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Mig-31BM Foxhound 1:48


Mike

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Hi Mike,

You have a done a stunning job with the Mig the decals look great and the little extra touches you have done really brings it to life what a wonderful kit and I'm looking forward to doing mine when it arrives.

Beautiful job...

What great feed back for AMK.

Give yourself a pat on the back !!!!

:goodjob:

Guy

Edited by F4u
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Thanks fellas - I've really enjoyed myself with this, and I'm a bit sad that it's coming to an end :crying:

I've been doing a bit of fettling of the smaller parts, adding the lenses to the nose gear door, minimising the decals on the pylons & giving the grey parts a wash as well. One of my tyres had crept round too, so I had to push it out of the rim and re-site it. Serves me right for not gluing it! Done that now :)

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Watching this build has been a treat Mike. While it's been tempting me to pick up this kit (which I very likely will at some point), it has me absolutely drooling for the impending release of the upcoming F-14 kits. :Tasty:

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A little more progress with the small things. Gabor has been throwing some more detail painting instructions my way, adding some bakelite-style red/brown sections to the leading edges of some sensors, plus a few little sensors on the wing tips and aft edge of the fins. He also pointed out the lack of Angle of Attack (AoA) probes in the sides of the nose, so I made a couple up from punched disks of styrene and some 0.25mm strip, which were glued together, cut to length, and an angle cut on the leading edge. I then sprayed a little Vallejo Metal Color Chrome on them before gluing in place on the fuselage. See if you can spot them all! :nerd:

weathering2.jpg

That's not all I've done, but the rest is pretty dull. Just minimising carrier film on a few of the various assemblies, and getting ready for another round of weathering at the rear of the beast. I've also still got to paint the exhaust cans, and I'm going to use my new Vallejo Metal Colors for the first time (properly) to do that. I've already picked out a few colours that look suitable :)


Thought I'd show the thing from the other side today, just for a bit of variety ;)

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Great build review Mike, has to one of the best on the web of any kit period, I can't wait for the next update, but talk about a double edge sword because I don't want the build to end.

I can see me investing in one before too long and if the MiG-25 and the Tomcat are of similar quality then AMK will definitely be getting more of my pennies.

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Hi Mike,

The aircraft is getting better and better!

One more thing, I don’t see it on your photos (only the underside), but:

The instruction sheet is wrong in "stating" on the colour artwork that the area between the two engine exhaust is airframe grey. It is in fact metallic. On some aircraft it is a lighter colour than the exhausts but it is still metallic. Both on top and on the bottom these parts on the actual aircraft are “left over” from the very early MiG-31 where the exhaust nozzle had moving outer petals, expanding or restricting depending on engine power setting. To close the gap between the exhausts and the central part a moving system was developed where the central part (both on top and bottom) of it is fixed and on two sides hinged almost triangular shaped panels are added. Inside the central parts there are springs which pull the hinged parts so they are at all times “connected” with the moving exhaust petals. The later model MiG-31’s (as in the kit) had the fixed diameter exhaust outer shroud but the central part was not changed and the whole structure is of dark metallic colour. When painting the exhaust you will have a chance to paint the central parts too.

Best regards

Gabor

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Cool - I'll do that while I'm masking off that last major panel line for the dribbling oil & gas base-coat weathering :)

Thanks for the kind words, everyone ;)

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Cracking build so far Mike, I can only look on wondering when Hannants will email me saying my back order has been paid for and dispatched.

I have just finished their L-29 and that was a great build too.

Rick G

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Thanks Rick :) I've got my replacement Master static wicks this morning, so I'll see how those fit once I've got going. They're miniscule, but Gabor tells me they're a metallic colour with a small dot of the red/brown colour on the end, so they'll be fun to paint up! :lol: I'll be masking up the aft of the airframe later on, so wish me luck! :frantic:

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Best policy with the gear legs is to build up the strut and bogie off the airframe and leave them off until all the major work is done. I built and painted mine a couple of weeks ago now, and they're still sat there on the desk waiting to be installed. I had to install the nose gear because of the construction process, but I'd definitely caution against installing the mains too soon, and while they're setting up, don't put any weight on them. They hold the correct angle without any assistance, so rest your model on its back while they're setting up :)

Well, it's way too late to do any of that. I've found on my recent builds, that adding the gear early has worked well for me. However, you're right, not to put any weight in them until they've cured fully. Oh the bright side, the CA added strength and now the gear doesn't now at all.

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So it all ends well in the end :)

I've done a little spot masking this avo and added a base for the streaking that is found underneath any in-service Foxhound that hasn't been cleaned or re-painted recently. The last panel line is always the most sooted up, and then underneath the muck diminishes as you get closer to the weapons stations. I always use Tamiya Smoke for this job, but find it works better with a dot of NATO black in to reduce the pureness of the grey. Thin it well with some Ultimate thinners, and off we go! After doing the aftmost one, I used bits of tape to draw back a bit of the same mixture after adding a drop of NATO brown, starting close to the model and drawing the brush back and increasing the distance from the model to fade it out a bit. Lots of passes with the brush as it's quite a subtle paint, and quite a bit of masking tape and post-it notes were harmed during the process.

weathering3.jpg

weathering4.jpg


The topside looks a bit bland and stark at the moment, but I'll work on reducing the contrast a little with the next phase... oils! :frantic:


Once the smoke is dry, I'll metallise the tail panels, although I might do those at the same time as I do the exhaust cans, because they're roughly the same colour.

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Beautiful build Mike. Just jaw dropping, we knew you would do it justice.

May I just say this: We have updated the manual as I promised we would. Various changes have been made following on from feedback here.

The new updated manual is available for download on our FaceBook site.

Here is a link to page 4 which was the one I think you actually mentioned, changing parts G12 and G11 over.

Thank you.

10402612_554916041339894_1727248188745468448_n.jpg

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Cheers Col & Martin. I've been mucking about with bits of aluminium foil just now, skinning the metal refuelling probe in strips to reduce the chances of ridges building up, and adding the wingtip lights, which Gabor tells me are metallic aft of the centreline. In a rare moment of clarity, I added foil to the whole blister, then painted the forward sections with Tamiya transparent red and green, giving them a bit of an inner glow. Looks cool ^_^ I'll seal them with a coat of clear gloss later, so they don't lose their shine. No time for pics right now, but you'll see it when I next post one up. We're almost due for a coat of matt varnish before I get to work with the oil stains & other weathering :)

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