+++ Finished +++ Eduard 1-72 MiG-21PFM

[Jasonb13]

I came up with the same solution Martin, but from the other end, and now have a chopstick stuck up the tail pipe!

 

Haven't been near the bench for a few days, but got back to it and continued adding little bits of plastic and PE to the airframe. 

 

Used some white-tak to hold this PE in place while the glue took hold, as it's just a 'butt' join with no guide on the fuselage at all. Both of these pieces have already come off a couple of times each, and will continue to do so I'm sure.

 

 

 

 

And then back to some smaller pieces, I'm getting too old for this kinda thing...

 

 

 

 

Finally got pretty much all the bits added. I lost a part today and while looking for it, found the part I lost last week first, and then the part I lost today! Then I lost another part, but had a spare. So at the moment there's nothing missing, and here's how it looks now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's nearly ready for primer. I need to do the front windscreen, and I need to mask the cockpit and wheel wells etc. I also need to decide if I put the tiny PE static wicks on the wing tips etc. before or after painting. Close up of other aircraft suggest they were painted (or at least oversprayed) but it will be just more stuff to fall off! I'll have a think about it.

[Col.]

Looks to be coming together well for you Jason and well done on your victory over the carpet monster.

[Jasonb13]

Thanks Col! Getting there slowly, if I get near the bench tomorrow I'll start work on the front section of the canopy.

[Jasonb13]

Another bit done! Added the masks to the two sections of the canopy, and decided to try something to see if I could make masking the inside of the canopies easier (some kits give you masks for the outside, but rarely the inside).

 

So, after adding the masks, I used the outline of the masks I'd removed and stuck it on to more tamiya tape and then used that as a stencil to cut out the same shapes again. The resulting masks weren't perfect and needed one or two areas fixed with a couple of small strips of tape, but all in all it worked really well and made masking the inside so much easier!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scouring through the instructions I found another two aerials/pitots to add, so I added them, and also used white glue to add the main probe on the nose, so it can be removed when needed but is in place for painting. And I broke out the airbrush and got the cockpit green onto the canopies, gunsight/hud and 'pole' to hold the canopy open.

 

 

 

 

Ooh, out of focus picture, sorry!

 

Anyhow, once they've dried I've to paint some black on the Gunsight and stick it to the front canopy. I'll then stick the front canopy onto the airframe permanently, and stick the rear canopy on with white glue to mask off the cockpit. Then, once I've masked off the wheel wells and nose intake, I'm actually ready for primer, finally!

 

 

[Andwil]

Nice trick with the masking.

 

AW

[Dansk]

Yes that masking idea is so simple and so genius 

[Jasonb13]

Thanks, don't know why I never thought of it before!

[Jasonb13]

More progress made!

 

Finally got all the bits and pieces stuck onto the airframe, so it was ready for primer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then I got a light coat of primer on, and painted a few specific panels green/brown (according to the instructions) and masked them off. It's now ready for a second coat of primer to cover the excess green and then it's time for paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'll see what else I get done today, with the day that's in it!

[Jasonb13]

Some more progress on this after a couple of days away from the bench.

 

Once I had the airframe ready for painting, I did white on the upper half. I've struggled to find a good white for painting, but I decided to try MRPaint's white when I ordered from them recently and I wasn't disappointed. It went on really well and covered the black in a few thin coats. Here's how it looked...

 

 

 

 

Then I had some more masking to do. The bottom half is a light blue, and I needed to mask the demarcation lines, and well as make sure I didn't have overspray. Also, a picture online showed me that this aircraft had white on the upper half of the PE 'vanes' below the cockpit, and blue on the lower half. That was going to be difficult, as the vanes are barely stuck on and could easily come off, so I couldn't apply masking tape directly to them. Anyhow, lots of tape later I had this...

 

 

 

 

and then I got the light blue sprayed today...

 

 

 

 

This evening I very carefully removed all the masking tape, apart from that masking any clear parts. And I'm pretty happy with it, no overspray that I can see, and only a very small amount of touching-up needed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up then is a gloss coat, hopefully tomorrow. And then the decals, which I'm rather nervous about. Firstly, 'cos some of the ones I've applied on the ordinance etc. were so fragile it wasn't funny, and there are some large ones to go on this! And also, there are a bloody shed-load of tiny stencil decals as well. And finally, I've managed not to knock off any pitots/aerials etc. while painting/masking, but applying decals will more than likely knock *something* off! We'll see how it goes...

[Col.]

Nice paintwork and well done on saving allnthose fragile sticky-out bits. Good luck with the decaling!

[Jasonb13]

Thanks Col...

 

So, last update of 2020. Firstly, I noticed something that I'd managed to miss before, a mould seam on the spine of the aircraft. It's a single piece of plastic, so the seam must have come from the mould, and unfortunately once I saw it I couldn't un-see it!

 

 

 

 

So I bit the bullet and sanded it down and repainted it. It's not perfect now but it's better than it was. And I got the first coat of Aqua Gloss down too.

 

That got me looking at the decals, but the 'main' scheme ones and the over 150 stencils! Feeling a bit daunted by that, I had a look at the few pictures I can find online of this real aircraft...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And guess what, not a stencil to be seen! I know some of them are small, but still, looking at the picture below of the stencils on the port nose section, there are a couple that should be easily seen on the pics I have, and they're not there.

 

 

 

 

So, decision made, no stencils for me, so that saves a lot of time! However, it also means I shouldn't have put stencils on the pylons either (it's clear from the photos that there are no stencils on the pylons) but a respray of them would still be quicker than all those stencils.

 

However, with good news comes bad news. Looking at the main decals, I can see that's Eduard have included a white stripe with the Yellow/Red stripes...

 

 

 

 

This white stripe will of course not match up with the white I've painted, and will stand out a mile. So I reckon I'll have to cut that away carefully before applying all those decals.

 

Anyhow, that's where I am now, feeling like maybe I didn't plan this build enough before I started it! I might get a decal or two done today, I'll see how it goes.

 

Happy New Year to you all, hope 2021 is better than 2020 (shouldn't be too hard...).

[Col.]

Good catch on the spine seam and the lack of stencils on that scheme Jason; the latter will save you plenty wasted work.

It looks to me as if Eduard have included a white segment on those decals to represent the fading or overspray into the yellow rather than print the yellow as a gradual fade  Perhaps dry-brushing your own white paint on to it once the decals are applied will help blend that in better?

[Jasonb13]

Yeah, I was thinking that was their plan Col, as the edge of the yellow is definitely irregular and faded. Don't know why they couldn't just end the decal at that irregular yellow line though! I had thought of trying to spray my white over the white of the decal but that would be too easy to mess up. Dry brushing might work, though I'd be worried that the white, even dry-brushed, would be thicker than the airbrushed white and also stand out. I think trying to cut away the white decal is the option with the least risk, it should at least reduce the places that I might have to touch up with paint.

 

To me it's another example of how Eduard have made this kit harder to build than it should be. I shouldn't complain really, it's a great, modern kit, but just a little bit of over-engineered, over-detailed, over-complicated etc. makes it more frustrating than it should be. Still, at least it fits together, I've built far worse kits!

[Jasonb13]

Happy New Year everyone, though it's hard to feel optimistic about things at the moment!

 

I got the decals done today, but they put up a fight. So fragile, refusing to adhere to any curves/edges and tearing/cracking if you even look at them! Very frustrating, but not a lot I can do about it really. Here's how it looks now, with some of the issues highlighted...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MicroSol doesn't seem to do its usual magic to melt the decals onto the plastic, not even the clear film around the edges. So a lot of touch-ups with paint will be needed. Thankfully I have a red paint that's a pretty close match, I just have to see if I have a yellow as well. 

 

I have to say, I'm getting tired of listening to myself give out about this build! It's not like it's a nightmare, but every step seems to be more awkward than it should be. 

 

Anyhow, they're on, and it's a nice scheme. I'll look at cleaning them up and filling in gaps with paint etc. over the next day or so, and hopefully they'll look a bit better. Thankfully cutting the white sections off seemed to work just fine. After that I'm gonna respray the pylons to cover those decals as well, and then it'll be the next gloss coat before an oil pin wash. As this was a special display scheme I won't be doing much weathering other than that.

[Col.]

Sorry to hear those decals are giving you trouble but you look to be making the best of them Jason.

[Jasonb13]

Thanks Col! They are being awkward, even now when I'm touching up some edges of them with paint they're flaking! But I'm also being a moany git and letting it get to me. Once I have another gloss coat on top of them they should stay where they are!

 

I have the red parts and black parts touched up with paint and they're looking better. The yellow is being more awkward, finding it hard to get a good colour match with the paints I have. In the end, while the Revell Matt Yellow I have is too orange, the Gloss Yellow matches quite well, so I'm working with that now. It's fine for little touch-ups, but the tail 'boom' has to be completely yellow to match the tail decal, so brush painting that with gloss yellow should be fun! But I am getting there!

[Jasonb13]

Another little update. Tried my best to get the tail boom colour to match the decal, but didn't quite get there. Ah well...

 

 

 

 

Don't really understand why Eduard don't give you a decal for that part to match the others (though considering how the decals are behaving...).

 

Then I got the whole thing glossed again. Even when spraying on the gloss the air from the airbrush was lifting parts of some of the decals! And that's at less than 20psi after the decals had a good dose of MicroSol. Very strange. Managed not to lose any of them though, and here's how it looks...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also got the pylons resprayed and re-glossed, to cover the stencils that I now know shouldn't be there. So I'm kinda back on track, next step is a panel wash, and that's really the only weathering I'm gonna do as it was a special scheme and kept well in the pics I've seen. After the wash is a matt coat and sticking all the bits on. Nearly there now...

[Col.]

Well done getting the paintwork and recalcitrant decals sorted Jason. Nearly there  

[RidgeRunner]

On 12/21/2020 at 2:20 PM, Jasonb13 said:

I need to mask the cockpit

I used the spare canopy

 

PS: oops, I didn’t realise I was that far behind! I see you went for the closed canopy so ignore my suggestion

[Jasonb13]

Thanks Col!

 

Actually Ridgerunner, the main canopy is only held in place by white glue, once the matt coat is done I'll be taking it off again and leaving it open. Good idea about the spare canopy though, I hadn't though of that.

[RidgeRunner]

16 minutes ago, Jasonb13 said:

once the matt coat is done I'll be taking it off again and leaving it open. Good idea about the spare canopy though, I hadn't though of that.

Ah ha!!! Mine is held down by photo album glue, that is soft and rubs off later ;). I thought you'd gone for the closed cockpit but pleased you've chosen to have it open. There is too much detail not to show it. Keeep up the great work!

 

Martin

 

[Jasonb13]

Well, I'm afraid I've done that thing of taking pictures as I go but not posting them. and now it's finished! So to quickly recap...

 

Did an oil panel wash, and the excellent detail on the fuselage came out really well, for once I didn't drown it in paint!

 

 

 

 

Then I misted on some Matt varnish and was able to unmask everything (apart from the tail pipe as I wanted to keep the chopstick in there to help while gluing on everything.

 

 

 

 

A few touch ups were needed where painted lifted a little around the canopy, but nothing major. With that done, I started carefully gluing all the bits on that I'd already assembled/painted etc.

 

 

 

 

And then some fiddly work on the canopy, adding two rear-view mirrors and some strips of PE to the edges, and some decals as well

 

 

 

 

Gluing that canopy on, and gluing the exhaust on after removing the chopstick, basically finished the build off! 

 

It's a weird one for me. Parts of it I'm really happy with, the paint worked out well for me, including the metal finish on the exhaust, as did the panel wash, and in the end I actually managed not to knock off any of the various fins/aerials/pitots I'd added, which was a bit of a miracle. But those bloody decals ruined it for me, as any sort of a semi-close inspection shows how poor they are even now. After finishing the model I went to take some pics and noticed that some more decals were peeling off the leading edge of the tail, so I sliced them off and used some paint to touch it up. Apart from the atrocious decals, and the kit being slightly over engineered for a 1:72 kit, it's a really nice kit, great detail and a lovely eye-catching scheme, as long as you don't look too close!

 

Thanks for all the help, advice and encouragement, and for hosting the GB, I'm delighted to have my first kit of 2021 done! Here are lots of pics, and I'll put some into the Gallery as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Col.]

Despite the various issues caused by those decals you've created a stunning result Jason

[lasermonkey]

A standing ovation from this bit of Bedfordshire! That was never going to be an easy scheme to pull off, no matter how good the decals were, but you've more than succeeded. I hope you're proud of the result, especially due to the work you put into it.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

[RidgeRunner]

Very nice,Jason