Jump to content

1/72 - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F & Lim-5 "Fresco-C" by Airfix - released - new boxing in August 2024


Homebee

Recommended Posts

On 1/5/2020 at 3:55 PM, Dennis_C said:

I've read all the comments here and Gabor's analysis on another forum. And honestly I'm frustrated. Airfix just did awfully bad job with the model. Wing of MiG-17 is indeed complex and I can understand simplification with the leading edge. But flat wing surface... Sorry. All aircraft have curved upper wing side. It's aerodynamics basics. And it's very prominent especially where the wing has several fences that highlight curvature.

Then MiG-15 ejection seat and non-afterburner engine... this is just homework not made.

And after all this idiotic barrel and missed C7 part on molds. No quality control?

I understand a comment that the model is for Johnny to be bought in a grocery shop. But why Johnny should build a wrong model?

I was really looking at it as an adversary model for my Vietnam and IDF collections but unfortunately not this time. 

Are you sure you have the Airfix kit ???........or maybe its a copy. Your comments don't tie up with what I have in front of me. Not 100% I am sure but definitely far superior to anything else I have seen and still at a reasonable cost. Until the likes of Great Wall Hobby, Avantgarde or Zoukei-Mura decide to produce this kit, I'll stick with my new Airfix variants, thank you.  

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just wasted an hour of my life going through this thread to see if I could pick up something useful. Looks like the ARC brigade have migrated to the UK. Some people definitely need to get a life.

  • Like 8
  • Haha 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

Which is the best possible place for it, as it does not load the undercarriage strut

Exactly, I put quite I bit elsewhere so I thought the wheel you would a good place as anymore above the leg my be a bit much.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The well-known modeller who left this forum, wrote on the Russian forum that Eduard is not considering the production of the MiG-17 in the near, far or any other future.  

🤗

Thus, the list of theoretically possible future competitors of the MiG-17 from Airfix was reduced.

😣

B.R.

Serge

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I realize that it's possibly an off-topic distraction to ask this, but when I pulled my Dragon/DML 1/72 MiG-17 out to look at it, I was very impressed with what I saw, quality-wise, although I didn't hold it against any scale drawings. What is wrong with the Dragon MiG-17 (yes I know - it doesn't make Airfix a slice of the MiG-17 pie - that's not my point)? Feel free to send me to another thread or review site - I won't be offended...

 

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, John Thompson said:

I realize that it's possibly an off-topic distraction to ask this, but when I pulled my Dragon/DML 1/72 MiG-17 out to look at it, I was very impressed with what I saw, quality-wise, although I didn't hold it against any scale drawings. What is wrong with the Dragon MiG-17 (yes I know - it doesn't make Airfix a slice of the MiG-17 pie - that's not my point)? Feel free to send me to another thread or review site - I won't be offended...

 

John

Others will come in with more detail I am sure but, if I recall correctly, the snag with the Dragon/DML MiG-17 is that it is under-scale.  Won't stop me building mine though!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Vultures1 said:

Others will come in with more detail I am sure but, if I recall correctly, the snag with the Dragon/DML MiG-17 is that it is under-scale.  Won't stop me building mine though!

 

Thanks, Vultures! Yeah, I tend to agree - unless it's somewhere around 1/80 or worse, I probably won't notice the difference. Heresy, I know, but hey, stone me, burn me at the stake, sue me for today's record-setting Dow Jones losses - whatever...

 

John

Edited by John Thompson
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The detailed review of the Dragon MiG-17 size/scale faults can be found there

Start collecting the 1/80 aircraft models and then this kit will fit there precisely 😀

Cheers

Michael

  • Thanks 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, KRK4m said:

The detailed review of the Dragon MiG-17 size/scale faults can be found there

Start collecting the 1/80 aircraft models and then this kit will fit there precisely 😀

Cheers

Michael

 

Oh dear - well, thank you, Michael! I read your comments in the thread you linked in your post; it seems that the Dragon MiG-17 is a bit of a disaster (or "massacre", as you put it so well!). So, back into the Pit of Misfit Kits it goes, to rot for all eternity...

 

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, John Thompson said:

Thanks, Vultures! Yeah, I tend to agree - unless it's somewhere around 1/80 or worse, I probably won't notice the difference. Heresy, I know, but hey, stone me, burn me at the stake, sue me for today's record-setting Dow Jones losses - whatever...

Posting on Britmodeller about 1/80 scale MiG-17 from Dragon led to the fall Dow Jones???

😲😲

How scary to live in this world!

😁😁😁

 

B.R.

Serge

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got the kit this weekend, mainly bought it because I was curious about what Airfix can do these days. My last Airfix kit was the 72nd scale Typhoon.

 

On the one hand I applaud them for doing a subject like this. It's a kind of left field and that's great. On the quality of the kit, a bit meh. If I compare this to the Mig-21 from Eduard I got a few weeks earlier, it's like you've stepped 25 years back in time. The amount of detail is underwhelming to say the least. On the other hand, it does look like a quick build, assuming fit is good and I haven't heard anything to say it's not.

 

So horses for courses I guess. I think Airfix has made a clear choice on this to refrain from satisfying the rivet counters and detail freaks and keeping their kits accessible. That's fair. I'll still have fun building this kit.

Edited by sroubos
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having bought one from my local model shop (glad I can still say that when so many have closed elsewhere) my conclusions are much the same as yours @sroubos; a nice kit that misses out on being a great kit for want of a little more detail in the cockpit and finesse around areas such as the too thick undercarriage doors yet has some of the nicest detail I've seen moulded on the wheels :shrug:

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, sroubos said:

So horses for courses I guess. I think Airfix has made a clear choice on this to refrain from satisfying the rivet counters and detail freaks and keeping their kits accessible. That's fair. I'll still have fun building this kit.

On the big H Airfix's Fresco is GBP11.69 and Eduard's MiG-21 weekend edition is GBP11.25. Both export price.  Sooo what is more accessible....

Ed's profipack is 16.19 with 5 decal options, PE fret and mask.

 

Probably Airfix sells dirt cheap in retail chains like Tesco. I've no idea here. But what I definitely see in online stores is that Airfix is not anymore dirt cheap compared to other European firms both giants and new mass producers form Czech Republic. Same price category most of the time. It was indeed cheaper say 5 years ago, but the case changed.

Edited by Dennis_C
Link to comment
Share on other sites

With accessible I mean that for novices an Airfix kit is more ‘buildable’ than an Eduard kit. Less parts and all that. 

 

From a modeller’s perspective you get much more value for money from Eduard. But they are not competing for the same customers I think. 

Edited by sroubos
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, sroubos said:

With accessible I mean that for novices an Airfix kit is more ‘buildable’ than an Eduard kit. Less parts and all that. 

That is generally true and I agree the latest Airfix kit are building nicely. I think Fresco does so too. I did a Vampire, Skyhawk, Defiant, Hurricane all in 1/72 and all were okay. 

However now I do a parallel build of Eduard's mk.ix and Airfix's mk.xix and I should say although Eduard gives enormous number of parts it build easier with zero putty and minimal dry fitting. Something I can't tell about Airfix. So getting a good result means you would probably invest less effort in a more elaborate Ed's kit. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m afraid you’re on a losing argument because you don’t understand the British market and the power of the Airfix brand name. When people in the UK talk of a vacuum cleaner, they call it a Hoover. In the same way, all plastic kits are Airfix. When Auntie Flo buys little Johnny a kit for his birthday/Christmas its an Airfix kit and the brand is seared into little Johnny’s brain for life when he buys his own kits. Eduard may be 1,000 times better than Airfix, but Airfix have the reach to get into all sorts of outlets that Eduard does not. Aldi, Lidl. Marks & Spencer. Not just the serious model shops that might have some Eduard kits.

Airfix reckons that us serious modellers make up just 15% of their market. Airfix don’t totally ignore the 15%, they’d like to be able to please it, but they produce kits to a budget and a timetable. They may be expensive in your neck of the woods, but their prices are still seen as (mostly) pocket money prices here. There have always been the more expensive ‘special occasion’ kits and that’s what you get in a range of products from one manufacturer. They’re not in competition with Eduard with this kit.

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/15/2020 at 8:25 PM, Wez said:

Also, Eduard don't make a MiG-17...

You've hit the nail on the head there Wez. 😀

 

I've just built the Airfix MiG-17F and whilst I'm a little disappointed with the lack of interior, wrong seat and other mistakes it is still the best Fresco out there. Scale wise it is spot on, some details missing and others a little clunky. I found fit around the nose was terrible but that could just be me. Overall I'm happy it is finished but I won't buy another. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎3‎/‎15‎/‎2020 at 8:19 PM, Ratch said:

I’m afraid you’re on a losing argument because you don’t understand the British market and the power of the Airfix brand name. When people in the UK talk of a vacuum cleaner, they call it a Hoover. In the same way, all plastic kits are Airfix. When Auntie Flo buys little Johnny a kit for his birthday/Christmas its an Airfix kit and the brand is seared into little Johnny’s brain for life when he buys his own kits. Eduard may be 1,000 times better than Airfix, but Airfix have the reach to get into all sorts of outlets that Eduard does not. Aldi, Lidl. Marks & Spencer. Not just the serious model shops that might have some Eduard kits.

Airfix reckons that us serious modellers make up just 15% of their market. Airfix don’t totally ignore the 15%, they’d like to be able to please it, but they produce kits to a budget and a timetable. They may be expensive in your neck of the woods, but their prices are still seen as (mostly) pocket money prices here. There have always been the more expensive ‘special occasion’ kits and that’s what you get in a range of products from one manufacturer. They’re not in competition with Eduard with this kit.

This ought to be compulsory reading before anyone is allowed to use the word 'Airfix' in a posting!

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, old_tonto said:

wrong seat

Does it have the wrong seat?  I haven't seen the kit yet but I thought the MiG-17 originally had the same seat as the MiG-15, the later seat with the big head-box was introduced by the Polish built Lim-5's and fitted to other aircraft as they went through maintenance.

 

I could be wrong, so I'd like to know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Building the kit now and it is a bit of a slog, I need more filler than I anticipated, in particular the nose area is pretty crappy. Intake ring, splitter plate and gun panel all require quite a bit of work.

 

Airfix-Mig-17-Frame-B-Mag-2.jpg

 

I'm a bit puzzled by the holes in the lower wing, they seem to be in area of the drop tanks which I'm not going to use. Need filling I think.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Homebee changed the title to 1/72 - MiG-17F "Fresco-C" by Airfix - released - new boxing Lim-5 in 2021

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...