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1/48 Mig-3 Early Trumperter


Leon81

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Hello, I am new to this forum, but have some experience in modeling.

Will build MiG-3 early 1/48 Trumperter.

I consider MiG-3 the most beautiful fighter of the World War II, the plane looks like a fighter should look, predatory and fast. The build of this plane is nearly finished (base camo is done), but I will try to reconstruct the whole process.

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I wanted to make this model as detailed and authentically as possible as possible. I don’t have many models on the shelf, so I am trying to master some new tricks each build. For this model it was decided to master soldering. Previous models, all photoetched parts were glued, and I never was satisfied with the result.

First of all, I have made some searched over the Internet to gather information about the aircraft, photos, drawings, and paint options.

After examining the plastic and talking with colleagues, main inaccuracies of the model where determined:

1. The wrong shape of propeller and spinner

2. Wrong hood

3. Wrong exhaust manifold fairing

4. Wrong air radiator

 

It was decided to buy some aftermarket:

 1. Photo Etched flaps

2. Propeller

3. Control surfaces

4. Wheels

5. Photo Etched parts for the cockpit and landing gears
 

The color scheme will be:

 

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1. Trusses in the  cockpit: ALG-5 (yellow-green)
2. Seat: aluminum
3. Interior color (sides and floor): AII (blue)

4. Seat back – 4BO (green)
5. Flaps inside: ALG-1 (Sand yellow)
6. Space behind the Seat back around the radio: АIIЗ (green)

7. Propeller: aluminum, partly black from the inside


9. Landing gear niches: AIIG (blue)

The quality of plastic is rough, the parts are thick, and the riveting is too deep. In order to make the elements matching to the scale, the entire fuselage, wings, and wherever riveting was present, the top layer of plastic was sanded until the riveting became less deep. On all parts that have visible edges, the walls where sanded  to lesser thickness. I covered the hatches with foil. Below is a fragment of the wing. I cut off the plastic steering surfaces and threw them in a can.

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The photo and drawing below shows the lower surface of the wing, it had drainage holes for draining condensate. These holes presented on all surfaces sheathed with canvas or plywood to prevent rotting from the inside.

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I drilled the holes where they were according  to the drawing.

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Edited by Leon81
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Will return to the niches later.

Next, exhaust manifold fairing  and air intakes on the fuselage.

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Its shape is incorrect, I did not figure out how to fix it, so I cut them off completely and made a new one from the sheet of plastic. The wall of the air intake of the oil cooler was sanded down in thickness from the inside. I also cut the thickness of the ribs perpendicular to the fuselage, between which the exhaust pipes are inserted.

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Below is a photo of a replica of MiG-3, inside the air intake you can see the grid of the oil cooler. A photo of the original oil cooler is given separately below.

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I did not like photo etched part  so I made it myself by cutting out a form from a sheet of polystyrene, drilled a hole in it and glued a mesh from a tea bag.

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Edited by Leon81
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Now the engine hood. It has some ledges that were't presented on a real one.

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I cut them off, deepened the vents using a  saw. Since the machine guns were planned to be installed at the very end, and they would not fall inside, and held, on the inside of the hood I have made a socket, using Greenstuff.

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Edited by Leon81
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Niches. In plastic, the niches are quite empty.

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I didn't like the option that was offered at the manual using photoetched parts.  I decided to cut holes instead of imitating them . I added the main cables, chassis mechanism, air ducts from a piece of a sprue, and missing frame elements from polystyrene sheet.  Cut out a strip of polystyrene sheet, glued the etched parts to it, then glued the strip in the inner side of the wing. In those places where I made holes, I sanned of off the thickness of the plastic, so that edges would look more according to the scale.

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The photo shows the fitting of parts, later will  add more details.

 

Edited by Leon81
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Next, go to chassis. In plastic, landing gear doors are a single monolithic part, in practice, it consist of three parts.

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So I cut them in 3 parts, sanded off the thickness both from the inside and outside. On the inside, glued photoetched parts.

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I cut off the plastic shock absorber rods, after painting I plan to replace them with needles, imitated the cables with copper wire.

 

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I just bought resin wheels as a more copy.

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Shape of the spinner is incorrect too,  it is too plump. I Couldnt find a ready-made resin, so I sanded  plastic one from the outside, as far as the thickness of the plastic walls allowed.

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Bought the correct resin propeller

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Plastic wing mechanization was thrownand soldered from photoetched parts.

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Now go to the cockpit. I didn't like the plastic set, so I threw it away.

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Used some photoetched details.

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I decided to solder power frame using brass tubes. I didn't see any sense of making the entire power set, I made only those parts that will be visible in the assembled plane.

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Edited by Leon81
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Next, I took up the air radiator, its shape is not given correctly, it narrows too much to the tail.

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I could not find the resin one Dmold (white in the photo above), so I decided to redo plastic one. I cut the radiator along the red line, pushed the halves apart and glude a cone made of polystyrene sheet (drawn in red) inside. Unforunatly i dont have the fhoto of the while prosess.. As a result of this operation, quite a strong strain was created in the plastic. To make it more firm, I glude a patch on the inside, which creates additional rigidity. I also sanded off the thickness of the walls frome the inside. 

 

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@Leon81

Very impressive and well documented work. :goodjob:

How does the Trumpeter kit compare with the ICM, though the ICM is makes only a late model?  

 

What photo etch set are you using? 

 

I'll also put in a @Massimo Tessitori, as I think this would be of interest,  apart fro running the soviet warplanes site, he also wrote the book that some of your images are from.

 

cheers

T

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Haven't build ICM model, so can't say. But as far as i read it has alot of inaccuracies too.

Been using 

BIG4891 Eduard 1/48 - https://i-modelist.ru/goods/220/461/462/863/14475.html

And some part from Interavia:

interavia_48_mig3

 

I have used some materials from the works of Massimo Tessitori on his web site

Edited by Leon81
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