Dazzled's Early Mig-FINISHED

[Dirkpitt289]

That looks like a really nice kit

[Dazzled]

Is it real NMF or an aluminium lacquer paint?

I'm leaning very much towards Alclad on this one Andrew. Foil takes a bit more time than I have available.

[Old_Tonto]

I have never used Alclad. What's it like to use?

[MarkyM607]

Although I'm not in this GB (I'm in the Shackleton one for my sins!!), I have been interested in the Mig-15 builds. I have one from the Airfix Club Kit Mig-15/Sabre. Now I'm thinking Mig-17/19/21. Are there any kits (in the reasonable price band!) of these?.

[Dazzled]

I have never used Alclad. What's it like to use?

Its quite easy OT. Just like spraying enamels. Black primer followed by a metallic top coat.

[Dazzled]

Although I'm not in this GB (I'm in the Shackleton one for my sins!!), I have been interested in the Mig-15 builds. I have one from the Airfix Club Kit Mig-15/Sabre. Now I'm thinking Mig-17/19/21. Are there any kits (in the reasonable price band!) of these?.

Its nice to see the love for all things Mig is spreading. Kits of all these do exist. KP produce cheap models of all of them although they do involve quite a lot of work, and aftermarket bits to produce a decent result.

Oddly enough, 1/48 scale is better served for Migs than 1/72.

Mig 17. In 1/72 we have a fairly decent radar equipped version from Hasegawa plus a limited edition early model. AZ produce quite a range although they can be pricey and there's the old, and quite poor, Airfix kit. Anything from an eastern european manufacturer will be a KP repop.

Mig 19. It always puzzles me why the Mig-19 has been so ignored by kit manufacturers. There's the very old Heller offering which isn't much better than the KP kit which is, again, reissued by other companies, sometimes with resin/vac parts. Trumpeter continue to promise a new kit for 2015 but they've been promising for a couple of years now.

Mig 21. If you want a 21, the world is your shellfish. Pretty much everybody has produced a Mig 21 or three over the years. For a later aircraft, go for a Fujimi kit; £10-15 on eBay. Despite being 20 years old and having very minor inaccuracies they're head and shoulders better than anybody elses. Eduard look set to downscale their awesome 1/48 kits so they will likely knock Fujimi off the podium. For an early aircraft most kits on the market are best avoided, particularly the overpriced Hasegawa one. I'm waiting for Revell to reissue their f13 In February. It really has no competition.

[MarkyM607]

Thanks for that Dazzled. I'll keep those notes when I get around to doing my MiG collection. Already have a -25, need a -29, -27, and possibly a -31. Oh dear, I hear the bank balance creaking already!!.
Best check the stash!!.

[Dazzled]

With time in short supply lately modelling has largely taken a back seat, but I have done a little more to the Mig-15.

Firstly, I worked at getting the transparencies together and the gunsight fitted. The kit has numerous exquisite clear components and my favoured method of fixing them was Clearfix so things took a little time.



There was the windscreen, underside windows and a three piece canopy assembly. When these were fully cured, I set about prepping for the paintwork. This will be a NMF aircraft and I'm intending to use Alclad. This should be a fairly quick process but the masking must still be meticulous. There is a very useful mask set included with the model although it was here that I found a small flaw in Eduard's diamond. The main canopy masks are transposed on the sheet so the instructions indicate them as opposites. I figured this out after a couple of goes. Apart from that everything went on nicely.



Also notable in the pictures is that I did fill the wing roots. Just a bit of Mr Surfacer rubbed back using isopropanol. No abrasives, no detail loss .

I filled the gaps in the canopy masks with Copydex. I also used Copydex in the main u/c wells. All other openings were filled up with high-density foam sponge. Finally, I had a moments head scratching over how I was to hold the model while painting it. Trying to shove a handle up the jetpipe did not end well so that plan was abandoned. In the end I found that a sharpened mini-screwdriver (from a Christmas cracker, no less ) could be wedged into one of the shell ejector chute slots.

So, everything is now ready for painting. The problem is that I can't spray this at the bench so, when it's a decent time of the day, I'll whip this out to the garage and paint it there.

More progress soon, I hope!

[Old_Tonto]

Looking good Daz.

That is some first rate canopy masking IMHO. always my weak spot.

[TobyC]

Good to see you back in modelling mode.

[Dazzled]

I'm not a happy camper

After lugging my compressor to the garage in the rain and setting up to apply Alclad to the Mig, I found that the air valve on the Aztek I use for enamels has packed up.

Consequently, the Mig now has a coat of acrylic flat aluminium.

The centre tube on the airbrush is now clamped up in an attempt to restore it to working order.

[Dazzled]

Time to get this Mig on the move again. The inability to spray Alclad was a bit off putting but I'm doing my best to salvage something from the situation so a bit of tonal variation is being attempted.



Some Tamiya chrome silver was sprayed onto selected masked areas.

Fingers crossed for some uncharacteristic good luck

[Stuart]

that's looking good Darryl - I hope it works out.

How do you find the gun barrels on th Ed kit? It's the only part of the HB kit I don't like - I'm wondering on my future builds if I can replace them with brass tubeing or AM.

[Dazzled]

that's looking good Darryl - I hope it works out.

How do you find the gun barrels on th Ed kit? It's the only part of the HB kit I don't like - I'm wondering on my future builds if I can replace them with brass tubeing or AM.

It all went horribly wrong

I don't think my XF-16 is XF-16 at all. I reckon it may be XF-11. Or maybe it's the other way around? Either way there was no tonal difference whatsoever.

Speaking of guns, and to make matters worse, I managed to snap off one of the 23mm's and the pitot tube while removing the masking.

And they are very nice guns too. Now one of them will be very nice metal or styrene rod.

This model must be cursed!!!

I've gone for plan c with the paint job and reverted to the rattle can, in this case Plastikote chrome.

It's great stuff but it takes about 3 years to dry

I'll give it overnight on a warm model bench and try and overcoat it with Klear so that I have a fighting chance of being able to pick it up before Christmas.

[Stuart]

Ah... and I thought I was having issues with my painting...