HB Mig-31 out

[Berkut]

I guess i see your point ijozic but as Andrey said the solution is just to use the stars and bort pick bort number based on soviet pictures/film and voila, one has a Soviet frame. Make it extra soviet and early by painting some of the access hatches on the nose dark red instead of dark grey.

[ijozic]

3 hours ago, kotey said:

Ah, i"m understand.

 

In USSR times were rare use of boartart, so this times boards not clearly shown in instruction, but all MiG-31 (from early and late batches) and DZ without specific names, badges operated in USSR time with same board numbers and red stars. Exactly for this we include all types of board numbers - if you want to do some MiG-31s, which photo do you have.

 

Allmost all badges were placed in Russian Federation times - more liberty in bortart questions.

 

Ah, I see, thanks. I noticed that some descriptions mention that the badges were added in 1992, I just needed the confirmation that the bort numbers were roughly the same as before. Speaking of bort numbers, do any of the generic 0-9 blue decals included with your sheets have the white outline? It seems the red ones don't and IIRC some of the bort numbers had this, especially blue ones.

 

I also thought the 'Hero of the Soviet Union' markings was a a late Soviet Union thing like the Boris Safonov one?

 

In any case, since most of the publicly available MiG-31 photos are from the post-SU era, I'm sure you have better ones so it might have been useful to have such notes in the descriptions if any of the planes had the same bort numbers before.

 

3 hours ago, Berkut said:

I guess i see your point ijozic but as Andrey said the solution is just to use the stars and bort pick bort number based on soviet pictures/film and voila, one has a Soviet frame. Make it extra soviet and early by painting some of the access hatches on the nose dark red instead of dark grey.

 

Yeah, you're right, but I was aiming e.g. at these Heros of the SU like the Boris Safonov one for which I wrongly presumed were also a Soviet era thing. And I didn't know that all the badges were a strictly post-SU thing on the 31's.

Edited November 13, 2016 by ijozic

[kotey]

In USSR times were only one named MiG-31 - 08, Boris Safonov, all other aircrafts even hadn't Guardia badge. Guardia badge on all other aircrafts were placed in 1992, remnant 15 aircrafts were named in 1999. Also first MiG-31 08 Boris Safonov were retired, other one aircraft were renumbered to 08 and named to Boris Safonov.

 

About board numbers - it is different layers of numbers (red or two shades of blue) and outlines (two types of white - full type line and stencil type and black). You can combinating any type of numbers and outlines - as you need.

 

As i'm say earlier in USSR time wery rare aircraft had badges or name, especially in Air Defence Aviation.

[ijozic]

2 hours ago, kotey said:

In USSR times were only one named MiG-31 - 08, Boris Safonov, all other aircrafts even hadn't Guardia badge. Guardia badge on all other aircrafts were placed in 1992, remnant 15 aircrafts were named in 1999. Also first MiG-31 08 Boris Safonov were retired, other one aircraft were renumbered to 08 and named to Boris Safonov.

 

About board numbers - it is different layers of numbers (red or two shades of blue) and outlines (two types of white - full type line and stencil type and black). You can combinating any type of numbers and outlines - as you need.

 

As i'm say earlier in USSR time wery rare aircraft had badges or name, especially in Air Defence Aviation.

 

Regarding the numbers, that's what I wanted to know, thanks for the info. I'll have to get a set.

 

About the badges, yeah, I know it was rare, but some regiments had them so I thought perhaps the same went with PVO units.

 

Too bad I missed a good deal on the AMK B/BS kit. I wanted to get both so I can compare them.

[kotey]

B/BS were in produce after 1990, so if you want exacrtly USSR times MiG-31 you need vanilla MiG-31 from early or late batches or small batch of DZ.

 

About badges - after war in Afghanistan in fighters or strike regiments start placed badges, in boring PVO regiments - almost non. BTW as MiG-31 08 Boris Safonov were secret aircraft in same regiment same name were placed at air intakes of MiG-25PU, and photo of this aircratf were placed in newspapers.

[ijozic]

10 minutes ago, kotey said:

B/BS were in produce after 1990, so if you want exacrtly USSR times MiG-31 you need vanilla MiG-31 from early or late batches or small batch of DZ.

 

Yes, I know, (though I thought I've read that the first one was delivered in late 1990?), but I would model it as a DZ as the external differences are rather small and few as pointed out by Berkut in the AMK thread.

Edited November 14, 2016 by ijozic

[kotey]

Alfred Tolkachev, one of designers Zaslon radar were betrator, he sell to CIA documentation since 1979-1985, during summer 1985 he were arrested, in 1986 he were executted according the court verdict.

 

So, starting 1985 were designed new modification MiG-31B/BS and since 1990 its started operation in PVO.

Edited November 14, 2016 by kotey
Grammar

[Raptor01]

So what is the consensus from our Eastern European friends?  Yes or No  The AMK MiG-31  is really nice, I have one but would not mind a 2nd Foxhound.

John

 

[galfa]

 

So...

How long we have to wait for a side by side comparison between these two kits ?

[ijozic]

Or a review of the HB kit to begin with :)

[Jay Chladek]

I had heard somebody was doing a side by side, not sure if a full review was planned though. Main difference between the kits is AMK builds into a late MiG-31, the HB kit builds into an early one. I have heard in some ways the HB kit is actually a little better than AMK in how they rendered certain parts, but I don't know the specifics. I know I want one at least. It is a BIG jet.

[randypandy831]

 

Phil will be doing a comparison video. 

 

skip to to 7:30 and he talks about both kits for a lil.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2016 by randypandy831

[Space Tiger Hobbes]

He shows some raised panel detail on the mid fuselage sides of the HB kit but doesn't know if that's accurate. Anyone know?

[ijozic]

Nice inbox review, thanks. It's cool they'll do a direct comparison, though HB will probably get somewhat hammered here. Still seems like a pretty decent kit.

 

[ya-gabor]

1 hour ago, Space Tiger Hobbes said:

He shows some raised panel detail on the mid fuselage sides of the HB kit but doesn't know if that's accurate. Anyone know?

Remember that the MiG-31 is the rebirth of the Foxbat and the airframe of the Foxhound is built in a similar way that is welded!  I would have never thought I would say this but: HB got it right this time! Have a look a real MiG-31 and you will see that many of the panel lines are welds and so they should be raised panel lines. Of course the service panels should be engraved lines but you should not confuse them with structural airframe panel lines. The two have different functions on the real aircraft and are made in a different way. HB has them (some of them) while AMK has none!

 

The HB kit has a lot of fine details (small parts) which are missing on the AMK kit. More on this when doing a detailed view of the kit.

 

Best regards

Gabor

[Don]

Thanks for posting the video links! I am actually pretty excited about the HB Mig-31 kit. As I posted earlier I was going to pick up a second AMK kit but I think I will pass and grab a HB kit instead. Impressive looking model.

 

Cheers!

[Berkut]

On 12.11.2016 at 6:58 PM, ya-gabor said:

The small bumps over the engines are represented (AMK has none) but we get 4 of them while on the real aircraft there are only 3. Simply sand one off.

 

Over all the kit looks nice in the box! 

 

Best regards

Gabor

 

Do you have pictures of said bumps? Because i am aware of only one bump, on left side, and it doesnt appear to be always present.

 

 

 

Otherwise no bumps. The cowlings themselves just looks wrong too;

 

 

Note the angling on the "beaver tail" between the engines too. Real thing tapers in, but not as much as on the HB kit.

 

As to welded lines, yes it is true there are some areas that have them, mostly around middle of fuselage. This was pointed out to AMK during development but must have slipped through. I cant judge whether HB got them right or not because i havent seen them yet.

 

All i know is that for me, as a modelbuilder, the intakes on HB looks flat and lame compared to AMK one which have the correct "ribbed" structure rather than just a flat simulation using panellines. Prefer one piece missiles too.

Edited November 18, 2016 by Berkut

[ya-gabor]

The first photo was taken in the Rzhev ARZ 514 overhaul facility and the actual panels which have the bumps have been removed for servicing of the aircraft. It is panel No. 170 and 175 which have the bumps.

 

On the second photo the bumps are also there, just look.

 

 

The question of the bumps have been raised also by the Russians even though they are far closer to the real metal. To illustrate the point on scalemodels . ru one fellow member AkAr who is also an active Foxhound unit serviceman went on top of the aircraft and took some photos of them. If one has a closer look at top views (publicly available photos on the internet) one will see that the three bumps are there and have been on a MiG-31’s from the start it is only a question of looking at the right details.

 

 

Best regards

Gabor

Edited November 19, 2016 by ya-gabor

[Berkut]

Very interesting, i have honestly never noticed them at all before. Even on some other high res pictures i plain out can't see them at all. I finally found them in my own walkaround of MiG-31 frame in St.Petersburg, but even then they were bloody hard to find;

 

 

 

So HB got it right that they should be there (atleast 3 out of 4) but imho they are a bit overscale and the real bumps are a bit different in shape than what is seen in HB. Overscale part is easy enough to fix by sanding lightly though. Don't think i will be bothering to add them to my AMK build.

 

I think this is a case of "Can't see the forest for the trees" anyway...

[Don]

Hey kudos to Hobby Boss!

 

Cheers!

[IAGeezer]

Kudos to ya-gabor & Berkut! You guys continue to amaze me.

 

Thank you for your tenacity and diligence to improve our kits,

[rom]

2 minutes ago, IAGeezer said:

Kudos to ya-gabor & Berkut! You guys continue to amaze me.

 

Thank you for your tenacity and diligence to improve our kits,

 

 

+1 I totally agree.

 

Berkut, if you have more pics of the upper fuselages surfaces.. :)

 

thanks

 

ROmain

 

[ya-gabor]

Back from the Plastic Zima 2016 modelling show in Bratislava. Was hopping that I can buy an HB MiG-31 kit but they were sold out. According to some they are not so good but it seems that modellers like it! The set of AMK metal undercarriage legs for MiG-31 kit were on sale for 15 Euro (just the legs, no decal or photoetch). (I think the injection moulded plastic box was the most expensive part of it.)

The full AMK Limited Edition MiG-31 (with all the extra bits and pieces) was far too expensive (around 90 Euro). The HB kit was around 55-60 Euro and it has metal legs in it as standard part of the kit!

 

Best regards

Gabor

[Berkut]

1 hour ago, ya-gabor said:

Back from the Plastic Zima 2016 modelling show in Bratislava. Was hopping that I can buy an HB MiG-31 kit but they were sold out. According to some they are not so good but it seems that modellers like it! The set of AMK metal undercarriage legs for MiG-31 kit were on sale for 15 Euro (just the legs, no decal or photoetch). (I think the injection moulded plastic box was the most expensive part of it.)

The full AMK Limited Edition MiG-31 (with all the extra bits and pieces) was far too expensive (around 90 Euro). The HB kit was around 55-60 Euro and it has metal legs in it as standard part of the kit!

 

Best regards

Gabor

Eh, i think you are fully aware that the HB price is very fair (almost odd how fair, considering the taxes/import etc) while the AMK one is inflated.

 

HB, 55 euro;

 

http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=HB-81753

 

HB, 58 euro (sale);

 

http://www.hobbyeasy.com/en/data/pt4a5tvs0dcvl10ck6is.html

 

AMK, updated kit, 58.5 euro;

 

http://www.hobbyeasy.com/en/data/ja3izaunfgkjecdgy4i1.html

 

AMK, updated kit, 58.5 euro;

 

http://www.sincerehobby.com/product/amk_1_48_mikoyan_mig-31_foxhound_bs_bsm_limited_edition_88003s_sincerehobby

 

Standard AMK is about 52 euro or so. Basically, for all intents and purposes in same market they are priced the same.

[ijozic]

2 hours ago, ya-gabor said:

Back from the Plastic Zima 2016 modelling show in Bratislava. Was hopping that I can buy an HB MiG-31 kit but they were sold out. According to some they are not so good but it seems that modellers like it! The set of AMK metal undercarriage legs for MiG-31 kit were on sale for 15 Euro (just the legs, no decal or photoetch). (I think the injection moulded plastic box was the most expensive part of it.)

The full AMK Limited Edition MiG-31 (with all the extra bits and pieces) was far too expensive (around 90 Euro). The HB kit was around 55-60 Euro and it has metal legs in it as standard part of the kit!

 

Best regards

Gabor

 

I just got one from a German Ebay sale here for 45 EUR (same price I got the HB kit for). They don't seem to ship to Czechia, but there are some German parcel forwarding service providers who charge a few Euros for it (plus the DHL cost).

Edited November 27, 2016 by ijozic