MiG-25RBT 48th, box opening

[ya-gabor]

Jumped straight into the kit on Thursday evening after getting it.

Like the kit! At a glance there are some very fine details in it, like cockpit side walls, instrument panel, nice panel lines . . .

 

I was not sure about the engine exhaust when the first photos of the sprues came out but when you start to assemble the plastic parts. It is complex, but also very simple and straight forward! Excellent design with some unconventional ideas fitted into it. Perfect location and positioning of parts but what is far more important they all fall in place and there are virtually no seams anywhere!!!!! If only they would have added a bit more fine detail to the exhaust petals on the outside like on the instrument panel. Still it is great, resulting in a very complex exhaust!!!

 

To go with the kit the fantastic Master pitots have also arrived. Brass and 3D printed antennas make a perfect combination for a superb and what is far more important an authentic pitot! More on this later.

 

Without going so far ahead, let’s see what we get from the Ukrainian ICM company.

 

Instead of a fancy soft box we receive something else. OK, there is a fancy and very attractive box art showing one of the last operational Foxbats in Russia. It was the well documented MiG-25RBT  red 46 with lots of colourful markings on its nose. It will be difficult to say No to this marking. So there is a perfectly printed box art but in reality it is only a cover with an open bottom. It goes over the very sturdy cardboard box which contains the kit part. I like this far more than the overall very soft colour boxes of other manufacturers. The cardboard box is a welcome response to todays changing times when postal delivery from different internet shops takes over the over the counter buying of kits in dedicated model shops. Times have changed and now a good protection is required from the possible hazards of postal delivery. My example has arrived to me doing a round trip around Europe with lots of stop on the way and still there was no visible damage to any of the parts. So it seems that the hard cardboard box is working as well as the tight packing of the sprues!

 

 

 

Inside the sturdy box is a one single plastic bag jammed full with sprues. OK it would have been better if the individual sprues were in separate bags but then a far bigger box would have been required. But here all the sprues are together and the fact is that the bag is so full that there is not a chance for the plastic parts to move around and cause damage to other parts. Of course the transparent parts are in a separate plastic bag and so a perfect protection is provide to canopy parts.    

 

 

 

 

First look at the instruction sheet gives a good impression with clear guidance for the assembly. There are two decal sheets. One for the in-hand RBT examples with the other providing some stencilling which I would imagine will be a common decal for future releases.

 

More soon,

just as weather improves and I have a chance to take some photos of the kit parts. For the moment it is all grey and there is some form of snow coming down from above so after some 15 or so years it will be a whitish X Mas here (not real deep snow but at least the countryside is a sort of white).

 

It is a good opportunity on this day to wish everyone a Merry X Mas no matter where in the world you are and what you believe in!

(I most certainly envy those who are somewhere down under are at this moment and have an excess of sunshine and pleasant warm weather!!! )

 

Best regards

Gabor

[aidy]

Sounds like a promising kit. Looking forward to your next post.

[azzaob]

Agree about the design of the boxing, I have some Zvezda kits in a similar strong boxing, nice idea  Looks to be a lovely kit Gabor.

 

[Andrea Bolla]

Hi Gabor, is it possible to mod this kit to make a BM? Have a couple arriving soon...

[March]

I have one arriving, ummm, well technically as of 7 minutes ago...

 

I'll be following this one. Merry Christmas Gabor.

[BlueFlyer]

Looking forward to this 1, a camouflaged RBT is on my to do list aswell.

 

Seasons greetings from a sweltering, 39.5 currently, Adelaide to you also (& anyone else reading this as well)

[ya-gabor]

1 hour ago, BlueFlyer said:

Seasons greetings from a sweltering, 39.5 currently, Adelaide to you also (& anyone else reading this as well)

 

Well this is what I was about!!!!!!         Have Fun!!!   Yesterday we had here -5 and drizzling snow. Today it is "just" rain and +3. 

 

As to building a Weasel MiG-25BM out of it. Everything is possible but you will need to rebuild the nose, new cockpit, 4 missile pylons . . .  According to some informations ICM is doing some more versions of the Foxbat in 2017 which should include the BM besides the interceptor versions. I believe it when I see it. For the moment we only have this RBT.

 

Best regards

Gabor

[Biggles87]

Also watching and hoping to gather some tips.

 

Merry Christmas

 

John

[Col.]

Now this I have to see! Will be following your progress and thoughts on this one Gabor.

[ya-gabor]

4 hours ago, BlueFlyer said:

Looking forward to this 1, a camouflaged RBT is on my to do list aswell.

 

Hi Blue Flyer,

I am sorry but as far as I know there was no camouflaged RBT version. But who knows.

 

The known examples in service are:

Red (with white border) 20 RBF well documented camo

Red 38 is RBF

Red 57 is RBF

White 37 is BM

Red 21 is unknown but I think it is an RBS or RBF. I have seen just one photo of this one under servicing with some covers on the nose so the version is not clear.

 

Best regards

Gabor

[Col.]

18 minutes ago, ya-gabor said:

Red 21 is unknown but I think it is an RBS or RBF. I have seen just one photo of this one under servicing with some covers on the nose so the version is not clear.

Although it may be unclear which version this is it does sound an excellent diorama idea.

[IPMS19]

- I' VE GOT MINE ( from Hong-Kong) in mint condition. According to Yefim GORDON , the camouflage breeds could be a BM like white 37 or a RBF segmented red 20 a side view drawing shows a equally segmented red 20 as a RBV.......Now we have to check the differences between an RBT and its camouflaged mates  -  MERRY Christmas to you all

1 minute ago, IPMS19 said:

 

 

[Uncle Uncool]

 Well, lucky ya both, IPMS19 'n' ya-gabor blokes.

Still mullin' over the purchasement - or nay - of this kit, considerin' I'm yet to get my Su-24 kit by Trumpy.

I've got the KH kit, for which I bought Stenka's awesome forward nose correction. I was lookin' at some piccies of the lower half fuselage on the ICM kit, which I compared to the KH one; here:

 

This is the KH kit

 

 

And this one is the new ICM part

 

 

I honestly can't quite tell where the KH lower fuselage goes wrong; would ya please ya-gabor enlight me regardin' this?

Thanks in advance.

 

Unc²

Edited December 25, 2016 by Uncle Uncool
Typo

[ya-gabor]

3 hours ago, Uncle Uncool said:

where the KH lower fuselage goes wrong; would ya please ya-gabor enlight me regardin' this?

 

Sorry I cannot help you with this.

Years ago when the KH MiG-25 was released there were several discussions about that kit, there is not much point in going back to that again and again, especially that as the title of this forum says this is about the ICM MiG-25 RBT kit.

Fortunately I was able to get rid of it and sell the KH kit very fast with minimal loos. Don’t want to waste any more time on it.

 

Best regards

Gabor

[modelling minion]

Giving this one serious consideration myself so I'm really interested to see how you get on with it.

I also hope they do the RBS as I really want to do a camouflaged one.

 

Craig.

[Andrea Bolla]

14 hours ago, ya-gabor said:

 

As to building a Weasel MiG-25BM out of it. Everything is possible but you will need to rebuild the nose, new cockpit, 4 missile pylons . . .

 

Hi Gabor, what are the best resources available for the MiG-25? Have a lot about Sukhoi and almost nothing about MiGs

[ya-gabor]

10 hours ago, Andrea Bolla said:

 

Hi Gabor, what are the best resources available for the MiG-25? Have a lot about Sukhoi and almost nothing about MiGs

Going back to my library took out few books and publications on the MiG-25. The Ukrainian Aviatcia I Vremja magazine (2004/5) had scale drawings of the Foxbat family. Still believe it is the best around, not perfect but very good. These drawings by Oleg Putjmakov was first published back in very early 1990’s and has been used in many publications since then. The AiV is scaled up to 72^nd and gives an idea of different versions but mainly concentrates on the MiG-25P (the first version) and the MiG-25RBV for which four view drawings are given. The first publication of this drawing I have from the Polish book MiG-25 Stalowa Blyskawica published by Agencja Lotnicza ALTAIR in 1994. The book was by Jefim Gordon and Oleg Putmakow, it is over 20 years old but still has some excellent colour photos and lots of detail. Definitely worth finding!  There are many others including a 1995 publication by the Kiev based Arxiv-Press which explains well the differences and was published when the aircraft were still available for study. I only hope that one day the publisher will redo the book on quality paper and in full colour.

 

The Polish book:

 

Here is a sample of the MiG-25P drawing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apart from these “hard copies”, real books about the Foxbat there are of course dozens of good walk arounds on the electronic net.

 

Best regards

Gabor

[ya-gabor]

Here is one very recent book. The No. 172 of the Famous Aircraft of the World. It is a reissue of the original book No.83 which was released 2000. Actually the new book is a complete rethink of the original one and little of the original photos remain in the new issue. If I had to choose between the two books I would prefer the first version which had better photos and some interesting drawings of details.

 

 

Here are the two decal sheets. Nicely printed with excellent register. One for the RBT with all the individual markings while the other one is for the stencils. Now here is something that I am not sure of. In the past decades I had the chance to have a closer look at about a dozen Foxbat. Most of them were in the original paint scheme where all the original markings were visible. What I have seen was all black and not blue stencils as on the decal. Well I was told by some friends that there were blue versions of the stencils too but I am yet to see any proof of that. Apart from my own experience all the reference photos I have show black stencils. So  . . .

But to help us the Begemote decal sheet gives black ones too.

 

 

 

 

With X Mas over and the good weather back had the chance to make some photos. Since last time I had a closer look at the parts cutting many of them so here you will not get any nice overall sprue photos (one can find them in different reviews on the net) but rather some details, parts fits, things I like or don’t like. As stated previously the box is full of sprues and parts.

 

 

Here are some of the main parts cut and tested.

 

 

 

One interesting design idea is that three structural frames are provided in the kit which ensure that we get the outlines right. I like the way it works!

 

 

 

 

Well here are some of the fine details which look fantastic. Few of the cockpit main parts. The details are as good as many aftermarkets. The only drawback here are the actual instrument faces on the instrument panel. None are provided and you only get a transparent part which has “towers” of clear plastic going into all the instrument holes. I have seen the same solution from ICM on the I-16 WW2 fighter so it must be a thing for them!

 

     

Some instrument faces will have to be found in the spares box. So will have to do some modeling . . . This is what is this hobby about.

 

Best regards

Gabor

[ya-gabor]

On an ARC forum about this kit Kotey from Begemote decals has shown a photo of a fuselage nose section showing blue stencils. So after all it was only me who seen only black stencils to go with the reds!

This is excellent news!

 

Best regards

Gabor

[kotey]

I can show this photo at BM too. But actuaaly you were right - blue stencil is rare, almost all MiG-25s had black\red stencils.

 

Edited December 26, 2016 by kotey

[BlueFlyer]

On 12/25/2016 at 8:45 PM, ya-gabor said:

Hi Blue Flyer,

I am sorry but as far as I know there was no camouflaged RBT version. But who knows.

Hi Gabor

Thanks for putting me straight on this point, looks like I've got to brush up on my Mig-25 variants!!!

It's interesting that there are very few known camouflaged aircraft.

Still looking forward to the rest of your review, it's always a good to get insight from somebody who knows the subject inside out.

Cheers

Andy

p.s. it's raining today in Adelaide!!!

[ya-gabor]

Here is one thing in the box that I forgot about. The transparent sprue. It has the windshield, the canopy, four camera ports, the back of the instrument panel  and the two landing lights. Have to say that the canopy looks fantastic, but please judge for yourself.

 

 

 

To see how good it is, I did the “print test” to see the amount of distortion on the transparent parts. Once again everyone can judge for themselves if it is good or not.

 

 

 

 

One puzzling thing is the instrument panel and its back. It is made from transparent plastic and you insert it into the back of the solid panel straight into the holes of the instruments. The fit is perfect and the ends of the rods on the transparent part come up all the way to the front of the instruments giving a nice, near perfect representation of the real instruments. The only question is where are the dials of the instruments. OK, how much will be visible of them? It is possible that little if anything and you only get the nice glazed instrument faces with the ICM solution. Virtually days ago I have seen the sprues of the latest ICM World War 2 kit, the I-16 and it has exactly the same solution for the instruments. It seems that someone in the ICM design department loves this solution.

 

 

 

The transparent back is inserted into the instrument panel

 

 

Here is something else of the microscopic  details given in the kit. The control column with the grip and the brake leaver on its front. Looks good to me.

 

 

 

 

Best regards

Gabor

[Darth Vader]

Can't wait to see this built, looks great.

But then so did my KH one till I tried to make it.

Boy that thing gave one hell of a fight but I kicked it bottom . . eventually

[modelling minion]

Picked up my example today from Mike at Clifton Curios (always helpful and usually knocks some money off whatever your total bill is) and I am very impressed with the kit. The only omission I can see is the lack of bombs to put on the underwing racks, though I'm sure Quickboost or someone else will come to the rescue.

[IPMS19]

- Yes, why not , I'm O.K for this solution, an  instrument panel without any other details  than the dials as seen on some kits around there added on the decal sheet should have finished the job..