The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

This is a MiG 21D All Weather Fighter in 1/72 scale. This kit was issued in the 1960s by the long defunct Industro-Motive Corporation (IMC) along with several US jets of the era. The models were fairly basic efforts which have all since been eclipsed by newer, better kits. What was unusual about them was the inclusion of special alternate “battle damaged” parts – very cool!



And the special “battle damaged” parts:








There are even two pilots – one normal and one “punching out”:






Should be fun!

Basic, yes but much sought after by collectors. If one of them could see you actually building one, they'd all gather outside your door with pitchforks.

I tip my hat to you Sir. Go for it

Give 'er, Tim! I have one of these in the ready stash and have been itching to use it in a diorama.

Lindberg Models also made a series of "battle damaged" kits. Were their molds obtained from IMC or did they model their own?

PropWash wrote:Lindberg Models also made a series of "battle damaged" kits. Were their molds obtained from IMC or did they model their own?

They were indeed reissues of these old IMC kits.

Never seen one of these before but it's an excellent idea and someone ought to do something similar again!
It saves all that time burning holes in the plastic with a magnifying glass

I had and built their A-1 Skyraider as a kid. They were a bit crude but a lot of fun to build and play with. I'd love to get one and build it as a serious builder just for nostalgia's sake. Too bad these are relatively expensive on eBay.

I too am looking forward to seeing how your build turns out Tim. I hope you enjoy the experience.

pmmaker

I built their F-100 battle damaged back in the mists of time. It was a lot of fun. I look forward to seeing this one built.

David

Consisting of only seven parts, the basic battle damaged MiG airframe assembles quickly.

A cool feature of this kit is that those battle damaged parts are optional extras; undamaged versions of the port fuselage half, wing and stabilizer make up an almost entire second model! I’ll use them for paint tests later.

The underwing missile rails in the kit are very basic and covered in flash, with an inaccurate step on the bottom to fit into a large groove on the top of each missile.


These and the ugly locating nubs on the pylon tops (which would place them too far forward on the wings) have to be sanded away before installing them. Even with this done, the rails still reflect only the basic shapes with no detail at all.


Since this will be a “in flight” model, the undercarriage will retracted. This was no problem for the fuselage (although the fit of the nose doors was awful!), and the gear door under the starboard wing fit reasonbly well - but the 50 year old kit was missing the port wing door!

My first thought was to make a simple replacement from plastic sheet, but it seemed easier to use the optonal landing gear; the idea being that whatever hit the plane damaged the undercarriage hydraulics on the wing and let the gear drop down on that side. Too bad I'd already cemented the fuselage undercarriage door shut before I thought of this...



Anyway, this MiG is definitely in trouble...

I remember making one of those years ago. IIRC, it was unusual at the time for not being a Fishbed-C, a.k.a. MiG-21F-13, which was the only version available. The battle damage was an added bonus.

The "punching-out" pilot was fun. Again from memory, there's a clear support strut that holds the seat up so that it can fit into the forward-pivoting canopy. Add a little cotton wool or whatever as rocket exhaust and it all looks very neat.

The battle damage can be a bit tricky to paint, especially the rear fuselage. Photo references are a must to get the tones of damaged structure looking right -- or a reasonable approximation, anyway.

Looking forward to seeing this and indulging in a little nostalgia. Enjoy!

The paint scheme for the MiG is pretty simple - Tamiya rattle-can Bare Metal Silver (AS-12).



The SRD-5M ‘Kvant’ cone and the ventral fin were shot with Tamiya Flat Green XF-5.



The MiG’s damage received scorching effects with Testors Silver 1146 mixed with some Testors Flat Rubber 1183 to darken it a bit.





I shot the mix on with an airbrush around the wounds, and added pin washes of the rubber color for depth. Given the gross damage of the kit parts I decided to go subtle with the effect.

Tim Reynaga wrote:

PropWash wrote:Lindberg Models also made a series of "battle damaged" kits. Were their molds obtained from IMC or did they model their own?

They were indeed reissues of these old IMC kits.

Thanks for the info, Tim. I'm enjoying the pics of your build.

Looks a fun project.

The 1967-vintage decals that came with the kit were a mess, so I used some from Print Scale’s “North Vietnamese MIGS of the Vietnam War” set (72-116).



Clear carrier film on natural metal finishes is notoriously difficult to conceal, but these decals were flawless – the carrier film behind the national markings, and especially behind the red numbers and stars, just disappeared!





Thank you Print Scale!

Looks really good and a fast build too.

David