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New Polish Mig-29 decals


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Caracal Models will be releasing two new decal sheets depicting the new special markings being applied to the Polish Air Force Mig-29 fleet.

The "Heroes of Kosciuszko" series (CD48029/CD48030) will feature the striking tail art (portraits of famous Polish Air Force pilots of the 303 "Kosciuszcko" Sqn. CD48029 will cover Polish AF Mig-29 no. 111, which was painted to honor F/O Miroslaw Feric. CD48030 will feature Mig-29 no.56, which honors Wing Cdr. Marian Pisarek. The sheets will contain Polish stencilling for one aircraft.

The Polish Air Force will be decorating all of its 16 aircraft with these portraits as part of its "Kosynierzy Warszawscy" program to commemorate the unit. Four (or five) aircraft have already been painted; and the Feric and Pisarek aircraft have already made a big splash at RIAT this past July. I will not be able to cover all 16 of them; but depending on how these decals sell, I may be able to do a follow-on sheet sometime in early 2013 when two familiar American names(and faces) will show up on these Mig-29s.

I have been working on these along with other projects for the last six weeks or so. The large badge on the spine presents some design challenges, and I think I found a good solution to accomodate the upcoming Great Wall Mig-29 kit as well as the Academy Mig-29. Thankfully I have the full cooperation of the original artist and I think the quality of the resulting decals will befit the heritage of the Kosciuszko squadron.

I think these will be popular, so I will be doing this series in all three scales. The 1/72 and 1/48 sheets will be December releases and will be printed by Cartograf. The 1/32 sheet will come approximately a month later since it's going to be printed in the Czech Republic at a very limited quantity (less than 200).

I am still putting a few finishing touches to the overall layout (the artwork for the individual elements is long finished), so I will post drafts and profiles this Saturday or Sunday. Meanwhile, here are Jim Simpson's excellent photographs showing the subject aircraft:

mig-29a-111-41elt-polish-af-riat-2012.jpg

mig-29a-56-41elt-polish-af-riat-2012-3.jpg

Edited by KursadA
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Cool, but i wish you would write MiG correctly... :sunrevolves:

While doing the stencils for this sheet, I learned how to write things like "przed demontazem oslony silnika rozlaczyc zlacze lampy antykolizyjnej" so writing MiG-29 correctly should not be a problem. I will make sure that it is written correctly in the instructions, and personally thank you on the instruction sheet(seriously) for tirelessly enforcing correct spelling of Russian abbreviations in the online world. ;-)

hor.jpg

Edited by KursadA
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Awesome stuff! :woo:

which model MiG is are these? I have a MiG 29M from Trumpeter in my stash, and someday I'll get started on it.

gary

They are the 9.12A "Fulcrum-A" variety. Your MiG-29M won't work for that, I'm afraid. :(

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While doing the stencils for this sheet, I learned how to write things like "przed demontazem oslony silnika rozlaczyc zlacze lampy antykolizyjnej" so writing MiG-29 correctly should not be a problem. I will make sure that it is written correctly in the instructions, and personally thank you on the instruction sheet(seriously) for tirelessly enforcing correct spelling of Russian abbreviations in the online world. ;-)

:huh: Critique, don't like it?

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:huh: Critique, don't like it?

No, nothing wrong with critique. I'm only kidding. Note that it's spelled correctly on my North Korean/Iranian MiG-29 sheet.

Italeri kit again for 1/72?

Yes, I will check the 1/72 version to fit the Italeri kit. They should work on any correctly dimensioned Mig-29 kit though.

Edited by KursadA
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No, nothing wrong with critique. I'm only kidding. Note that it's spelled correctly on my North Korean/Iranian MiG-29 sheet.

Okei, i wasn't sure. :thumbsup:

Now, to be fair, NK/Iran sheet is kinda why i pointed it out here... Because it is incorrect on that sheet as well. "i" in the MiG stands for "and" and should be in lower case, not upper like MIG. I am not trying to be pedantic or anything (but i guess i am? :P) but thought i would point it out here before it was "too late" for this Polish decal.

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Here are some current drafts as promised. I am still working on the final layout as well as some stencils, so this is not likely to be the final layout.

cd48029draft10062012.jpgcd48030draft10062012.jpg

Note that I provide the Kosciucszko badge on the spine in three parts. The badge is painted so that the stripes on it are exactly parallel to the central line of the fuselage when viewed from the top. I have examined various attempts to provide this badge in decal form, and almost all of them suffer from some design problems. In a couple of them, the designer naively provided the badge as a perfect circle, ignoring the curvature of the MiG-29 spine and the distortion it would introduce. In others, the designer tried to allow for the spine by giving the stripes on the circle some outward angle, but not sufficiently. As a result, the badge looks very pretty on the decal sheet; but not so much on the model. I believe my three-part design eliminates these issues while allowing for possible differences between the Academy and Great Wall kits.

The pilot portraits are intended to be applied directly on the FS36270/FS36118 Polish MiG-29 camouflage. Cartograf does an excellent job of matching FS595b colors, so I think color mismatch should not be a problem here.

Profiles and more drafts will be posted as I make more progress.

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Here's a funny stencil I've found on Fulcrum No. 40 at this year's ILA in Berlin. I don't know whether No. 56 (the other Fulcrum they sent and which put on a fantastic flying display :banana: ) carried this one as well, though.

ILA2012404bearb.jpg

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I don't know whether No. 56 (the other Fulcrum they sent and which put on a fantastic flying display :banana: ) carried this one as well, though.

I think this stencil is highly nonstandard ;-). I also noticed it during my research; it does not seem to exist on other Fulcrums.

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Ok why do these markings look familiar? I think another decal company may have issued these markings? Not that it matters to me as I would buy Kursad's version anyway since I don't have it. I think the other sheet may not have had the art on the tails.

Also, with the new MiG 29 kit coming from Great Wall Hobby I think these markings would be outstanding. Oh well got to work some more overtime to buy more Caracal decals :lol:

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Ok why do these markings look familiar? I think another decal company may have issued these markings?

Hi Chris,

The Kosciuszko unit badge has been painted on some Polish Mig-29s since several years ago, and a few companies have released decal sheets with this badge. The pilot portraits on the tail are very new though, they only started appearing this past summer. I don't think anyone else has announced these markings but even if they did; I wouldn't be concerned and I will bring my decal sheets to the market.

Edited by KursadA
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Well Kursad yet another decal sheet to look forward to! Thank you for putting in all the effort into producing these cool schemes.

PS Been slogging away on my North Korean MiG-29. My wife is highly amused at my obsession over this ugly paint scheme and is making frequent trips to the local hobby shop near her office to get me the supplies I need for this monstrosity.

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Hi Chris,

The Kosciuszko unit badge has been painted on some Polish Mig-29s since several years ago, and a few companies have released decal sheets with this badge. The pilot portraits on the tail are very new though, they only started appearing this past summer. I don't think anyone else has announced these markings but even if they did; I wouldn't be concerned and I will bring my decal sheets to the market.

I knew I had seen the markings on decals before. It seems that Aztec Decals produced a sheet in 1/48 and 1/72nd. Lucky for me I never got it :) Now that Kursad is making an even better sheet I know which one to buy now.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I DEF-I-NITE-LY want the 1/48 versions, however many variants you make. While I already have the 48-105 CAM set for the 1st Fighter Regiment "Warszawa", with that huge Stork on the spine, I was sold as soon as I saw the portraits of Ferić and Pisarek!

Hmmm...your comment about the distortion looks like it's very much the case with the CAM set, as the unit badge looks perfect on the paper.

Can they be (pre-)ordered now?

Edited by David N Lombard
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  • 4 weeks later...

I very nearly started on the artwork for these decals myself. After seeing those jets at RIAT this year I really wanted to have the decals and started to collect lots of reference. Luckily, someone who offered help with more reference pictures pointed out that a company was already working on the decals so I pulled out of it. It turned out that this he was referring to is NOT Caracal though! So there is yet another company working on those decals...

I had the same idea about the spine decal design - I wanted to either try a three part design like this or use a non-complete circle (or oval) with a separate wedge-shaped insert for the raised spine area.

As I already have the Eduard edition of the MiG-29A and will buy the GWH kit as well I'll try both marking options - I wonder though when that other company will release their sheet and who that is anyway...

Cheers

Jeffrey

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I knew I had seen the markings on decals before. It seems that Aztec Decals produced a sheet in 1/48 and 1/72nd. Lucky for me I never got it :) Now that Kursad is making an even better sheet I know which one to buy now.

The Aztec sheet doesn't cover these markings. These are brand new schemes, although they have used the Kosciuszko badge on the spine of the MiGs before, the pilot portraits are new.

I'm so glad I saw this thread!! I was hoping someone would do these aircraft!! Such a great tribute to these legends. The draft looks stunning!

Thanks for doing this! The Kosciuszko Squadron and its long history is a particular modelling and research interest of mine, my father was a part of that history from early 1945 to the disbandment of 303 Squadron in 1946.

I suppose it would be too much to hope to see these in 1/32? What if I said please?

Cheers,

Richard

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...The "Heroes of Kosciuszko" series (CD48029/CD48030) will feature the striking tail art (portraits of famous Polish Air Force pilots of the 303 "Kosciuszcko" Sqn. CD48029 will cover Polish AF Mig-29 no. 111, which was painted to honor F/O Miroslaw Feric. CD48030 will feature Mig-29 no.56, which honors Wing Cdr. Marian Pisarek. The sheets will contain Polish stencilling for one aircraft.

I Thankfully I have the full cooperation of the original artist and I think the quality of the resulting decals will befit the heritage of the Kosciuszko squadron.

I think these will be popular, so I will be doing this series in all three scales. The 1/72 and 1/48 sheets will be December releases and will be printed by Cartograf. The 1/32 sheet will come approximately a month later since it's going to be printed in the Czech Republic at a very limited quantity (less than 200).

Sorry, I got excited and didn't read through the entire first post. I'll be buying all the 1/72 sheets, and might have to be more selective about the 1/32...or not. I will probably buy them all anyway even if I don't use them...I just love the artwork and your efforts!

If you are working with Robert Gretzyngier, can you say yet which other pilots are going to have their portraits painted on the tails? I understand Urbanowicz, Krasnobebski, Horbaczewski and Wojciech Januszewicz are planned or complete. Jan Zumbach I would imagine is another. Meriam Cooper?

Anyway, thank you again for doing this, and if you are working with the artist your decals will definitely be the ones to buy.

Cheers,

Richard

Again, thanks so much!!

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