1/48 Trumpeter MiG-15, Korean War, with CWS tail correction

[Troy Smith]

24 minutes ago, MeneMene said:

I'm really at a loss for what to do, I don't know how else I can weigh the nose down without creating an enormous headache.

get some Neodymium magnets  you can get very small ones, say 2 wide by 3 mm high, I bought some

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Small-neodymium-magnet-disc-2mm-3mm-4mm-5mm-6mm-tiny-rare-earth-craft-magnets-UK/162003918151

  (depends on how wide tyre) drill a hole up into front wheel, place on metal plate (or base with metal) .  They are very powerful, so may have enough pull.

 

 

 

 

 

[exdraken]

yeah,those MiG-15/ MiG-17s are heavy tailsitters...

my MiG-15bis just sits straight, and it has lots of weight in the fron, my MiG-17F simply does not, and she is also very very heavy in the front.... 

 

it looks miGtastic by the way!

Edited January 18, 2020 by exdraken

[MeneMene]

I think I have it! I'll add wheel chocks, glueing them to the back of the main wheels to prevent them tipping backwards.

 

These were the ones I was thinking of getting:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/brengun-brl48034-soviet-wheel-chocks--212724

 

Does anyone know something more appropriate for 1950's Korea instead?

[MeneMene]

So I've settled on using some wheel chocks to try to stop the plane from tipping backwards. In the meantime, I filled the holes I made in an attempt to fill the nose area with more weight:

 

 

 

Here is the current progress after most of the painting is finished. The decals I have call for blue lettering for the unit/aircraft number, but most of my references say red, so I made a set of stencils and went with that instead:

 

 

 

 

 

For the drop tanks, I've built and painted them with an aluminum finish. I wouldn't think they would come pre-painted as all the home USSR Migs would be silver at this time. They haven't been attached yet, so if this is incorrect and they should be camouflaged then I am happy to change it.

 

 

The decals also come with a fairly extensive set of maintenance stencils. Would I be correct in assuming that most of these would have been repainted when the aircraft received field camouflage? What about the black wing walkways? Should I paint those on top of the camouflage or leave them off? Pictures of these aircraft are very rare so lots of it has to be guesswork.

[Graham T]

On 1/18/2020 at 6:32 PM, colin said:

Just make a small base and superglue the front wheel down to it, too much work to scrap it just because it's a tail sitter

What he said!  I've got an Airfix Victor on the display shelf with the tailplane in contact with the wall to prevent tail sitting!

[MeneMene]

I installed the rest of the landing gear covers, added a linkage strut to the outer ones using some plastic rod. The fork-like linkage between the main strut and the landing gear aren't the most realistic but I'm starting to run out of steam. I also added the pneumatic brake lines.

 

 

Gloss coat on

 

 

Decals on

 

 

[MeneMene]

Next I added a panel line wash and some airbrushwork to create some stains and paint variation. No in-progress pics of that process but I do have some of the end result.

 

I build and installed the Master brass gun barrels, trying my best to carefully align them.

 

 

 

The small VHF(?) antenna was very crude in the kit, with a indistinct profile. So I instead just cut my own out of plastic card:

 

 

I also installed the antenna mast, the antenna wire, and then replaced the ejection seat after it had fallen out earlier, this time firmly gluing it in place

 

 

Some fuel stains around the drop tank fill points

 

 

Here are the bren-gun photoetch wheel chocks before paint

 

 

And installed. Success! After bending them down a bit they were able to provide the leverage to keep the nose pushed forward.

 

 

Canopy installed, pitot tube painted

 

 

Gun camera lens filled in with PVA

 

 

And here is the end result. I need to set up the photo booth to get some final pics of this and the Stuka, but here are some temporary ones.

 

Thanks everyone for all the help and encouragement on a difficult build! I think it turned out OK in the end.