Great Wall Hobby Mig-29SMT 9-19 1:48

[Mike]

Mig-29SMT
1:48 Great Wall Hobby

The Mig-29M is an improved Mig-29, and has all the improvements over the original aircraft that you would expect in the shape of reduced weight, more powerful engines, increased fuel load and more modern avionics. It also has new radar, a HOTAS control system and other such modern bells and whistles that are en vogue in the 21st century jet fighter. Why do you need to know? Well, the SMT is a retro-fit package that upgrades existing Mig-29s to a similar standard to the M, and includes a pronounced humped dorsal spine containing additional fuel that gives it a range of 1,300 miles on internal fuel alone. Incorporated in the package are seven hardpoints that can carry a variety of weapons that the M can also carry, with the possibility for future upgrades for weapons developed by foreign companies, which must be firmly aimed at their export market.

The Kit
GWH pleased a great many modellers when they announced their new Mig-29 kit, and they are slowly bringing out variants as time goes by, with this their latest offering showing marked differences from the other releases, which will broaden its appeal. The kit arrives in an end-opening box (I know! The trauma!), but inside is a tray in which all the parts are held, so fret not. You might initially think that there is a white card lid inside, but that is a separate box for the large fuselage/wings part to protect it against damage. Below that is a plastic carton with six rather cleverly slide-moulded weapons in, and under that are the traditional sprues, of which there are fourteen of various sizes, all in a mid-grey styrene. The clear sprue is both separately bagged and protected by a clear sheet that is mildly sticky, which prevents any damage occurring before it is removed by the modeller, or in this case the reviewer to take the photos. A sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass parts are bundled in the same bag as the decal sheets, of which there are two, both having thick yellow paper to protect the delicate decal surface. The instruction booklet is printed in black and white on matt stock, while the painting and decaling guide is on both sides of glossy A3 paper, folded in half to fit the box. As always with GWH you get a sense of a quality product even before you have started looking at the individual sprues. The instruction booklet cites Alexander Dramnikov and Yufei Mao as being involved with the project, which is good to see.

The cockpit is first to be built, and it is well-appointed with a detailed ejection seat that has PE seatbelts and leg-guides, a floor panel and stick, to which the side panels are added after they are detailed with side console inserts. The main instrument panel is a single part with raised detail moulded-in, to which you add a sizeable quantity of decals once it is painted. There are 15 in all, with optional on and off decals for each of the two main MFD screens, which is clever. It is attached to the underside of the upper fuselage later in the build after preparation of the major parts. A two part circuit-breaker box is attached to the turtle-deck behind the pilot, plus a piece of PE to add more detail.

The gear bays of the SMT are all built up from separate panels to ensure that there is plenty of detail, while the main bays have ribbing on the upper areas for additional strength. Drill out the hard-points if you are planning on loading weapons later, build up the twin tails, which have separate rudders and PE slime-lights, and then you're almost ready to close up the fuselage. The flying surfaces are all separate, and are trapped between the fuselage halves to remain free, but the slats on the leading edges simply fit into a curved slot at the front of the wing, so check that you have them at the correct angle on both sides before the glue goes off, or you'll be very sad when you notice they aren't. The fins are added to the top deck by drilling out the flashed-over holes from inside, which is another task you don't want to forget. Similarly, you also need to drill out the holes for the chaff and flare dispensers that sit forward of the fins.

The kit includes a pair of very nicely detailed Klimov RD-33 ser.3 engines, which are placed within the engine nacelles before the outer skins and intake ramps are added. There is also a trestle stand included for one engine in case you wanted to display it outside the aircraft. The detail is that nice out of the box, that it would be a shame to hide them away. The intake ramps were re-designed for the SMT, and they are provided here in two halves each, to which you add the integral FOD guards in styrene for closed, and PE for open/stowed. The upper section of the trunking is moulded into the lower fuselage, so to avoid seam-filling, it's probably easier to put the FOD guards down as they would appear when on the ground under normal circumstances. Some small parts, aerials and blade antennae are added to the underside and around the nose, as well as a pitot probe on the end of the separate nose cone. No mention is made of nose-weight, but you'd be well-advised to place a good quantity in there to be on the safe side. The canopy can be shown open or closed by the addition of a jack on the rear deck, which props up the separate canopy, while the windscreen goes on over the PE HUD for which a small slip of acetate film is included, with the outline printed on for your ease.

With the airframe substantially complete, the landing gear is built up, with detailed legs, single-part tyres, and separate hubs, which cuts down on any seam filling. Bay doors are all well-detailed, and if you like your in-flight models you'll be pleased to know that they fit in the open or closed positions. The airbrake on the Mig-29 is a weird-looking hybrid of umbrella/clamshell, and sits between the exhausts. The brakes project up and down around a central strut, which is well-depicted, and can be posed open or closed by the omission of a few parts. As a final thought, a crew access-ladder has been included on one of the sprues, which is another nice addition.

Weapons & external tanks are supplied along with a collection of engraved pylons and adaptor rails, with the following supplied in the box:

2 x PTB-1150 fuel tank
4 x R-73 AA missile
2 x R-77 AA missile

The missiles are slide-moulded for detail, and are protected by a vacformed plastic carton, which takes up quite a bit of space in the box. The detail is really good though, and is further enhanced by PE fore-fins on the R-73s, and the waffle-textured steering vanes on the R-77s. A full set of stencils and painting instructions are supplied for both the missiles and their pylons.


Markings
There are two schemes included on the decals in the box, but both wear the same modern grey/light blue/darker blue splinter scheme with grey undersides that I associate with the T-50 Pak-fa, with little to tell them apart other than their aircraft numbers on the intake sides. The boxtop subject has a slogan and its tail-code on the tail (duh!), and it is interesting to note that it looks like the boxart was commissioned and printed before the correct serial codes were decided upon, as if you look closely at the box, there is an ingeniously disguised sticker with the correct serial placed over the wrong one. If you sneak a peek at the smaller images, they still read incorrectly RF-92235, rather than RF-92935. From the box you can build one of the following:

• Red 23 14th Leningrad's Guards Fighter Air Regiment, RusAF Airfield Khalino, Kursk region, 2010.
• Red 08 14th Leningrad's Guards Fighter Air Regiment, RusAF Airfield Khalino, Kursk region, 2009.

The decals are well-printed in China, with very fine stencils being the order of the day. Registration, colour density and sharpness are good, and the satin carrier film is cropped close to the edge of the printed areas where practical.

The Completed Model

Conclusion
This is a thoroughly modern tooling of the SMT, and is a welcome addition to the GWH line-up especially as it has that distinctive spine. Add the PE and clever moulding techniques used, and you have a well-rounded package that should appeal to anyone with an interest in Soviet fast jets. I would have preferred some variation in the colour schemes and squadron subject, but the scheme supplied is at least eye-catching to make up for it.

Highly recommended.

Available from all good model shops online and on the high street.

Review sample courtesy of

[Basosz]

That hump on the spine is absolutely hideous, but the kit looks ab-fab ! Very tempting, even though it's turned into an ugly duckling of a plane

[Julien]

Great review Mike. I weirdly like the hump.

[IGKent]

GREAT kit! Good review Mike!

[IGKent]

How much this set Mike? If no secret?

[Radleigh]

Lovely! Very tempted....

[charley420]

Looking forward to receiving my pre order

[Mike]

How much this set Mike? If no secret?

Honest answer is that I don't know because it came directly from GWH themselves. Soz!

[IGKent]

Understood you......No questions!

[Kampartiger]

Ok, the kit is brilliant but since Russia is the only user of it ( Algeria? ), the prospect of buying more that 1 box of it seems a bit dim. The

question is, can the kit be used to built the Indian Mig-29UPG? I heard the Royal Malaysian Air Force will be upgrading their small fleet of 15

single seaters Mig-29N similarly to the SMT version, provided that the present regime failed to raise the required fund to buy either the

Typhoon,Rafale or the Super Hornet but just enough bucks for the upgrading programme!

Edited August 31, 2015 by Kampartiger

[Julien]

Looking at the UPT it is certainly able to be built using this kit. The modeller will have to do a bit of work, certainly with one of the tails, but the main part ie the hump looks to be the same.

Someone more of an expert will need to give a more comprehensive breakdown though.

[foxmulder]

The Mig-29 series from GWH is just jaw dropping. I've just received their newest Mig-29AS with the tiger decals and just wow!. It is very sleek  

 

F-15 series has been great too. I wonder what will come next, after Mig-29 and F-15 from them. Really looking forward to!

 

 

[Radleigh]

On ‎14‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 4:58 PM, foxmulder said:

The Mig-29 series from GWH is just jaw dropping. I've just received their newest Mig-29AS with the tiger decals and just wow!. It is very sleek  

 

F-15 series has been great too. I wonder what will come next, after Mig-29 and F-15 from them. Really looking forward to!

 

 

 

Sukhoi Su-35S in 48th..

[foxmulder]

I know, now  Isn't that great  I am really excited about the flanker because GWH has the habit of releasing a lot of variants so I am expecting more flankers from them.