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1/48 Trumpeter Mig-23MF - Polish AF


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Hello all,

After a recent marathon build of a Williams Bros racer with loads of research and scratchbuilding I wanted to change tack and do something where all the detail comes ready-made in the kit box!

I got the Trumpeter Mig-23 some time back with Xmas-present cash, and at a bargain price. I'd read good things about it, and seen some special builds (Arkady 72's on BM in particular) so pulled it from the (...one of the...) stash cupboards.

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There's a lot in the box, including many store options, surface detail is crisp and restrained, and there are some regular Polish AF decal options to go with the spectacular Czech special scheme on the lid. The instructions and paint guides look good at first. At first only though, as they are actually rather vague and a lot of test fitting is needed to help sub-assemblies fit as planned. In particular the paint guide is frustrating as while nice 'art', the placement arrows for the many stencils are very hard to see, lost against the dark cammo. The cammo demarcation is also hard to make out, so I'll be doing some research!

Anyway, those are minor issues, as once started it's a pretty clean simple build, and I'll be aiming to get to the painting stage quickly as I want to play around with a weathered finish - not 'left to pasture' but far from pristine.

(I should say now that I'm not doing much research on this one, so there will be some artistic licence used...)

Argh - Photobucket is playing up, so fewer pics than I wanted to share in this first post!

Here is the start of the cockpit tub, with an old spare seat (can't recall the brand). I've since taken the seat out again to remove some base and rear rails so it sits lower and further back - canopy won't close otherwise!

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Engine sub-assembly, intake trunking and wheelwells in place:

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Quite happy with the IP and sidewalls, I used some spare Airscale dials (not accurately I should add) as the kit's ones were laughable. Everything else is paint, the blue-green is a mix of my own matched to pics and spare Eduard colour etch.

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Main wheelbay, I may add a little extra wiring and tubes, to busy things up a bit. You can also see that the wing sub-assembly doesn't mate well with the fuselage, so some of the lower fuselage will need surgery.

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and, before I shoot Photobucket and turn in, here's the swing-wing assembly (it works too!):

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More soon, welcome all your comments as ever,

Take care,

Matt

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Ooh this one is moving quickly Matt. Nice work so far.

Cheers Col. Enjoying a totally different type of build!

Things are going quickly, but there are a few niggles - are they the kit, or me not fettling enough?

First, the engine sub-assembly, if fitted as per the instructions, would stop the jet nozzle sitting flush against the rear fuselage, so has to be braced in the 'correct' position.

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A test fit of the wings to fuselage showed quite a step - I couldn't see I'd done anything daft here, and a bit of scraping soon let the sub-assemblies join flush...

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...but I couldn't avoid a gap instead! Nothing major and already dealt with by Perfect Putty.

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The tail had the same problem, and I struggled to get a flush join between upper and lower fuselage sections.

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However, these are part of the fun, and soon resolved, and standing back a bit shows a smart and purposeful shape emerging. Wings go forward...

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Wings go back!

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Intakes are going on later tonight, and gap-filling putty is curing as I type. More soon,

Take care,

Matt

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looking good!

Thanks exdraken, spotted your Mig-17 combo, looking nice.

A little progress today - very nice gun pod added, with eyesight-saving pre-drilled muzzles

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Nosecone on, intakes blended in, so getting to the end of the airframe. I'm leaving off the tailplanes to help with painting the exhaust area.

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That's all for now, house tidying for family visit takes precedence!

Take care,

Matt

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you are working fast! :)

Seems I'm going too fast exdraken - there's been a blunder!

You can see in the pic of the wheelbay I posted earlier that two of the pieces that make up a 'box' structure for the bay has some attachment holes for part of the undercarriage at one end - and I've inserted them the wrong way round. They're supposed to be where the blue arrow is, not the red one... this means I'll have to work around to get the undercarriage to attach properly, but should be do-able, as all the other sides of the 'box' are in the right place.

Not sure what happened there, :shrug: suspect I didn't look to hard at the instructions as they've not been too helpful so far!

0ae6b8a5-6e5d-442f-bf67-2ffbfe2ad853_zps

Oh well.

Matt

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very nice updates!

quickboost 23 mm gun nozzles:

maybe late, but still very nice:

Yes, spotted those, and many other goodies, but I'm trying to do this one straight from the box for a change. I might have to get the Master pitot probe though, far nicer! Did see that Amazon have a great deal on the Eduard Brassin BigSin set, but resisted it!

A little progress, now the main airframe is done, bar a few spots to re-fill, I've started with some pre-shading - black-green on the top, grey underneath. All brush-painted, although I will be airbrushing the top colours.

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I forgot to add the photo-etch intake detail before I started, so will need to prime that now!

Also started on the exhaust area, to mask off later on. Pic doesn't show it well, but there's a few different tones of blue, redbrown, purple etc washed over the dark silver.

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Elsewhere I've started work on the complex u/c legs,Trumpeter instructions fairly vague here so I'm going slowly and carefully! Think I can save The Wheelbay Error and hide the problem with copious wiring and tubes, some v useful walkaround shots online:

Mikoyan-Gurevich%20MiG-23%20Flogger%20fi

Take care,

Matt

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Yes, spotted those, and many other goodies, but I'm trying to do this one straight from the box for a change. I might have to get the Master pitot probe though, far nicer!

perfectly fine with me ;) I think the kit is detailed enough to do it oob!

apart from that it might be the faster and more straight forward way!

maybe you will regret the engine exhaust nozzle later on.... - sorry ;)

your cannon looks definitely great now!

good idea to use the Master pitot, I use them now nearly every time I do a kit! really worth it, and do not break easily!

superb progress :) :)

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hello,

Painted has started! I'm aiming for something like this - perhaps a little more weathered:

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I'm relatively new to airbrushing, and am using canned air at the moment, so it takes a bit of effort. I've lost more of the pre-shade than is ideal, but am quite pleased with the washed-out pale blue undersides:

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Hope to have more done soon, as it's been nice weather here I've been clearing the garden too, so all good.

Take care,

Matt

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello,

Made some progress with the paintwork in the last few days. Apols for the slower work on this one recently, got sidetracked by a large Hurricane...

First, lightest green:

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and then blutack snakes and the next shade - starting to look rather like the old USAFE Lizard scheme, should be a bit browner in hue, hmm.

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The obvious over-spray should be OK, there's masking fluid between the snakes. Next up will be more snakes for the final, almost black-green.

Take care,

Matt

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Evening,

Paint nearly completed now, but not without some learning points on masking, paint creep and retouching!

A right mess:

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...but a result I'm quite pleased with:

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I've played around with fading, with overspray, streaks and a little sanding:

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I've enjoyed this - it may be a bit over the top (apologies to the Polish Air Force, sure they kept the real thing cleaner, pretend it's recently been retired...), but I've found I can do more with the airbrush than I thought without a compressor. I need to touch in some of the light blue next, then decals on ready for panel washes.

More soon,

Matt

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