Tim Reynaga Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 (edited) Eduard’s MiG-15 is a “Dual Combo” kit with two kits in the box and markings for no less than six aircraft. The upper half of the airframe comes with the wings already attached complete with the slight anhedral characteristic of the MiG-15. Surface detail is dead sharp and amazingly delicate. The cockpit comes molded as a single tiny piece with a seat, consoles, panel and stick. Nice! The first step was to attach cockpit to the air intake splitter. There isn’t much room for ballast to keep the MiGs from being tail-sitters, so I cut a lead fishing weight into tiny bits to pack as much into the available space as possible. I hope it will be enough! Next came painting the MiG-15s’ plain gray cockpits. A highlight here is the Eduard instrument decals. The unbelievably tiny yet perfectly sharp dial detail is absolutely phenomenal! The panel even includes the vertical white line down the center used to aid MiG pilots in spin recovery maneuvers. The only changes I made to the kit cockpits were simple replacement wire control columns and seatbelts made from strips of Tamiya tape. It is almost a shame to install them into the fuselages which obscure much of the minute detail. Almost none of it will be discernable once the canopies are in place – but at least I’ll know it is there! Edited March 9, 2020 by Tim Reynaga 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Nice start Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Reynaga Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 Eduard’s fuselage assemblies are an unconventional top/bottom arrangement. Fit is precise. Gentle, low-pressure scrapbooking clamps borrowed from the wife assure a tight fit to minimize seams as the cement dries. The tail nozzles fit neatly into the assembled fuselage. A measure of Eduard’s commitment to excellence is the detailed engine backs molded about 1/4 inch inside the one-piece tailpipes. They can barely be seen, but they’re in there. Outstanding! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Reynaga Posted March 13, 2020 Author Share Posted March 13, 2020 Added to the assembled fuselages, the tailfins and high-mounted stabilizers complete the distinctive MiG-15 airframes. These kits are great to work with. Outlines are dead accurate, and the design and fit tolerances of the parts are so consistently tight that, so far, the models have required no filler at all. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 wow! great handfull! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Reynaga Posted March 14, 2020 Author Share Posted March 14, 2020 Designed to destroy enemy bombers, the MiG-15 was well armed with two 23mm and one 37mm cannon. Eduard’s renditions of these in 1/144 are impressively petite. Molded together with their fairings, the guns are sharp and in-scale. They fit neatly into slots under the fuselage nose. The only change I made was to drill out the muzzle ends. Eduard’s MiG-15 kits also come with a choice of nicely molded underwing fuel tanks. These include the early PTB-260 260 liter (69 gallon) slipper tanks and the later PTB-400 400 liter (105 gallon) underwing tanks with fins. There is even the option of PTB-400 underwing tanks mounted to BD3-53 bomb racks – a unique Czechoslovak modification on the fighter-bomber variant of the later MiG-15bis (Fagot-B). Cool. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Reynaga Posted March 15, 2020 Author Share Posted March 15, 2020 Painting these birds couldn’t be simpler – Tamiya Bare Metal Silver AS-12 right out of the spray can! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shashman Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 Cute little things aren't they! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Reynaga Posted March 16, 2020 Author Share Posted March 16, 2020 (edited) 21 hours ago, Shashman said: Cute little things aren't they! Not if you are a 1/144 F-86! Edited March 16, 2020 by Tim Reynaga 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shashman Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 Awwww, look at his little nose 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Reynaga Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 7 hours ago, Shashman said: Awwww, look at his little nose 🤣 Time for decals; I started with the nonslip walkways on the wings. Eduard provided an amazing six marking options for aircraft from five different countries. And the decals are excellent quality too! I chose a Chinese and a Soviet aircraft. The markings look good, but I found the spartan Soviet set to be a bit plain, so I replaced them with the more colorful ones of a Czechoslovakian aircraft from 1953. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Reynaga Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 With the addition of the landing gear, the tiny MiG-15s are complete! The MiG-15 NO-37 was the mount of Lt. Jaroslav Sramek, 5th Fighter Regiment, Plzen-Line Air Base. On March 10, 1953, Lt. Sramek shot down a USAF F-84 Thunderjet that had intruded into Czech airspace. The other MiG-15 is in the livery of the 29th Guards, Dachang Air Base, China. The Soviet 29th Guards Fighter Air regiment fought in Korean War (with Chinese-marked aircraft) from November 1950 to February 1951. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 Nice work on both. Enjoyed the background information of your chosen examples as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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