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Mozambique Air Force "MiG 21" Story goes Lt Adriano Bomba, a Portuguese speaking MiG pilot, was recruited to defect a MiG-21 to South Africa. What might have been a case of error in translation - on Wednesday, 8th of July 1981 it was not a MiG-21 that entered South African airspace but a MiG-17 with registration number "21". Lt Bomba was intercepted and escorted by two SAAF Mirage F1AZ's to a local air base where the "21" made a succesfull landing. SAAF did not really have a reason to evaluate MiG-17 but was test flown few times anyway before returned to Mozambique. Thanks again @Avgas for bringing this story to my attention, it's interesting stuff and certainly made the build even more interesting And it's just not a story, a MiG-17 "Fresco-A" registration number "21" did defect to South Africa 8th of July 1981 and was flown by Lt Adriano Bomba - but of course the other details are debatable. There are quite a few pics to be found from the internet about this plane and also - what appears to be - somekind of TV news videoy which shows Lt Bomba in the cockpit of this plane and keeping a press conference. Kit: Airfix Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F 'Fresco' (Shenyang J-5) (A03091) Scale: 1/72 Paints: Vallejo Model Air, Vallejo Metal Colour Aftermarket: Berna & Print Scale decals, Eduard Brassin wheels, Eduard PE set, Master pitot tubes & guns Weathering: Oil paints, Tamiya weathering products, Ammo Mig weathering products, A lovely kit by Airfix, the best MiG-17 around in this scale. Second one I built, first one was OOB, this with some aftermarket stuff. The intake ring can give you some trouble but other than that it should be quite hassle free build. This Airfix kit offers the MiG-17F "Fresco-C" while the subject was MiG-17 "Fresco-A". Biggest difference is the tail shape around the exhaust and the shape and size of the air brakes. So this part of the build was scratch built/altered. Also added few of the antennas that were missing, mainly the T-shaped antennas under the wings and small (what must be a) aux pitot tube on the right side of the nose. Also added nose wheel down indictator rod on the left side of the nose as the main wheel indicators were already included on the wings. Also some panel line/detail changes such as moving the signal flare launchers from the tail to the rear of the fuselage. (Thank you @RidgeRunner for mentioning few of the details that needed to be changed, I hope I remembered them all ) It was quite PE heavy build with the air brakes (which had to be cut open), wheel well covers (which ended up looking real good) and cockpit details. Berna decals were pretty thick and awful but offered better details (mainly on the insgnia) than Print Scale so they were used instead. "21" is from the Print Scale sheet. You can see more of the actual build process here:

Okay then here goes with number 2!! I have decided that despite having another build on the go that I have to make a start on this one. I will be using the Hobby Boss Mig-17F with a replacement ejector sear from Neomega. The decals are from a Carpena sheet and the Zotz roundels of the world sheet covering Southern Africa. Other than the seat this will be pretty much OOTB. Thanks to some info supplied by Tom Cooper (thanks Tom) I will be finishing it in the colours worn by ex-East German Air Force aircraft that they supplied to Mozambique, that is green and brown upper-surfaces with a pale blue underneath. Below are the usual kit and other stuff photos to show what I will be using. Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoy the build. Craig.

Must have been bitten by a bug from Mozambique this month ! Having just posted some pictures of my Mozambiquan MiG-17F on the military side (Fighta flown by a Bomba), I thought it would be an idea to post some pictures of my Boeing 737 from LAM on this side My last Airfix Boeing 737 (!) with Flightpath decals Aircraft named after the port of Beira - had some good holidays there in the late 60's. Comments and criticism welcome as usual mike p.s. I don't suppose anyone has a spare Airfix 737 they'd be willing to sell me ? I have a set of decals for one that run the risk of turning yellow