Mig 21 "Battle Damage"; A Weekend Build

[georgeusa]

I was looking for a quick, satisfying build fix in between trying to clear out my shelf of doom kits and I found this little beauty. This will be another actual weekend build.

It is the 1/72 Mig 21 reissue from Lindberg. The original mold is from the 1960s molds by a company called IMC. I thought about doing this for the Lesser Known Air Force Group Build as an Iraq version, but that country was already taken. So what sets this kit apart from regular models is the thrill of reproducing “battle damage” in the form of alternative plastic parts. The parts count is low and the shape is suspect. Looks like my kind of escape build therapy. Here is the interior

Yep that’s right, the entire interior is wrapped up in this poor hapless, semi-shapeless representation of a seat with a pilot in it. That’s all you get, nothing more. I will try painting this, but even that will be a chore as the detail on this is awful. On with the build.

Here is the first build step, putting the fuselage and nose piece together.

Next are the wings and tail planes

And that is all you have to do to get this ready for painting. These construction steps took me all of 15 minutes, most of that cleanup of the parts and surfaces to be joined. I plan on doing the Iraq version. Off to the painting box and the underside is painted a light blue.

Next up, the upper two colors in tan and brown. The brown is sprayed first

And then after the brown is masked off the tan is applied.

And the real reason for this kit, the battle damage areas are tackled.

The damage areas are first given a base coat of metallic silver

Then the silver receives its first wash to bring out the detail

It was at this point I decided to get creative; not necessarily a good thing. Since I noticed there is battle damage to the wing top and bottom, I decided, what I thought was most logically, that the wing damage would have gone through the wing and I needed to create openings in the wing to more accurately show the damage. It started off great.

Then I looked on the underside. Yeah, not so great.

It seems the damage on the top wing does not line up with the damage on the bottom wing and not in a logical fashion. In other words, even if you assume the damage went through the wing at an angle, the angle is just way too off from top to bottom to drill. On two of the top holes I only drilled down through the top wing, but stopped before I hit the bottom wing. I think I will do that on the bottom also. Hopefully it will look like holes in the wing.

Next up the entire kit surface received some weathering to bring out panel lines and details. The bottom was first

The top received its wash

And then it was removed to show this

Now the side details will be picked out as to different shades of metal and to show where the engine and frame is exposed.

To the exposed engine panel, I added a blue wash to reflect the heat fatigue.

Next, washes and pastels then are used to create a smoky, fire aftermath feel.

All that is left are the hangy down parts to finish. The front spike, wheels, covers and missile rails are installed. The attachment points for the landing gear are laughable. My first go around resulted in the starboard gear collapsing. I then redid the legs, added some bracing wire, redid the attachment holes and applied an abundance of superglue and now the landing gear will support the kit. Next up was the interior. This is the best I can do with painting the blob that is the figure.

And the massively complex and highly detailed interior is placed in the kit.

Whew!! That was tough.

The canopy is then attached closed, of course, and now this kit is finished

An RFI in better light will be done today as the weather has improved. As always, all comments are welcome.

[CedB]

That's great George. Such attention to detail is admirable!!!

[Pete in Lincs]

Wow! That takes me back.

Late 60's with a couple of mates,

Gazing in awe at these kits in a shop window.

We had of course done this sort of thing to

Airfix kits ourselves. It never occurred to us

that a manufacturer would save us the trouble!

Alas, we were broke & never did buy them.

probably a good job we didn't!

Thanks for the memory jolt, George.

You're a brave man to tackle that!

[georgeusa]

Pete,

When I was a lad, these came out and I never got one; wanted one, but never could save enough allowance to get one. There were others in the series, but for the life of me I can't remember what kits they were. It was great fun to build and then mess up with damage.

[foresterab]

Nice to see the progression of washes and layering effects on this one...nice and simple but also instructive. Some day I'll get brave enough to go there after I figure out painting better.

[Darby]

I remember seeing 'battle damage' kits ages ago but never bought one. You've done a good job on the ancient old kit. But that figure; very spectral. I can just imagine the late Alistair Sim in his Scrooge role opening the box of one of these and uttering those words 'What is this spirit I see before me?'

[georgeusa]

Nice to see the progression of washes and layering effects on this one...nice and simple but also instructive. Some day I'll get brave enough to go there after I figure out painting better.

Here is the secret. If you do washes and pastels and layering effects, you can get away with covering up all sorts of painting mistakes and make them a part of the "weathering" process. So just play with the stuff and have fun. If I can do it, anyone can. I am not that proficient or talented with painting, weathering and finishing; I just keep plunking along at it.

[StephenCJ]

very flash looks great

[azureglo]

Great job on a hound of kit: This what modelling is about: having funs turning out conversation pieces that look superb and not bothering to count too many rivets! I've already stared mixing up weathering concoctions and am going to layer, weather and wash thru 2015.

Merry Xmas George.

Anil