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MiG-25BM "White 38'

1/72 Converted from the ICM MiG-25PD

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I have always thought the MiG-25 was an impressive aircraft and there is some very inspiring kit box art with the 25 hauling around those massive AA-6 Acrid missiles. The only drawback to me was the less then appealing overall gray scheme, I mean that is a lot of gray with only a few red stars (or green dots) and an aircraft number for markings; but that changed when pictures started to turn up of the 25 in some very interesting camo schemes and I knew that was what I wanted to build. Years passed, the Wall fell, more and more info became available, some pretty decent kits came on the market and it was time to start the long delayed project.

Research determined that only a few types of the 25 carried the camo schemes, mainly the 'R' variants and the 'BM; at first I was looking at an RB as a couple of R conversion noses had come on the market and the Armory set included the long needed correctly detailed exhaust nozzles. I wanted to add some neat armament but the idea of loading the MiG-25 up with MER racks and a bunch of bombs did not appeal to me so I started looking at the BM version. The idea of a MiG-25 'Wild Weasel' armed with 4 of the big Kh-58 anti-radiation missiles along with the massive centerline drop tank was just what I wanted.

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Conversion

I decided on the ICM MiG-25PD; it is based on the Condor kit but with improved detail. Construction started and of course at the time there was no BM nose conversion (Click2detail.com has since released one) so I needed to convert the Armory R conversion nose to one for the BM. This required filling in the various camera ports, adding a couple of side nose bulges, and a lot of re-scribing. Also the large bottom sensor bulge needed reworking.

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The other major modification from a PD to a BM is the wings; the R / BM have a shorter span, easy enough to cut off the wing tips, but they also have more cord as you go from wing root to tip and when this is added you need to extend the inner wing fence out to the new leading edge. The BM also carries different ECM pods on the tips and these are included in the Armory conversion.

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Detail

While the kit is nice it can definitely benefit from some additional detail. A multitude of small scoops on the inside and outside of the vertical stabilizers, a slim antenna flaring near the top of the left horizontal, an elongated bulge on the outside near the base, antenna flaring to the outside of the engine intakes (optional part in the Condor PD kit). The kit wings only have aileron actuators on the top with none on the bottom plus they are not accurate so these were added, and the horizontal stabs need their outside actuator arms and fuselage receptacles plus a very prominent bottom hinge bulge.

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Small vanes and a 'fence' were added to the top inlet on the engine intakes along with a lot of detail to the upper wing fences. The top right vertical stab needs the rear facing 'bullet' lengthen and detailed and there is a prominent exhaust vent on the lower left engine to add. Lastly 8 static discharge rods were added to different locations around the aircraft.

The excellent metal pitot tube was from PVD out of Russia but he seems to be out of business for the time being, and 4 additional vanes had to be added for accuracy. (Just my luck Armory now has one.)

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3 additional 'holes' on the spine behind the cockpit (different pattern to each side), also an antenna and bulge were added to the bottom of the nose forward of the nose wheel well along with 4 antenna and 3 sensors to different positions on the radome.

The very nice Neomega cockpit was used and fit with little modification; but then when a pilot is added and the canopy closed you don't see all that much anyway. The pilot was from the Fujimi MiG-21 and I modified his helmet to look more like the ones seen in photos.

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Weapons

In regards to weapons; on the BM the inner and outer pylons differ from the ones in the PD kit in both length and shape so these had to be modified and extra detail was added. As mentioned I was going for 4 Kh-58 missiles so the hunt was on: there are 2 mass production injected Russian 1/72 weapon sets that I know of that have Kh-58s, one from DML and one from ICM and in both the missiles are way out of scale. The AA-6 Acrid in the old ICM Soviet Modern Air Armament set would work with some modifications but they only gives you 2 and that set is out of production and the two sets that replaced it don't have the AA-6. I went through my pretty extensive inventory of weapon from all nations and was not able to come up with anything I could use even with modifications. It turns out that Prop & Jets had a resin set and I was able to work out a trade with a fellow ARC member for the Kh-58 bodies (no fins) and while I was waiting for that to show up I received a reply from Click2detail that he was willing to sell me the Kh-58 from his conversion kit at a reasonable price. I received the P & J bodies and while they were very nice there were no locating guides for the 8 fins per missile, so I decided there was no way I wanted to try and align 32 fins and I sent for the Click2 set. Click2 uses the 3D printing technology and each missile comes in 2 parts, a nose cone and body with molded on fins and the fit is excellent. The missiles look very good with two small caveats; the Kh-58 photos I have show a conduit housing on each side of the missile, Click 2's has it only on one side but it's an easy fix with a bit of Evergreen strips. The other caveat is with the 3D print method you have a very fine crosshatch texture on the parts that will need to be sanded off; be careful with the molded on fins. There were also some small pin holes along the base of about 1/3 of the fins. All in all still a lot better than aligning 32 fins.

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Continued:

Edited by Jim Barr
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The Kh-58 also needs a special launcher rail so these were scratch built. The P & J set has the rail and are very nice but since I had already started the scratch build so I went with mine.

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The enormous centerline tank was also going to be the receptacle for the stand so it had to be modified to hold the aircraft and receive the rod from the base. The two tank halves were filled with Bondo and after curing glued together, then two holes for the steel pins were drilled that matched two pieces of brass tubing that were mounted into the bottom of the fuselage. The steel pins allow the aircraft to be mounted to the drop tank with no fear of breaking or coming lose. Then the tricky part; drilling the 1/4 inch hole in the bottom of the tank to match the shallow angle of the mounting rod.

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Camouflage Scheme

A word on the camo scheme; it appears that no 2 camo schemes on the MiG-25 are the same even within a unit and 'White 37', a camo BM aircraft, is one of the ones most often seen in photos and these are not very clear and only from a few angles; not enough to get an accurate scheme. So a bit of artist license was used; inspiration came from fellow ARC member Malcolm Reid and his beautiful Revell 1/48 MiG-25. http://www.aircraftr...BM-Reid/00.shtm

I have seen many photos of some very good camo 25 models but his colors and pattern, to me, really captured the 'look' of a camo 25 . He used colors from the XtraColour line which I had and I based my pattern pretty much on his with a few changes here and there. After painting the camo I went back and over sprayed the top camo with a diluted solution of X618 Dark Green as I liked the way it subtly muted the colors. The number was changed to White 38 as I was not trying to duplicate White 37 but what 'could be' another aircraft from that unit.

Decals

Decals were from the Begemot 72-015 MiG-25 and extensive 72-016 MiG-25 Stencil set. In the stencil set Begemot gives you stenciling not only for the aircraft but covers the pylons, and weapons including the Kh-58 missiles, and the AKU-58 launcher rails. (There are 22 decals for each missile!). The decals go on very nice and lay down with the Micro Sol & Set solutions.

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The Build

All my 1/72 jets are built gear up and most as 'Anti-AMS' projects but I knew from the start that this was not going to be the case with this one. To start with a Camo MiG-25 has been on my Top 10 list for a long time and I wanted to do it right, and second this was going to be a conversion which was going to take some work, so the AMS factor was in play big time.

The ICM is one of the best MiG-25 kits available but it is no shake and bake, it requires a lot of dry fitting and then comes the putty; especially as this was a gear up model and closing the gear doors was a pain. But in the end I am pleased with end results.

Regards

Jim Barr

Edited by Jim Barr
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Jim,

Another fantastic display! Love the way your in-flights look.

Picked up the supplies to do my first in-flight project over the winter. Thanks!

Looking forward to your 101B.

Mike

Edited by Ichitoe
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A multitude of small scoops on the inside and outside of the vertical stabilizers, a slim antenna flaring near the top of the left horizontal, an elongated bulge on the outside near the base

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Abolutely stunning!

However, the elongate bulge is a housing and appears on both sides. Too late for this build I know so please don't risk it for this little bit.

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Again, a pride of place build!

Regards,

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