A few silver jets

[Thadeus]

So, ever since my attempt at building Special Hobby Mirage III and some paint trouble with metallic finish I figured I needed another go at Vallejo Model Air silver-ish colours.

A smart man would do it the smart way - on a prepared piece o plastic to do some checking.

But that smart man will not end up with a finished model that way. Ha! I got You there. So let's see who will be laughing in the end.

 

For my trials, a single model will do. I have an Eduard MiG-15 waiting to be built. But I like to build models with some sort of a theme. So I'll throw in Zvezdas MiG-17 (or Dragon). It will be fun to compare both jets. Or at least models of them.

 

 

 

But as I opened the box of Zvezda MiG-17, there was another kit inside as well. The Plastyk/Mistercraft MiG-17PF. I mean, adding one more build to it wouldn't hurt I guess. It will be fun to compare the three models together.

 

 

As I was contemplating this build, l thought it would be so cool to build all of the jets in Polish AF markings. I don't have a lot of silver aircraft, this would be cool. But then I got another idea. Since I have three kits I can test out different paints. Vallejo Model Air, Gunze H8 and say, Tamiya. Or even better. I could get my hands on some totally different metallic paint.

I am restricted in that department, as I can't get anything smelly, since my modeling room, living room and kitchen are actually in a single space. So I chose Vallejo Metal Color line.

 

But I kind of don't have a theme here for the build. Three MiG's sound pretty fine, but I'd like something more. So why not build the Eduard MiG-15 as a North Korean jet? And add an F-86 Sabre to it. Nice! Even better... A Sabre flown by a WWII ace with some Polish heritage? Great! The Zvezda kit seems to have markings of a MiG-17 from Operation Danube (or at least posing as one), and perhaps I could counter it with a Czechoslovak MiG-17pf from Mistercraft decals? Some research is still required. It's a pretty important historical event that I feel gets a bit too little attention.

And a MiG-15 UTI? Well. I might build something with actual Polish AF checkerboards while I'm at it, right?

 

 

 

All these kits seem nice - including the Hobby Boss MiG-15UTi and the Mistercraft MiG-17pf. I can't wait to get the first cuts on the plastic. I's been ages since I build a MiG-15 (some old kit - Plastyk perhaps), and for the MiG-17 and F-86 this will actually be my first time ever I believe. I sense a lot of new knowledge coming in next few months...

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

[Thadeus]

Whoooa. These models seem to be quite quick builds...

 

So, I thought I'd start with the MiG-17PF. I wasn't expecting much. I eventually started to build the MiG-15's first though. Not before I did some comparison shots of both -17 kits.

 

It seems the Mistercraft kit is a bit larger than Zvezda/Dragon kit. I'm not entirelly sure that's accurate. The tailfin is a little larger too with significantly larger diameter of the exhaust.

 

 

Wings are a little larger too, with more prominent kink on the leading edge.

 

 

I generally have a feeling this kit is a rebox or a retool of the old KP MiG-17. The Zvezda/Dragon kit has much nicer panel lines. Quite sharp actually.

 

 

 

Quite surprisingly, the elevators are of totally different size. Mistercraft to the left, Zvezda/Dragon to the right. It seems that Zvezdas are of more accurate size. They seem very similar to the MiG-15's elevators.

 

 

What I have to say is that the Eduard's cockpit is extremelly nice. Love the way it's assembled, all the little details. The Hobby Boss kit is actually very nice too. Especially if You consider its price.

 

 

 

Zvezda/Dragon cockpit is quite basic and seems fictious (left). So does the Mistercraft. The IP on Mistercraft seems quite nice actually. I wonder if it fits the model... I kind of doubt that...

 

 

Did I mention Eduard's nice cockpit? With PE part it's even better.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

[Thadeus]

Ok, I've hit a bit of a dry spell. I've completed the basic airframe assembly on all of the MiGs and then I kind of run out of steam to carry on. I've some sanding left to do, check the seams and add some cockpit and canopy pieces. The most time I'll probably be sanding.

 

I've run into a pretty significant problem... It seems I didn't add enough weight to the noses of my model (or wherever I could fit it). My preliminary tests show almost all of the models to be tail sitters. Luckilly, there are some creative ways to solve that problem - some wheel chocks to move the contact point of the main wheels aft for one. Still I added quite a lot of lead pellets to the openings. I'll see if I can add the main gear legs. This will however complicate the painting process.

 

Despite that, all the MiGs look pretty neat. The UTI required a bit of putty...

 

 

 

 

While the Eduard it would seem doesn't require any. There might be some filler work on the nose, but I'll see if I can sand it to fit flush.

 

 

The -17's require a bit of putty. Dragon/Zvezda will probably be fine. Some sink marks were filled too.

 

 

However the Mistercraft model requires a lot of putty. Obviously I added a lot more than was required. Bu the nose needs reshaping a bit. At the very least - I need to thicken the radar dome.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

[ALF18]

Thanks for the detailed comparison of the kits. These are subjects I might do one day, so I'll follow with interest.

ALF

[Thadeus]

Thanks ALF. They are quite nice little kits.

 

I keep going forward with these builds. First, the neglected F-86.

 

I glued a couple sub assemblies, such as wings, intake and I figured I should fit the airbrakes before closing the fuselage. Good call. I did struggle a bit with them as they seem to be a tiniest bit mismatched.

 

 

After that I did the cockpit. It's still only partially glued as I try to match the opening of the intake with the nose piece. Ok, the photo isn't that impressive, but I really liked the detail on the instrument panel - very nice and sharp. It seems though, the panel itself should be gray with black instruments. So that will be my first mistake on this one... That splash of paint on the floor is my attempt at making some discolouration of the floor. Once the seat will be in place, not much will show.

 

 

With that much done, the Sabre will be left for the next year. I'm trying to squeeze in at least one more build for 2023...

 

This brings me to a buid that seems to become my favourite... the MiG-15UTI. Lovelly little kit. Quite uncomplicated with some details surprisingly well done - such as cockpit. While it's not Eduard quality, it's quite nice little cockpit, and by the looks of it, moderatly accurate. For a easy build, and a Hobby Boss one at that, ot's quite surprising. I added the prominent windshield for the aft cockpit part, a gunsight and some masking tape seatbelts.

 

 

I kind of felt I needed some putty on the Eduard MiG-15.

 

 

Eventually though most of that  was rubbed back. Most putty was needed for the wing joint. I guess You could get away not puttying it though.

 

One thing that I believe was a first for me were masks. I don't think I ever used kabuki tape masks. They fit nicelly, although I'm not 100% sure I put them on as tightly as I could.

 

 

I didn't take a photo of my Zvezda/Dragon MiG-17 prior to first layer of paint, but I did take a photo just before I put the canopy on and with some putty still added. The nose insert was quite troublesome and needed some sanding and filling. I even sanded off the gun camera and had to make one from scratch.

 

 

Another putty hog was the Mistercraft MiF-17pf. This one will also be completed next year, as I've not done enough research on the subject.

 

 

I did cut off a little bit of elevators as I felt they were a bit too large. Ok. A lot too large. 

 

 

One more troublesome thing is the canopy - it's a bit milky and grainy, and on top of that has some strange imperfections - mold line on the left side. Most of that I could polish away I suppose, but I'll loose all the remnants of canopy frames. Well, the kit was so cheap I guess such things were expected. Right up to this point i didn't have too many problems with this kit. Well, at least not the ones I couldn't fix with superglue, putty or something similar.

 

 

And since it's the endo of the year and we're thinking about statistics, here is my attempt at making mine better - the MiGs, aka the nightsquadron. My first attempt at Tamiya semi gloss black that I though was gloss black...

 

 

If my plans will succeed tonight I'll have them painted silver. I just have to choose which one will get what colour. Ahh... decisions decisions.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

[Thadeus]

 

 

Ok, so if You've seen my Mirage build, You probably know I was quite upset about the Vallejo Model Air chrome paint. It didn't dry and was quite tacky for like a week, untill I simply oversprayed it with Gunze or Tamiya clear gloss.

 

 

First row from the left (knife), top to bottom

Vallejo Model Air - Steel (A1), Chrome (A2), Silver (A3) 

 

Second row from the left  top to bottom

Vallejo Metal Color - Dull Aluminium (B1), White Aluminium (B2), Aluminium (B3).

 

Third row from the left top to bottom

Tamiya XF16 (C1), Tamiya X-11 (C2), Gunze H8 (C3)

 

 

I did some shots to show the sheen a bit, some came out yellowish. Sorry for that.

 

 

One thing - Vallejo paints look amazing. No matter which colour, or if its the Metal Color line or Model Air line, they all look just so fine. They were all painted on same material, all were black based with the same paint.

 

 

 

 

 

I know there are a lot of dust caught to the paint, but it still looks amazingly fine.

 

 

 

If You're seeing any grain, I bet it's the actual paint drops, not the metal flakes or whatever is used in its production.

 

 

Well... So that was what You get on a piece of flat plastic. Now this is something slightly different. I painted two of the models with Vallejo Metal Color paints (UTI in White Aluminium and MiG-15 in Aluminium) and the MiG-17 with Vallejo Model Air paint (Silver).  Drop tanks were painted with Metal Color Dull Aluminium and Model Air Chrome.

 

 

It must be the table that somehow focuses my phone camera to make super warm pictures... Still, You can see the overall finish. I'm absolutely loving it.

 

 

Still, I'm not pleased to say that after 24 hours the paint wasn't fully dry. I thinned them all with Tamiya X-20A, sprayed them with about 18 psi and I layed four or five light coats. All were painted on top of the Tamiya X-18 semi gloss black. The Metal Color paints were slightly tacky, while the Model Air was a bit more tacky. I could pick them up without leaving a thumbprint though. So there is a little bit of improvement. I could also safely mask the paints.

 

What did happen, when I was holding the models by the wings - I hold them by the leading and trailing edge. Where I did hold them some of the paint was rubbed or tacked off. If that's even a word. You can see it on the right wing here.

 

UTI was painted with Model Color White Aluminium. It's the third color card from the left. First one is Model Air Chrome, second is Metal Color Aluminium and the fourth is the Model Air Silver. MiG was gloss coated by then.

 

 

 

Metal Color Aluminium.

 

 

And Model Air Silver. Oh come on... it must be that table...

 

 

 

 

 

I kind of picked my favourite color...

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Lost_Erik]

Great trio and cool build log. 👍

[ALF18]

Amazing progress for parallel kit builds. 

I'm not so quick to say you've made a mistake with the Sabre instrument panel colours. Some are grey with black instruments, while some are overall black with black instruments and silvery highlights... 

The important element is that it looks plausible. You're building for yourself, not a museum.

ALF

[Thadeus]

On 12/29/2023 at 4:05 AM, Lost_Erik said:

Great trio and cool build log. 👍

 

Thanks!

 

On 12/31/2023 at 4:39 PM, ALF18 said:

Amazing progress for parallel kit builds. 

I'm not so quick to say you've made a mistake with the Sabre instrument panel colours. Some are grey with black instruments, while some are overall black with black instruments and silvery highlights... 

The important element is that it looks plausible. You're building for yourself, not a museum.

ALF

 

Thanks! Actually, for me finding an error I made and tracing back to where it actually originated from, what were the factors that contributed to said error is quite important skill. I use it at work and I use it in modeling.

The thing is I did read up on cockpit colours on the Sabre and this time I simply didn't think twice that gray cockpits could have gray instrument panels. This actually is my most feared error that I can't eliminate from my life. And sadly it's something that keeps happening - usually just when I loose my focus for a while. Had it been something more important than a piece of scale model I'd be worried 😉

 

So, how about some more MiGs?

The end of 2023 was quite eventfull and I managed to achieve most of my goals. Hell, entire 2023 was a very labour intensive year. Probably the most intensive I've had so far. And despite that, on the 28th of december i found myself at 18 completed builds. I was quite excited I might build 21 this year, and for a brief moment I thought I could squeeze in number 22.

 

See how well it appeared? Minimal weathering and I would be pretty much home free.

 

 

Well, the research for the UTI took a lot more time than I hoped - and even then I settled for a bort number from spares which is slightly innacurate for the jet I wanted. Some trouble happened with the MiG-17 paint as when I rubbed the wash down I took some paint in few places. Eventually, my oldest son got a new game and wanted me to play with him (ok, I wanted to play too) so I decided not to rush things and finished only the UTI and the MiG-17.

 

 

I did forego the UHF line antennae on the UTI. I don't know if I'll add it at a later stage. 

 

 

I gotta say, these two turned out not so bad. My biggest fear was they would be tail sitters. And they seem quite ok. Oh... oh well. Quite ok it is.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great 2024!

 

 

[Thadeus]

Oh... I kind of forgot to update this thread.

 

Academy Sabre, once I closed the fuselage was a pretty straightforward build. I did fill some gaps by the cockpit, since they were quite big. In hindsight I should've just added a plasticard piece.

 

 

 

Some sanding was required. Most of the work was around the nose of the aircraft. One thing I managed to screw up were the slats. As You can see, I glued them wrong. Fun fact, this was my "fix", as I thought my previous position was off.

 

 

 

Here's the MiG-17PF and F-86E sprayed silver. Ok, actually, they both are sprayed Vallejo Metal Color Aluminum with some white Aluminum highlights. What I did differently on both jets, the Sabre paint was thinned with Vallejo thinner that pretty much killed all the shine on the metal. It came out lighter too. The Aluminum and white Aluminum paint was almost the same. So I added a bit of white to the white Aluminum - that made it more opaque.

On the MiG I used Tamiya X-20. As You can see, the colour looks differently. The lighter shade of Aluminum is just white Aluminum.

 

 

I really struggled to get this discoloration. The metal flakes also look much larger and the paint was more coarse in touch than on the MiG. It didn't really dry any faster with Vallejo thinner.

 

 

Here's my F-86E just after I added the last detail. The kit was a pleasure to build. I appreciate more the lines of the Sabre now. I also see why the F-100 was called a Super Sabre, there are so many features similar to the F-86. I could see myself building more of this kit. I just don't have many more schemes I'd like. One thing I don't like about this kit is the windscreen. I've had some trouble masking it to make the frames of the windscreen reasonably thin.

 

 

Cartograf decals were excellent. Although I can't tell if they silvered 😉

 

 

 

 

Next one up was the MiG-17pf. Well... that one took more time to research than to build the thing.

 

So as I wrote I wanted to build a MiG-17pf from the 1968 timeframe.

I had decals for the Czechoslovak AF MiG-17pf HF-13. I thought, fine. I'll build it as is. After doing some research I found some artwork of "my" MiG with red radome. I figured it's super cool.

 

https://www.valka.cz/MiG-17PF-HF-13-t52753

 

On that site I found info, that HF-13 was scrapped 1969, so I figured it was flying as late as 1968.

On the pictures the radomes didn't look similar to, say, the roundel red colour.

I also found that at some time Czechoslovak AF started numbering their arcraft with a 4 digit bort number. That was applied to the MiG-17pf's as well.

Czechoslovak AF did that right untill the "Velvet Divorce" of Czechia and Slovakia. So I guess the "HF-13" bort number was probably an early thing.

 

 

Well. I found another site: http://forgottenjets.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/Fresco.html there

there is a full list of serial numbers of MiG-17pf's and some, from Czechoslovak AF, have the "HF-??" number, but have the four digit number.

 

So  figured, the HF-13 might have been an "1013". Quick search on the first site didn't confirm that theory but I figured I will go with it.

https://www.armedconflicts.com/-t52751

 

So, after painting the radome red I figured I'll repaint it and attemtp to make a number "1013" from spare decals. Oh boy that was pretty hard. I found out I have very few "3"'s and none of my "0"s are of similar height. I was almost desperate enough to purchase Smer MiG-17pf (apparently, a much better kit accuracywise) for the number "0203" but that bort number was decomisioned in 1967!

https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/52747/MiG-17PF-SP-7-0203

 

So in the end I just took the "3" I had and called it a day. The "0" was cut up from a larger decal and assembled on the model from four parts.

 

 

 

All in all, I'm not too happy with the overal outcome. I like the panel discoloration. But the canopy frame is a terrible work. Luckilly, I managed to get some dust inside the canopy. Every line was rescribed. I don't think I will ever build another one of this kit. I'll just go for the Smer (original Kopro). The radome nose is jus so much better in that kit. Here, despite my meager effort it looks anemic. The inside of the intake looks too tall and the panel lines needed to be rescribed anyway. I might just start with better parts I guess.

 

 

I am however glad I have this one on my shelf. I'ts one of the remainders of our recent history for me.

 

 

it was fun masking all the panels and spraying them different colours of Aluminum.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Untill next time!