Tim Moff Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 (edited) So - this is small! Never done 1-144! Part of the twin Eduard MIG21MF pacakge, with Jbr African Fishbed Decals - apologies about the feet!! The white card is a standard business card - this is how small it is! I have plumped for the grey, having a guess at HUM166 LAG, unless anyone can tell me better! Now this may well be a disaster as its tiny, have been warned about bits breaking off the sprue, carpet monsters etc! If all else fails I will do a re-show with a 1/48!! Any tips appreciated! Edited May 1, 2015 by Tim Moff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Hi Tim This is certainly different! Great choice! Cliff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cooper Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 A very interesting, and extremely rare topic here, Tim. BTW, all the photos of the TZ-357 as 'in service' show it as pained in brown, light and dark green on upper surfaces (with serial number in white), and light blue on lower surfaces. (For those who have that book, see African MiGs, Volume 2, pp53 for a colour profile.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Quite appropriate you have picked such a small kit for such a small Air Force 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 Thanks for the help Tom - I think with the roundels it must be in delivery colours - The other Malian option TZ - 356 is indeed in a Dark green, beige and brown scheme. I will stick to the grey as the Angolan Mig is in a beige and green cam. Alsdo 375 is below - not seen any pics of 357! http://www.jbr-decals.com/images/products/44001/44001_nakresy03.png Also see this graphic of TZ-357 in the '2nd stage' http://www.findmodelkit.com/sites/default/files/215mali.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cooper Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 The artwork above should'Ve actually showed one of MiG-21bis' delivered in the 1980s. TZ-375 you're building was purchased from the Czech Republic only in 2005. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Some Mig advice! Busy Weekend on call - hopefully start next week! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBr Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 BTW, all the photos of the TZ-357 as 'in service' show it as pained in brown, light and dark green on upper surfaces (with serial number in white), and light blue on lower surfaces. (For those who have that book, see African MiGs, Volume 2, pp53 for a colour profile.) Tom, there are also photos of TZ-357 "in service" while still in grey. Unfortunately they are not dated (or at least not in any of the publications they are in), but they were taken by one of the Czech technicians who assembled the MiGs in Mali after delivery so it has to be either September or November 2005. For some time the TZ-357/5508 was the only airworthy MF of the two, as some problems were found during assembly of 5512. It was finally assembled in November 2005 and at that time it already had the camouflage and TZ-356 marking applied. As all the "Czech" photos of TZ-357 show the aircraft still in grey, it was probably repainted sometime after that. I decided to include the grey version with half Malian half Czech insignia in the decals, as it seemed like an interesting option It can still be build with all 6 Malian roundels though (you just need to use 4 roundels originally intended to be used on TZ-356 instead of the Czech ones). Sources with pictures: Letectvi a kosmonautika, year 2008, issue 12 (December) + Miroslav Irra: MiG-21, Vol. 2, Jakab, ISBN 9788087161043 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Thanks JBr - from the horses mouth as they say! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 JBr - from your refs, was there any weapons/ordnance/fuel tanks carried by this or the Angolan version I am modelling? http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234974080-angolan-air-force-1-144-eduard-mig-21mf-oob-forca-aerea-popular-de-angoladefesa-aerea-e-antiaerea/ Thanks in advance - don't want to put weapons/fuel tanks on if they were not the type carried Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBr Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 All three MiGs bought from the Czech Republic were "demilitarized". All the weapon related systems were removed and their only purpose was to be used for flight training. All the photos I have (including in flight pictures) show the aircraft in clean configuration, not even drop tanks were used. Regarding the Angolan MiGs, all I can do is to provide what Tom Cooper wrote in his African MiGs part 1: for A2G missions they used up to four UB-16-57 rocket launcher pods, up to four S-24 unguided rockets or 2x/4x 250kg/2x 500kg bombs (note: 500 kg bomb can only be carried on inner pylon and part of the MLG well cover needs to be removed for it to fit there). For A2A they carried up to 4 R-3S missiles. And of course a drop tank on the centerline pylon to increase the range won't be a mistake for both A2G and A2A. Each of the kits contains 2 R-3S and 2 S-24 rockets plus 2 490l drop tanks. No UB-16-57 or bombs. So if you build the Malian one without any weapons, you can use the rockets + pylons with appropriate launchers and build the Angolan one with four S-24/R-3S. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Thanks Jiri, that is most useful and much appreciated - thanks you for taking the time and effort - that's the great think about this 'club', people will do all they can to help with advice, decals, parts etc.... Tom Cooper and Jiri's hints, facts and advice in this thread show it in spades...thanks both! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Jiri has been very helpful - first of all, he has suggested HUM196 Light grey as a better colour than HUM 166. Also he has mentioned the vetrol Ae Cover was dark brown, and scanned some pics: I have also found some history of Czech Air Force 5508, the original aircraft with some interesting pics of it in service and dismantled. http://en.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/t/51839/start/-1 http://www.jbr-decals.com/ also an excellent build guide with some top tips! http://doogsmodels.com/completed-builds/mikoyan-gurevich-mig-21mf-fishbed/ Hopefully will get started on Weds as I taht and Friday as TOIL.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cooper Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 (edited) Related PMs (or e-mails) on the way, Tim. Sorry, I misunderstood a PM from somebody else as from you, Tim. Anyway, if you (and Jiri) would like to see some artworks and photos with original camo colours of TZ-357, please contact me per PM, i.e. forward your e-mail addresses. That said, please note that my old artwork posted above should've actually shown a MiG-21bis 'TZ-375', not the ex-Czech MiG-21MF 'TZ-357'. Edited January 22, 2015 by Tom Cooper 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Managed to get started yesterday - fiddly lil buggers! Lost one control column to the dreaded carpet monster - 'created' another to replace it (not quite the same!) Used a mix of Rev 365 and Hum 65 as an attempt at the cockpit colour - how more MiG pilots have not been airsick and crashed I don't know! Added some metal colour to the intake, exhaust and blade areas - will attempt to join the fuselage today using sausage fingers!! Also painted the shock cone Hum 2 Gloss green. Hopefully get some more done today - obviously the thread will be identical until painting commences for both models! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Tom - have mailed you my mail - any refs/pics be useful - thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cooper Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 NP, they're underway to you now. BTW, after writing my 'first' e-mail to you, it ‘dawned’ upon me that ex-Czech MiG-21s were actually re-camouflaged at some point relatively shortly after their delivery. That means: - they arrived in Mali painted in ‘air superiority grey’, - then they've got a camouflage pattern consisting of some sort of light purple, something like black green, deep brick red and light green. It seems that quite shortly afterwards one of MiG-21MFs re-painted that way - TZ-356 - was written off in an accident. Finally, few weeks or months later, at least the MF TZ-375 and the UM TZ-375 were re-painted again, this time in dark brown, chocolate brown (or black-brown?), light green and green. I.e. in colours in which they've found by French troops during Operation Serval (though badly washed-out/bleeched ever since). Curiously, the UM TZ-375 seems to have retained a Penguin-caricature on its front fuselage, nevertheless. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Hi Jiri, Going for 4 xS24 which are white. Any ideas of the colour of the drop tank should I place it under the centreline!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 So, got on some more: Everything went together fairly well with my sausage fingers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Wow, they are tiny Great job! Cliff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cooper Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 ...but details are amazing, especially because they're that small. Man, if I could've get my fingers on something of this kind back in the 1980s... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 24, 2015 Author Share Posted January 24, 2015 Some more work done! Nearly ready for paint - rails were nails to go on! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 24, 2015 Author Share Posted January 24, 2015 some right fun with the cockpit screen and canopy masks - did as best I could! Some green paint on the Ae areas (Brown for the Malian fin), some interior over the frames. Will mask them up tomorrow and give both MiGs a black primer coat so I can get some tone (cant preshade at 1-144!) Then it will be the nose ring and I may leave the metal at the tail end until after as masking will be a pain!. Hopefully straightforward with HUM 196 all over! Cant wait for the undercarriage (and guess what cretin forgot to weight the front - rare I do wheels down!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBr Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Don't worry, Tim. I have built 7 of them already, all without any additional weight in the nose and neither of them is a tail sitter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Moff Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Preshade of Black all over - hopefully will allow some contrast: Next the Burnt iron etc on the nose ring and maybe the exhaust area - may leave that til last though - then the grey! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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