MiG 17F

[Timmas]

Afternoon all. I realise I'm a bit late to the party but I'd like to conribute this...an AZ MiG 17F.

I don't know a huge amount about the MiG 17 apart from the fact that it was a development from the MiG 15 (I think) and it caused the USAF a few problems in Vietnam. In Europe it was issued to a number of Warsaw Pact countries and was built under licence in Poland.

 

The box has a really nice illustration on the front (I have no idea what the aircraft in the background is though)...

 

 

It offers three schemes. I don't know which one to go for yet, it will all depend on how much time I have left!..

 

 

There are only two sprues. The wings and tailplanes are moulded in single pieces. I think there are a couple of detailed areas missing on the tail which don't show particularly well in this photo and there's a little bit of flash here and there, but nothing terrible..

 

 

The instructions are fully diagrammatic and the decals seem straightforward. Those East German ones appeal to me. I drove through part of the GDR back in the 70s on my way into West Berlin to do some work. I'll never forget arriving at the Marienborn crossing early in the morning (and before it was open), being questioned by a rather large and stern East German military lady and then again by a smooth talking Russian. I had to drop my passport onto a conveyor belt and drive alongside it for 100 yeards to pick it up again. I also remember seeing a whopping great Soviet T34 tank on a pedestal just as I exited the crossing after eventually being allowed in.

 

Anyway, I digress...

 

 

 

I don't think I'll be looking for any aftermarket addons apart perhaps from some more detailed decals and stencils (if I can find them) and a pilot. I'll be building it wheels up.

 

The sprues are currently having a bath and I'll be making a start on it soon, but as I'm not the fastest of builders I hope I get it finished in time!
It doesn't look particularly complicated, but I've not built an AZ kit before so I have no idea how it will go together, or how it will turn out.

 

This is my first-ever Group Build too so wish me luck!

[Col.]

Interesting and worthy choice  Welcome to your first GB.

I'm keen to see how this kit goes together and what you think of it. Although the DDR scheme is too late for the scope of our GB I'm thinking if you were to give it an overall silver finish for the same markings it'd be fine   The jet bomber in the boxart background is an Ilyushin Il-28 'Beagle' by the way.

[franky boy]

Nice choice, looking forward to your progress reports.

 

Love that box art.

 

James

[Timmas]

1 hour ago, Col. said:

Interesting and worthy choice  Welcome to your first GB.

I'm keen to see how this kit goes together and what you think of it. Although the DDR scheme is too late for the scope of our GB I'm thinking if you were to give it an overall silver finish for the same markings it'd be fine   The jet bomber in the boxart background is an Ilyushin Il-28 'Beagle' by the way.

Many thanks Col. You're a mine of information! 🙂

[Col.]

2 hours ago, Timmas said:

Many thanks Col. You're a mine of information! 🙂

Mostly useless for the majority of the time but try my best  

[Timmas]

18 hours ago, franky boy said:

Nice choice, looking forward to your progress reports.

 

Love that box art.

 

James

Thanks James. I'll be starting it shortly. I think the box art is great too 😎

[Timmas]

The parts have dried and I've been taking a closer look at them.

 

The first thing I've noticed is the cutout notch in the port wing which goes all the way through to the underside. I'm not sure that it should. It looks like there's a similar one on the port tailplane too (which I think is the wrong way round on the sprue). I've been looking at some drawings and the one below seems typical. If it's correct, the cutouts look as though they should be panel lines instead. Maybe I can fix them with some thin plasticard.

 

 

 

And there are some nasty moulding glitches by the wing fence(s) as well. I've had a go at them with a sharp blade and some fine emery paper and think I've got rid of the worst of them but the plastic is quite soft and it scratches easily.

 

Oh 'eck.

 

 

[exdraken]

not sure I understand what you mean, 

not I guess those asymmetric rudder extensions are some kind  of trim devices!

 

 

[Timmas]

1 hour ago, exdraken said:

not sure I understand what you mean, 

not I guess those asymmetric rudder extensions are some kind  of trim devices!

 

 

Ah is that what they are? I probably didn't explain myself very well because I wasn't sure. I still don't think they're supposed to be missing though are they? 

[John Masters]

Looking forward to this one...

[Timmas]

Not having built an AZ kit before it's taken me a while to get the hang of the quirks, namely the fact that the instructions only seem to give an approximation as to where to position some of the parts, the shapes drawn in the instructions don't necessarily correspond with the real parts, and there don't seem to be any locating pins or connection points anywhere! 

 

Still, I've got the cockpit tub together along with the inside of the fuselage. I've also assembled the wings. I thought they were all in one piece at the beginning but they're actually in two parts. I'll need to do some work on the undersides because the joins between the parts don't run along the panel lines...

 

 

 

Getting the cockpit in the right general position. Even though the location is marked on the instructions, there's nothing on the parts. It seems to fit here though...

 

 

It looks as though the view through the front of the fuselage will show the back of the instrument panel so I've cut a disc of plasticard to hide it. The fuselage halves are just held together temporarily at the mo, and not glued. I think they'll close up with a bit of a squeeze and I'll probably sand the disc down some more to help...

 

 

Here's the disc in place and painted black (not the best shot)...

 

 

The wings are a loose to the fuselage and I'll probably need a bit of card in the upper joins to achieve the right sort of anhedral but they look as though they'll line up quite well...

 

 

The surface detail on the parts is really nice; very fine too. I hope I don't lose too much of it through sanding, or bugger it up generally!

 

[exdraken]

You seem to do well on your -17!

Shape looks great!

I really like those kinked wings

 

[Col.]

Good progress there. Plenty dry-fitting looks to be the best way with this one and that effort is paying a good return for you

[Timmas]

15 hours ago, exdraken said:

You seem to do well on your -17!

Shape looks great!

I really like those kinked wings

 

Thanks. I’ve taken a look at your 15 Bis and that’s looking very nice 👍🏻

[Timmas]

15 hours ago, Col. said:

Good progress there. Plenty dry-fitting looks to be the best way with this one and that effort is paying a good return for you

Thanks Col. I hope so! 

[exdraken]

On 3/28/2019 at 7:12 PM, exdraken said:

not sure I understand what you mean, 

not I guess those asymmetric rudder extensions are some kind  of trim devices!

 

 

after some further reading those tabs are most likey trim compensators / trim tabs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_tab

 

[Timmas]

Sad to say I'm abandoning this build for the time being.

 

I got the fuselage halves together and lined up pretty well with the help of several plasticard tabs and worked my way from front to back. After it was all glued together I noticed the tail fin halves weren't aligned properly, so I peeled them apart and re-glued them. While both halves now seem to align correctly I've noticed that the tail fin is skewif...it has a slght lean to port. I've quite likely made a cockup somewhere, but since I've recently had a battle on another build with a wonky tailplane caused by a bit of warp, I don't have the energy, or the mindset, to go through another straightening exercise right now.

 

 

I feel bad because this is my first Group Build and I was hoping to complete the kit on time. But I'm putting it all back in the box and will complete it another time.

 

Bugger. 😪

[helios16v]

Don't worry about it.  It happens...I don't think I've been able to finish one of these yet.  And I've started a few of them.  😅

 

Setting it aside and going back w/ the right frame of mind will yield you results you will be happier with in end.  See you in the next one.

[Col.]

Sorry to hear about that. Perhaps a touch of heat carefully applied will help straighten it out at a later date? Don't worry about not completing this GB as there's plenty more coming up to chose from for another go  

[Peter Lloyd]

Don't fell bad mate. I use the group builds to put some pressure on myself but one still has to remember it's a hobby.  Boiling water and careful bending, followed by cold water to 'set' the part, will fix warping. My Yak-25 needed this to cure asymmetric wing adhedral.

Sorry this advice is too late: sanding the fuselage mating surfaces on a full-sized piece of sandpaper, set on a flat surface, is standard procedure with these short-run kits. The wing fence corners are a bugger, worn moulds I suppose, a tricky one to fix.

But do come back to it, I've done about five or six AZ Models kits now and they do look good, but I often have to accept some small problems that are not visible from a metre away! But that can be the price of venturing beyond Mustangs and Bf109s.

[Timmas]

15 hours ago, Col. said:

Sorry to hear about that. Perhaps a touch of heat carefully applied will help straighten it out at a later date? Don't worry about not completing this GB as there's plenty more coming up to chose from for another go  

Thanks Col. Yes, I'll have a go with a hairdryer set on a medium heat at some point and straighten it up. I'd like to finish it. I'll be looking at future Grop Builds too in the coming days to see what else is on the horizon...there's bound to be something 😀

[Timmas]

On 5/2/2019 at 4:31 PM, helios16v said:

Don't worry about it.  It happens...I don't think I've been able to finish one of these yet.  And I've started a few of them.  😅

 

Setting it aside and going back w/ the right frame of mind will yield you results you will be happier with in end.  See you in the next one.

Thanks mate. I'm not the only one then! I will finish it at some point but in the meantime I'm going to have a go at something more 'mainstream' and, hopefully, more straightforward! 🤨

[Timmas]

11 hours ago, Peter Lloyd said:

Don't fell bad mate. I use the group builds to put some pressure on myself but one still has to remember it's a hobby.  Boiling water and careful bending, followed by cold water to 'set' the part, will fix warping. My Yak-25 needed this to cure asymmetric wing adhedral.

Sorry this advice is too late: sanding the fuselage mating surfaces on a full-sized piece of sandpaper, set on a flat surface, is standard procedure with these short-run kits. The wing fence corners are a bugger, worn moulds I suppose, a tricky one to fix.

But do come back to it, I've done about five or six AZ Models kits now and they do look good, but I often have to accept some small problems that are not visible from a metre away! But that can be the price of venturing beyond Mustangs and Bf109s.

Thanks mate. I was quite pleased how the fuselage halves went together but there were some strange mould marks in the corners of the wing fences which were a bit of a head scratcher. I'll get the kettle out at a later date, or the hairdryer (not mine I might add...see avatar) and have a go at straightening it. But not yet. The sanding advice is good actually...I'll file that away for future reference as I have another AZ kit in my stash (a Saunders Roe Rocketeer) which I'd like to do at some point.

 

I will be back though and will take a look at what else is coming up 😁

Edited May 6, 2019 by Timmas

[helios16v]

Another thing to keep in mind is usually once a year (usually right at the end) there is typically a KUTA GB which is a group build that the focus is to drag a soldier from the Shelf of Doom to the desk and get it finished.  So it will be a fine contender for that.  😉  

[Timmas]

3 hours ago, helios16v said:

Another thing to keep in mind is usually once a year (usually right at the end) there is typically a KUTA GB which is a group build that the focus is to drag a soldier from the Shelf of Doom to the desk and get it finished.  So it will be a fine contender for that.  😉  

Ah that’s worth knowing, thanks for the tip. I’ll keep my eyes open for that...