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Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight - UPDATE: 31 Dec 2020


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Also managed to repair the damage done by the decal. Paint looks a little lighter, but that's because it's flat (and barely five minutes old), unlike the shiny rest of the plane. Should even out once it's also clear-coated.


50020549928_809e73ecaa_o.jpgChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx59 by Motschke, on Flickr

 

Also masked the little antenna covers under the wings. Thankfully included on Eduard's mask sheet. You're supposed to paint them before the underside colour and mask them, but since I was a tad impatient, it had to be done the other way round, using the left-over "waste bits" for masks. Worked out okay.

 

50021346227_82b601ab87_o.jpgChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx60 by Motschke, on Flickr

 

That’s what I have pictures of. Since I had to re-shoot some of the camo colours on the Soviet MiG, I couldn't get any stencils on it yet. The other three have been stencilled. A hundred stencils each? Two hundred? Closer to the latter, I think. Took ages – one night for fuselage, one night for wings and pylons -, but was strangely relaxing. :woot.gif:

Will also have to paint some of the smaller antennae bits and then it’s time to seal in the decals. Then it’s on to the weathering.

Hope the next update won’t take another six months. :rolleyes:

Sorry for the many replies, but that was the only way for me to post the update. The forum software wouldn't allow me to post it all in one piece for reasons unknown.

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On 8/10/2019 at 10:59 PM, ChernayaAkula said:

Also obvious is that AKANs interpretation of Yucky MiG Cockpit Green isn’t quite the same as Eduard’s pre-painted PE’s is. Then again, once it’s all buttoned-up, that won’t be too much of a problem. In the previous pic (with the pilots), the difference is hardly discernible (also thanks to a bit more brushwork with mixed colours).

 

48508060412_7c6e5e55d9_o.jpg

 

Well, even though it is getting close to a year later,

about that,

see:

https://www.airliners.net/photo/East-Germany-Air-Force/Mikoyan-Gurevich-MiG-21M/1533234

Quote

Preserved forward fuselage at the "Interessenverein Luftfahrt Neuenkirchen e.V."

 

and

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Czechoslovakia-Air-Force/Aero-S-106-MiG-21F-13/1467859

Quote

View into the opened cockpit of MiG-21F-13 nr 0305. This aircraft was delivered to Czechslovakia Air Force on 26 July 1965 to VSL (training squadron) at Mlada and after less than a month in service was on 23 August damaged in long landing behing RWY by Lt. Frantisek Horcicko. MiG was perfect repaired and later transfered to 1. slp (fighter air regiment) at Ceske Budejovice. After withdrawn from service was stored in deposits of Kbely museum.

 

Edited by southwestforests
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Whoa. :woot.gif: Never noticed that. Those are two distinctly different shades of Yucky MiG Cockpit Green. One closer to AKAN, one closer to Eduard. 

Looks like my attempt at balancing the differences accidentally produced something closer to reality. 

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  • 2 months later...

Work on the Fishbed continues. Made a lot of progress on the armament.

Masking  four rollerons each on ten missiles was tedious.

50321368363_ff69fd8df7_o.jpg

Stencilling them was almost as tedious. Eduard and ResKit certainly didn’t skimp on stencils. Lots of work, but looks the part, I think. Also added a medium grey wash to bring out the details on the missiles. On the UB-16 rocket pods, I went for a black wash.

50322217887_46a292f36e_o.jpg

 

Pylons were also painted and got between six and eleven  stencils. I will swap out a pair of the APU-3 rails for a different set of APU-13 rails specific to the radar-guided R-3R Atolls. These rails had a slightly different front end. ResKit only provides the R-3R missiles themselves, but since Eduard’s recently-released set of R-3R missiles does include such rails, I want to use them.

 

50322038051_552c0b23d4_o.jpg

 

The lower pair of APU-60 rails on is painted a different grey, but sadly it doesn’t properly show in the pictures (the chipping, on the other hand, shows a little too well). They’re for the Bulgarian MiG. Pics of Bulgarian Fishbeds frequently show them with differently painted missile rails.

 

50322038046_7cc351c3b8_o.jpg

 

The Angolan MiG is the one farthest along. I’ve painted the engine section in some shades of AK Extreme Metals. The canopy was also painted in AK’s Dark Aluminium. Tom Cooper’s profile in the Africa@War volume on Angolan/Cuban forces at war shows this. Cooper mentions in one of the “Arab MiGs” books that canopies were at times unpainted because of problems with the plexiglass that necessitated repairs.

 

50322217842_07d144321b_o.jpg

 Applied some chipping. It looks almost overdone to the naked eye, but hardly shows up in the pics. Interesting.

 

50322038016_9cea2dbc49_o.jpg

Panel lines were partly post-shaded with a highly-diluted dark-brown mix of Tamiya colours. Also added some streaking with Oilbrushers.

 

50321368283_a753420efb_o.jpg

The soot from the GSha-23 is pretty hefty on purpose. In one particular battle that lasted over a week, the MiGs each flew an average of about three sorties daily in an effort to provide close air support. I don’t think they had much time to clean off the powder residue.  The oil deposits near the horizontal tails attachment points are a bit overdone, I think. May tone that down a tad.

50322037981_77b30928a3_o.jpg

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Close up of the cockpit area. I’m glad the amber lens of the HUD shows up so well. I guess painting the underside of the clear HUD assembly (good move, Eduard!) silver and a drop of orange clear colour on top worked out as planned.

50322037961_368231c1ab_o.jpg

Another shot, showing  how well the instrument panel and associated details remain visible and also showing that masking the clear part of the mirror on the canopy worked as intended. Eduard don’t mention it, but a teeny-tiny bit of masking tape here goes a long way. I suppose Eduard didn’t include it on the masking sheet as it would’ve just been too small. I had to give it three or four tries because it loved to stick to the tweezers and was then difficult get off the tweezers and place it properly.

50321368188_cfb377da37_o.jpg

Disaster! :explode:The inside of the left-hand side of the canopy has some crazing. You can make it out just ahead of and slightly below the pilot’s mask and just above his shoulder. It’s difficult to capture in the pic. It looks worse to the naked eye. I guess the reflection of the lamp and the fact that the pic has just a fixed angle makes it appear less worse in the pic. Don’t know what to do about it. Kinda torn. Either just accepting it and carrying on OR actually ripping off the canopy and replacing it. It’s not gonna come off easily, though, as I glued it with Tamiya Extra-Thin QS. I don’t know what caused it. I masked it well after the glue had set.

 

50322217722_761785e3c0_o.jpg

I wanted to do the canopy and windscreen sealant and peeled of the masks. Was happy with how the windscreen turned out and went on to peel off the canopy masking…… :bandhead2:

On the bright side, the beautiful detail on the instrument panel coaming and HUD remains well visible.

50322037901_ba58a8913f_o.jpg

 

Some shots of the painted and weathered drop tank destined for the Angolan MiG.

 

50322217672_bb9286669c_o.jpg


 

50321368123_e571d0024c_o.jpg

 

The canopy issue is a bit of a downer. The Angolan MiG was really close to being finished. Some details to add, but nothing much.

Next up should be the Egyptian and Bulgarian MiGs. Those have been stencilled and chipped. No weathering apart from that yet. Oh, and I did manage to break off the pitot tube on the Bulgarian Fishbed. The only one without any apparent mishaps – for now! - is the Egyptian MiG. Exciting times! :rolleyes:

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Thanks, guys! :cheers:

Made a decision: Canopy had to come off! I suppose the canopy issue would’ve bugged me every time I looked at it. Perhaps more importantly, I also had to try to find out what caused it.

Here’s a pic trying to show the problem. It’s really difficult to catch on camera, but immediately obvious to the naked eye.

 

50336154127_6beabdd230_o.jpg

 

 

In the words of Bob Ross: “Time for your bravery test!” Out came the cutting disc in the Proxxon.  I made some cuts to take out the clear (ha ha!) portion of the canopy. I also used a milling bit to further reduce the frame. To remove the remainder of the frame, I made a couple of small incisions perpendicular to the frame up to the surrounding area. The little bits were then carefully broken off with pliers. They came off quite cleanly and I didn’t have to sand or cut too much to get a smooth cockpit opening again.

 

50336154112_039b73196c_o.jpg

 

50335310453_0ce4107972_o.jpg

 

 

Sadly, I didn’t really find out what caused the problem in the first place. The “crazing” was actually some kind of fogging or dusting and was easily removed with a dry cotton bud. It simply wiped off. Perfectly clear. Following up with some isopropyl alcohol and it looked as good as new. Hmmm. :deadhorse1:

 

50335998421_faf5e5f52f_o.jpg

 

 

Here’s how things look now with a replacement canopy glued in place. I played it safe and dipped it in Pledge/Future/Klear beforehand. Also evident are some unintended chips and slips with the scalpel that happened when cleaning up the opening.

 

50335998406_4492b02961_o.jpg

 

50336154072_b53ac8b98c_o.jpg

 

I will leave this for a couple of days before looking at any small gaps that need to be filled. I can already see a few spots where gaps need sealing (above rear canopy hinge, canopy/spine join,…). I guess PVA will be the weapon of choice here.  Then it’s back to masking, interior colour, some sand colour repairs, more masking, primer (may skip that), Dark Aluminium….

I hope this was the right decision. :rolleyes:

Edited by ChernayaAkula
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Hi Moritz

I might have been able to help you if I had seen this last week! I had a similar issue with my Tamy 1/48 Tomcat and the canopy. I had left the masking tape on too long and it left a massive amount of residue that would have stuffed up all of my work. I used a q tip and a cleaning product called Simple Green, actually orange in colour... and it took some gentle scrubbing but it came away clean eventually. If you have any more issues removing your masking from your kits, saturate the tape with baby oil, if you're gentle it will come away and not ruin the work you've put in!

HTH

Andy

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Great ,brave recovery mate!

I feel perfectly what you said,if there is an error, your eyes will be continously sttracted from it!

 

I'd to do some recovery in my actual build ,take a look at the Baz thread her in this subforum if you want.

 

Gianni

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

 

Thanks, y'all. Glad you like 'em. Ripping off the canopy absolutely turned out to be the right decision. Here's a quick final 2020 update.

 

On 9/13/2020 at 8:09 AM, ExchefAndy said:

Hi Moritz

I might have been able to help you if I had seen this last week! I had a similar issue with my Tamy 1/48 Tomcat and the canopy. I had left the masking tape on too long and it left a massive amount of residue that would have stuffed up all of my work. I used a q tip and a cleaning product called Simple Green, actually orange in colour... and it took some gentle scrubbing but it came away clean eventually. If you have any more issues removing your masking from your kits, saturate the tape with baby oil, if you're gentle it will come away and not ruin the work you've put in!

HTH

Andy

 

Hi Andy. The problem was that the smudge was on the inside of the canopy. Because of course it had to be on the inside. Something simple on the outside would've been just too much luck. :doh:

Edited by ChernayaAkula
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Managed to repair the damage to the cockpit canopy. Some filling, sanding and even filling and sanding that nasty scar down the fuselage side with Mr Surfacer 500. Getting it back to where I was before wasn’t without setbacks, though. Wholly self-inflicted, too. :doh: I resprayed the cockpit green with AKAN and let it dry. Or so I thought. Followed with AK’s Extreme Metal Aluminium. It crazed immediately. I wasn’t patient enough. Luckily, though, the crazed paint came off easily, including the turquoise AKAN colour. I resprayed with a blue green from Vallejo and followed that with some Vallejo “Metal Color” Aluminium. That worked flawlessy, both being acrylics. The Vallejo Metal Color is wonderful stuff.

Okay, the Angolan MiG was all but finished now. Even had the final flat coat on. I thought I might get it finished before year’s end. But it wasn’t to be. To quote the Dude: “New sh!t has come to light!”

Notice anything?

50781981246_107e19c48e_o.jpg

 

Yeah, Eduard botched the colours on the rudder. :bandhead2: I had my suspicions earlier, but couldn’t get any proof. Seeing some pics in the third volume (delivered this morning) of “War of Intervention in Angola: Angolan and Cuban Air Forces, 1975-1989 (Africa@War series)” did confirm that the red would be at the top. Other pics I had seen were either at bad angles (one pic had the MiG at a perfect angle, but the rudder deflected away from the camera! :rolleyes:) or inconclusive due to the quality of the picture.

It makes sense, looking at Angola’s flag.

Okay, more masking and spraying. Tamiya’s white, black and red to the resuce.

50781981226_2856195195_o.jpg

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There. Much better.

50781217938_b67988b178_o.jpg

 

Showing the lighter colour (red) at the top of the rudder and the darker (black) at the bottom of the rudder.

50782090767_2ab0368860_o.jpg

I should be able to finish the Angolan MiG soon. The black is a gloss colour and needs some flat coat. Also needs some oil staining n the rudder hinge.

Work continues on the Egyptian and Bulgarian Fishbeds. The Egyptian one only needs some minor weathering and some chipping to be ready for the final flat coat, while the Bulgarian is in the middle of the weathering stage. Didn’t do much on the Soviet MiG, but did get a boxing of KP’s re-worked R.V. Aircraft MiG-21M/SM to nab the decals from.

All three did have more colours applied to their engine sections for a livelier look.

 

50781217903_169f0cd146_o.jpg

So much for 2020. :wave: Up next should be finished pics of the Angolan MiG.

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Fantastic work!! Wish you all best!! 

I also have disaster on mine MF...used Eduard masks, but uncovered areas filled with Maskol.... Maskol seems that damaged transparent parts... really dont know why???! looks like i will change mine too... 

 

https://imgur.com/AFoduyT

 

Edited by mario krijan
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  • ChernayaAkula changed the title to Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight - UPDATE: 31 Dec 2020
  • 2 weeks later...

First MiG is done. :banana: More pics in Display Case: LINK!

 

50823211811_f6686343b9_o.jpg

 

The Egyptian Fishbed should be done soon as well. The Bulgarian and Soviet MiGs will take a little longer, though.

Edited by ChernayaAkula
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That's a lovely result, Moritz. Thanks for sharing your progress, tribulations and the outcome on this particular subject and I'm looking forward to seeing your efforts with the rest of the quartet!

 

cheers,

 

Andrew.

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