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Mig-31B/BS Foxhound 1:48 - WHAT? AGAIN?


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- If I can help, for pink germitika I've used HUMBROL Pink 200, I will use it for my next 31 and every elligible Russian machine as long as my tinlet does not run solid.

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Hubba-bubba. I mix my own shade each time... I think I've detailed what colours I use somewhere in the thread :hmmm:

Got the wet transfers from Martin @ HGW yesterday, and they're awesome. Unfortunately I've not had time to take a snap, as I was at the hozzy yesteday for a routine appt. :shrug:

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Hubba-bubba. I mix my own shade each time... I think I've detailed what colours I use somewhere in the thread :hmmm:

Got the wet transfers from Martin @ HGW yesterday, and they're awesome. Unfortunately I've not had time to take a snap, as I was at the hozzy yesteday for a routine appt. :shrug:

Mike, there's one more option. Furball makes decals for the pink window sealer. I picked up a set of these at the last local model show. I've yet to use them (the Mig-31 is next up for the bench), but Furball makes great decals printed by Cartograf, and the color of this set looks spot on. Just thought I'd throw another option out there for you.

https://www.furballaero-design.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=48-052

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There are actually some decals for the Germetika in the box of the B/BS as well as on the superb HGW set, which will result in a decal with NO CARRIER FILM!!!!! :frantic::yahoo:

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Ok, great Mike. I guess I missed that in your previous post. I'm enjoying your builds of these kits. I'll be starting mine real soon, I should have my Bf109 finished in a couple of days. I just got the Akan paints in, so I'm ready to rock!

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I think I mentioned the decals in my review a couple of weeks ago here, but not in the build thread, so don't feel you're too unobservant ;) I'll be using Akan paints on this build again, and although they're not "as hard as nails", I find they're robust enough after a base coat of clear acrylic :)

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  • 1 month later...

- Mine is almost ready to go , its photos will be soon in WIP........As usual for the AMK 31 the kit is superlative , the new decal sheet is a welcome adding, and a feed back for Martin, I've found the gremetika frames of the canopies very difficult to get in place, if not impossible ,I ve resolved the difficulty in cutting the frames at each angle to have only straight fillet to set in place and if needed as a saving measure , there are plenty straight filets on the sheet to cut at dimension if ever something turn wrong...All in all another wonderfull kit......... :thumbsup2::thumbsup2::thumbsup2::thumbsup2::thumbsup2:

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Hey Mike! Is this build relegated to the shelf of doom? Looking forward to more of your excellent work! :chair:

It would appear not! ^_^ Just this avo I've been doing some work on it after a bit of a Mig-free period when I concentrated on the site and my little side-project here. I think it was the sheer poor quality of the G-Factor gear legs that was getting me down, and it seemed that no matter how much clean-up I did on the mains (the nose gear is unusable due to the mould shrinkage), there was always more to be found. I started using my Dremel with a pointy sanding head first, but then remembered these. With these chucked into the Dremel they made the job a little easier, but I still took around an hour to get a decent(ish) finish using progressively finer grades. The old Dremel was getting a tad warm too, running at 10,000 RPM, so a few short breaks were taken to give it a rest.

I've slat some Tamiya primer on it from a rattle can to test the finish, and if it's ok I'll be putting a remarkably similar shade of grey on it, some more Gauzy and then a wash. This should get me back on track, with a fair wind and a little luck :)

gear4.jpg

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GAAAAAHHHH!!!!! :boom: I've just about had it with these gear legs! :angry: I've spent hours trying to get them somewhere near smooth, and yet I'm still finding defects hidden away in the darkest depths of the piece. Why he had to try to mould them as one piece is beyond me. :fraidnot: I was promised a new nose gear leg, but I've heard nothing from G-Factor since I mentioned the fact that he's put the nose gear together wrong before casting it. Add to that the gritty, uneven surface texture and ejector pin marks that haven't even been dealt with before casting, and I'm seriously considering going back to the styrene option and working out a way to strengthen them.

I bought them off eBay, so I've started a request with the vendor, which I think might be Great Models (not 100% on that), so we'll see how that goes. :hmmm:

I'm off to snip the kit gear off the sprues and have a look at them :raincloud:

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The vendor on eBay has kindly offered to take these aberrations back, so while I sort the details out with him, I've decided to give the kit legs a bit of a going over to make them stronger.

I've got some carbon-fibre rod that would do for the smaller 1mm dowels, but I don't have any 1.2mm CF in stock, and it doesn't seem that common, so I got some 1.2mm brass rod instead. I've already got some 1mm in hand, so once I've got the wider stuff, I'll get cracking with the alterations. The idea is to replace the pins holding the bogey onto the strut, and to replace the stub-axles with brass ones. That last bit might be a bit tricky however, as there isn't much styrene to key into, so I'll have to think about it. It might end up being better to put ABS there instead. Meantime I'm going to clean up the parts ready for assembly :)

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Thanks James :) I think I've cracked the problem now, and have decided to totally ditch the bronze gear. Sad and a waste of money, but they just aren't good enough. Even with most of the unexplainable seamlines now 90% dealt with, the issue with the soft, gritty finish just isn't acceptable. Aftermarket is supposed to improve your model, and far far this wheel set only adds strength. The downside is that it creates an incorrect sit if you use the nose gear un-modified, and looks, well frankly poor - especially when you compare it to the bronze legs I reviewed the other day here.

Anyway - enough dwelling on the past. Decision is made, so I've been looking closely at the kit parts after cleaning them up. There are a lot of mould seams even on the kit parts, as the bogey is a complex moulding. The recessed ejector p[in marks were dealt with using a combination of rod and CA to fill them, and the raised one was cut flush using a micro-chisel, as sanding would have removed the lip to the beam. not too tricky, as it happens, as long as your chisel is sharp :) I decided to reduce the diameter of the wheel axles to 1mm brass, as there is sufficient strength in them, and that leaves a little more "meat" where they join the legs. sawed off the kit axles and after centre-punching them I drilled a 1mm hole until I saw the plastic on the other side start to turn white under the stress. Then I backed off and cleaned the swarf away, checking the axle material for a snug fit. Then I cut a couple of pieces to length based on the removed axles plus a saw-blade width, and test fitted them. All good :) The resin wheels will be slightly loose, but I can fix that with a bit of rod and re-drill the axle hole later.

The joint between the bogey and the strut is another potential weak-point, having two pegs that attach it to a small piece of styrene that is at the end of the central strut brace. There's not enough plastic around the short peg, so I cut the longer one and drilled it out, taking care to maintain the correct angle. Then I cut another piece of 1mm brass rod to the correct length (it protrudes through the part to act as a locating peg for another strut brace), and test-fitted to see how it looked. Again, no problems. I'm just doing the left leg in the same manner, then I'll get out the Devcon epoxy to glue them all in place at once. It'll be a two-stage process though, as the glue holding the main leg halves around the centre strut is still soft, so I can't yet sand the seam back.

Here's a pic of the right leg fitted together without using any glue yet.

gear5.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks James :) I think I've cracked the problem now, and have decided to totally ditch the bronze gear. Sad and a waste of money, but they just aren't good enough. Even with most of the unexplainable seamlines now 90% dealt with, the issue with the soft, gritty finish just isn't acceptable. Aftermarket is supposed to improve your model, and far far this wheel set only adds strength. The downside is that it creates an incorrect sit if you use the nose gear un-modified, and looks, well frankly poor - especially when you compare it to the bronze legs I reviewed the other day here.

Anyway - enough dwelling on the past. Decision is made, so I've been looking closely at the kit parts after cleaning them up. There are a lot of mould seams even on the kit parts, as the bogey is a complex moulding. The recessed ejector p[in marks were dealt with using a combination of rod and CA to fill them, and the raised one was cut flush using a micro-chisel, as sanding would have removed the lip to the beam. not too tricky, as it happens, as long as your chisel is sharp :) I decided to reduce the diameter of the wheel axles to 1mm brass, as there is sufficient strength in them, and that leaves a little more "meat" where they join the legs. sawed off the kit axles and after centre-punching them I drilled a 1mm hole until I saw the plastic on the other side start to turn white under the stress. Then I backed off and cleaned the swarf away, checking the axle material for a snug fit. Then I cut a couple of pieces to length based on the removed axles plus a saw-blade width, and test fitted them. All good :) The resin wheels will be slightly loose, but I can fix that with a bit of rod and re-drill the axle hole later.

The joint between the bogey and the strut is another potential weak-point, having two pegs that attach it to a small piece of styrene that is at the end of the central strut brace. There's not enough plastic around the short peg, so I cut the longer one and drilled it out, taking care to maintain the correct angle. Then I cut another piece of 1mm brass rod to the correct length (it protrudes through the part to act as a locating peg for another strut brace), and test-fitted to see how it looked. Again, no problems. I'm just doing the left leg in the same manner, then I'll get out the Devcon epoxy to glue them all in place at once. It'll be a two-stage process though, as the glue holding the main leg halves around the centre strut is still soft, so I can't yet sand the seam back.

Here's a pic of the right leg fitted together without using any glue yet.

gear5.jpg

- Well Mike, I anderstand your deceiption with these bloody G-Factor 31 LG as I've been victim too of the same problem - We both claim to G-Factor who promise to correct his mistake He keep his words , all of less for me , as I rencently received a corrected set with, this time, a good nose gear set and very usable main landing gear in the line of G-Factor product we had been used too ...I received this set too late for my demo bird so I 'm forced to built another Foxhound........it will be a Kasakhstan one... :clap::bouncy:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lovely... I've just ordered mine on ebay!

And Mike... many thanks for the useful information about the G-Factor landing gear... almost bought it. Have you heard about the SAC one quality?

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I've not José, sorry :( If you decide to get them though, do please pop back and tell us what you think :)

Coincidentally, there was a small package waiting for me when I got back from a short holiday, and there were another set of bronze legs in there. Now I've had time to have a look at the new set, they're better, BUT and it's a big but, there are still lots of defects. There's still a number of mould slip ledges, One of which is almost 1mm out of line in a very visible area, so a LOT of filing would be needed. There are also dents visible in places, plus all of the original ejector pin marks still visible, and to a lesser degree, a slightly gritty surface to parts of the legs. In the positive camp, the nose gear leg has been correctly assembled from the kit parts now, and the number of mould slip ridges has been reduced, plus of course Ernie did eventually come through with the promised replacements.

I won't be using them though, and have offered them to a pal who might have the time and patience to use some of them in his build. I've had it with 'em though, so I'll be writing them off as a bad experience and some money wasted. :shrug:

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Got news from Martin Wilson... AMK will release a limited edition of MiG-31BM/BSM that includes the following items:

1) Metal Landing Gear (die-cast)
2) upgraded decal sheet (Germetik sealant and cockpit decals)
3) PE fret including seatbelts and “zaslon” radar

I really like to get one of this landing gear... sorry for the off topic.

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No worries - I'd like to get one myself, although I need to get my bum in gear and sort this one out first :rolleyes: It's always good to have an AMK Mig-31 on hand if ever you hit the modelling doldrums ;)

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The AMK stuff will be some kind of white metal that's pretty hard. it's not that malleable stuff that you get from SAC for example, so should be quite robust :) It's also less prone to flash and seams than some white metals. :thumbsup:


If anyone's still interested, I'm trying to dig out my Big Mig from under the debris after a brief spell away from my desk :)

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  • 6 months later...
On 12/05/2016 at 4:36 PM, Mike said:

I've been doing a little folding of PE today, trying something I've not done before.... making a PE exhaust can! :frantic: First up was a bit of annealing in a flame, then once it had air-cooled (if you quench it in water it's not annealing), I started rolling it around my largest rolling "pin" from the Small Shop set I reviewed way back when here. I had to tweak a few of the facet joints to get it suitably round, and with that done, I then took my life in my hands and Dremelled off the kit exhaust petals from the styrene part, leaving just a collar of styrene. I also had to enlarge the hole slightly to accommodate the thickness of the PE, which I did using the same roller, wrapped in coarse grit paper, adding an additional layer once it felt loose. I sleeved the PE inside, gluing one end down so that the relief apertures were at the top. Then I went round fixing the other facets to the styrene, making sure it was level. Then I folded over the little strips, and folded up the tiny actuators, which were quite fiddly, and you get no spares :frantic: The relief doors were a mite tricky too, and I had to take care to get them well glued in place so that they don't get blown away by the airbrush later on. I left the attachment lugs on each one and folded them over at right-angles to give them a bit more mating surface. We'll find out whether that works when I break out the paint! :lol:

exhausts1.jpg

 

I've got another one to do now, as you can see from the picture above. If I have to tell you the PE one is on the right, I think you need to get some new specs :nerd:

Hi Mike. Just about to try this on my Mig. Did you solder or glue the strip that makes the can? I was thinking of sodering mine as I thought glue might not hold the ring together if that makes sense?

 

Thanks, Chris

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