MiG-17F and PF Fresco - June 1967 and "war of attrition" 1967-1973 double build + SA-2 guildeline SAM1/48

[exdraken]

unfortunately I need to do anew main canopy for the F... wile taking new photographs, the wind was taking it for good....

Tasman models provides 2 of them luckily!

here the new one already cut and cleaned maybe it sits just the tiny little bit better on the airframe

sigh... Most of that decal sheet is still based on 'Arab MiG-19 & MiG-21 Units in Combat', and therefore useless.

For example: Iraqi MiG-19s had serials in high 4xx range (498, 499 etc.); Syria has never got any MiG-19s (because there was no Syria at the time these were exported) and even if, they would have no roundels on the fuselage; green ID-stripes are wrong in colour (these were always black); and so on.

Bottom line: for a new product, this is 'frustrating'... (I actually do not understand why people making such stuff can't write a few e-mails; but this alone indicates the 'quality' of their 'research')...

I'll go back to watching photos of Werner's MiG-17s. They're doing good to my eyes...

Hi, I could nearly predict your response before...

lots of effort that could have been better redirected for better, and more accurate decals...

a shame about Syria though....

but do you say about the arabic city name? will that one be usable for n ex Iraqi MiG-19 in UARAF/ Egyptian markings? looks at least interesting!

and the one qith the greem (sic!) stipes could quite easily done with black, painted stripes, no?

where does actually come this white band from? is there a photo with a strange lightening, or is it pure fiction?

thanks!

Edited June 3, 2015 by exdraken

[Tom Cooper]

Outch... sorry for that with canopy... but, yes: the new one appears to be sitting much better.

Re. Arabic title for that MiG-19: inscription says 'al-Mawsil', aka Mosul (city in northern Iraq). Yes, it can be used for one of (ex-Iraqi) MiG-19S' of No. 20 'Araba' Squadron UARAF, period Jun/Jul 1964 - June 1967.

That unit was not only a combat squadron, but also something like 'ceremonial guards' unit of the UARAF, escorting any aircraft carrying VIP-visitors of Egypt (statesmen for example). Quite a few of its aircraft were ex-Iraqi examples (donated by Baghdad to Cairo in 1964, when Iraq disbanded its No. 9 Squadron and then attempted to join Egypt into a new UAR), and they wore names of all major Arab cities, from Casablanca, to Cairo (i.e. Qahira), and Baghdad.

Re. ID-stripes: these were originally introduced on REAF aircraft already during the first war with Israel. Back then, they were sometimes applied in green and, to be better visible against the background of different camo patterns on Spitfires and other aircraft - 'supported' by a white band in between two or three black or green stripes.

The practice was continued when the REAF entered the jet age, with two black stripes being applied on rear fuselages of Meteors and booms of Vampires, for example; plus three around wingtips. But, there was no white band in between the two black stripes around the fuselage.

Then this practice was continued on EAF's MiG-15s and MiG-17s, shortly before, during and after the Suez War of 1956, but there is no evidence that Egyptian MiG-19s have got such markings too. Final type to get them was MiG-21. That is: all F-13s, FLs and PFMs that entered service in Egypt before the June 1967 War.

Curiously, those MiG-21s that survived that conflict (about 20+ of them) and were camouflaged immediately afterwards, have still retained these stripes.

I guess that the idea with 'white band in between black stripes' comes from few photos of few (half a dozen or so) Egyptian MiG-17Fs that were sold to Nigeria, in 1967. They arrived there with their ID-stripes removed in quite a crude fashion, resulting in the area where stripes used to be appearing much lighter than the rest of the fuselage. Because there were so few clear photos of Egyptian MiG-17s available at that time (and even less so colour photos of them), somebody apparently concluded that this meant that there was a white band in between two black stripes. But, this is simply wrong: meanwhile there are enough b&w, and even some colour photographs, clearly showing only the usual two black stripes around the fuselage, and the usual three around the wingtips.

[exdraken]

Hello again everybody!

in the mean time I managed to source a new canopy for the MiG-17F

and I build the SA-2 / S-75 Guidleine SAM missile and laucher in the "non injected plastic group build"

in progress here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234982350-finished-s-75-dwina-sa-2-guideline-sam-egypt-148/

some summary pics:

some colour

and finally finished 3 days ago!

together with its brother, and sometimes even target

hope you like this small excurse into air defence missiles!