ART models 1/72nd MiG 23 PD

[general melchett]

Well after all the marathon builds this year I thought I'd return to my favourite area of Soviet experimentals and continue the V/STOL theme. This arrived this afternoon from a friend in the Ukraine and very welcome it is too. It's the new ART MiG-23PD, (Pod'yomnye dvigateli, or, literally, "lifting engines") , a short lived experimental STOL design built built by MIG in 1966. Based on the MiG 23 with enlarged MiG 21 wings and gear and using Mirage 111 style engine intakes only one of these aircraft was built and flown as the Soviets had lost all interest in the concept shortly after its first flight, (the main reason being the drag/weight penalty of adding the heavy lift engines and their effect on space for fuel). With usual tact the authorities added the bort code '23' to the sides of the aircraft and added dummy K-23 missiles to mislead the West in identifying the type. It was flown dramatically at the huge 1967 Domododevo air show, after which it was immediately put into storage amd then scrapped. I 've always liked the lines of this aircraft, just a shame it didn't get anywhere,

I rather like ART's models, the previous YAK 36 Freehand and Yak 141 Freestyle being good quality kits though a little on the expensive side and I've wanted one of these for quite a while. Amodel have recently released the MiG-21 PD too which I'll be doing a bit later and hopefully someone will have a go t the SU-15 VD variant too..

I'll be starting this one in a few days,

Cheers all,

Melchie....

On with the kit, firstly standard boxart,

three view,

'Interesting ' instruction sheet,

Moulding is of pretty good quality, above average for a short run to be honest,

Decals also look pretty good and if anything like the other kits will be very easy to apply..hat white outline for the blue on the intakes looks interesting though!!

The resin bits are a nice touch, fully detailed exhaust unit, lift engine exhaust and seat, though a PE set would have been nice for the lift engine cover. The canopy is also nice and clear though I'll still need to use Micromesh and Klear on it, (might just open it up as well ),