swbailey Posted November 11, 2013 Share Posted November 11, 2013 Started working on the MiG-15UTI and it is a slick little model. First thing I did was to remove the guide pins molded on sides, just inside the intake. They are far too visible inside that big open mouth and needed to go. Next, lead weight was put inside the intake splitter and a bunch of old roller bearings were glued to the floor of the fuselage and the sides of the cockpit tub. Not sure this will be enough but it feels pretty hefty. With the big tail on this bird, it could be a real tail sitter if I'm wrong. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevehnz Posted November 11, 2013 Share Posted November 11, 2013 I'll be watching this one with interest, I was tempted to do the same kit for this group build, but bailed early in the piece, too much on. The Somali colours are a bit different & quite attractive to my mind so an obvious choice for me, a camo nut. :) Steve. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted November 12, 2013 Author Share Posted November 12, 2013 A couple days into the project. I painted the cockpit and wheel wells with Model Master Russian Interior Green, although I don't know if that actually applies for the wheel wells. The kit instructions say yes, but the MiG-15UTI that I have sitting on the lawn here at Evergreen has them as silver. I am always leery of museum restorations, including ones here at the museum where I am curator, because airplanes usually go through lots of hands before they get to the museum and you never know who painted what parts, which color. A coat of dull aluminum takes care of the interior of the intake. As per usual, the cockpit is next. Since my plan is pretty much to do the kit out of the box, I did very little here except to add seatbelts from Tamiya tape. Also installed the tail pipe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted November 14, 2013 Author Share Posted November 14, 2013 Moving on, I finished up the cockpit by addind decals for the instrument panels. This was the most disappointing part of the kit, as there was no detail on the instrument panels and no decal for them either. Just a blank, flat, smooth instrument panel. I believe some after-market supplier like Pavla has a resin cockpit set for this kit, but again my aim was to work mostly out of the box. So... I ended up scrounging some decals out of my spares box. The front seat got a modified decal from a Monogram 1/72 F-15, while the back seat got an old Microscale F-104 instrument panel. Certainly not correct, but for a fun build; what the heck? (Besides, no one has ever looked at one of my models in an IPMS contest and said "wait, that knob is in the wrong place..." After installing the instrument panels, I pulled one of those bonehead moves that can wreck a project; I glued the fuselage halves together without trapping the wing between them. Luck was on my side, because I was able to cut the the one-piece wing and insert the wings individually into the fuselage. It actually may have worked to my advantage, because it allowed me to fit the wings a bit tighter, so I had less of a gap. Fit on this Hobby Boss kit is excellent, as the rear fuselage needed no filler at all. The seam ahead of the wing needed just a little on each side. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted November 14, 2013 Author Share Posted November 14, 2013 More progress... the wings are attached, all of the visible seams have been filled using my old favorite; 3M Acryl Blue Automotive Glazing Putty and the surfaces have been sanded out. The canopy was dipped in future and attached. The was only one minor glitch, as the back tip of the canopy had been broken off and had to be re-built with putty. Still, excellent fit throughout. Last night I masked the canopy using Bare Metal Foil then sprayed the interior color on the clear areas of the canopy. Also took the opportunity to spray a little onto the areas of filler to check that my filling and sanding was good. Nothing shows up a bad seam like a coat of paint... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ryan Hothersall Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 Looking great so far. I know what you mean about the gap in the wing to fuselage join. I know all about thinking yep looks like I've filled and tidied up any seams, and then on goes paint and... Didn't see that gap. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted November 29, 2013 Author Share Posted November 29, 2013 After a hiatus of a week to do work related things, I am back on the MiG. After a little touch up on the seams, a coat of Tamiya primer covered the whole bird, and yesterday I pre-shaded all of the panel lines with a thin coat of Modelmaster flat black. Next, on to the camouflage!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 (edited) The Thanksgiving weekend allowed me a little more time for working on the Mig (along with other projects) and I was able to get a lot accomplished! First, I painted the undersides with Modelmaster RLM 65 Hellblau, and I think the results with the pre-shding turned out pretty well. I do this a lot on 1/48 scale aircraft, but it is a bit difficult on tiny little jets in 1/72, especially since I am using an old Paasche H single action air brush. (My double action Badger 155 is having some problems and needs to get serviced...) Next, I shot the sand color on the upper surfaces using a blend of Modelmaster Gulf Armor Sand with a touch of Light Ivory blended in. Once that had dried, I went to work masking using a technique that I had not used before; defining the edges using poster-tack putty. I took the putty and cut it into strips, then rolled it out into long snakes which I tacked down in the sand colored areas. I then filled in the area between the snakes with Tamiya tape. I didn't do a particularly neat job of taping; just enough to make sure the areas I wanted to stay sand were covered. I then painted with Modelmaster Forest Green for the second camo color. The results came out pretty well (in my opinion...) The putty gave me just enough of a soft edge to the camo to look good in 1/72 scale. It's not razor sharp, but not as fuzzy as if it were done free hand. There were just a couple minor places where there was some "blow-by" but those are easy to clean up. After a couple days to dry, it's on to clear coats and decals! Edited December 2, 2013 by swbailey Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevehnz Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Nice looking build so far. Thanks for the colour calls, always usefull to have that sort of info, I wish more would do it like you are. What/whose decals are you going to be using on this? I've seen plenty of profiles for these but no joy locating decals. :( Steve. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted December 3, 2013 Author Share Posted December 3, 2013 (edited) Nice looking build so far. Thanks for the colour calls, always usefull to have that sort of info, I wish more would do it like you are. What/whose decals are you going to be using on this? I've seen plenty of profiles for these but no joy locating decals. :(/>/>/> Steve. Steve, Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately, there are no decals for the is aircraft in 1/72 scale. I was hoping that Iliad would do a companion set to their 1/48 scale sheet for us who build in "one too tiny-th" scale, but so far no joy. (I'm sure they'll release something a month or so after I'm done with this...) Anyway, I am kit-bashing the decals from a bunch of different sources. I have some old Microscale solid color sheets including one that is pretty close to the Somali insignia bright blue. I've cut a number of 7/16" diameter circles out of that material using an old circle template and a very sharp exacto blade. The white stars are coming from an old Microscale/Superscale sheet of US Insignias for US Navy aircraft from the 1945-1950 period, when they were overall gloss sea blue, and didn't use the insignia blue behind the stars and bars. I just cut off the bars and use the stars. The CC116 call numbers on the nose will be coming from a variety of decal sheets that provide the 45 degree corner military style lettering in black. Beyond that, I have not seen any other marking on this aircraft, so I am going to leave it at that. If there are any ground handling stencils on it, they don't show in the photos, so I'm leaving them off. As I was building this in 1/72 scale, I have actually given thought to trying to do it in 1/48 as it appears in the photos where it's in a dump, with the canopy smashed, flat tires, missing panels and all sorts of grafitti all over it. Could be a fun diorama... Stewart Edited December 3, 2013 by swbailey Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevehnz Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Thanks for that Stewart, doesn't sound too hard to do, I reckon I've probably got most of the decals I'd need for it as you describe. Interesting picture that, I wonder who was the enterprising fellow countryman of mine that "tagged" the wreck? :D Steve. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 Okay... now the decals are on and the fun can begin! Next step are the various washes and weathering before it gets a flat coat. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will get finished before the end of the year. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheFlyingDutchman Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 That looks very promising! Good work!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mmaker Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Looks great! Isnt this one needs heavy weathering,including chipping,dust and even footprints? You can even mask a panel and paint it, just like is from other bird... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted December 19, 2013 Author Share Posted December 19, 2013 I applied the first round of washes last night and it's looking good; starting to look a little groady, streaky and such. I then plan to add paint chipping, leaks, streaks and foot prints to round it all out. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mmaker Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Cant wait for that!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 Well, it's done. I got a little time over the weekend so I finished up the weathering and made up a base for the MiG. After the decals were done and another coat of Future gloss was applied, I started applying a was of Raw Umber artist oils. I then switched over to using brown and black Micron pens that you can find in the calligraphy section of the craft store. I use the .01 size, which is small enough to get down into the engraved lines. The nice thing about the pens in that they use water-soluable ink, so that a quick wipe with a damp Q-tip will take care of any mistakes when you draw outside the lines. I followed that with a black "sludge wash" inside the gear wells and the speed brakes. Earlier, I had painted the inside of the wheel wells with the Russian interior blue-green, but in the end, I opted for silver. We have a MiG-15UTI here at the Evergreen Museum and the gear wells were silver on that, so that was my final choice. (It's nice having the actual aircraft sitting a few hundred feet away from my office so I can get the details I need, although ours is actually a Shenyang JJ-2, and it might have lead me a little astray...) After the washes, I sprayed a coat of Testors Dullcote, and finished up the weathering with pastels and Tamiya Smoke for oil stains and Tamiya Clear Orange for hydraulic fluid leaks and streaks. Paint chipping was done with a Prismacolor silver pencil. Rigged the antenna with some clear nylon thread and I called it a wrap! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevehnz Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 (edited) Nice going on that one Stewart, I really like what you've done with this & will be happy to take inspiration for one of my own from this. Thanks too for your detailed info on how you've gone about it, mighty useful. Steve. Edited December 24, 2013 by stevehnz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swbailey Posted December 24, 2013 Author Share Posted December 24, 2013 Nice going on that one Stewart, I really like what you've done with this & will be happy to take inspiration for one of my own from this. :thumbsup:/> Thanks too for your detailed info on how you've gone about it, mighty useful. Steve. Steve, Again, thanks for the kind words. I actually had a lot of fun with this build, and it was probably one of my fastest; start to finish. Having the "pressure" to show progress, moved me a long a little bit. Cheers! Stewart Quote Link to post Share on other sites
VG 33 Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 You made a nice little kit here and the colors are very interesting. Patrick Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mmaker Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 Love that Stewart! Great job all over. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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