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1/48 Italeri Mig-23 , Cuban markings


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I haven't built a model in a couple years, and seeing a Cuban Mig-21 last year made me think this theme might be good inspiration to get back into modeling. I will start with a 1/48 Italeri Mig-23. I normally build easy Hasegawa / Tamiya kits, with exact color layouts. I am going to try & do the following aircraft, but will guess at paint matches. The kit has the Cuban flag marking for the tail, but no roundel, so I will try & make that. I also hate doing cockpit panels, so am using Eduard's color photoetch.

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First up, get some weight in the nose cone, and forward sections of cockpit.

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Next, get the bulk of the main body put together.

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Start hacking away at plastic to get the Eduard cockpit panels to fit.

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I hear that Gunze H25 & H46 mixed 50/50 is a good match for the cockpit - I think i might have mixed it too dark?

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I glued the cockpit halves together, and glued the front & body together, and did some rough puttying

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Mask the cockpit seams, those 3 antenna in front of the window did not last long!

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Masking roundels. I am painting the circles white, so that the star in the middle will be white, and in case the home made decal is opaque.

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Edited by taylorde
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Tail rudder painted white, and nose painted insignia white (Mr color paints)

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I did try rescribing the few panels lines there are , this was a first for me, and rushed through that to the preshade, and light blue Mr Color 323 for the bottom.

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Wow - you are making the rest of us look like slackers! The pit looks great to me! How are the seams and fit on this Italeri model? I built one 20 years ago and it was very frustrating.

I am not liking this kit...I will have some more pictures in a bit, main colors are on (not exactly what I was going for), and having some issues with landing gear. Lots of putty around intakes, not much detail in terms of panels lines anyway , and big seam rear sides. I wish I had sanded the insides of the wings, every time I rotate them, they scrape away main body color !!!

DaveT

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Here is the main blue color, Mr Color 34 sky blue

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Here is the main green color, I used Gunze H46. I spent quite a while looking at different color paints for this model, not wanting to try & mix a custom paint, I do not like this green, but I guess it will do. If you can think of a better green to make the picture at the beginning of the post, let me know!

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I tried to recreate the antenna with brass rod, maybe stretched sprue would be better, but have never done that.

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See the end of the long support arm of the landing gear...that goes into the hole, and goes all the way through. It was tough gluing that, as it can go all the way into the body, and hard to get back out.

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Here is a side profile, compared to real Mig-23, the arse end should be almost on the ground, this model looks almost horizontal. Did I do something wrong?

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Here is the model, with 6 pennies under the front landing gear. Is there a way to modify the rear gear to make it look more like this? Should the front landing gear be longer? My models are not show winners, but I am pleased if they look like the real thing, and right now it does not.

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Firstly - I am NOT and expert in things "MiG" so take this for what its worth. Secondly - are you sure that an operational MiG-23 is supposed to sit like that?

If you are sure - then I think the main gear is upright compared with the prototype shot of the main gear at the beginning of this topic. I am not sure how to explain it. It looks as though the main gear should be bent backwards when the airplane is at rest. Yours is probably the postion right as the airplane is about to land.

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For some reason, I thought I should paint the rudder white, so that the Cuban flag decal would look better. I probably did not need to do this, I think the quality of the decals is good, except that I think the flag decal should have covered the entire rudder, so I had to use post-it notes to mask the decal and fix this.

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I think it looks ok now with decals on. I don't think Cuban jets have many if any stencils, but I think it makes a model look more realistic. I had put all the stencils on the left side at first, but ripped off all the white ones, they did not look good. The roundels I made are too dark, but will have to do. On the right side, the white circle I made was too big, had to touch that up by hand, then lightly sanded the brush marks, which wore through the paint, so had to touch up the main body colors for the umpteenth time.

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DaveT

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Got the exhaust painted Mr. Metal Color 'Iron', which buffs nice. Did not like masking around the airbrakes, there is no panel line detail around here, so just guess based on pictures

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Fuel tank, gear doors are on. I wish there were locator pins, and actuating rods for the gear doors, they are just hanging there. I wanted to mount a couple missles on those racks, but they are in the way of the gear doors. I heard that before about this kit, so maybe it wasn't a mistake on my part ?!

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I am dreading doing the seat, with all the eduard photoetch harnesses, but that & the pitot tube will finish this build

DaveT

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I am done with this model. Here are finished pictures. It is a good thing I cannot take close ups, because the blobs of CA on the photoetch seat belts are out of scale. I also found another picture of a Cuban Mig-23, whose colors are very close to what I chose !

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DaveT

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