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


Jasonb13

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Just as a complete unqualified armchair aerodynamicist aside, wouldn't those top intakes have big, big problems at high angles of attack? They also seem pretty short to support supersonic flight.

- But it was a good fun film (ok, it was a fun film) and your model looks great. "Think in resin" is inspired.

Kirk

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Good points Kirk! I'd imagine the aircraft wouldn't stand up to any serious scrutiny at all, never mind fly at Mach 5 like it's supposed to! There are much larger intakes on the lower half of the airframe, so we might concede to the designers that they at least tried to make it somewhat realistic. But even from watching the movie I noticed that the air to air missiles are meant to be in bays to the left and right of the engines, when even a quick glance at the model shows that there's bugger all room there, it's pretty much all engine!

That said, the concept of missiles being held within the aircraft, not on pylons, the use of canards, and the angular design, all fit into what we've seen since in aircraft like the F-117, the F-22 and the Eurofighter. So they were thinking in the right direction. To me the key thing is that the aircraft just looks cool, it has since the day I first saw it back in the early 80s! :)

And I can't take the credit for the 'Think in Resin' line, Dermot suggested that a few posts earlier & I stole it! :)

J.

Edited by Jasonb13
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Got a bit done on this tonight.

With the gloss coat done it was time for the panel wash. I always use Promodeller wash, as it's just easy to use and quite effective! However, my usual 'Dark Dirt' wouldn't work on an Anthracite / Black background. I also have 'Concrete', but it's a bit too light I reckoned. So I mixed some together ( mainly Concrete, just darkeded a bit with Dark Dirt ) until I was happy with how it looked.

I actually took my time putting it on, mainly aiming only for the panel lines and nowhere else as I really didn't want it to be too dirty at all. And I also took my time cleaning it off, and re-applying where necessary, as I really wanted the panel wash to look good.

I was happy with how it looked, so I then put on the Matt Varnish, and unfortunately it's not done my wash any good. If I had to guess, it's made it a bit darker ( as it tends to do ) and maybe it's gone a bit too dark to see well against the background. It is still there, but it's a lot more subtle now that I'd wanted. Ah well, it's always better to be subtle, right? :angry:

The two pics aren't great at all, it still looks gloss under the light I use! The 2nd pic does show some of the panel line wash near the engines. It's ok really, but I had higher hopes! Anyhow, there's not a lot left to do now, just need to stick on the exhausts, undercarriage and doors, and then that canopy, which I really hope will now fit a lot better after it's been squeezed for a while.

Here are the pics, I should get this one finished tomorrow night or Friday night. Always a bit of a bummer when one of the final steps isn't as good as you'd hoped, as then you're not ending on a high. Like I said, it's ok really, but I did want stronger panel lines, though that was always going to be tough with the dark paint. It'll probably look better in daylight though.

J.

MattVarnish1.jpg

MattVarnish2.jpg

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I think that looks just right Jason, subtlety is the key and that looks pretty good to me!

You've made short work of the beast anyway, and learnt a few techniques along the way (and given me ideas for my resin kits too :) )

Looking forward to seeing it completed!

Mike

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Subtle is good - don't be too hard on yourself. I'm surprised that there aren't more stencils on this though. With all the exotic materials required for mach 5 (yeah, right) you'd think that there'd be a fair few no step areas and fluid replenishment points etc. These things seem to me to make quite a difference to the realism of film models.

Nevertheless, your panel lines look pretty good to me.

Kirk

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Thanks lads, that's appreciated!

And Kirk, I had thought of raiding my spare decals for a few more generic things to put on her, but in the end I had to remember 'You must decal in Russian' and I don't have any in that language. Lots of 'No Steps' in English would look plain weird! I suppose the lack of stencils adds to the 'prototype' look? :)

J.

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Finished this yesterday, but only got a chance to get pics now. All that dark grey & black make it difficult to get good pictures!

Anyhow, I'm happy enough, it looks like the Firefox and that was the goal! My first experience of resin was ok, the kit didn't have a great fit, but resin is a lot easier to sand than plastic. A well produced resin kit would be very nice I reckon! In the end I like how it looks, as always it's not as good as I'd hoped but it'll do the job.

I'll include all the pics here ( sorry! ) and then some of them again in the gallery. Thanks for everyone's interest and comments on this build, all the help was very much appreciated!

J.

Finished1.jpg

Finished2.jpg

Finished3.jpg

Finished4.jpg

Finished5.jpg

Finished6.jpg

Finished7.jpg

Finished8.jpg

Finished9.jpg

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Thanks everyone! It's a nice kit Smiffy, and I would recommend it, some sanding / filling and it can turn out well. If you really want to go to town, it's ideal for detailing, a proper cockpit, airbrakes etc. etc. I just don't have the skills for that, so I'm happy with OOB...

J.

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Great work Jason - that puts you on a part with Clint Eastwood; both of you have tamed this beast B)

Looking forward to seeing it for real some time; I'll bring the 1/72 scale ice floe and ahem, meteorological team!

Well done mate.

Dermot

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Thats really good, all it needs now is a back button and a reload button... oh no wait, wrong Firefox!

Very nice result from a kit that didn't hold out a lot of promise at first it seemed.

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