Eduard 1/72 MIG-15

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

After spending nearly three weeks renovating one of my kids room, it's finally time to get some benchtime again

So I decided to treat myself with this little beauty of a kit.














I started on the cockpit today.





I also managed to put down some primer.



Unfortunately I forgot to assemble the front landing gear bay before I started to paint, but that is no big deal, I'll fix that tomorrow


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hi there!

I continued to clean up small parts today and prepare for painting.



Really love the attention to detail that Eduard have given to this kit, considering the small scale.



Stay tuned!

Tommy

[Zen]

Watching this one for sure, got that same kit in the stash, beautiful little thing!

[TommyKillander]

Watching this one for sure, got that same kit in the stash, beautiful little thing!

You're welcome, Zen
Yeah, it's a fantastic kit. I'm thinking of buying the MiG-15 Royal Class kit from Eduard too.




Okey, today have been a busy day at the bench - got most of the cockpit finished and some other stuff and things.

Fixed the seams of the exhaust with some PPP.


First piece of PE on the main landing gear


The grey basecolour is Gunze H308; this colour is used on most interior and undercarriage. I used XF-5 Green on the wheelhubs and XF-85 Rubber Black on IP, HUD and tyres.


Started with the PE for the sidepanels




Instrumentpanel, two layered PE glued together with CA-glue


Ejection seat painted with XF-1 Black and drybrushed with XF-66 Grey


Some detailpainting of the cockpit done


Time to dryfit the cockpit and check how it looks




I'm happy with that.

The tyres and wheels where separate parts, so I painted them before I assembled them.



Tommy

[Zen]

Very nice work so far, the cockpit looks great. Funny coincidence, spent the afternoon assembling my next build's cockpit PE parts too...

[TommyKillander]

Very nice work so far, the cockpit looks great. Funny coincidence, spent the afternoon assembling my next build's cockpit PE parts too...

Thanks Zen

Putting the cockpit together is my favorite part of the build

Good luck with your build


Tommy

[Zen]

I find the PE bits for the pit to be quite a chore... but it pays off in the end, specially when the result is like what you did on that pit...
Thanks and good luck for the rest of the build, i'll be watching and learning.

[TommyKillander]

I find the PE bits for the pit to be quite a chore... but it pays off in the end, specially when the result is like what you did on that pit...
Thanks and good luck for the rest of the build, i'll be watching and learning.

Thanks, Zen!

The build is progressing quite good and I have spent a productive day at the bench, the rest of the family have spent a lazy Sunday watching TV or playing games

Weathing of the cockpit and other small parts that have been glosscoated.










The aircraft will med NMF so I have painted the landing bay doors with my trusy ModelMaster Laquesr paint, which sprays quite dull but since it's buffable the shine will come when you polish it with cotton-bud or a dry tissue.


And it's time to make the final assembly of the cockpit tub:






Some noseweight... There's no weight figure specified in the Instruction so we have to improvise...


I suddenly realised that there is a window on the bottom of the fuselage(!) That's why the Instruction says that I should spray the outside of the engine exhaust.. I didnt bother to do that, so I took the easy way out and glued on some kitchenfoil where the window is located


TIme to put the fuselage halves together.


...and some more noseweight


I decided to skip the pitot tube from the sprues (I will never get that to look good) and instead I use a 0.75mm styrene rod cut to length




Anyway, I tried to clear the guns from the sprue but the 0.5 mm barrels where very delicate and I broke one off when I tried to clean up the injection port. So I decided to scratch build the guns from a piece of guitar-string and the autocannon was made from a 1mm brass tube.







That's it for this weekend - next I will leave the fuselage and wings for a day so the glue cures fully. After that I will start to cleanup the seams.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

I'm busy working on the seams and to prepare all the other parts for assembly before I put the paint on.







I got some useful information from the ISM Facebook group on this kit; the fuselage did not have any location pins and the wings are a hassle to fit to the fuselage. Both these warnings were totally legitimate and the issues will cause some extra work... But it's not a "deal-breaker" - it can be fixed.

Some dryfitting of the wing. I think I can fix this by pressing the parts together while the glue cures. There is a row of rivets close to the seam so I'm not superhappy about using putty around that area


I have sanded and polished the seams, but there are some gaps that needs to be fixed with CA-glue.


I will apply small drops of glue and let it cure overnight, so I can sand and polish it tomorrow.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hi there,

Small update today.

Some of the panel-lines have been removed due to the sanding and polishing, so they had to be restored. I'm using an old worn out airbrush needle for that job.


The drops of CA-glue that I applied yesterday have been sanded down - the seams are completely gone now and the surface have been polished with my trusty Ultimate buffing stick.


The belly with the guns have been glued to the fuselage. There are a couple of small gaps that I need to take of. The story is the same as for the wings; lots of rivets near the seam so I can't really use putty around there


The horisontal stabilisers, "nozhi" - (knives) have been fitted to the tailfin.



Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys!

Believe it or not, but I'm actually on the final stretch of this build now. The polishing and fixing seams could go on forever, but at some point I have to call it done and move on to the painting stage.

Fitted the window on the underside.


The headlight is placed inside the air intake, I'll use a small piece of kitchen foil for the reflector.




Main landing gear bays painted in Gunze H308


Preparing for paint




Detailpainting of landing gear stuff. Excellent details in this kit

[TommyKillander]

Hello!

It's time for painting

After some hesitation i decided to use ModelMaster Metallizer Laquer paint for the complete model, sprayed onto the bare plastic. The paint sprays on as a dull/flat coat that you can buff to a shine using kitchentowel or cotton-buds, depending of the size of the area or what kind of effect you want.

I have only used this paint on small parts or areas of a kit until now, but the kit has nice hard plastic that is possible to buff using a Ultimate buffing stick, so I decided to give it a go. Be advised that this is quite risky business - if the paint pools up it will eat into the surface and you will have an effect that you probably didn't want

I have buffed the paint in the direction of the airflow


I have coated the metal colour with Aqua Gloss and left to dry overnight, in retrospect it was not enough (or I should have chosen another varnish), because the tape peeled off some of the metal, leaving a lighter metal-tone, so it's not a complete disaster (just a minor). A second coat of gloss did not fix it
I "de-tacked" the tape so it almost didn't stick to the surface, but that was apparently not enough
Nevermind, let's move on...

Masking of the walking boards on the wings


Sprayed with XF-85 Rubber Black



The black paint was very easy to "dent" to make small chips.

Decals, only 9 in total(!)


Masking and painting of the canopy




I applied a dark wash made from Abt502 Black and Dust oilpaints, diluted with odourless turpentine




Stay tuned for more - let's hope that I can find a way to fix those mistakes


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

So... it's time to finish this build now!

I have cleaned up the black wash. I'm happy with how the panellines came out.






I have tried to make the surface a bit more interesting by adding a different metal tone. I also added some variation around the areas where I had flaked off paint to hide that too


Satin matte-coat on and time to unmask - I'm always nervous when I do this


I had my doubts about the amount of weight that I added to the front of the model... Eduards instructions didn't provide any numbers at all; but now it's confirmed:
- "Houston, we have a Tail-sitter!"


So I had to peel off that lid I just glued in place and figure out how much weight I needed to add...


...almost there


Now it needs to stand on the head for a while until the glue sets


Final assembly - lot's of tiny tiny bits and pieces for the under-carriage




All small parts were knocked off during the buffing and weathering so I had to glue them back, but I made a new pitot-tube since I wasn't happy with the styrene rod.


Fitted the antenna using Uschi rigging-wire




And that's all she wrote - I'm calling this done!

If I should summarise this build it could best be described as a "roller-coaster with a JATO attached"
But it was all my own fault - the Eduard kit itself is without any issues.

Reveal pictures are here: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=21880


Tommy