Laurent Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 (edited) RFM has posted a teaser on their Facebook page. It's a 3rd (S, R, SM, M, MF) or 4th (bis) generation MiG-21 but the scale isn't specified. The K-5 missiles are surprising but I believe they were still used in training at the time of the 3rd generation versions. What doesn't look quite right to me: - stabilizers: I think anhedral should be 0° and they seem placed a little high on the fuselage - canopy: I think the cross-section should be semi-circular not parabolic - things like reinforcement plates on top wing above the outer pylons Another botched-up MiG-21 kit to come ? Edited October 31, 2023 by Laurent Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ya-gabor Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 3 hours ago, Laurent said: It's a 3rd (S, R, SM, M, MF) or 4th (bis) generation MiG-21 but the scale isn't specified. The K-5 missiles are surprising but I believe they were still used in training at the time of the 3rd generation versions. What doesn't look quite right to me: - stabilizers: I think anhedral should be 0° and they seem placed a little high on the fuselage - canopy: I think the cross-section should be semi-circular not parabolic - things like reinforcement plates on top wing above the outer pylons Another botched-up MiG-21 kit to come ? The K-5 missiles are surprising but I believe they were still used in training at the time of the 3rd generation versions. The RS-2US missiles were in full operational use all the way up to the introduction of MiG-29's in mid 1990's! For intercept mission it was a mix of R-3 and RS-2US on the wings. The extra fuel tank on wings was ONLY for long flights, not within the country and certainly not on alert aircraft! - things like reinforcement plates on top wing above the outer pylons It is not reinforcement but the vortex genarator plate in front of the aelorns! I believe there is little point in speculating and posting wish lists. Eventually the maker will surely say what they are doing and in what scale. Best regards Gabor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
habu2 Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 I thought the MiG-21 wing had a slight anhedral, I don't see that in the silhouette front view? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Laurent Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 1 hour ago, habu2 said: I thought the MiG-21 wing had a slight anhedral, I don't see that in the silhouette front view? Google agrees: 2°. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ya-gabor Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 The cross section of the underfuselage 800 litre fuel tank is also wrong. Best regards Gabor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Laurent Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 (edited) I had some spare time so I played with Paint. Edited October 31, 2023 by Laurent Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Spruemeister Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 All this speculation over a black silhouette that is probably just a drawing and not actual parts. Rick L. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Laurent Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 1 hour ago, Spruemeister said: All this speculation over a black silhouette that is probably just a drawing and not actual parts. It comes from a CAD render: there's a shadow. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChesshireCat Posted November 2, 2023 Share Posted November 2, 2023 built a lot of RFM stuff from their entry, and always top notch. I'll buy one is it's in 1/48th or even 32nd scale gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Inquisitor Posted November 2, 2023 Share Posted November 2, 2023 (edited) 22 hours ago, Laurent said: It comes from a CAD render: there's a shadow. Are MiG-21's pylons angled downwards toward the front? If not then everything you've pointed out is just a consequence of the perspective of the renders, which are not looking perfectly straight at the front. The whole plane is very slightly angled downwards. The wing tanks and missile's fins are not lined up straight, you can see the fins at the top slightly bigger and the tank body 'round' cross-section turning into an oval hiding a bit of the bottom fins. The missile front fins are not lined with the rear ones. Also that slight downward angle would create that squarish shape from an oval/eliptic cross-section of the belly tank in an orthographic perspective. The horizontal tails would also look higher than supposed and the front edge to rear edge rake would create and illusion of dihedral. If you zoom in the parabollic curve of the canopy is an illusion created from the composite of two curves, the canopy curve and what looks to be the spine if it's a MiG-21 with spine, you can see the kink or point where they intersect around the middle height. I just thrown this together to illustrate. Edited November 2, 2023 by Inquisitor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Laurent Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 Thank you Inquisitor for the illustration. Some comments though: - stabilizer: the CAD designer did the stabilizer mechanism fairings on top and bottom near the root. They have the same height and this suggest that the stabilizer isn't tilted but perpendicular to the screen plane - fuselage tank: the projection used in the CAD seems to be orthographic (the radio-altimeter antennas under the wing tip are just vertical segments) but if you look at the fuselage tank it doesn't correspond to your drawing (tilted cylinder of elliptic cross-section)... in the CAD you see two ellipses and I don't think the tank was area-ruled - wings: assume that the CAD model is tilted down. If it was the case then the wing incidence would be positive and pretty big Anyway I'm going to way for profile and top views now. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Laurent Posted November 3, 2023 Author Share Posted November 3, 2023 On 10/31/2023 at 1:50 PM, ya-gabor said: - things like reinforcement plates on top wing above the outer pylons It is not reinforcement but the vortex genarator plate in front of the aelorns! I didn't notice these until today. In the silhouette I think they should be hidden by the wing thickness. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Laurent Posted November 5, 2023 Author Share Posted November 5, 2023 (edited) About wings and stabilizers geometry. Vladimir Klimov did good MiG-21 drawings used in Yefim Gordon books. The MiG-21bis drawings are interesting because there are two types on front views in it: - fuselage axis perpendicular to drawings plane - aircraft on it landing gear so ground plane perpendicular to drawings plane The second drawing helps to understand the RFM silhouette: stabilizers"dihedral" and wing cross-section come from the nose-down attitude. The angle between fuselage axis and the normal axis is smaller in the RFM silhouette than in Klimov however: front landing gear fully compressed in Klimov because of the deployed breaking parachute ? This view expains why the wings vortex generating tabs are visible. What makes the silhouette weird is that it represents an aircraft resting on its landing gear when the landing gear isn't represented. Edited November 5, 2023 by Laurent Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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