Jump to content

Mini MIG Mania!... Paint work in the UM's cockpit 01/27/17


Recommended Posts

Hi folks!

 

      It's been a long time since I've had anything to post on here. Lots has changed since then, in particular my baby daughter who happily takes most of my free time. Also since converting my work space into the nursery, there hasn't been any place to set up shop...until now. With the completion of my new work space in the freshly renovated portion of the house, I can now take a little free time to get back to the hobby, and I can't wait.  

 

The new place:

DSC03321_zpstnicqwa4.jpg

 

Though nothing will happen very quickly, I've decided to take a little vacation from phatomland and move forward with a trumpeter mig-21um, all be it with a little twist.

With the help of some aftermarket parts from:

True Details :seats

Eduard: wheels, and exhaust

Master: Air date mast

Hussar: Decals and reference

 

This book is a tremendous resource and the decals sheet inside is beautiful too. Looking forward to seeing how they perform.

DSC03324_zpsg7zdl52u.jpg

 

Here is what we are shooting for: 

DSC03325_zpsg3stqcpu.jpg

 

For now, all I've really done is start the rough construction work of making all the kit plastic and after market parts work together. I have to say I'm pretty happy with the fit and detail of the kits cockpit. The only replacements here will be the resin seats over the plastic parts. The resin examples are much better detailed but will need a little trimming to fit well in the small spaces.

DSC03334_zpsxpjuh1o3.jpg

DSC03327_zpsxglcpx1t.jpg

DSC03328_zps5pyldgbf.jpg

 

The other larger to do is getting the beautiful eduard exhaust to fit in the aft fuselage. To do so the kits aft bulkhead and exhaust shroud were enlarged to accept the larger diameter of the new exhaust.  Lost detail was rescribed. Things seam to fit pretty well in the mocked up fuselage. Here's the mocked up exhaust. Typical eduard beauty.

DSC03330_zpsbrvg0jty.jpg

 

Lastly the landing hear was modified with the new eduard wheels. The new resin nosewheel fork was grafter in place and the new breaks adapted to the kits main struts. A lot of plumbing is coming soon but for now I'm happy it all seams to work when tacked together.

DSC03335_zpszr77admy.jpg

DSC03336_zpsabcgafob.jpg

 

So that's all for now. Sometime next week I'll start some more nitty-gritty work on the landing gear and cockpit to get those areas ready for priming. I'm really looking forward to having fun with this one, in particular when it's time for paint. Once this little bird is done, I'll turn to a mig-23 which has been sitting in "development hell" for quite a long time. That will be a full out AMS build. Stay tuned and thanks for looking.

 

Cheers,

MattJ

 

 

 

Edited by MattJCYKZ
Link to post
Share on other sites

Good evening all,

 

    As it happened I had a little free time tonight to start a little of the detail work. I spent a couple hours adding piping to the nose wheel system and stuck on some of the remaining eduard bits. There's still a small bit of tweaking and sanding to do but this part is pretty close to complete. We'll see later how it looks under primer but for now here's the nose gear in the raw.

 

I really like the extra detail that the eduard set gives to the landing gear. The real thing is a pretty complex arrangement of pipes and cable and fasteners, and the resin and photo etch helps bring them out. The resin fork is also better details and a little more robust then the plastic parts. Splicing the fork on was only a matter of some careful cutting and adding some plastic rod of the close dimension to represent the oleo itself.  

 

DSC03344_zps5sioxcvi.jpg

 

DSC03343_zpsxhffwoge.jpg

 

DSC03342_zpsvz5pnuzu.jpg

 

That's it for now. Sometime next week I'll just give this the final look over and then give the main gear the same treatment. Then it just may be time to let a little paint fly. More to come and thanks for stopping by.

 

-MattJ

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Good evening folks,

 

        Not a lot to report on the progress of the um really. I've been busy with work and the family so the build has been on the backburner for a little while. I have however managed to push ahead with the main landing gear. After a couple of hours of work i was able to apply some bits of brass wire and aluminum foil to give the impression of the complicated arrangement of hydraulics associated with the main struts. I don't think it's exactly like the real deal but I'm trying to keep this on in the relaxing category before I get AMS over the next build. Also from looking at my previous -21 build and references, there's an error in the kit with regards to the geometry of the retraction mechanism and scissor link. Again in keeping things simple and easy I'm just letting it all be. So here's what I have so far:

 

DSC03345_zpsixhvj4fk.jpg

 

The eduard wheels and brakes are a great upgrade from the kit parts too. They're just hanging on here for effect. I'm looking forward to painting everything and bringing out all that detail. 

Here are a couple more pics:

 

DSC03347_zps93jrnbnn.jpg

 

DSC03352_zpslxk4wgbo.jpg

 

DSC03350_zpsjxalf3ng.jpg

 

At this point I'm calling the landing gear done. It's going to be time to start painting things soon. 

More to come. Thanks for stopping by!

 

MattJ

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

Good evening friends,

 

    So this mig-21um project is taking a little bit of a detour. Since moving into my new modelling room I've been able to set up all of my building stuff except for my air compressor and air brush, which is in need of some maintenance. With paint time on the mongol coming soon and since I'm really on a building kick right now, I've decided to also tackle my 1/48 trumpeter mig-23 mf. This is a more advanced build and there's a lot of work to go before anything is really ready to see paint. Once I've take the flogger as far as I can without paint, I'l get my airbrush up and running and paint, assemble, and finish the mongol and flogger together. 

 

This Flogger-B is going to get more of the AMS treatment. Here are some of the details of what will be done:

-1/48 trumpeter mig-23 flogger -b

-Aires exhaust

-Aires cockpit

-Eduard wheels

-Eduard missiles

-Scratch built wheel well and landing gear detail

-Model Maker decals of Polish Floggers

 

The nice thing about the fogger is that I actually started it over two years ago and got the cockpit dry fitted and the exhaust built up and painted. Then it got shelved when I turned to making phantoms and accidentally built three of them...........I like my F-4s I guess.

 

Without further delay, here's some work on the flogger. As part of the "AMS" builds, I like to add a bunch of my own extra detail along with some aftermarket upgrades, so armed with a bunch of photo reference I started adding plumbing and cabling to the wheel wells, which on the real aircraft is replete with hoses, wires, cables and lines. Since the kit example is almost naked, it's a good place to start. I made a few correction I also thought were important. I didn't reproduce all the plumbing in there, but what I felt was enough to give a good idea of whats in there on the prototype. I also added a little bit of structure to the well ceiling and re positioning some of the molded detail and adding a little plumbing.  Again not all of it, just enough to give the flavour. 

 

Different thickness of plastic rods and brass wire make up the plumbing and cable work. Different thicknesses of plastic card and some foil were used for the rest.

 

DSC03355_zpslrwewnpy.jpg

 

DSC03359_zps9j91agoy.jpg

 

DSC03367_zpsp1bw0z5z.jpg

 

DSC03370_zps278jlwbe.jpg

 

How it all looks sitting in the fuselage:

 

DSC03373_zpsshjgaayq.jpg

 

With the main detail work on the main wheel well essentially done, I decided to turn to fitting the aires exhaust nozzle I had built up and painted previously. This has to be one of the most detailed and intricate aires kits I've made and it's a jewel when done. Thanks to some let call it "vague" instructions, it's also a bear to wedge into the floggers backside. A couple hours of scrapping, sanding and dry fitting got me something I can live with without getting the plastic or resin to thin. 

 

Here's the exhaust all built up. The burner can on the left and the nozzle on the right. When assembled, the nozzle slips over the top of the can very nicely, but also covers all that beautiful actuator detail. 

 

DSC03381_zpscxtqkxuh.jpg

 

The photo etched flame holder detail is fantastic but also a tricky bit of fiddling...

 

DSC03384_zpsp1ghtksi.jpg

 

Here are the three fuselage segments with room made for the resin nozzle.  I also added some locating tabs to the fuselage to help keep things together when dry fitting.

 

DSC03386_zpsefjuasbi.jpg

 

And finally the whole thing wedged together. I added small tabs to the outside of the can to help it sit correctly in the fuselage.

 

DSC03389_zpsjc1vpznu.jpg

 

That's about it for now. Next time I'm going to continue adding plumbing to the gear actuators and work on the main gear. Lots more to come so stay tuned.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

MattJ

Link to post
Share on other sites

Since I'm on a few days off from work, I've got some time to press ahead with a little more detail work in the flogger. In particular I decided to add some plumbing to the main gear actuators which are prominent on the wells of the real airplane. The kit parts are devoid of much detail so I added a little plumbing to them with reference to the real thing.

 

DSC03392_zpsyvskcyw2.jpg 

 

Here's how they look inside the well:

 

DSC03395_zps8qst3tyu.jpg

 

Apart from getting those actuators done, I also had some time to review my decal option from Model Maker decals and settled on this bird:

 

DSC03400_zpslmgrvfe3.jpg 

 

The decals look really nice and I look forward to trying them out. The only minor thing is that there isn't any service or warning stencils provided with this set, so I'll be using those provided with the kit decals as needed. 

 

DSC03401_zps6gnxaatd.jpg

 

That's all for now. 

 

More soon, and thanks for stopping by.

 

-MattJ

Link to post
Share on other sites

Good evening,

 

Well folks, a couple days off means a few hours at the work bench and a little more progress.

 

I decided to make a couple small changes to the main wheel well. After reviewing some pictures, I decided that a piece of molded in detail in the rear of the well was too far back in the well, so I found some reference, cut out the piece and re-positioned it further forward. I built up some structure and detail around it and once happy called the entire well finally done.

 

Here are a couple pics of the competed wells mocked up inside the fuselage. I also added a couple little odds and ends before moving onto the next bit of business.

 

DSC03402_zpsitsa2iue.jpg

 

DSC03404_zpsdubwcnkw.jpg

 

Next my attention turned to the main gear. With all the kits and eduard parts cleaned up I decided on which extra details I'd like to add the the gear. Pictures show that the main gear (no surprise) is a maze of plumbing so rather then trying to get all of it in there, I decided to go with the most prominent bits and recreate them with soft wire and solder. Bits of plastic rod are also in there for connectors. This took a few hours to do but I'm pretty happy with it. The nice thing about the solder is that when I actually install the gear, I can gently bend the plumbing at the top of the strut to meet those in the well. With all that work all done, I'm actually pretty pumped to see it all painted and put together. Still a long way to go before that happens.

 

Here are the freshly finished main struts:

 

DSC03406_zpsxuydjrmr.jpg

 

DSC03407_zpsf9kzaxmo.jpg

 

The left and right gear all mocked up with eduard wheels and mud guards: 

 

DSC03409_zpshvsnnlmv.jpg

 

Also in reading some other discussions on the forums, I decided to shorten the main retraction struts by a little over 1 mm to give the model a slightly more nose up stance, which I think will look a little more prototypical. 2 mm was the suggestion given but my eyes think it might be too much so I erred  on the side of caution and went with 1 mm instead. The new joint was hollowed out a little and some brass rod placed inside for reinforcement. The struts will bear a lot of the models wight after all.

 

DSC03410_zpsfxadbh0v.jpg

 

And finally, here's the right side gear mocked up into the well and fuselage. It gives a pretty good idea of the complexity of the real machine. Again, I cant wait to get this thing painted and put together:)

 

DSC03411_zpsq5q9udtn.jpg

 

DSC03412_zpscsoi7wod.jpg

 

DSC03417_zpspdcsz5cn.jpg

 

That's it for tonight. Next week I'll start the nose wheel well and gear. More to come:)

 

DSC03419_zpsevvsalz9.jpg

Cheers,

 

Matt J

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 5 weeks later...

Hi everyone,

 

    Big update tonight. I've been pretty busy with work and family lately so the mig project has been sitting on the work table for a few weeks. However things have quieted down recently and I've had some time to work on the mongol and flogger. 

 

   A lot has happened with the migs over the last little while, and particularly over the last few days. To keep the update relatively short I'll focus on the UM tonight, which thanks to my airbrush being operational now, started getting a little colour in the cockpit and avionics bay.

 

To get started, the main parts of the cockpit and bay received a good coat of primer with testors enamel neutral gray. That was followed with Russian interior blue/green thinned a little with mineral spirits. Once dry I used reference pics off the net to start applying detail paint with model master acrylic blacks, reds, and some metalizer colours as appropriate.Once the basic paintwork was done I livened things up with dry brushed dark grey for grime and aluminum for chips and wear through areas in the cockpit tub. Lastly I thinned down some flat black and applied it as a wash onto all the components. After a few minutes, a rag moistened with a little airbrush cleaner was used to remove most of the wash, leaving a somewhat grimy, well used effect.

 

The finished cockpit tub:

DSC03436_zpsltsnvbml.jpg

 

Left and right side walls

DSC03439_zpsnmjjifxu.jpg

 

The front and rear instrument panels. Though I don't usually use decals for gauges, I felt that going this route would be a fun an easy way to give the panels good 

detail without too much work. The effect is actually pretty good I think. 

DSC03445_zpszyefefig.jpg

 

DSC03443_zpsigmbpuf8.jpg\\

 

With some good pics off the net, I spruced up the kit avionics bay with some wire and bits of plastic rod to make it a little busier. I imagine the real deal is packed full of black boxes and "stuff".

DSC03440_zpsbdsnonwo.jpg

 

Lastly in the paint shop were the pair of true details KM-1 ejection seats. They actually seam to fit pretty well and have the benefit of having molded in straps, which is a plus over the kit parts.

 

With some photo reference again, different shades of grey were used to block in the main colours, followed by some detail paint. This was followed with a dark grey dry brushing and a black wash to bring out the molded detail. Lastly I used a little thinned red and blue to "simulate" the writing found on the headrest. The effect is OK, but I could probably do better if it bothered me more..

 

DSC03448_zpsor8xjbqz.jpg

DSC03451_zpscyez5fcs.jpg

 

Finally I loaded some acrylic flat clear into the airbrush and all the parts got sealed up.

 

With all the parts done, I glued the sidewalls in position inside the fuselage halves, along with the avionics bay up front onto the left side only. It'll be a little while before I can actually close it up but this is a good start.

DSC03455_zpsji69x8fx.jpg

 

The seats and panels dry fit inside the tub:

DSC03456_zpsgncjvr1i.jpg

 

And finally the whole thing dry fitted together:

DSC03463_zps2pocbmgb.jpg

 

There's still a lot of work to do before I can close this one up. I have to paint and install the nose wheel well, and then there's painting and building up the exhaust.

Work is going to take over again shortly so things are going to sit like this for a couple weeks. Once things quiet down again it'll be time to do the UM's engine.

 

Then of course....there's the flogger too....

 

Way more to come. Thanks for stopping by and as usual all comments are welcome.

 

Cheers,

 

MattJ

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...