Made by Mother Russia , shot by Uncle Sam

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
so this will be my entry in the shiny stuff sig
For this i will be building one of the most produced and best known fighter jets of all time
I am talking about the MiG-21 Fishbed ofcourse
The Soviet fighter that is still in use today in some nations allthough it's roots go back to late 50's and early 60's when they first appeared in the skies

My kit of choise for this build will be this one

It is Eduard's 1/48 MiG-21 PFM Profi pack
Wich basicly means Eduard added some photo etch and canopy masks to the kit


The box isn't very big but it is really packed
This is what you will find in the box


The clear parts look pretty good
Not the best but atleast there are no nasty seamlines on them
There is a bit of distorsion but i could get that to show in a photo


The fuselage sprue
What suprised me was the lenght of the fuselage
It is actually fairly long for such a skinny looking plane


Some other odds and sods , no idea what they all are


The wings


More small parts
And a nose cone ,finally something i can name


The back of the fuselage with the rudder on it


Some weapons and fueltanks
You get 2 of these sprues


A bit of regular pe and printed pe
And a maskset for the canopy


A while lot of decals
Allthough the stencil data come in several colors so you need to pick the right color for your version


And a 20 page instruction book
The instructions look pretty easy to follow but time will tell if they really are


And this is the version i want to build
It is from the North Vietnamese airforce during the Vietnam war
It is in a metal finish with green spots painted on it as a form of camouflage when they flew at low altitude
This made them less reflective in the sunlight and by that harder to spot for American fighters
The spots are only on the top though and the bottom will remain in a clear metal finish

And that is all i have for now
I will be starting this build during this weekend when i can't continue my other builds wich are all either in the painting stage or the weathering stage by now

So thanks for stopping by and hopefully i will see you soon for the first build update
Cheers,Mark

[rwsmith14]

Nice Mark !! I'll be looking forward to this ...excellent choicem while reading your pos,t I was hoping you were going to do the North Vietamese version !

[chief5437]

Great choice! I recently did the MF version, one of the best kits I've had, a joy to build. Good luck

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks guys
And it will defently be the North Vietnamese version
I forgot it at the time i posted it but i asked Paul and Lee a while ago if that plane was okay when the gb's for this year where announced
It is the reason i even bought the kit as most other MiG-21 kits by Eduard don't have option for a Vietnamese version and i wanted one to put next to my Vietnam era Phantom

[Avgas]

Oooer, got this one as well and was going to do it in Vietnam colours, will be watching very carefully especially when you come to putting the cam on.

[MarkVerploeg]

I think i will put maskingtape along the wings and all the areas that will stay clean
They where very random in shape and size sothe only thing to watch out for is that i don't make them too big
I will have to check some reference photo's for the tailrudder
In the boxart it has the big green patch but in the instructions ut doesn't so some photo's from the Vietnam war era should clarify that
Other then that i don't expect many problems with the build and painting stages

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
So here is a little update already
I only made the interior parts up to the point that i need to paint it but like i said in my other thread a buddy of mine borrowed my compressor for today so i can paint anything at the moment

But here is the progres so far

The work starts with tye instrument panel
You can choose between a flat piece and one with raised details but because i will be using the printed pe i picked the flat part


The next step is the nose wheel bay wich is build up from loose pieces and doesn't come as a tub like you see with many other kits
But the detail on the walls of the bay looks much better


The stick and rudder pedals where placed


A test fit with the instrument panel in place
I haven't glued it in yet as the floor and panel will be painted in different colors
And it makes it easier to place the pe later on


The engine parts where next
I do like the way that Eduard designed these parts
All the locating pins are on the outside and they are also placed in a way that parts only fit in 1 way so you can't put it together in the wrong way


The exhaust pipe was put together
It would have been better if i didn't glue the closed end on it because now the airflow will blast back at me when i paint it
But in the end this won't be very visible



The main landing gear bay part for the centre of the plane was build up


The fuselage sides where build up
There will be some pe parts for it but i need to paint it first


And a mock up of the parts when they are installed
I glued the bulkheads in as they don't need paint but i don't want to forget them

And that is all i have done so far
Once my compressor is back i will put some primer on it and then start painting it
But i did make a mistake when i thought the Sabre would be the harder build
The MiG is a much more complex kit then i thought it would be
There is a lot of detail and parts that go in the landing gear bays and just the number of parts is much bigger then the Sabre has
But it is a nice kit in my opinion ,based on the little bit i made so far
So i think i will be putting some of the other parts together untill i can move on with painting , just to keep me busy for now
I need to get some leadshot from the fishing shop as the ones i have are too big for the nosecone and i won't be able to put enough weight in there if i use those but i can get some tomorrow when the shop is open

So thanks for stopping by and having a look
I hooe to be back with some more as soon as possible
Untill next time
Cheers,Mark

[rwsmith14]

What is the base kit for this Eduard Kit?

[MarkVerploeg]

They are Eduards own
They use other brands for their limited editions and some profi packs but the MiG-21 is from their own manufacturing division
All of the versions and packaging (weekend and profi pack) are based on a 2011 model that they made but they all have either different decals and scheme's or they have minor changes like the real plane had in regarts to the various versions the Soviets produced
But they are nice kits if you ask me

[Hackovsky]

I think i will put maskingtape along the wings and all the areas that will stay clean
They where very random in shape and size sothe only thing to watch out for is that i don't make them too big
I will have to check some reference photo's for the tailrudder
In the boxart it has the big green patch but in the instructions ut doesn't so some photo's from the Vietnam war era should clarify that
Other then that i don't expect many problems with the build and painting stages

I think it is correct, what you have in the markings. There might be a mistake in the boxart. I checked some reference photos and even Czech PFMs did have this place covered by the paint. Same with Polish etc. I am looking forward to see the painting

[MarkVerploeg]

I think i will put maskingtape along the wings and all the areas that will stay clean
They where very random in shape and size sothe only thing to watch out for is that i don't make them too big
I will have to check some reference photo's for the tailrudder
In the boxart it has the big green patch but in the instructions ut doesn't so some photo's from the Vietnam war era should clarify that
Other then that i don't expect many problems with the build and painting stages

I think it is correct, what you have in the markings. There might be a mistake in the boxart. I checked some reference photos and even Czech PFMs did have this place covered by the paint. Same with Polish etc. I am looking forward to see the painting

Thanks
I still need to check it a bit further but i did see some with and so.e without
The ones without the spots did have that patch in some cases and some didn't
It will take a while before it is ready for painting though
I will prime and paint them today ,hopefully i can have the pe in there aswell and a coat of gloss
Then i can do the weathering tomorrow and close it up so i can go on with building it

[Hackovsky]

I think i will put maskingtape along the wings and all the areas that will stay clean
They where very random in shape and size sothe only thing to watch out for is that i don't make them too big
I will have to check some reference photo's for the tailrudder
In the boxart it has the big green patch but in the instructions ut doesn't so some photo's from the Vietnam war era should clarify that
Other then that i don't expect many problems with the build and painting stages

I think it is correct, what you have in the markings. There might be a mistake in the boxart. I checked some reference photos and even Czech PFMs did have this place covered by the paint. Same with Polish etc. I am looking forward to see the painting

Thanks
I still need to check it a bit further but i did see some with and so.e without
The ones without the spots did have that patch in some cases and some didn't
It will take a while before it is ready for painting though
I will prime and paint them today ,hopefully i can have the pe in there aswell and a coat of gloss
Then i can do the weathering tomorrow and close it up so i can go on with building it

Because I have the kit also, so I went through other pages and nothing. Only one photo is available and there the tail part is missing :-/
Here is the link to Info Eduard http://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/I ... 3-10EN.pdf. There it is built completly camouflaged. If you find something else, it will help me also

[MarkVerploeg]

I think i have seen the same picture
It is one camouflaged MiG in front of a line of bare metal ones
From what i could find the big green patch is not needed on the version i will be building
And to be honest i don't mind as that green is a different tone then the spots
So it will look better if that patch is not on the tail
There will be one on a fin on the bottom though

[patrickroos]

Nice one Mark!

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks Patrick
Well i basicly have the same situation with this like i do with the Sabre
The cockpit tub is ready so i can glue the fuselage together
Wich i will do today but i have to do a few non modelling things first and after that i can go on with my builds

[PrivateMansoor]

Great choice for the chamo scheme Mark! Good luck with the build mate.

[TommyKillander]

Seems like a great kit!

Good luck with the build, buddy!


Tommy

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks guys
The kit is very nice ,well up to the point i am at now
The fuselage halfs came together very well and needed only a small amount of adjusting while the glue was drying
Nut the tape i used to hold it together is still on there so i will find out tomorrow if it needs a bit of extra sanding but as far as i could see now it should be fine

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
So the update is finally here
It must have slipped my mind because i thought i already posted it but i just noticed i didn't

So here is the build so far

From the last update i used Alclad primer on the interior
And then i used the alclad gloss black base and whitealuminium on the front parts of the fuselage
The cockpit is sprayed with a 50/50 mix of H25 sky blue and H46 Emerald
It is fairly close but i think a 45/55 mix would be a bit closer in this case
The same mix worked better when i used it for my Hind
So i think the color of the Eduard PE isn't the same in color all the time
After i painted the base color i used mr metal color aluminium for the ejectionseat railings
Once all the paint was dry i placed the photo etch


Then the instrument panel PE was placed and the scope was painted


The jet exhaust was painted with Alclads aswell
I used the grey primer , gloss black base and finally aluminium


The cockpit was treated with some Mig productions dark wash and flat coated with AK ultra matte varnish
Once the varnish was dry (i use my airbrush like a blowdryer so that was pretty fast) i glued the cockpit in the fuselage


The nose cone was filled with a bunch of fishing weights wich i glued in place 1 by 1 with ca glue


Once everything was lined up i glued the fuselage halfs together
I don't have any clamps that can be used for this shape allthough i have a few that could but they have very strong springs and would crush it or bend it put of shape
So i prefer some masking tape to hold them together while the glue sets


Then i made the backbone and tailrudder


Then the work shifts to the lower wing section
You need to place a few lights and several small parts that can still be seen later


I masked the outside of the lights right after i placed them
Then i used some mr metal color chrome silver to paint the interior side of the lights


Then you need to place some side walls or ribs in the wings
And the parts that will hold the landing gear


Then the centre piece that i made in the first update


Then the wing section was glued to the fuselage


The fit of this part is very good


After thw wing section it is time for the tail
The elevators where placed along with some airscoops and other small parts


Then the upper halfs of the wings where placed


And the flaps ,control surfaces and some fins where glued on


And that is all i have for now
The MiG still looks like it does in the pictures and i haven't made any progres with this build since i snapped the photo's as i am working on my T-34 for the Russian gb at the moment so i can finish that in time before the gb ends
Once that big lump of styrene is off the bench i will get back to this rather enjoyable build
And finish constructing it
But that is for the next update

Thanks for stopping by and having a look
Untill next time
Cheers,Mark

[Scot2go]

A nice bit of work on that cockpit. Looks very impressive on the build so far, I'm beginning to like these old Russian machines.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you
This is a very nice kit to build and if you have a good look you can find them for very decent prices

[Elve1984]

Great Build Mark, looks like that Mig just falls togheter.

[MarkVerploeg]

Great Build Mark, looks like that Mig just falls togheter.

Thank you
And it does
The overall fit of the parts is very good so far
There are 1 or 2 spots that i need to sand smooth but not from nose to tail like i had with sone other plane kits up to now

[Stokesy44]

She's looking good mate and that cockpit is beautiful.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you
I finished my last GB entry yesterday so after i clean up i can continue this build and the Sabre that is also in this SIG
But i think i will start sanding the Sabre first just to get that part of the build done
After that i can finish up building them

[demarcation]

Impressive work Mark! The cockpit looks top notch

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you
Most of it was Eduard's work though
I just painted some parts and put it together
But i think most can still be seen later so it is good that is looks fairly good
Now i will have to see how the seat turns out but with Eduard kits that is one of the ladt things to do

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
Time for a little update
And that really is little
After the last update most parts where constructed and the plane had it's sgape already
The only thing left where small parts like the landing gear and the seat
So that is what i will show today


I continued the work on the underside of the plane
Only the closed airbrake and some fins at this point


The landing gear was not really assembled
All these parts will get different colors so i keep the seperate untill they are painted and then construct them and place them on the plane


The same goes for the nose wheel


A test fitof the landing gear
And i was able to glue the pistons on the landing gear as those will get the same colors later on


Some more parts for the cockpit
These will become the cover for the instrument panel and a raised panel in front of the canopy (not sure what it is)


Here they are placed


I was a bit suprised by the number of parts for the seat
These parts will become the backrest


And these are for the bottom of the ejection seat


The 2 main parts of the seat where assembled


And this is the finished seat
Well for the styrene parts anyway
There are some PE seatbelts that i will install after painting as they are printed so i don't have to paint them


On the tip of each wing ,elevator and the rudder you need to place one of these tiny static dischargers


Then the pylons for the 2 missles and fueltank where glued in place


Here are the missles and fueltank
The tank parts where actually very sharp and i almost stabbed my thumb when i was cleaning them


And finally i turned it into a unicorn
Or is that a pitot tube

It seem that i forgot to take a snapshot of the canopy with the mirrors installed and the front part of the canopy with the sights
But those are ready to be installed aswell
I need to paint the front of the cockpit first and glue the canopy front in its place
After that i will mask the cockpit and canopy
And the seperate parts from the landing gear
Once that is done i can start painting
Wich i will do next week as i am home alone so i won't bother anyone with that lovely Alclad smell
I have a micro mesh set on order aswell but that that only get's shipped out on monday so i will have it a day later but i doubt i will have it painted by then (primed maybe)

So that is all i have for now
Thanks for stopping by and having a look
Untill next time and happy modelling
Cheers ,Mark

[Stokesy44]

That is looking really good. Love the PE additions. Its just a great looking jet

Nice work

[MarkVerploeg]

Thanks Stokesy
It is a nice kit to build and i can really recomend it
If you don't like PE then a weekend edition is still a nice kit
So basicly anyone can have a lot of fun with one of these MiG's
And for the hardcore super detailers there is more then enough after market for it
From Eduard and other brands
In fact i am already looking for a second kit
Probably the SMT version and depending on the costs i will add some after market to it

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
I just noticed i forgot to post a update for this build
I did the painting several weeks ago but simply forgot to post the update at that time
By now it is painted , fully assembled and even the decals are done
So i will go over all of that today


I started out by doing the metal finish
I used Alclad paints for this so i used their method of doing things
Wich means i started with a coat of Alclad grey primer
This was then covered with a coat of Alclad black base
And finally this was covered with a coat of white aluminium
I picked that color because it is the best match to the piece of MiG-15 i have from the Eduard MiG-15 Royal class kit


I them masked off some panels and resprayed them with Alclads regular aluminium
It is a bit hard to see but the panel just in front of the rudder is in alumium
The picture is a bit dark though so it doesn't show very well
I also resprayed a few panels with Mr metal color dark iron
Wich is one of the buffable paints
I used it on just a few panels though and only one on the wing
The other 2 are on the nose and the ring surrounding the engine


After the metal finish was done i started masking it once again
This time for the green spots
They are only present on the upper half of the plane so the lower half needs to be masked


I then added the green spots in a random way
I used the Aqueous color according to the instructions but i can't remember the number at the moment


But the real Vietnamese MiG's didn't just have the spots
The entire surface that has spots was misted with the same green paint to make it harder to see over the dense jungles and wooded areas of North Vietnam


Here i removed all the masking tape
You can clearly see the difference between the metal finish lower half and the misted upper half wich still shows the metal finish but is toned down a lot by the green


The wheels where painted bright green
But i painted the wheel parts seperate from the tyre
The tyre was first painted black and then dry brushed with vallejo Panzer aces dark rubber
I applied more on the running surface then on the sides as that would wear down more then the sides


The landing gear was painted in a light grey while the pistons of the shock absorbers where brush painted with mr metal color aluminium and then slightly buffed
This paint is buffable but if you use a brush to apply it ,it looses some of this effect
To get the full buffable effect you will need to use a airbrush but i decided that this looks good enough and i didn't had to mask the parts that way


The canopy had a red brown edge around the glass
I'm not sure why that is but i used the Aqueous paint for it
I masked off the the erea and sprayed the red brown
Half of the masking tape is removed already the rest will stay on the to protect the canopy from the varnish layers later on


The landing gear doors


The seat in 2 tones of grey
Really hard to see the difference between the 2 though as they where pretty close to eachother


The landing gear was then installed
I only did it at this point as i don't expect problems with the weather
But the landing gear is a different color from the exterior and the landing gear bays so that would have needed a lot of masking if i installed them earlier


The nose wheel was fixed in place aswell
In this picture you can see that i removed a part fron the wing pylons
I made a mistake while i was readi g the instructions and the big part i had on there was for a 2 hardpoints setup
The North Vietnamese didn't had those and i had to remove it
Mainly because i needed to place a completely different part but that was shown at the weapon assembly steps and not at the assembly steps of the pylons



The fueltank was placed but i knocked it off later on


The photo etch for the seat was added


Then i gave the entire model a coat of Alclad Aqua gloss
And after a night of drying it was time for the decals


Here are some parts with their decals applied


And the plane itself with all of it's decals
The red and yellow markings are a bit bright so i need to think of a way to make them a bit duller later on but i will do the wash first and see how that affects them and if i still think they are too bright i will use some pale yellow oil paint to tone them down
But the Soviets where just as bad as the Americans when it comes to stencil data
All the red and blue lines are stencils


And this is the lower half of the MiG

And that is all i have for now
It is now ready for a second gloss coat wich i will spray tonight and then i can start weathering it during the week
So if all goes according to plan i can finish it this week (hopefully)

Thanks for stopping by and having a look
Untill next time and happy modelling
Cheers

[MarkVerploeg]

Hi guys
Time for the final update
Since the last update there wasn't that much left to do
And in the worst case i had to break out the oilpaints wich would mean a day extra of work but the wash did what it had to do so i didn't feel the need to use oilpaints
But that would have been for the roundels only as they looked a bit bright

But here are the last steps of this build

After the decals where dry i applied a coat of Aqua gloss
That was ledt to dry for a night (and some unplanned days)
When the gloss coat was dry i applied the wash
I picked Mig prod. Dark wash ,mainly because of the green on the upper half of the plane but also to make it look a bit dirty
The airfield that this plane was stationned was near Hanoi but still in the jungle or atleast near it
This factor together with the climate makes for some excellent conditions for a dirty plane
So wash seemed like a good choise


The bottom shows the dirty areas a bit better
After the wash i applied a satin varnish on the bare metal portion of the plane and a matte varnish on the upper half


Once the varnish was dry (wich was fast as i use my airbrush as a blowdryer) i unmasked the canopy and placed it on the plane


Then the ejection seat was placed and the front of the canopy was unmasked aswell
The seat fits but barely
It really is a tight fit and i actually dnapped the backrest off when i tried to place it
That was my own fault though as i tried to place the seat too far to the back
So i pushed the bottom in place and moved it to the right position and then i glued the backrest in place


Then the missles where glued to the pylons


And i called it finished

This in my opinion was a very enjoyable kit
The fit is good and the details of the styrene parts are very nice
I only had to sand a few minor seams but i didn't had to reacribe any panel lines what so ever
It is not often that i order a second kit while i am still building the first but this time i did
I was very impressed by this kit so i ordered the SMT version aswell
I think it is nice to have a second one ,even if it is just to have one that isn't in a NMF
But i think the Eduard MiG-21 kits are really something to recommend
Even if you don't like resin and photo etch you can still build the weekend editions wich often have some of the same camo schemes but don't come with the upgrade parts
And they are fairly cheap too , even the profi packs are reasonably priced

So that is all i have for this build
Thanks for stopping by and having a look
Untill next time and happy modelling
Cheers
Mark

[mperegrinefalcon]

Beautiful build!!! I am a sucker for those profi pack kits, I want just about all of them.

[MarkVerploeg]

Thank you
Profi packs are nice kits and most of them aren't that much more then a weekend edition
I think the MiG-21 SMT i have was about 5 euros more then the weekend edition
And that has resin rocket pods ,the cockpit pe and masks