paulsbrown

One thing I do whenever I have the Eduard pre painted is to 'paint the pre painted' with the cockpit color I am using. It gets rid of that gritty grainy texture that the Eduard pre painted has and makes the match to the rest of the cockpit seamless. Just thin down the paint and cover the larger areas and get as close as you can to the 'details', it's easy to correct if you cover a detail.

Cool, sounds like you were at the Petting Zoo. Yes, I'm pretty sure there's comment on the MiG smell in the books. I've gotten ahold of the revised/updated edition of the Steve Davies book and will keep an eye out for it.

After building my 1/48 MiG-23MS from the USAF's secret MiG squadron I jumped on the chance for an 'quick' build with a Trumpeter 1/48 MiG-21 F-13 I had in the stash. I added some Eduard etch in the cockpit and a Pavla seat, paints were Model Master mixes and the decals were drawn from several aggressor sheets. My MiG-23MS build has a little more info about the Constant Peg MiG story.

Have a look at the main gear legs, they make it stand too high and it doesn't have that Foxbat rear heavy slouch. It's like ICM measured a MiG-25 that was empty of fuel or had no engines.

Wow, where to start? Cold War Studio nose (rescribed to MS), Aires cockpit, wheel wells, intakes, engine, Master pitot, SAC gear, Armory wheels. Paints were lightened versions of the two ghost grays, Model Master enamels with AKAN Egyptian colors on top. Neat video you've posted of the 4477th. I would like to see more photos and videos surfacing since it's declassification. I bet his talk is getting better each time, hope he comes back. Try to get ahold of the Steve Davies book too. I a MiG-27 and a MiG-23 MLD that are ready to go and I will get to them but I've currently got Trumpeter/aftermarket fatigue so feel the need to do something that has little putty and sanding requirements. Right now I'm making a quickie of a Constant Peg MiG-21 F-13 (Trumpeter!) to sit next to it.

Fantastic work stulad! And for the record I did say bin the Huey (you stubborn bottom). However, I know the Huey is gonna be a good'un...

Great photos, thanks CC. A couple more MiGs have turned up on FB. Declassification has a lot more people from the program talking about it. One fella even said in 1987 he flew against the MiG-23 I used as my model's subject.

I think I've seen photos of a MiG-23BN there, post any photos you have. The Davies book suggests that most of the MiGs were buried after the program was closed down. Some went to museums, some remained flying. Even Col. Peck wasn't able to get any new info on what happened to the aircraft.

Looking into some schemes for a Constant Peg MiG-21 F-13 to go with the MiG-23MS I just did I found your work. Excellent stuff, you made a bunch of them.

That was thanks to the excellent Mike Grant rivet decals.

That's a winner, looks great.

That's all I had. It's a great read. I've ordered the second edition though, too tempting, I've got a couple of those YF-110s (MiG-21s) in mind to build still and hoping the extra info might add more light into a still very dark program. Even Col. Peck whose done some online lectures recently about the program found little help from the USAF in locating the airframes so many years later. This fellow on on another forum found what seems to be Red 44 that's featured on the cover of Col. Peck's book, full of holes. I had seen this before I found the photos of the one I ended up making thinking 44 was the only gray camo that was in the clear. Even better discovering Red 39 was that it was in full wrap around camo, which having never done a wrap around before was tougher than anticipated.

It's a great read, deeply researched with interviews and footnoted. Apparently the Flogger's motor spooled up was so loud it made the ground crewmen feel physically ill. As TheyJammedKenny! mentioned earlier, try to get the 2012 edition, it has a red band at the top and says featuring new recently declassified material. Seems to be 70 pages more.

Normally that would be the case but my wife and 5yr old were in the room at the time, I'm sure she was holding her breath at what was to follow yet somehow I held it together. I messed around with a vac canopy I have but I decided that the crack wasn't really that noticeable and in these strange days it seems foolish to waste several days on a canopy when the stash still stands high!

That's a cool story. And I just looked at my book, a 2008 edition. Thanks for the heads up, I'll be looking out for the 2012 version.

Yes I did but I had to rescribe it for the smaller random MS version the Egyptians used as well as add the shrouded radar scope in the cockpit.

You are correct about it being an MS, I used the Cold War Studio nose and rescribed it. In the Red Eagles book there is mention of using AIM-9 Sidewinder acquisition rounds to simulate the AA-2s. But there were IR versions too. I made all the missiles for an MLD that I will get to one day.

Nice work, having just done the same aircraft at a bigger scale I commend you, I had all sorts of difficulties putting the missile decals on 1/48. Yours are perfect.

This is one of the many MiGs the USA had for dissimilar air to air training with the 4477th in the 70s-80s. They used the aircraft to help pilots get over the 'buck fever' that had been experienced in Vietnam (where the pilot was so surprised to actually see his first MiG he ends up doing everything wrong). The US pilots good enough to be chosen from the Air Force, Navy and Marines were introduced to the MiGs in flight, allowing the pilots to see it from all angles and then would have a week of engagements and classes that they could then go back and teach their own squadrons about their new knowledge of MiGs (without actually being able to say that they had flown against them). There are a couple books on the subject, America's Secret MiG Squadron: The Red Eagles of Project Constant Peg by Col. Gail Peck who was instrumental in forming the group and his book is about men and effort into finding the aircraft and an airbase where they wouldn't be noticed. It was such a good spot that the even more top secret F-117a Stealth squadron later showed up. Red Eagles, America's Secret MiGs by Steve Davies is more about the aircraft and a great read. Lots of writing about the aircraft and the engagements with just about everything the US was flying at the time. The Flogger was the least favorite of the pilots, it was discovered it was not a dogfighter like the much preferred MiG-21s. It did however have a motor that offered incredible thrust and speed that they would use to good effect in Red vs Blue training. Some photos recently surfaced of a Red Eagle at the National Museum of the US Air Force, still in the US applied wrap around grey camouflage with the original Egyptian desert camo showing through the chipping and wear. It was similar to the one featured on Col Peck's book cover I wanted to build. This newly surfaced MiG-23 however offered excellent all around reference shots as well as video footage. Seems the one on the book cover was found in a scrap yard with lots of bullet holes in it. I used the 1/48 Trumpeter with every possible aftermarket item out there to correct it. And I stepped on the canopy right before I finished it....

Nice one. Good to see the red one.

Xtreme Modelers Studio is making a 1/48 Stealth Hawk. I've got some of his 1/48 Blackhawk interiors and they are pretty good.

That's epic.

Ominous scheme and nicely done. I agree with you on the nose, I packed my Blue 43 with putty and sanded it into shape to match the photos.

Perseverance paid off!

I can't disagree with your observations, that photo does look completely fake! Luckily it wasn't a fake plane. I have an Eastern European resin 1/48 Ye-8 kit I built that I want to now strip and repaint, I'll get on it....