The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

To expand on that last post, here is the closed fuselage:



Like many Czech short run kits, the fit was very hit and miss and needed a lot of dry fitting and crossed fingers, and a lot of glue and masking tape to hold the halves together when I'd got a fit I was roughly happy with. However, it's together now and showing the sleek lines of this aircraft. It's basically a Canberra with better styling.

I'd say that was the difficult bit done, but that would just be tempting fate. The engine pods look a bit tricky, as does the unusual landing gear arrangement. Then there's the painting and complicated decalling...keep watching for updates.

Looking good!
I thing this kit would be heap better in terms of fit than the Amodel 1/72 Yak-25 that has been scaring me off for years!

Cheers,

David

skypirate wrote: I thing this kit would be heap better in terms of fit than the Amodel 1/72 Yak-25 that has been scaring me off for years!

I would say so - Czech garage kit beats Ukrainian garage kit any day of the week.

Latest progress:



This is turning into a fine looking aircraft. Unfortunately the bits that are left (engine pods and landing gear) look rather fiddly.

Whatever troubles it may have caused you, the Vautour is starting to really look the part.

Almost ready for painting:



This hasn't been a quick build, but it's good to take your time now and then. Amazingly none of the brass bits have gone to feed the carpet monster!

Brass bits, what's that all about then Ted?

The Vautour is a big old girl isn't she?

Very nice indeed!

Nice one and the Vautour is a great looking aircraft. It would seem that our Gallic chums over the channel know a thing or two about aircraft design

Very nice! I like the way the engines sit under the wing. I always thought it was unusual but pleasing.

That certainly is a good looking aircraft. The engine mounts are straight off the Me262 by the look of them.

I've had a bit of a lay-off from the Owlery; I'm going to have to try harder .

After a couple of complicated builds, I decided to do something simple from the stash, in this case a MiG-21MF made by the Czechoslovak KP company in the mid-80s. This, like most of my builds, will be straight out of the box with a couple of exceptions - a change of decals (I fancied a Polish jet) and a new resin cockpit.

This is how far I've got:



and this is the Pavla resin cockpit, painted and fitted:



This replaces the basic but actually quite workable interior provided by the kit (compared, for instance to the Airfix standard of the era). It just does it better and was very reasonably priced.

I bet that resin interior is worth more than the kit.

What paint scheme are you looking at?

A MiG-21, certainly hits the spot with me! The last '21 I built was the Matchbox -bis and that had the classic 1970's two-pegs-and-a-seat cockpit interior

Old_Tonto wrote:I bet that resin interior is worth more than the kit.

What paint scheme are you looking at?

NMF all over, I think. Keep it simple.

Here is an update. I didn't mean to do this much but it did just fall together. KP kits were pretty good IMO - they don't get the recognition they deserve.



Only one real problem with the kit; the Pavla vacform canopy doesn't fit this model and the KP one of the kit isn't as transparent as I might wish. I'm going to try to polish it out with toothpaste tonight.

Spaceowl wrote: Only one real problem with the kit; the Pavla vacform canopy doesn't fit this model and the KP one of the kit isn't as transparent as I might wish. I'm going to try to polish it out with toothpaste tonight.

I have a few spare canopies if you need one.