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1/48 Academy MiG-29


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I didn't see myself starting this one up until I just sort of did it yesterday. This reflects barely more than a day of work. I plan on buying KursadA's Heroes of Koscioszko Pt. 1 to complete this bird. I'm building all of my USSR planes to a theme I've thought about proposing as a group build; that of former-Eastern Block states and SSRs that flipped after they gained their independence (Free at Last!).

I mixed my own colors for the cockpit and exhausts. I used a nearly invisible variation for the feathers on the rear of the blended body. There is a pretty nasty gap I'm sure I'm responsible for on the bottom joint between the forward intakes and the back half.

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And I forgot to throw another one in of the cockpit. The panel on the starboard side looks pretty nasty, me thinks. I'm leaving it. Also, I'm going to build the new IFF box on the nose that a few updated Fulcrums have.

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Edited by Exhausted
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Here's where this MiG build diverges from most. Most MiG-29s have three antennas in the front for use with Soviet IFF systems, but mine is an updated Polish MiG with different avionics compatible with NATO systems. Eduard makes a resin replacement in one of its Profi-Packs but I scratch-built mine. It looks like I have made mine too large, but it I'm going to move forward because I don't know how to recover, or if it is worth back-tracking.

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Edited by Exhausted
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Looking good! I look forward to building another MiG-29. I like your IFF box. I bet it will blend together once completed. I agree you might run into trouble by trying to correct it, but it looks good! I look forward to seeing it completed.

Mike

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Exhausted,

I'm more then impressed with just how much you accomplished in a single day!! Your cockpit looks really nicely done. Personally, your scratchbuilt IFF box once painted looks just fine. To make a small correction just doesn't seem worth the time and effort. I'm quite sure that if you didn't mention it, 9 out of 10 of us wouldn't have even given it a 2nd thought that it might be slightly out of scale.

Joel

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Thank you Joel_W.

I Experimented with this first blend of colors but it turned our looking "candy striped."

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Then I blended a nice dark steel color to spray over it, making the earlier coats act as a nice undercoat.

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Edited by Exhausted
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Exhausted,

When I 1st saw your exhaust cans, like you said, they looked unrealistic to say the least. Air brushed dark metallic gray has completely changed the overall look. You can see the various shading coming through, which is a plus. As Aigore suggested, some additional weathering will just make them pop even more. :thumbsup:/>/>

Joel

Edited by Joel_W
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Thank you :)/>

Here is some modest progress: wings, intakes, and vertical stabilizers. Also, most of the sanding is done and I have also done most of the rescribing in preparation from the paint.

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Edited by Exhausted
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Nothing too exciting here, but I decided to use my cutting software to design masks for this project since a couple decals depend on precision painting. This is a screen cap of my Silhouette design software, where the thin red lines represent where I am tracing for the cutting device to make the masks for me. I will finish them tomorrow and the layout will look completely different. I am aiming to fit the masks in an area close to 4x6 to maximize my Tamiya masking paper.

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I nearly forgot to add pictures of my green-tinted front windshield. I dipped the piece thrice into a mix of Tamiya Clear Green X-, Future and green food coloring to get this result. You may notice the effect more in some pictures than others. Refer to post #1 and #4 to see what I was going for.

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This last week has been spent filling, sanding, and a little bit a scratch building.

I built an antennae for the starboard stabilizer. I don't know what it s function is. I made it by stretching sprue over a flame, then dipping a section in boiling water to get the curve. Then I cut it in half, reduced the center, and glued it to a pointed piece of stretched sprue. For the 'fins' I just eyeballed it out of some 0.010 plastic card.

I think it looks better in the picture than in real life.

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A video of this bird from RIAT 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKs3eMXfZPg

I started preliminary painting. I have painted the steel and black areas, including the plates for the Gsh-30-1 cannon, and plates for the elevators (elevons?) and vertical stabilizers. Also, the black strips on the vertical stabilizers are almost ready for masking, except for a brush touch up. I am now working on the wheels and mixing up a new batch of blue/grey for touch ups.

Designing the masks (see above) went very well, and I have those on display in the first picture. Also, I used the Tamiya weathering set, as recommended, on the exhausts. As with every build, this inexperienced modeler has tried some new things for the first time.

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Edited by Exhausted
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Thanks man!

Here's a small update. The masks I designed on the computer were successful but I'm not sure if they were much better than the latex masks I used on an earlier MiG-21MF build.

When I designed the masks using KursadA's decal instructions as a template I forgot to account for some of the curved surface. Therefor I had to fill some of the gaps using Tamiya tape. Not a big deal if absolute accuracy is not your goal, but I tried to match the best I could with limited time. I will have to make some small touch ups with a brush, but that will wait.

This build will likely take a couple of weeks more to complete since school just started.

Without further ado!

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Edited by Exhausted
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I tried to add soft edges. What do you guys think of the darker shades near the edges of the gunship grey?

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EDIT: This was a bad idea. Looks like I created more work for me.... ugh

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Edited by Exhausted
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