I've found myself unable to finish much lately, so I decided to pick up one of the new Airfix MiG-15s to try and get the old modelling mojo going again. It's a nice little kit for the price, with reasonable detail and good fit all round. Because the panel lines are quite heavily engraved, I decided to attempt a weathered finish to see if it would help blend everything in a bit. This has been the first time I've managed to airbrush Citadel acrylics successfully too (tip - just thin with water). Decals are from the spares box as I quite fancied doing a Polish version (so I suppose this is technically a Lim-2 not a MiG-15). Anyway, I'm pleased with the result and my modelling mojo is back!













The cigarette lighter is for scale - the MiG is a tiny-weeny aeroplane!

Very nice Paul!

I will have to get this kit!

Very nice Paul, glad you've got your mojo back If you like Soviet kit in foreign markings there's a potential GB gathering momentum for next year..(shameless plug!)

I love this little MiG 15.

Congratulations.

Patrick

superb little mig very nice indeed

Very nice build.

Nice work! Is it better than the Hobbyboss example?

Nice little mig !

Looks cute. Is the damage to the walk stripes intentional?

Really nice build and that subtle weathering is very effective, I think.

Less effective, IMHO, are those aggressively unrealistic panel trenches that have no equivalence whatsoever on the full size plane. I'm criticising Airfix' tool maker here, not Paul, please note! But perhaps they would have been a tad less obtrusive without the dark wash…

Otherwise, a very impressive finish indeed!

Best,

Joachim

I think that is excellent and an inspiring tribute both to the builder and to Airfix. A pleasure to look at. The panel lines bother me not a jot and I think the wash enhancement adds tremendously to the overall effect of a stunning model. In fact I would go so far as to say your treatment of the panel lines is an effective way of dealing with them - making them an asset rather than a liability.

The resulting model is testimony to the pointlessness of spending time trying to fill them with this or that - or agonising over them.

I also like the choice of Polish markings which IIRC was an option in the original Airfix version.

agreed - to a certain extent. I did fill some of them on the Hawk and the end result was much improved.
Fantastic looking model for a fiver though

Good looking build Paul, the brown-ish upper tones weather the finish very nicely!

Very nice. I've got one of these sitting in it's box and it does look extremely tempting.

John

Thanks for the kind words everyone!



Thanks! Not sure about the Hobbyboss example. I don't have one, but I might snap up their UTI if I get a chance. If so I'll compare the two.



Thanks and yep! I've seen pictures of these looking quite scuffed, so I chipped away the decal to match.



Thanks Nick, very kind words. Re: the panel lines, that was my thinking. Although they are heavy, I think if left without a wash they might look a bit diecast?

Paul

Very nice rendition....

I've been looking at this for a Whif, but remembering how awful the old Airfix Mig 15 was, I wasn't sure.....Well, I'm sold now!

Paul: "Re: the panel lines, that was my thinking. Although they are heavy, I think if left without a wash they might look a bit diecast?"

Agreed. The model looks nothing like a diecast to me. You have breathed life into it with the finish which convinces me that the building and painting is everything. Btw what Citadel paint did you use for the metal?

Regards
Nick

Er, just my point, in fact.

IMHO, those trenches make it look like a model, as opposed to an 'as-realistic-as-possible' representation of the 1:1 scale original. Look at any photo of a MiG-15, <http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/middle/4/4/7/1348744.jpg> is a good example (I can't publish it here since it's not mine), and you'll see that the metal sheet joints are virtually invisible, except in a few places where there is some overlap.

Not a trench in sight, so why invent them, grossly overscale as on a crude diecast, on a supposedly state of the art, A.D. 2010 model kit?

So, Nick – I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree over this… ;-)

Best,

Joachim

PS Again, I maintain that Paul did a truly excellent job of his model!

Thanks guys!

Nick - After priming with Alclad grey primer I used Citadel Mithril Silver, which gives a nice, bright aluminium finish. I then masked up around some panels and sprayed them with Citadel Chainmail, which is a slightly darker metalic shade - more like steel. I thinned them with water and a couple of drops of acrylic flow improver. I also used Chainmail to shade the panel lines and add to the weathered effect. The wash was Promodeller dark dirt and the rest of the weathering was done with Tamiya Weather Master pastel things.

Joachim - perhaps the Eduard MiG-15 will be a little more refined the artwork is now on the Hannants site although perhaps for a higher price?

"So, Nick – I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree over this… ;-)"

No, it's not a matter of agreement - or right or wrong. The panel lines matter to you but they don't to me. For me the beauty of this model as a model transcends any issues with the panel lines. Frankly I don't care about the photographs of the real thing. I don't doubt what you say about them. I am not arguing that the panel lines on the model are realistic or that the real thing has them. But to me the model is an art form, an evocative representation of the real thing. In two dimensional art you will find that artists represent aircraft in a multiplicity of ways, and outside the world of CGI, no two are exactly the same. Very rarely does the matter of surface detail or panel lines come up when two dimensional art is being reviewed and short of getting the shape of the aircraft wrong or taking liberties with light and shade, most aviation art evokes a positive emotional response in the observer. Very few people cross reference aviation art to photographs (or plans!) in a painstaking critique but they do that with models all the time. I'm not saying that it's wrong just that different perceptions and expectations apply to what are both essentially art forms. The reality and the art are never wholly transferable so how the real MiG-15 appears in a photograph is not always a burden to how it may appear in art form.

Therefore I believe that a model can be beautiful and a "good model" with or without panel lines, depending upon the particular emotional response it invokes. It puzzles me that very often the same modellers who are critical about panel lines use complex pre and post shading techniques to apply panel detail with paint, often with heavy, unrealistic and purely artistic results! In some cases scale detail is so finely produced by the manufacturer (one example I can think of is the ICM Ki-27) that it is almost impossible to preserve when painting. Some modellers rub down raised panel lines and re-scribe them to appear engraved when both representations are not always strictly "accurate". Taking the new Airfix Hurricane IIC as another example, much debated in another thread, its shape matters more to me than its surface detail and its shape is what concerns me.

So many liberties have to be taken with scale, especially in 1/72nd, that I think it is to no purpose to focus on panel lines being represented one way or the other. And Paul has proved here that the way they look on a completed model is as much to do with the finish as anything else. I don't mind a model looking like a model which in this age of super realistic "Spanish school" large scale models is probably old fashioned but in this case I think Paul has achieved the best of both worlds. It is clearly a model but a model which, to me, looks realistic and very evocative of the real thing. I think his solution for the deep panel lines, to emphasise them with a wash, works better (and is perhaps much easier) than trying to hide them. The result is a pure artistic expression which I believe is very successful in both overcoming the problem and enhancing the appearance of the model. When I first saw it my admiration for it negated any thought or concern about panel lines. That was my emotive response and I wanted to compliment the builder. It was not about right or wrong. He has produced a stunning piece of three dimensional art and the last pic with the lighter is a superb presentational statement on so many levels.

That takes nothing from your observation about the panel lines and is not meant to. It just expresses a different viewpoint. Different viewpoints do not always require agreement - or disagreement - for them to be intrinsically valid.

Paul - thanks for the added information about the silver! That demonstrates to me just how much went into making this model look so good. Truly a work of art.

Regards
Nick

Hi Nick.

Sure looks like a MIG-15 to me...!!

Good points on the panel/scribed/shaded/pre/post/debate...

Cheers,
ggc

That reminds me of a guy who used to be in a local model club 20 years back, he would not build kits with raised panel lines (his prerogative) and would eulogise the latest Hasegawa or Fujimi releases at the time (and rightly so), but would then finish his models with what looked like a roller and emulsion paint because all the fine detail got obliterated. And then he'd be nit picking an exquisitely painted model (usually airbrushed) and repeatedly barking "raised panel lines, not realistic" under clouds of pipe smoke.

I think I wasn't the only member who felt that it was akin to someone demanding the finest haute cuisine and then smothering everything in tomato ketchup. Still, if that's what people like to do...

Anyway, nice MiG, I love the weathered metal look, reminds me of the photos you see from Monino.

Great little build Paul, looks lush

I recently finished this kit in the Hungarian scheme and had a blast, cracking little kit which offers excellent value for money

Looks good, I have one ready to go.

I do like the way you finished the kit and the pannel lines.

Julien

sweet little build

Super little model!
If mine comes out half as good I'll be pleased! (Don't care what anyone says about panel lines)

I think the panel line debate is basically about our preferences, or "Modeller's Licence" (mine's a provisional)
It's like soft or hard edge demarcation in RAF WW2 camo schemes. Everyone knows that in the smaller scales,
you wouldn't be able to discern a true-to-scale soft demarcation but, if you make a hard-edged demarcation on,
say, a Mosquito, it doesn't look right, so modelers depict a soft edge that, if scaled up to full-size, shows a fade-out
from one colour to the other over about six inches(that's 15 cm for younger or continental modellers.)which is incorrect!
It's all a bit like the Philosophers' Union in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who demanded rigidly defined
areas of doubt and uncertainty!

Very smart!

Martin