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Following on from Wez's @Wez post, I am also submitting a couple of Frescos. I stand a fair chance of finishing these in time (viz my LeO in the Heller GB )! As Wez has posted the box and sprues I wont repeat that but will post a couple of images of the decals and aftermarket a little later. I will be using Xtradecal for the Burkinabe machine. The Malian (TZ-339) will be marked using drawn serials (by Giorgio @Giorgio N) and Blue Rider Bolivian roundels (they are the same!). After market will be brass pitots and cannons. Back soon Martin

Hi all, Another roll-out from the Williams’ production line. This one could be described a conversion but truly it was not converted and remained the original type. It is more of an amalgamation. The work was in the incorporation of Eduard parts to raise the detail level of the final model. It is, therefore a KP/RV MiG-21UM “Sparka” (popular name) enhanced by parts from Eduard MiG-21MF and PFM kits. That is an awful waste of plastic and hard earned cash you’ll be crying out but this, for me, was an experiment to see what was possible, given the mainline manufacturer’s (I mean Eduard’s 😉) resistance to producing a high quality twin-seat MiG-21. The leftover PFM and MF bits will help my future builds, including the FL. If you are a rivet-counting kind of modeller I’d better put out my disclaimer now – some panel detail will be inaccurate. I also forgot to change the small panel on the port side of the fin. It is vertical in orientation on the UM as opposed to horizontal on the PFM. It was too late to change when I realised ☹ On reflection I should have set up a WIP – I am sorry that I didn’t. The main work was the insertion of the lower fuselage section from the Eduard kit. This took a fair bit of wrangling before it settled okay. It also meant using the entire Eduard main undercarriage and doors. In addition to that there was: a new nose intake (resin), different jet pipe (Eduard), different fin from the PFM (Eduard), new various scoops (resin and Eduard), a new cockpit (resin). I made and added the AoA vane on the port-side nose, and a few other little bits and pieces. I attempted to use the Eduard tail pipe surround too but the dimensions were too far out from the KP so I didn’t bother. I also cut out the forward speedbrake housing and fashioned a brake from a spare MiG-21 fuselage, giving me a matching curve. Here she is at the dry fitting stage: At this point she still had the KP fin and rudder. And a couple later on: The baseline KP/RV kit is actually not too bad. However, it does lack some features which are obvious to anyone who has even the scantest knowledge of the type. For example, it has no forward or aft positionable speed brakes. Of course, the fighter variant MiG-21s had a different arrangement in the forward bay but the rear was identical - one area where the Eduard helps enormously. This is the parts breakdown: I’ve chosen to finish the model as MiG-21UM “TZ-358” (c/n 5169570016) of the Force Aerienne de la Republique du Mali (FARM) and operated from Base Aerienne 101, Bamako-Senou. She was last seen in a derelict condition in 2014, having been delivered to the air arm in the mid-1980s. As a proficiency and recurrency trainer she and the other UMs supported the mixed fleet of MiG-21MFs and Bis fighters. What is interesting to me, apart from the unusual colours, is the wide range of finishes that these machines acquired during their service. I seemed there was a mix of locally applied colours as well as factory-applied finishes after maintenance in the Czech Republic and Soviet Union (or Ukraine). Here she is when stored in the hangar at Bamako-Senou. Note the "weighted" tyres ;): Credit: E.B via Jean-luc Debroux So, what did I do or use?: 1. Kit – KP MiG-21UM 1/72 (KPM0132), the Eduard MiG-21PFM (70144) and the Eduard MiG-21MF (7451). The KP provided the fuselage. The PFM provided the fin with the separate rudder (not available on the MF kit and an essential for a MiG-21). The MF provided the lower fuselage section with the wings, the undercarriage, elevons (pivoted on brass), jet pipe and many small bits and pieces. 2. Decals – The Aviation Megastore neglected to include a stiffener in the packaging ofmy Lift Here order and the postal service folded it! Fortunately I had the roundels in the spares files from the Blue Rider Chaco War set. The stencils came from the Begamot set (72-021) and Giorgio @Giorgio N produced the serial for me. The Aviation Megastore did me a favour! (They did refund me ) 3. Paints – Colourcoats MiG Cockpit Blue Green ( ACSM07), Eau-de-nil (ACRN30 ), Desert Pink+Chestnut ( ACRN16+ACGW06 66%&33%), Sand (ACSM10 ) and Pale Blue Grey (ACSM01). Various Humbrol – Polished Aluminium (27002) and Steel (27003), Glosscote, Mattcote, etc. 4. Aftermarket - Aires MiG-21UM Cockpit and seats resin set, wheels, Pavla intake, Aires scoops, 5. Weathering etc – Tamiya Powders and Flory washes (Dirt and Sand) plus silver pencil Conclusions? In my view it was absolutely worth doing. There was a fair bit of wrangling to get the lower wing and fuselage section to match up with the KP fuselage, but you can get there, as you can see. I had to whittle down the main undercarriage housing get it in. You can probably achieve the same thing by using just the PFM kit as the donor rather than going my expensive route. I’m not a MiG expert at all and so I can’t be sure. I chose to add the entire section because it added detail to the wings too. The use of the PFM fin also added a lot of crisp detail too. For any MiG-21 there is a need for the speed brakes to be open to varying degrees. When the hydraulics were off these always dropped. You can see on every photo that this is the case. This is another reason why the use of the Eduard parts is an advantage. What you will not get is the forward brake and so you will have to make one yourself. By employing Eduard’s far superior moulding and engineering you can get a very good Sparka. Would I do it again? Yes, and I will 😊. One day I will build an Indian MiG-21U-400, specifically “U455” of the MOFTU at Tezpur. It will be in memory of Phil Camp. That will bring more challenge, of course, but why not! 😊 I hope you like her as much as I do!! Martin PS: It was my first set of photos using my two new ring lights (£7.98 each in the "cheap" shop )

Hi all, I’ve mentioned her in a number of posts as a parallel to my many Mustangs and finally I have got her to the RFI stage 😊. It hasn’t been through any difficulty - although I had a couple of accidents - but simply because I built up too much of a pipeline of builds, with four or five models sitting part built. As a result, my enthusiasm waned for this and a couple of others, sadly. Anyway, enough of all that, here she is. As you can see, she is a UTI MiG-15 “NATO: Midget” (CS-102?) as operated by the Force Aerienne de la Republique du Mali (the Mali Air Force). Reports state that she was the only one delivered as part of the Mali MiG-17F acquisition in the mid/late-1960s. The UTI (probably Czech-built), which seems to have arrived in the early 1970s, and the Frescos equipped the Escadrille de Chasse (Fighter Squadron) based at Senou Air Base, Bamako. Eventually this fleet was replaced by the MiG-21bis/UMs and they were all put out to “grass” (more like sand) at Severe Air base, near Mopti in the early 1990s. With reports of only one UTI delivery it seems that “TZ-366” still survives as a gate guard at Senou, now marked "TZ-001" I built her straight out of the box apart from the decals. I elected to guess how she was when operational. She was a pleasure to build, despite the multitude of small parts to remember and then install! In the process of getting her to together I forgot the nose weight and despite dripping in as many small fishing weights as I could after fuselage assembly she still sits on her tail. I have therefore had to resort to a rod support. I opted for Blue Rider Bolivian decals as they were much better than the kit offerings that I had from the old AZ MiG-17F kit. The tail roundel, however, needed some surgery as the green centre was proportionally larger on the real aircraft (see below). I therefore used the centres from larger roundels and overlaid them. The paints are a complete guess. I trawled paint charts and finally decided on a mix of Colourcoats, which gave me (I feel) the right balance of colour. (Credit: Jacques Guillem) So, what did I use? Well: 1. Kit – Eduard UTI MiG-15 (Profipack 7705) 1/72 2. Decals – Blue Rider Bolivian roundels from the Chaco War set, stencils from the ArmyCast set and home printed serial adapted from the AZ MiG-17F decals. 3. Paints (all enamels) – Colourcoats Pale Blue Grey (ACSM01), LVA Camouflage Beige Sand (ACD03), KLu Whisky Four Aquablauw (ACD09), Gris Blue Fonce (ACF05), and MiG cockpit blue mixed with greys, plus Humbrol Silver (11) and a variety of other Humbrol enamels. Finished with Humbrol Satincote. 4. Weathering and Washes – Flory Sand, Prismacolor Silver pencil and Tamiya Weathering Powders. 5. Aftermarket – Uschi standard line for the wire aerial I hope you like her. Martin

Hello There! Here is my latest finished build. It depicts the ground attack version of the Mirage 2000 as seen in operations above Mali in 2013. I used the Ialeri/Kinetic boxing with Wolfpack cockpit and Renaissance exhaust nozzle. The wing tanks are replaced with my resin casting. Decals are from Italeri and Carpena/berna. Paints are Humbrol hand sprayed with my 0,15mm Infinity. Clear coats are Microscale Gloss, Satin and matt. Washes with oil "sepia". Dust is done with pigments. Hope you like it. Cheers Romain