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Early mig-21 cockpit gray


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What would be a good match for the grey used in the early mig-21's? Doesn't have to be spot on but something close. Eduard calls for gunz H308 which is FS36375 but I want to see if there are other options. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks!

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I know about the vagaries of lighting, photo processing, monitor differences, etc, but from some of the photos I've seen, FS Dark Gull Gray would probably be in the right neighborhood.

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Will try to get an FS number from my MiG-21F-13 canopy. It has not been repainted so it is still in the original Russian colour (it was a factoryfresh replacement example with Zero exposure to sun / fading).

Have to add that it will not be soon, it could take a week or two till I get to my things and do a match with FS cards. Hope it will still be in time for you.

 

Best regards

Gabor

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8 hours ago, ya-gabor said:

Will try to get an FS number from my MiG-21F-13 canopy. It has not been repainted so it is still in the original Russian colour (it was a factoryfresh replacement example with Zero exposure to sun / fading).

Have to add that it will not be soon, it could take a week or two till I get to my things and do a match with FS cards. Hope it will still be in time for you.

 

Best regards

Gabor

 

DEFINITELY looking forward to that! :cheers: 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry for the delay. As promissed took a look at the canopy but had a lot of work with my ejection seat collection/museum and then came all the fuss with Photobucket. So now for me the only way to publish anything is by adding just one photo below 0.1MB at a time. Will see when I can add the second one.

So here is the canopy of a Type 74, better known as MiG-21F-13. It is a factory fresh canopy which I had with all the original metal protective covers(outer and inner) and internal brown paper protection. You can say it came in a plain brown envelope, if you know what I mean! :)))

(Reading “Red Eagles” book about the use of Fishbeds in US I am sure the team at Tonopah would have loved to have this one as a replacement piece after one of the fighters had lost it. )

 

Anyway I use it in my museum to illustrate how the canopy locks onto the SK seat during high speed ejection. Here I took it off and had with me a Federal Standard colour fan to try and find a suitable match. Well, in the MiG OKB they did not care too much about F.S. colours or RAL or any standard just the Russian ones.  A bluish grey was chosen for the cockpit colour which continues onto the canopy framing. There is no match for it, just “something similar”. Here are two which were a near miss:

F.S. 34277 but it needs a bit more blue into it and it should be a lighter shade.

F.S. 34233 is better but once again a lighter shade would have been a closer match.

 

Nothing else that came as close as the above two. So sorry.

 

I did some time ago a match of the photoetch that Eduard produced to go with its MiG-21PFM with the (once again factory fresh) canopy. If I remember right the colour they got was not so good. Will have to look for the photo and convert it to the format I can publish here.

 

Hope this is of some help.

 

Best regards

Gabor

 

74 canopy color 2.jpg

Edited by ya-gabor
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The canopy came from this unit in my collection / museum. A custom built cart was made to support the "SK" seat and the canopy. It is designed to show the way the canopy encapsulates the seat and its occupant at high speed ejection. After leaving the aircraft the canopy which at this moment is locked at four points to the SK ejection seat is separated (rotates over the head of the seat) to allow for later separation of the pilot from the seat.

 

The seat is shown in the initial ejection stage with the canopy locked onto it and the primary stabilizing parachute released to prevent tumbling of the seat and keeping it in upright position, or to be more precise in an almost horizontal position but still with the top at its highest point (which allows for easy rotation of the canopy on release.)

To have a look at the colour of the canopy frame inside it was taken off from the seat unit.

 

Hope it help and provides some background into the workings of the early MiG-21’s with the “SK” seat.

 

Best regards

Gabor

74 canopy 1.jpg

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Here is the seat on its own with the canopy removed. The cart is heavy, just as the "SK" seat and also the canopy.

 

The seat has the harness and the parachute pack in the seat pan, the ORK (personal connectors) unit on the side with all the tubes added as well as the manual separation “D” handle in the middle of seat front just as if the pilot has just left the seat. Also the first stage stabilizing parachute hanging on the side of the headrest.

 

When I purchased the seat it was a wreck with almost everything missing from it. All the missing parts were replaced but still a good re-paint would be in order. But for the moment it will stay as it is. This example perfectly shows what I intended it for.

 

Best regards

Gabor

74 canopy 2.jpg

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