :D

Beware of the nose cone. It sticks out too much and the angle is probably too important. Sanding the cone base will improve the situation. Here's a gorgeous build and paint job but with an unmodified cone... to me it looks really weird.

Laurent

Edited by Laurent
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A pic to estimate the nose cone angles: http://mig-21.de/bilder/rp-21.jpg . If you want to reduce the angles you could fill up the cone with epoxy putty, stick a sewing needle along the axis, mount the needle on a dremel and close the angles by sanding with a file.

Edited by Laurent
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Laurent and Grizzly, thank you so much for the kind words.

I encountered the nose problem when reading Yufei Mao's, Mig-21 MF Lancer article at hyperscale.

I attempted to do the same thing.

Here is a picture of the original part, and the modified one.

In the picture you may be able to see the needle (inside the plastic Evergreen tube).

Like Mao, I cut the tip and glued the needle inside. I used an Evergreen tube as a chuck to go into the "Dremel-like" tool I have.

I began rotating slowly and cleaned the excess with a scalpel. I over did it a bit, so I used some putty and reshaped the whole thing with wet sanding while spinning it ( a dirty job! :worship: ). I then primed it and painted it green. After the whole saga, I believe I thinned the cone a bit.

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I didn't know about the length of the cone, so I thank you both for mentioning it to me.

Only after the fuselage will be ready to receive the cone, I will know and check.

:worship:

Edited by Shahar Levi
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Thanks a lot Tempestwulf and Darwin :)

This is a rather good kit. It doesn't have the wonderful Revell rivet details. but overall it is the best PFM out there.

I'm looking forward to build the Bis version as well.

I will keep the postings! :whistle:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Paint job. Part 1 NMF.

Since I don't have Alclads or SNJs in my stash, and I normally not a big fan of NMF (motteling is my thing :lol: ) I had to make do with what I have.

So after the black color preparation, I sprayed Humbrol 27002 (polished Aluminum) on the entire model. It's suppose to be a buff-able color, so I waited for about 48 hours and tried to buff it. With a soft cotton swab I managed to reach the black underneath. So I resprayed, and waited for about a week. I than top coated the model with Model master Enamel Gloss coat to make sure the next step of (many) masking strips and tape will not harm the base coat.

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After letting the gloss coat to thoroughly dry, I began masking panels according to some Mig 21 photos.

Since the model is in 1:72 scale, and will receive mottles of green to escape the "toy-like" look I added to the contrast between the panels. I mixed Model Master Aluminum with Humbrol 27003.

After removing the tape there was no problem with the base coat.

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I think I will wait for the paint to dry and later paint some more panels.

After that, the green on top!

Please feel free to make any comment! :)

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Damn!I cannot see the pics 'cause imageshack is prohibited in China mainland,same as youtube,Twitter,Facebook,etc... :worship:

Really?!?!

Oh my god! That really sucks!

Where should I upload the photos then?

Photobucket any good?

Edited by Shahar Levi
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