Mikoyan Mig-25PD/PDS - 1:48 Kitty Hawk

[Hit Or Miss]

Pretty sure that the only variant to drop bombs was the MiG-25RB/RBS as it was the only one which had the Peleng gear (Kind've like LORAN bombing with EKA-3 and RB-66 in Vietnam). Worked pretty good (plastered a couple Iranian oil platforms from distances beyond that which the Tomcat/Phoenix could effectively protect them) but was very hard on the airframe because the wing mounted double ejectors set up Mach shocks which would literally 'dent' the sides of the inlets. You could also carry four on the centerline but giving up the big tank meant losing most of your effective radius (the tank also decreased top end Mach to about 1.78 IIRR, so it wasn't a freebie either...).

Had to develop an entirely new variant M82'T' series FAB-500 with thermal insultation so that the weapons wouldn't cook off at the high Mach (2.4) transit numbers.

The Christmas Tree device which is shown in the intakes is actually a Methanol Water sprayer as I recall. Used to cool and precompress air moving to the compressor face. One of the less complimentary but highly funny appellations given to the Foxbat being: 'Алкоголь Теплозаправщик'. Or literally alcohol tanker. Because the high purity alcohol required, in significant quantities, to keep it running at full stretch made visits by the jet very popular at remote airbases.

Not much of a turn and burn aircraft but oh could it go like skunk; a modernized Foxbat with R-100 missiles and the Su-35 NOO-11 Irbis-E radar/optronics komplex would give any F-15/16/18 a right drubbing and likely provide even a Meteor equipped Eurofighter with some serious run-for-money competition. Shame of it is that the kit doesn't include the Sapfir-23D/High Lark radar as a replacement for the TL-25 Smerch-A/Foxfire system which was switched out after Belenko's little adventure.

The Flogger-G radar is necessary to use the AA-8. So long as the antenna is the older version, it would not carry the Aphids.

N003 Sapfir-23D

http://www.missiles.ru/_foto/MuzeyFAZOTRON/faz14.jpg

TL-25 Smerch

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q241/delisa_07/Mig-25/Smerch-A.jpg

Note that the array, while planar in appearance rather than what we typically call 'Cassegrain' uses a canted or straight illuminator horn to reflect back on the plate (rather than through it, as with a planar monpulse array). My recollection of intelligence photos was that this illuminator was much shorter than is shown in the kit photos and in fact barely protruded through the slotted antenna face on the early MiG-25 radar.

The radars were also often 'socked' with a protective cover to mask the antenna drive.

Sapfir-23 was based on the transistorized and partly digital AWG-10/APG-59 of which several had been recovered from F-4Js downed over Vietnam and was the first Soviet radar with serious LD capabilities on the order of 1,000ft and below target AGL heights.

While it is true that the Foxbat was not equipped with the R-73, there were rumours in the late 70s and early 80s that transfer of the Flogger radar suite had included the new R-24 (AA-7 Apex). Truth be told, I have never seen a single picture of a Foxbat with Apex underwing but as the R-40 was intended for Valkyrie killing at altitudes and imposed a significant performance penalty on the jet (similar to but worse than AIM-54 on the F-14A), it is not inconceivable that a Libyan, Iraqi or Syrian Foxbat model might be whiffered with a pair as anti-fighter DCA was an important element of operations against Israel at the time.

[jgrease]

I know I'm late to the party, but what an awful kit. I am a generally patient modeler, and I want to like Kitty Hawk for bringing certain kits to market. Heck, I built their F-101 A/C just to spite all of the naysayers that called that kit "unbuildable". However, there is just so much bad engineering and lack of thought that it's really not worth the time. Just a couple of things that led me to bin this kit:

-I'm not a rivet counter for the most part, but the panels and details on the fuselage of the kit match no version of the MiG-25 in particular. The builder will find him/herself removing or modifying lots of features on the fuselage. I have wanted to build the MiG that Viktor Belenko flew to Japan, and without a LOT of work, the plane will never look remotely close.

-The fit of the various fuselage parts is troublesome at best. The nose gear bay consists of six pieces, none of which has a really positive fit - you need three hands to get the pieces to stay in place correctly. The cockpit rear wall has no positive fit to the tub - it could move within the rear of the tub laterally. The rear fuselage consists of a large top and bottom halves and there are NO pins, tabs, or any other way to keep the two halves lined up for assembly.

I guess it comes down to how badly do you want to add a MiG-25 to your collection - I have rarely binned a kit but the KH MiG-25 is just too much work for too little reward. I hear there are other manufacturers that will shortly be bringing this plane to market - I will wait for that one.

John

[Dudikoff]

I guess it comes down to how badly do you want to add a MiG-25 to your collection - I have rarely binned a kit but the KH MiG-25 is just too much work for too little reward. I hear there are other manufacturers that will shortly be bringing this plane to market - I will wait for that one.

Damn, that's a shame. Fortunately, I haven't started mine yet so when AMK announced theirs, given the tremendous work they did on the MiG-31BM kit, it seemed reasonable to sell the KH kit, which I did at some loss, of course. If there was some more aftermarket for it readily available (like e.g. the exhausts or a cockpit set made for it) that I already invested in (besides the Begemot stencil set), I might have kept it, but based on your experience, good riddance.

[jgrease]

Dudikoff - Yeah it was that bad. Like I said I am not one of "those guys" that picks a kit apart before opening the lid. I was going to be more than happy to build it straight out of the box, making whatever changes I could based on ya-gabor's photos and explanations. But the huge rear fuselage with no positive locating points was the end of it for me - the nose was awful to try and get aligned, and the forward fuselage with the cockpit again had no positive locating points for the cockpit and the forward gear well. The gear well itself was awful - I'm supposed to enjoy building this not get agita. Sorry for the bad news.

John

[PZL104]

On 16/01/2016 at 15:47, jgrease said:

I guess it comes down to how badly do you want to add a MiG-25 to your collection - I have rarely binned a kit but the KH MiG-25 is just too much work for too little reward. I hear there are other manufacturers that will shortly be bringing this plane to market 

A few weeks ago I bought the ICM MiG-25RBT. It's not an exactly elegant plane, but it's pure speed due to the really big engines. So that's the main reason why I was interested in this kit.

Today I was working on the engines, the most impressive part of the MiG-25, and noticed that ICM has the engine intake trunking and the first stage compressor wrong!

On all turbojet engines like the Tumanski R-15, the compressor size is usually the same size as the turbine, and the engine intake is as wide, or a tad wider, than the compressor.

On the ICM MiG-25 the compressor is only 1/4 the size of the turbine and the intake trunking noticable tapers until it reaches the tiny business jet engine sized compressor.

This looks rather bad, especially since the engines are the hallmark of the MiG-25.

 

So I tried to find out if the much more expensive Kitty Hawk version is any better. To my surprise I've read that the parts fit isn't good (excellent on the ICM version) and that there's no intake trunking and no compressor at all!

If this is actually the case, this would mean that you can build this kit only with engine covers installed and this rather important fact would have been mentioned in the various kit reviews. 

 

Edit: After searching for more info, it looks like there's really nothing inside the Kitty Hawk MiG-25. So I consider myself blessed with the ICM version

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2019 by PZL104

[exdraken]

On 6/28/2019 at 6:51 PM, PZL104 said:

A few weeks ago I bought the ICM MiG-25RBT. It's not an exactly elegant plane, but it's pure speed due to the really big engines. So that's the main reason why I was interested in this kit.

Today I was working on the engines, the most impressive part of the MiG-25, and noticed that ICM has the engine intake trunking and the first stage compressor wrong!

On all turbojet engines like the Tumanski R-15, the compressor size is usually the same size as the turbine, and the engine intake is as wide, or a tad wider, than the compressor.

On the ICM MiG-25 the compressor is only 1/4 the size of the turbine and the intake trunking noticable tapers until it reaches the tiny business jet engine sized compressor.

This looks rather bad, especially since the engines are the hallmark of the MiG-25.

 

So I tried to find out if the much more expensive Kitty Hawk version is any better. To my surprise I've read that the parts fit isn't good (excellent on the ICM version) and that there's no intake trunking and no compressor at all!

If this is actually the case, this would mean that you can build this kit only with engine covers installed and this rather important fact would have been mentioned in the various kit reviews. 

 

Edit: After searching for more info, it looks like there's really nothing inside the Kitty Hawk MiG-25. So I consider myself blessed with the ICM version

 

 

 

a bit of topic in this thread, but nevertheless:

if you  really need it: 

https://xmold-modeling.com/products-page/scale1-48/148-mig-25-foxbat-corrected-air-ducts-for-icm-kit/

 

i have not used it, but I am building my second ICM Foxbat currently!....

 

[PZL104]

Oh, now that's nice to know!  I initially mentioned that the ICM kit incorrectly shows the first stage of the rotors instead of the stators but I thought that this would be over the top. Nice to see that the replacement has corrected this issue as well