Mig 37 Ferret E

[jssel]

This is the Testors Mig 37 Ferret E in 1/48 scale. It was Testors answer to the F19 Stealth back in the 80's. You may remember the rhubarb within the US Government over leaked stealth secrets over a model kit.

Over all a pretty basic kit with a few cool options. Included are two nuclear shapes and two air to air missiles. It can be completed in two different schemes with decals to match. I chose black. A large decal sheet produced by Scale Master with a bazillion placards. One warning! Don't panic when you see the decal glue turn milky. It dries clear with no silvering. Half the sheet is dark red and the other half is gray. I am pretty sure the lettering is fictitious.

I believe that Italeri has the molds now in both 48 and 72.

[iggie]

Wow! That's, ummm, unusual
It looks really well built and the paintwork looks excellent; I know from experience that uniform 'black' schemes can be very difficult to get to look right

[Bissyboat]

Nice job. It looks very futuristic and unusual.

[JamesPerrin]

It does make a cool model. The chisel nose really makes it stand out.

[DavidWomby]

I always like that design. Better that the equally fictitious F-19 they designed.

David

[IvanV22]

Looks great, but why am I thinking of Batman.

[general rocket]

It's a nice kit that goes together well.
And you've done a fine job of it.

[Dazzled]

Very nice Jeff.

Italeri did indeed have the moulds, at least in 1/72nd, as I have one of theirs in the stash but I haven't seen these around in either scale for quite a while now.

[Tarkas]

Very nice Jeff.

I quite agree. Looks positively sneaky, as befits a stealth fighter, even if IMO the Ferret isn't very stealthy...

Italeri did indeed have the moulds, at least in 1/72nd, as I have one of theirs in the stash but I haven't seen these around in either scale for quite a while now.

AFAIK, the MiG-37 was an Italeri creation. Testors and Monogram had come up with their "F-19s", and Italeri wanted to jump on the stealth bandwagon while it was still a novelty, so they came up with the Ferret as a Soviet counterpart. Ironically, the faceted design of the -37 is far closer to the actual stealth aircraft that the Skunk Works came up with than the curved shapes of the mythical F-19s.

It's interesting to see that the MiG-37 as a kit has outlasted its original rivals, but I suppose that it's because the fabled "stealth fighter" was eventually revealed to be the F-117, and so the F-19s faded into the background. They were both as fictional as the Ferret (Monogram pinched their design from an avionics company ad in the trade press ) and so lacked credibility once the F-117 was shown to the public. The Testors design had a short moment of glory in the Tom Clancy book Red Storm Rising (I think), and was released in diecast form as well, but that was it.