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Hi dear collegues!

The excellent Eduard mig-21 kit series convinced me to develop an old idea.

This will be a diorama but for the moment I'll keep the layout secret.

What I'm proud to unveil today are some little details.

Here You can see a towing bar, made by scratch in a couple of nights, and other details from the Brengun superb 1\144 etched sets.

I made some personalizations to the Brengun sets:

- I've cutted away a step from the ladder (I discovered there were at least two type of mig-21 ladders in use, one with seven steps and a taller one with eight)

- I wasn't able to get a decent cone from the one provided in Brengun set, so I made a resin copy of the Eduard kit radome and adapt it to the ring.

- I've added the dorsal cushion to the ejection seat, drilled an hole for the head up display projector and one for the radar display and other minor changings here and there.

 

03YYhBI.jpg

 

5QJFcEg.jpg

 

 

 

Bye bye, hope You'll enjoy

Giovanni

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Hi!,

thank you for your replies.

In the meantime I got my Eduard Mig-21.

Now I can reveal one more thing: my will be a "bis" version.

Sadly the kit shares the same wheels with the previously released mf and smt. So bad!

This will be a good new for resin set producers.

Cheers

Giovanni

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On ‎13‎/‎04‎/‎2012 at 0:01 AM, Berkut said:

I hope you correct the nose.

Not sure, Berkut. I think this won't be so noticeable in this scale. I'll think about...

While writing, the display stand is almost complete.

Just to let You give a glance (and to show the instrument panel):

 

BfpZTsS.jpg

The dorsal spine is that of the mig-21 mf. The mig is not assembled; just a dry fit test.

Thank You for showing interest!

Cheers.

Giovanni

:)

p.s. : in lingua italiana vedi qui http://oldcrowforum.mastertopforum.com/nuovo-progetto-in-1-144-vt323.html

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I give up. I cannot keep this as a secret!

Here is the layout:

 

i9FrFyz.jpg

 

JPGPMlp.jpg

 

Now is your turn: try to guess the nationality, year and location!

A suggestion: it's a no longer existing aviation :rolleyes:

Hope to find some time to go on with it this weekend...

Bye bye

Giovanni

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On ‎21‎/‎04‎/‎2012 at 7:46 AM, John King said:

Looking good Giovanni. Will it be an all gray East German example from the 1980s?

And the winner is.......

John King!

Actually this will be a camouflaged mig-21 bis, "899" from JG-8 Marxwalde summer 1990.

This week-end I made some more details.

They are all covers. In the second picture I have placed them in the right place.

The two bigger are for the main wheel bays. They were seldomly put on, but I've seen them in many pictures close to the planes.

 

ajKl7Jb.jpg

 

Cx4acwC.jpg

 

Now is time to rest, goodnight!

Giovanni

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On ‎23‎/‎04‎/‎2012 at 1:59 AM, John King said:

Nice, Giovanni! I love East German aircraft. I've got 3 of the 4 volumes of "Fluegzeuge der DDR." Great books if you can get your hands on them.

Hi, John, I'm a big fanatic too.

I don't have these books but I'm happy to hear they are good. I'm going to Germany on the next days and I will try to purchase.

Lsk der Nva is really evocative to me, and finding new photographic material will help to develop new ideas for dioramas.

Now a new picture...

 

69LXhBD.jpg

 

I had to trouble a lot to find the right shade of red-orange.

This is the way I got it:

-first I sprayed a semigloss red (from a personal mix of Humbrol reds) lightened with some white.

-then a gloss orange from Humbrol, spraying it just from the direction of natural light.

I don't know if the effect is noticeable in the picture.

The towing bar had been intentionally left red (ok, I still have to paint the tyres :whistle: ) to adhere to the real pictures I got of this subject.

Tomorrow I will do some shadowing and drybrushing to enhance the details.

Bye

Giovanni

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Hi Giovanni,

Your kit looks very nice!!! I like the small extras that you have added. There is no problem in having the tow bar in a different shade of colour. Actually each aircraft arrived with its own set of all the covers, each cover having the number of the particular aircraft that it belonged to stenciled on it. But with years of service and attrition there was some mix for some of covers and tow bars. Just as the rest of the plane went for overhaul every now and again the small covers were also overpainted to give them a “new†look. From then on in the Hungarian AF you could have green, blue, yellow, orange or red tow bars and also the covers received a layer of paint (what ever was around in the paint shop) so you could see a very colourful mix of different covers on our aircraft. Of course the GDR ground personal was very different! :salute:

The undercarriage cover that you have made has been used fairly often, specially on aircraft in storage for more than a night. There is also a long cover to go with it that blocks completely the main undercarriage bay from “outside†interference. At the Taszar base in the South of Hungary there were a lot of small rodent that loved to go up the bay and eat anything they found (textile, leather and rubber covers, tubes) so the covers were installed even for an overnight storage.

Yes, I have also found that the nosecone cover is not so easy to bend to shape in the Brengun set but in the end I have managed it. :wacko: I like your tow bar! :thumbsup:

Don't want to start an argument (again) but that MiG-21 bis nose should be corrected . . . :) :D :) :D

Best regards

Gabor

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Hi Giovanni,

At the weekend have found a photo that fits your description of a GDR aircraft. I have to say that at first glance I was not sure about the slabs of concrete under the aircraft but having seen the real one, yes it looks excellent!

Best regards

Gabor

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On a side note, Linden Hill Imports has a couple of the Flugzeuge der DDR books.

Thank You John!

There is also a long cover to go with it that blocks completely the main undercarriage bay from “outside†interference.

I'd like to have more info about that cover...

Was it something "solid" or made of fabric?

Don't want to start an argument (again) but that MiG-21 bis nose should be corrected . . . :) :D :) :D

Ok...let me see...in this scale it shouldn't be so difficult! I'll follow your instructions (thank you for your deep research on this issue).

Hi Giovanni,

At the weekend have found a photo that fits your description of a GDR aircraft. I have to say that at first glance I was not sure about the slabs of concrete under the aircraft but having seen the real one, yes it looks excellent!

Thank You Gabor!

I think this should be the picture You've found:

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/4164/img082.jpg

I usually collect a lot of reference material before starting a new work. Fortunately I've found at least 4-5 pictures of this ODF on line and on...books. This allowed me to place the slabs of concrete exactely in the place they were on the real subject.

The colour is not totally satisfying to be honest...but I don't want to start the painting again or I won't finish this diorama in this life :)

A big Thank You to all the others for supporting me!

bye

Giovanni

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Hi Giovanni,

The reference I had was the first book that I took of the shelf when I heard of your build. It is the Airlife Publishing East German AF Final Flightline by C.J. van Gent from 1993. It has some excellent photos of the GDR AF. There is one photo of MiG-21 bis Type 75A (without the RSBN system) standing in the Alert “box†(if you can call it a true Alert box) at Marxwalde AFB. The aircraft is 899. There is also one more photo of the missiles in close up from the same aircraft. There you can see that the Germans have put a piece of U shaped rail (painted white) at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft to stop it when it is pushed back to its place. The position where the main wheels should hit the rail are painted red.

I haven’t seen other photos from this series but the one you posted looks like it is from there too, also by C.J. van Gent.

The long cover for the main undercarriage bay was made from aluminium just as the ones you have made. They had four L shaped “locks†to hold it in place with cutouts for the main leg and the actuator. It was painted red and on the inside it had a thin black rubber seal. As I said I have seen these in use at Taszar in mid 80’s and later on. I am not sure that the Germans used it but it was certainly part of every aircrafts ground equipment kit sold to them by the Russians.

The question of the bis nose was just a joke :D :D :D referring back to some long arguments about the Eduard’s 48 scale kit. Here in 144 you would not see it, but in larger scales it is most certainly visible. I think anyway!

Good luck with your build.

Best regards

Gabor

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Giovanni... what a BIG lighter you have! :whistle: what else can I say???? I built aircraft dioramas in 1/48 and watching your work three things come to my mind:

1. You are the owner of a very big lighter

2. Your scale is 1/32

3. Photoshop is a great tool

...

:taunt:

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