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Anigrand 1-72 MiG-31 Firefox +++ Finished +++


Jasonb13

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All your hard work is paying off, it looks great. I have two resin kits in the stash and it looks like sandpaper, masks and filler will be needed in larger than normal quantities when i get round to them. Keep up the good work it is looking great

Graham

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Thanks Graham! Yep, this kit at least is all about the sanding ( and scraping / cutting with a scapel ) to get any kind of decent fit. That said, health issues aside, the resin does seem to sand a lot better than plastic, so that's something I suppose!

I've more work to show, guess who's spending his Saturday night at the bench? :)

There were already holes in the fuselage for the wings ( which come with tiny stubs on them ), and I used these holes to judge what size brass rod I should get. Some of the holes weren't perfectly formed though, so I had to finish them off. I didn't have a drill bit big enough with my pin-vice drill, so, in another first in a kit of firsts, out came my full size electric drill! Quite nervous using *that* on a model, but needs must.

As can be seen, it finished off the holes for me, though I did lose a little bit of resin where the drilled hole got too close to the intake, but that can be fixed. Of course, macro photography also shows me that a bitter filler job will be needed on those seams! :

WingHoles1.jpg

Next were the wings themselves, an altogether more worrying job, as they're not that thick! I got rid of those stubs, then I used my pin-vice drill first to make a small guide hole, and then the electric drll again. Unfortunately, I did break the 'skin' of the wing in one place, but it's not too bad and easily fixed :

WingHoles2.jpg

Then I got three pieces of brass rod, one longer one to go all the way through both holes at the back of the fuselage, for added strength, and then two smaller ones for the holes at the front. The small ones are only maybe 1cm in length, but it really does make all the difference in supporting the wing. Nothing's glued yet, but a little dry fit has turned out quite well actually, though I'll need to make sure when it's glued that I get it drying as straight as I can to reduce sanding later on. But I must admit, even for a dry fit, the wings make *all* the difference with this kit! :

Airframe1.jpg

I should have actually put the tail planes on as well just to make it look better! :)

The last steps tonight are to get at least one wing glued, maybe two. Depending on how tomorrow goes, I may get the whole airframe assembled and primed, though it's one of those builds where, if I think about it, I realise that I've still a fair few jobs to do before I reach that stage!

All comments and advice / criticisms ( especially ) welcome!

J.

Edited by Jasonb13
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Final update for the weekend, I can't remember the last time I spent a weekend building! :)

Got the joins / seams for the wings sanded and filled and sanded. Then I got the tail planes put on, then the two fins under the engines, and finally the two canards. I was under two minds about adding these, as I can see them breaking off during the rest of the build, but I knew they'd need to be filled and sanded after being attached so I couldn't really do it after painting!

Once all those parts were attached, I left them to dry for a while and then filled / sanded them. Also touched up bits of filler / sanding here and there.

I must admit, it's great having the airframe done, such a cool shape! And she just about fits on a shelf in my little cabinet I use to display my models. So here's the airframe, upper and lower :

Airframe2.jpg

Airframe3.jpg

There aren't a lot of panel lines on this kit, but what is there has now been lost in places due to all the sanding. So I'm tempted to continue my 'firsts' and do some re-scribbing. I'll give that a go and see what it's like. After that, I just need to cover up the intakes and cockpit, and then it's off to the paint shop ( i.e. back garden! ) for a coat of primer. *Then* I'll get to see how much more filler is needed! :)

J.

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Really taking shape now, congratulations for sticking with it after a few nerves at the start! Looks like you are learning a whole lot as well along the way too. She'll be a real milestone in your modelling career :)

Keep up the good work!

Mike

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'Think in resin'? Man, that's bad... :) I'm so stealing it though! And she'll dwarf the Berkut, that's only 1:144.

Thanks for all the comments, she has actually gone together quite quickly! A little too quickly though, as unfortunately when I primed the whole airframe last night I could see that my scraping / sanding / filling isn't as smooth and subtle as I'd hoped. I don't have a picture, but there are basically some shallow 'valleys' on the upper and lower surfaces of the wings where they join the fuselage, and also at the 'neck' and engine joins. I'll have to give it a go with a bit more filler to fill the 'valley', and a bit more sanding to lower the tops of the sides of the 'valley', if that makes sense? Hopefully I can improve it, like I said at the start, filling / sanding isn't a strong point of mine!

So, after priming her, I left her to one side and did a few of the little jobs. Got the undercarriage painted, and the wheels, along with the exhausts and guns. Still need to do a bit of a wash and dry-brushing on the undercarriage and wheels. Also still need to do the canopy, which I haven't touched apart from dipping it in Future. And I still have to fix the gaps between the canopy and cockpit!

J.

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Just to echo what everyone else has said this looks great now the wings and tail are on, i too get stumped every time I think i have cleaned a model up and then primed it to discover otherwise. There must be a trick we are both missing which will probably save us a lot of time.

Keep up the good work

Graham

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Thanks Graham!

I have to agree with you, I really do think there's something I'm missing about this particular skill! No matter how I try, I can never get it right.

As I said, after the first primer, I could see lots of issues. The 'easiest' ones to fix were the neck and engines, basically the 'step' between two sections at those locations wasn't as subtle as I'd hoped. So I spent a good while sanding away and they're a good bit better now.

Tougher to work on was the joint between the wing and fuselage, especially on the upper half ( it's always the most visible sections, eh? :) ). Here I'd caused my own issues, by scraping too much resin away ( trying to get rid of those steps ), thereby leaving a bit of a furrow or valley. Not noticeable at all while I was working on it, but once I put on the primer...

Anyhow, I put some filler on the joins, left it to harden and then started sanding. This really didn't go well, as when I thought it was decent, but put more primer on, the filler was very noticable. It felt flat, but you could see the shape on it on both wings. And that's normally what happens for me, I know adding filler is what's needed, but when I do, even after sanding etc., it just makes it worse! Maybe I'm not sanding it enough?

So, then, I attacked the filler again. This time I used some sandpaper instead of one of those multi-sanding sticks. It felt like I was able to sand the area I wanted a lot more accurately this way. I also rescribed some panel lines ( and even added one, who's going to notice? :) ) which gave the sanded area some details. So then I gave it another light spray of primer, and while the pics below don't look great, trust me, it's a *lot* better than it was. I'm thinking just another light sand with the sandpaper in one or two spots and it'll do me.

So, I wonder if that's the solution to my sanding issues? Should I be using sandpaper, not sticks, and therefore get right into exactly where I want to sand? Any of you modellers out there who are able to sand succssfully, please let me know your thoughts!

After all that, I might as well show some pics! Firstly the whole airframe primed :

Primed1.jpg

And secondly a close up of the offending area on the upper wings. It's not a great pic, but you can probably see the line, from front to back, of filler, just outside the intakes. Like I said, it doesn't look great, but it is so much better than it was ( and some of the 'line' you can see now is just a lighter coat of primer ).

Primed2.jpg

I also got the undercarriage finished as well, and as there are no missiles to do ( there's a question, where does it keep its missiles? Are they meant to be in the 'neck' between the nose and engines? ) there's very little left to build. Once I'm finally happy with the wings, it's pretty much painting, varnishing and washing from now on...

J.

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Just a quick text only update. With a little more sanding here and there, I finally got the airframe into a condition I was happy with. I've also masked and painted the canopy, though I'm still not 100% certain what I'm going to do about the fact that it's wider than the cockpit! I'm going to see if it's open to being squeezed sideways a little bit for a few days, which should then make it fit better. I did try plastic-card on the cockpit 'rim' but it wasn't working, and I also tried a bit of filler but that didn't work either.

Anyhow, I finally bit the bullet and got painting the airframe. The main colour is called 'Dark Grey' on the instructions, but nothing more specific than that. I decided to go with Revell Anthracite, 'cos it's a very very dark grey and just a nice shade of a colour! I normally use it for tyres etc., so that should give you an idea until I can get a pic up. I got the first coat of Anthracite on, the 2nd one will be tonight. The rest of the airframe is black, not dark grey ( the leading edges of all the wings and tailplanes, in front of the intakes etc. ) so that'll go on next, once I buy more masking tape as I want good sharp lines.

Anyhow, more pics coming later this evening or over the weekend...

J.

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Just thought I'd throw up a quick pic. The second coat of Anthracite is now done, any grey you can see on the model now will be matt black ( hopefully tomorrow ) apart from the tip of the tailplanes which will be red. I also, rather nervously, have the canopy wrapped in masking tape and being slightly squeezed by some self-closing tweezers, which I hope will get it into the correct shape ( or break the bloody thing! ).

If I get the black done tomorrow, I might even have the varnishing / decals done by the end of this long weeked.

J.

Painting1.jpg

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Thanks lads!

Yeah, I'm quite happy with the Anthracite as well Mike, though I'm not so sure about the red on the tailplanes. And I'm not sure how the Anthracite and Black will look together. But I'll know by tomorrow! :) In fact, as I now have the Anthracite and Red done, I may even get the first coat of Future on tomorrow, after the Black, we'll see! :) I also got the undercarriage bays and doors done. I painted the bays and door interiors a mixture of Sand and Steel, it's a mix I used for the undercarriage bays of the Berkut. It ends up looking like a metallic greeny yellow!

I saw the brass rod being used like that in other builds, and for this one, with so little holding the wings to the fuselage, I thought I'd better do it. I've never even bought brass rod before, but it was actually fairly easy, though unlike me you should be careful when drilling so you don't drill through the skin of the wing! :wall:

J.

Edited by Jasonb13
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I got the black painted on yesterday, apart from the masked areas I also put it on the 'booster rockets' at the back and the 6 Rearward Defense pods. I have to admit, I'm quite happy with it, I think the black and anthractie look well together, they look a lot better than just one colour, and add to the shape of the aircraft.

Need to do a few touch-ups and then it's time for a coat of Gloss. After that it's the decals ( all 6 of them! ) then more gloss, then a panel wash and then the matt coat. Should have this finished by Wed or Thurs I reckon... :)

J.

P.S. The picture isn't great, sorry!

Painting2.jpg

Edited by Jasonb13
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Thanks for your kind comments!

Did the decals this morning. Unlike the 3 weeks on the Galactica, it took 30 mins, and only that long 'cos the decals aren't great, and I wanted to confirm in the movie where the decals on the wings go ( the picture on the model box contradicts the instructions ). In the end, the kit box picture is right.

So the 6 stars are done, I'll leave it now, do the second gloss coat tonight and hopefully get the panel wash done tomorrow night, I'll see how the day goes...

J.

Decals.jpg

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Any question about the movie version of the Firefox ( don't even get me started on the book! ) immediately causes confusion I'm afraid Smiffy! As I understand it, there was a full scale model built for the 'on the ground' scenes, that could taxi etc. It doesn't have the red on the tail planes, but it also has a lot of other differences to the 'in the air model' which you never really see clearly ( but, for example, doesn't have any red stars on it that I can see ). So the 'in the air' model might have the red on the fines, or might not.

This kit seems to be kinda half and half between the two versions in the film. The kit's paint instructions, such as they are, suggest the red on the tail plane, and I thought I'd give it a go, just to break up the dark grey / black a bit. I've definitely seen other Russian jets with a colour on the tail like that. I'm happy enough with how it looks and I'm not *too* worried about trying to accurately represent a fictional aircraft that doesn't even have a definite version! :)

I'm just really happy that it's shaped like the Firefox from my childhood & looks dark and menacing! I've waited nearly 30 years to build one!

J.

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