251-Mig 19PM Farmer -A Mig with missiles***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

Although not too bad for a first attempt, I have noticed that perhaps due to poor lighting conditions I need to respray the undersides as the coat of Aluminium was a bit too thin. As a result this will be a little delayed.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Ok, resprayed so back to giving it time to harden. There is a Flory Models video review of the AK Interactive Xtreme Metals paints on You Tube, and as he says it goes on well and is quite forgiving - I overdid it a bit and slightly flooded it in a couple of places and it still settled down pretty well. It also, as he says, touches up/resprays well which is good. Now I will see how well it handles masking tape, which he was not entirely impressed with, but as I mentioned earlier he was rushing it a bit to my mind.

 

My only niggle is the cost of the ruddy thinner/cleaner - £5.99 for 100ml. I know a lot of paint manufacturers charge a fair bit for their thinners, and I seem to be using about 50p's worth each time I spray - does anybody use anything else with this paint such as cellulose thinners for example? Can't remember if Dave @Rabbit Leader told me what he used.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

As you will have gathered I am not a great fan of natural metal finishes though I admit that they can look brilliant. Some planes have so many different shades of "silver" they look almost like a patchwork quilt, and the Su-9 I am building in the Interceptors GB will be a bit like that, according to various pics I have seen, but allmost all of the pics of Mig-19PM seem to show pretty much an overall single colour - well that's my excuse anyway.

I have painted the nose ring polished aluminium and tarnished the rear by the exhaust but otherwise it is "white aluminium", whilst the AA-1 missiles in the foreground are plain Hu 56 Aluminium with red protective caps I was not sure if the decs would work as elderly Heller ones can be problematic, particularly when they have spent a couple of weeks in the window bleaching away the yellowing, but these were fine. As I mentioned earlier, the box art is based on a photo of "Blue 18" but Heller have provided red decs, so that may be wrong but what the heck!

 

I have still to paint the top of the nose in grey,  and then I can finish off the undercarriage. Then all that remains if to hang the missiles and tanks under the wing, stick on the radio mast and spray a finishing coat of varnish.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited December 2, 2020 by PeterB

[PeterB]

Apart from a little touching up, the Mig is ready to join the Mirage IV in the queue for a finishing spray of varnish.

 The undercarriage geometry is a little unusual on the real thing and this resulted in a rather odd layout to the gear doors, which Heller have only partly understood I suspect. They had the right idea but the excecution is poor resulting in over-thick doors of the wrong shape and with incorrect alignment. Fortunately the drop tanks hide most of the problem so I have not bothered modifying them - in an case I don't have any accurate plans just somewhat vague pics. Given the accuracy problems is has come out quite well.

 

For the record, if war had broken out in the late 1960's/early 70's this is one of the aircraft that would have tried to stop the French Mirage IVA bomber I am building in parallel in this GB!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited December 2, 2020 by PeterB

[PeterB]

Whilst I am waiting for some decent weather to get the final coat of varnish on, here is a comparison with my ancient KP Mig-19S.

I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier but Western observers got a bit mixed up with the 19S. The original Mig-19 was called by Nato the Farmer A, and when the S was introduced shortly afterwards it should have been the Farmer B, but as the modification to an all moving slab tail was not obvious, they missed it for a while, so when the P came alomg with a longer nose they called it the Farmer B in error. Once they realised they called the S the Farmer C. I think the PF was the Farmer D and the PM became the Farmer E.  To my eye, the lengthening of the nose from the P onwards does improve the look of the plane somewhat.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited December 3, 2020 by PeterB

[TonyOD]

It looks fantastic. The thing with these group builds is that I see something that I have in the stash done really well by someone else and it nudges its way to the top of the to-do list... and then another one comes along...

[PeterB]

As the sun mady a hazy appearance today I took my gallery shots so I am calling this finished.

As I mentioned early there are quite a few accuracy problems, perhaps due to lack of info back when Heller moulded this, and although I have perhaps improved it somewhat, I would imagine some problems still remain. However, it does not look too bad to me, though looking at the pic I should perhaps have put more filler on the nose ring joint. Oh, well, it is finished and was quite enjoyable - at least most of the time. I have deliberately gone for a fairly low gloss varnish to get that sort of dull, lived in look that Soviet jets of the period seem to have had

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited December 6, 2020 by PeterB

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Thats a very nicely done MiG. 👍🏻

Edited December 6, 2020 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[John Masters]

Very nice Pete.  I like the differences between the KP and Heller kits.  

[Wez]

Looks good to me, well done!