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Hi Gianni, Sabre45, CaptainObvious, Giovanni,

 

Thanks for the comments. Try my best.

 

Tried to upload up-dates but Imgur shows 404 Error and would not let me into my own albums. Hope it is not the same as with another image share provider. Will try later.

 

Best regards

Gabor

 

 

 

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Just a little bit of progress. Well from the outside it could look like a bit of progress but there is a lot of work behind it. Different parts of my MiG-21 production plant in different stages of painting.  Some are almost finished while others only have the primer on, but they show the varied work going on in the background.

 

 

18YIzGu.jpg 

 

 

 

First, work with the cockpit continues and the main part was detailed. The lower side panels are rounded and become more rounded going backwards (on the real aircraft). On both 48 and 72 scale kits it is exactly the opposite way on the Eduard kit. If you have the ejection seat inside the cockpit then little is visible of this but still the forward part should be more rounded. I installed parts D21 and D22 at an angle (a bit of sanding was required on main cockpit part D69 to achieve this), so by increasing a little the roundness and angle of the forward side walls. This limits the kit ejection seats space in the back but the KM-1M needs some serious rework anyway so will solve this problem later on.

I don’t really understand why, but the insulation padding is missing here just as it was missing on the 48 th scale kit too. They are randomly made bits of standard embossed green colour textile insulation pieces which are glued to areas between ribs. They are clearly visible on all cockpit photos including the ones from which Edu designed the kit. The side wall ribs and riveting is made on the kit but the padding is missing.

The floor has two separate panels under the heels of the pilot which have very different and particular details. They are bolted onto the floor of the cockpit and go forward to the pedals and a little beyond. On the right side there is a distinct tube coming from the floor for the nose gear emergency release cable. 

On the central part of the floor basically under the seat there is a long panel with ribs. At the forward end there is a lock with which one can release the ejection seat when removing it (this is the ONLY hard attachment of the seat to the cockpit and the aircraft!!!). Next to it there is a sign detailing this. OK, you can say it is all under the seat. Well not exactly most of it will be visible between the leg restrain parts.

 

 

 

idlZyCs.jpg

 

 

 

Here are the wheel hubs for the Hungarian TRUE MF version. Stock kit parts with paint on, a bit of detailing with colours, some weathering so that it will not be so uniform and the red markings added for the tire – slide control. There are all sorts of individual markings for this. On this particular aircraft the hubs had three red markings.

 

 

 

fGtD6xN.jpg

 

 

 

Best regards

Gabor

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2 hours ago, Speedy said:

Regarding Imgur, no problems, access within seconds. (what a relief)

 

Robert Jan

Hi Jan,

 

Last night they had "something" for few hours and access was denied for that time. It is now up and as you say works in seconds.

 

Best regards

Gabor

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You scared me 😱, as like here we go again. 😅.

Admire your work, I'm hooked to this scale, performed by people still having the sight to do.

Learn a lot from you, to access practical issues like size, dimensions and scaling.

Great job and presentation.

 

Kind regards,

 

Robert Jan

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Thank you for the comments to everyone taking the time to watch my build and follow it. If it is of help to anyone then I am glad. The most important thing is to have fun, no matter how much you go into details. I have no idea when it will be finished, I try my best but there are no deadlines to push me.

 

Now for a bit of inspiration (and something completely different). :D :D

I spent yesterday at Slihac air base close up to real fighters and to smell a bit of jet fuel. Speaking about jet fuel smell, I don’t know if it is normal but from one of RAF’s Eurofighters (923) fuel was pouring down on the tarmac from its back side. Later a tray was placed under to collect it but it was pouring down even in the afternoon. Not sure about it, is this right this way?

 

Here are few views from yesterday. It was fun! Airframe 923 “loosing” fuel is the one in the background.  

 

 

Q1cOsN0.jpg

 

Some nice details here

 

CiFUnbz.jpg

 

 

How about this for inspiration for details / detailing ?  B)

 

 

1IIMMYn.jpg

 

 

 

Don’t see much pre-shading, post shading, panelling, weathering here on the Austrian Eurofighter.  :hmmm:

 

 

NUE8nkA.jpg

 

 

OK, just on the tail there are few streaks.

 

 

GbbiQe3.jpg

 

Well the MiG-21 is excellent but there were some really Phabulous aircraft also at the show! :yikes:

 

STEs0Ze.jpg

 

Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

0XPrduA.jpg

 

 

Getting back to model building. I believe it is very important to go to airshow’s like this to get a “feel” of the real aircraft and so that your kit will be that much more authentic! Keep your eyes open and the camera ready! To see what they are like, how much weathered (or not at all), which are the essential stains (like the APU exhaust, or the reverse of a Tornado . . .), what a “weighted” rubber is like, which are the compulsory covers on a static aircraft, how real stencils look like, wheel chocks . . .

Just a word about weathering: it is good to see immaculate clean aircraft (I mean real aircraft and not kits) but at the same time there are areas, like the engine exhaust where considerable stains / staining is visible.

BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN that your whole aircraft should be heavily stained / weathered to the level that you see around the exhaust!!!!!!! Mind you on the Austrian Eurofighter from outside the exhaust is perfectly clean only to show heat stains, dirt on the inner side.

 

An airshow like this is an excellent opportunity to learn a lot about the subjects of our hobby, the real aircraft! If you lucky there is a chance to sit in a real fighter and have a closer look what it is like, how cluttered (or not) a real cockpit is, how weathered (or not) it is inside and what a real ejection seat is like. I don’t want to talk about harness and straps on a real seat and how they compare with the completely unrealistic flat, two dimensional pre-painted photoetch representations, no matter how well they are printed!

 

 

7Gxe8pe.jpg

 

 

IBdTuY8.jpg

 

 

The show was real fun, excellent weather, nice aircraft, good organization . . . :worthy: :worthy:

 

One terrible side of the show was that on Saturday all shops in Slovakia were closed :wall: (for a reason unknown for me) so after the show we did not have a chance for shopping to get some real Brynza cheese (love it, use it for different dishes), chocolates . . .) :(  :(  :( 

 

P.s. it was also sad (real shame) to see that we have to travel hundreds of kilometres to a foreign country to see our own air force aircraft since there are absolutely no air shows in Hungary for many years now! :wall: :wall: :wall:

 

 

Best regards

Gabor

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While work on parts of cockpit are still going on in the background, here is something else. The back side of the aircraft or to be more precise what is inside it and what colours one finds inside the Tumansky engine.

 

 

EBy6xaS.jpg

 

 

To start here is a look at the real aircraft. In this case it is an active, in service aircraft so the colours are as authentic as it could be.

Let’s move inside in stages and see what we find. In stages 1 and 2 you see an active aircraft still flying with the Romanian AF. It is worth seeing that the inside of the exhaust area is sooty very dark grey, almost black and completely matt.

 

 

wYT3rB3.jpg

 

 

 

The petals of the engine exhaust constriction ring are grey on the outside and only the inside is green. Now here you have an orgy of green colours, all sorts of shades. This is typical for an operational engine, everything from almost bright white to dark stained green all within very close range from each other.

The outer grey colours are very far from metallic ones, real metal colours are almost none existent inside the engine. The ring which pushes the petals (lets them open or close) is also grey with all sorts of shades. This is a perfect place to play around with weathering, you will not be able to overdo it here and it will still be authentic!

 

From here engine from a Hungarian aircraft is shown which was still used regularly few years ago.

 

 

Q23bt1K.jpg

 

 

 

More soon

 

Best regards

Gabor

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Let’s go further in.

 

 

IFbNGW8.jpg

 

 

The inner faces of constriction petals and the small ones in between them are covered with a special ceramic heat resistant green colour. It will be uniform till the first start of the engine, but after that . . .  As you can see there are all sorts of shades. Have fun here, you could not go wrong!

Same goes for the inner surface of the afterburner pipe, at least the last ring of it.

Going further in, the side walls are grey, all sorts of grey with streaks of different greys on them.

 

 

1RB4miT.jpg

 

 

The afterburner flame holder ring has the same ceramic green colour. Once again there are variations in colours here too.

The afterburner fuel injection rings are stainless steel in colour and the turbine blades in the background are far from metallic or black. They are light beige in colour, completely matt.

 

 

2SDSjez.jpg

 

 

 

More soon

 

Best regards

Gabor

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Just a short side note.

Yesterday a great entertainer and musician would have had his 72nd birthday. He and his band have made some fantastic music but what was more amazing is his stage presence, all the energy he had! I was there for the Budapest gig from which a concert film was made and it was one of the greatest concerts I ever attended!

Freddie Mercury  :worthy:    :worthy:   :worthy:   :worthy:   :worthy:   :worthy:   :worthy:   :worthy:   

 

 

 

So what about the true colours on a real aircraft? Let’s take out few bits and pieces in 1 to 1 scale and see what they are like.

 

Here is the “crown” from the after end of the engine. This is the part from which all the “arms” of the afterburner flame stabilizing rings start from. It surrounds the central part where you find a single combustion / ignition chamber for the afterburner.

Just as most parts of the flame stabilizing rings and the exhaust constriction petals it is also covered on its inner face with the ceramic green paint. See next to it one of the interconnecting constriction petal parts of the exhaust. Both are brand new from the manufacturer and show the original green ceramic colour.

 

 

JyAyiTA.jpg

 

 

 

This green will stay almost exactly the same in some places while in others it will burn to a faded colour virtually within inches from each other.

So to illustrate this here is a brand new petal and one which has seen many hours of service / flight in an engine. They are routinely replaced if damaged / cracked / broken (repair is not made to them). No point, get a new one and replace it. This means that in the end (during everyday service of that MiG-21) you will find several different ones side by side in the engine. Bright new one next to one almost at the end of its service life and several “burned” ones with various degree of fading.

 

 

uilzsQl.jpg

 

 

 

Now to the turbine blades. Who would care about this, you might ask. Well for those who are interested, here it is. At a quick notice I did not find turbine blades in my collection from R-11 or R-13 engines (and it is not so easy (impossible) to dig one out from the real engine when you crawl in from the back end) but here is a comparison of something similar. The pale beige colour that I mentioned in a previous post. The engine part shown here is from an RD-33 of the MiG-29 but the colour is the same / very similar on the engine inside the Fishbed. For comparison I took out a turbine stator blade from my RD-9B of a MiG-19PM fighter and in the 30-40 years between the two little has changed in terms of colour.  

   

 

7fIzRxE.jpg

 

 

nkZbW3O.jpg

 

 

 

 

Next time around I have a look at what the Edu kit provides for the engine.

 

Best regards

Gabor

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So what about the plastic parts in the kit. Well. I think I have said it earlier that there is a strange double standard in this kit. If one looks at the detailing of the cockpits it is as good or even better than many aftermarket resin cockpits! At the other end of the kit you find something else. The plastic parts are, let’s say primitive. Compromises from the manufacturer, no this is pure business. The aftermarket product by the same manufacturer is to the level that you find in the cockpit. So they know exactly what it should look like but at the same time have to sell other associated products too, like the brassin engine set.

 

In the previous posts I had the real engine and its details here is a comparison between what you get in the standard kit and next to it the brassin details. I think the difference is obvious but of course everyone makes his own decisions and choices based on personal preferences and “taste” for details.

 

The brassin engine set is nice. It is far better in comparison to Edu 3D printed brassin parts from few years ago, when it was full of “steps” from the layering of the printer.

 

 

eZ6K6US.jpg

 

 

 

wZxOBs5.jpg

 

 

 

vHUXf7i.jpg

 

 

 

In the instruction sheet of the brassin set there is a mistake concerning the afterburner systems fuel injection ring (part PE1), which in real life is stainless steel or whatever heat resistant metal the Russians used for it but it looks like stainless steel.

Also the instruction is wrong in giving the colour of the variable nozzle constriction petals (Part R18) as STAINLESS. Photos in the above posts show that it is the ceramic green on the inside and dull grey on the outside. In the area where the outer ring pushes the petals to close or releases them to open due to friction on some aircraft the outer surface of the petal could be natural metal, on some aircraft after considerable use even bright metal.

 

 

zRCsOm8.jpg

 

 

I have started painting the inner, ceramic green surface. It will take some time to add all those shades of green and “what else” colours to it.

One part of this set I don’t like is the flame holder ring. It is a completely flat photoetch while in real life it is 3 dimensional with its arms and ring all in different planes. OK, it is not easy (or is it?) to give the possibility of bending parts of it. But it would have been possible to make it, say 3 dimensional with the plastic part D41 and still they made it as flat as a photoetch. I would say small opportunities for detailing where both plastic injection forming and photoetch work well. After all Edu is still a beginner in photoetch technology so what can one expect.

 

 

R9rFSvM.jpg

 

 

 

096Qhtq.jpg

 

 

 

Well you can say what will be visible of all of this on a finished kit, but then again if not much is visible then why make it at all in the first place.

On my example I did bend the outer arms but that was all that one can do without some surgery on the photoetch parts.

 

 

 

Best regards

Gabor     

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Very good work with the set. I'm following the process. If you are interested, I can explain a little about the colors and details of the engine. Green color - special enamel. It is applied to new parts and is consumed as the engine is running. I do not speak any terms in English, but I know that you are familiar with the Russian language. If you are interested. Sincerely.

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Going back to the question of colours in the engine exhaust. The kit instruction sheet also needs correction and in some points it is a bit vague.

The ducting after the turbine blades and before the afterburner flame holder ring is not bright green as instructed by Edu. It is grey, shades of grey as pointed out before.

The inside of the exhaust ducting after the flame holder ring is also grey. The instruction sheet is not giving you any clues apart from pointing to bright green colour. But the green is applicable only for the ribbed ring at the very end before the variable nozzle. On some aircraft the green ring is a bit longer.  Look at your references!

 

 

 

rMoHZV3.jpg

 

 

OK, some painting of small parts is underway in the meantime. In this case a layer of gloss was sprayed on to seal previous paints.

 

 

dlnQAp5.jpg

 

 

Amongst other parts the small O2 bottles were painted which are made as one part (Part E2 & E12) with the landing light and the black Compressed air bottles. The O2 bottles (in Russian they are indicated as Medical Oxygen) are painted pale blue and the original Russian version had a lot of stencils all over them in black. After local overhaul some stencils were retained or replaced with local markings. At the end where the release valve is two white rings are present on them.

The Black compressed air bottles had white stencils on them. Actually in most cases the black air bottles are either gloss or semi gloss in shine and not flat black as called for by the instruction sheet.

 

 

zUysrCF.jpg

 

 

The Edu instruction sheet is wrong here again when it gives Flat Black for one of the O2 bottles.  It is of course pale blue just as the other two bottles. Note that every O2 bottle is in fact made of three round containers interconnected to each other forming a single bottle. 

 

 

QODuXvS.jpg

 

 

Here are the control columns. Made few of them, here two for the Moscow MF versions and one for the Gorkiy MF which had the same grip as the later MiG-21 bis version. All detailed and painted and sealed with gloss. After a semi-gloss layer the (hopefully) painted details will be more visible  (if at all).

 

 

RGD0OPL.jpg

 

 

 

Work is on not only with the two Edu MiG-21 MF’s but also with the fabulous Modelsvit MiG-21F kit in the same scale. So the tires for the later were also painted.

 

 

iyJjn1s.jpg

 

 

Have a great weekend! It is still summer here with glorious sunshine and around plus 26-29.  :D  B)  :D

 

Best regards

Gabor

Edited by ya-gabor
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Going back to the O 2 bottles. Decals from the spare box were selected based on colour and size of letters. The “Medical Oxygen” stencil is fairly big while the black writing is small giving the service details of the bottles. A lot of Sol was used to get the decals around the bottles but I think they look OK now. A bit of piping will be added when installed in the bays. The valves were drilled in advance to accommodate the pipes.

 

 T5RRjoW.jpg

 

Just to have a break here is a bit on the KM-1M ejection seat. Will have to build it up from scratch or from the ashes of the original kit seat. Of course it is easier to use as a base the kit parts. To build a new one you first have to destroy before beginning construction. If it doesn’t work out there is still a spare seat from the overtrees kit or will have to use the seat designed decades ago for Tim Perry of PP Models.

 

The leg-restrains will definitely have to go. The arms restrains were cut off too since they are at a wrong angle. The front edge of the arms restrains are level with the seat back padding. The headrest needs a lot of detailing since it is the most visible part of the seat. OK, the back and the seat pan is also very visible so they will need a lot of attention too.

Since the seat will be inside the cockpit there is virtually no need to add any details for the back of the seat or to the sides of the seat pan. Apart from cutting them back to size to fit in the cockpit. Remember that I have modified the cockpit to make it more realistic with the rounded side walls, after all the whole cockpit is surrounded by the air duct dictating its cross section.

 

 

 

SICT0Ok.jpg

 

 

 

Something completely different. Unfortunately not so funny this time.

This is a cry for help. Anyone knows what this is???

 

 

xEQlktD.jpg

 

 

At the weekend I had an accident cleaning my air brush.   :(  Clumsy and dropped it (first time in decades). :wall: As Murphy would have it, it fell on its weakest part. It would have not been a problem if it is all assembled since it is so well protected, but in cleaning I take out the needle and so this part is left “unprotected”. The thread part broke which is under the needle locking nut. It is fairly fragile since this copper part is cut in half to properly lock onto the needle. Without it the whole airbrush is of course useless.   

 

 

It served me well since 1992 ( 26 years is long for any marriage :D ) so I should give it a go but it is in perfect condition, excellent to work with, love it, superb painting tool and I would not wish for anything better and so I would prefer repairing it. Oh yes, the brush is a DeVilbiss Aerograph Super 63 Model E (Type E-504-1 to be more precise) but I believe the part in question is the same for all Super 63’s.

 

Anyone with an idea where to get a replacement part? I think the official name for the broken part is “Square piece” and its part number is NSA-28. I don’t see DeVilbiss selling replacement parts as they used to. Are they still in business?

 

Thanks in advance for help or any ideas!  

   

Best regards

Gabor

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12 hours ago, ya-gabor said:

Are they still in business?

 

Looks like they just sell spray guns and related technology. Mainly for automotive painting. Didn't see anything on their site even remotely related to airbrushes.

 

Found this site. Says they have all parts and list the one you want.

http://cumber.nl/AerographDevilbissSuper63parts.html

 

Edited by Mstor
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Hi Mstor,

 

Thanks for the help and for looking!

 

Yes, I found the Dutch Cumber too. From what I can see the list of spares is long but if you try and pick one out and see details, price it is not possible to click on them. Just the very first one. Is it just a virtual listing? Or I am doing something wrong.

 

 

Sad to see that DeVilbiss are no longer in business with air brushes. As said before the Super 63 was excellent!!!

 

 

Best regards

Gabor 

 

 

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51 minutes ago, ya-gabor said:

Hi Mstor,

 

Thanks for the help and for looking!

 

Yes, I found the Dutch Cumber too. From what I can see the list of spares is long but if you try and pick one out and see details, price it is not possible to click on them. Just the very first one. Is it just a virtual listing? Or I am doing something wrong.

 

 

Sad to see that DeVilbiss are no longer in business with air brushes. As said before the Super 63 was excellent!!!

 

 

Best regards

Gabor 

 

 

Have you tried contacting Cumber? You never know, they might have the part. I didn't have any more luck than you when I tried clicking on any of the listed parts other than the first.

 

Another idea is to go on eBay and see if you can pick up one for cheap to use for parts. For an airbrush that old there doesn't seem to be too many options.

 

I did some more digging and there seems to be an airbrush still being made by DeVilbiss. Its called the DAGR. Or perhaps there is a subsidiary of DeVilbiss that makes them. Unfortunately, they bear no resemblance to the Super 63.

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