Another MiG! 1/48 Bulgarian MiG-21bis ***FINISHED***

[Hristo D.]

Much better! Keep on! Looking forward for the chipping- nose cone, edges, spots around the cockpit an so on. The left wing should be a bit more beated than the right one.

Don't forget the transponder anntenae next to the right NLG door. I think it was in the sprues, but if not, I assume it wouldn't be that hard to scratchbuild it. 

[modelling minion]

Those colours look spot on to me Ray, and the fact that you can still clearly see all the detailing is a testament to how good a job you have done on the painting.

[Ray_W]

1 hour ago, Hristo D. said:

Don't forget the transponder anntenae next to the right NLG door.

 

Thank you Hristo.

 

Yes the transponder, conspicuous by its whiteness. I will swap the supplied non-streamlined version part D52 for the streamlined J13.

 

1 hour ago, Hristo D. said:

The left wing should be a bit more beated than the right one.

 

The wear on the leading edge and the top of the wing appears to be down to a grey undercoat rather than bare metal. Can you confirm? I plan some lighter wear, not as much as 2011. I will use the sponge technique on the grey. I'll do any bare aluminium with a silver pencil.

 

11 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Those colours look spot on to me Ray, and the fact that you can still clearly see all the detailing is a testament to how good a job you have done on the painting.

 

Thanks Craig, it came up real nice. You should of seen it when I was using it as a paint mule, checking the colours against each other. The light green was trickiest switching from grey-green, blue-green, lime-green.  I have so many pictures of the actual aircraft, in so many guises, that I had to come to a point and said "that'll do!".  I'll play with some oil or enamel filters after decals and then hopefully the final flat coat will pull it all together. And, I can't escape from the stencilling. I note that "243", even at its heavily weathered stage, had legible stencils. 

 

@Hristo D.

 

By the way Hristo, I did a pair of Bulgarian Ju-87's last year in the Ju-87 STGB. The build link follows. I also plan a couple of Bulgarian Bf-109's in the 109 STGB later this year.

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235066288-a-pair-of-bulgarian-shchuka-–-r-2-and-d-5-finished/

 

Ray

[Hristo D.]

2 hours ago, Ray_W said:

 

Thank you Hristo.

 

Yes the transponder, conspicuous by its whiteness. I will swap the supplied non-streamlined version part D52 for the streamlined J13.

 

 

The wear on the leading edge and the top of the wing appears to be down to a grey undercoat rather than bare metal. Can you confirm? I plan some lighter wear, not as much as 2011. I will use the sponge technique on the grey. I'll do any bare aluminium with a silver pencil.

 

 

Thanks Craig, it came up real nice. You should of seen it when I was using it as a paint mule, checking the colours against each other. The light green was trickiest switching from grey-green, blue-green, lime-green.  I have so many pictures of the actual aircraft, in so many guises, that I had to come to a point and said "that'll do!".  I'll play with some oil or enamel filters after decals and then hopefully the final flat coat will pull it all together. And, I can't escape from the stencilling. I note that "243", even at its heavily weathered stage, had legible stencils. 

 

@Hristo D.

 

By the way Hristo, I did a pair of Bulgarian Ju-87's last year in the Ju-87 STGB. The build link follows. I also plan a couple of Bulgarian Bf-109's in the 109 STGB later this year.

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235066288-a-pair-of-bulgarian-shchuka-–-r-2-and-d-5-finished/

 

Ray

J13 seems to me the correct one.

The Bulgarian MiGs look that worn down because no primer was used when they were repainted in the last years. Consecquently, the paint fades away due to the harsh Thracian sun, rain and other meteo stuff quite quickly and peels to bare metal. Since you plan to depict an earlier period, wear would be subtle. Some reference on '27' twinseater in the thread in the link bellow:
http://forum.scalemodelsclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=5347&start=15

Your Stukas are amazing!

Looking forward for your Messerschmitts! I see you have a book by col. Nedyalkov- he is the best historian in the field of Bulgarian aviation. Unfortunately, I do not have knowledge in that period, but I'll follow your build.  

[Ray_W]

10 hours ago, Hristo D. said:

The Bulgarian MiGs look that worn down because no primer was used when they were repainted in the last years.

 

Thanks Hristo! Exceptional build in the link and very useful. 

Ray

[Ray_W]

A busy week and not so much time at the bench, but I was able to put in a little work preparing for a big decalling session scheduled for the weekend. This will include those tricky red outlined numbers. 

 

I was hoping that, with its re-paint, this aircraft had minimal stencilling. Not to be, lots of stencils. So armed with the Fishbed stencils from Begemot Decals, a very detailed instruction sheet and with apologies in advance to my Bulgarian friends for any nuances in the difference between Bulgarian and Russian Cyrillic characters, I am now ready to launch into it. As with all micro decals, I will need to put myself into some trance like state possibly with the chant "I am one with the detail and the detail is with me. I am one with the detail and the detail is with me".

 

 

I prepared the surface with a smooth coat of Gunze GX112 Gloss Clear "UV Cut" thinned with Mr Color Levelling Thinner. I also use their GX100 Gloss Clear. The decision of which to use comes down to what I can get my hands on. Although, be it my imagination or otherwise, the GX112 seems to go down a little better. I think both products are great - tough, shiny, thin - mainly for protection of the colour coats as I will be using some oil filters for fading effects and of course, nice for decals too.  

 

 

 

I spent some time on the ordnance (now also ready for decals) and the undercarriage. Some brake line detail was added to the nose wheel with lead wire and I still need to add the scissor mechanism so noticeable on the main undercarriage legs. Eduard provide a PE version in the Profipack kit. I will need to fabricate. Tyre sidewalls still to be dusted at the end of the build.

 

 

So decals next - a scale model love-hate relationship.

 

Ray

[Hristo D.]

Hi Ray,

You don't need to bother about the stencils- they are in Russian on our MiGs too.

Good work on the landing gear- maybe a red mark on the tyre and the rim would add some more color.

Good luck with the numbers and roundels, don't forget about the glass coat before applying them on the model.

Looking forward for the weathering!

 

[Alex Gordon]

Crumbs Ray! I hope we can see your paint job after you've put all those stencils on .

[modelling minion]

Nice work on the Mig Ray, the weapons and undercarriage look very nice.

Looks like those decals will keep you busy for a while.

[Ray_W]

Oh, so many stencils!  However, I can recommend the Begemot Decals, which went down beautifully using the technique described by @stevehnz here:

 

 

Although I prefer to dilute Steve's mix just slightly more using 7 drops Future to 4 or 5 drops of water.

 

This method actually makes the job a little easier, though still tedious. Fast application with no silvering. About 1/3 of the Begmot sheet is used for the "bis". I did not bother with a few very tiny stencils,

 

In my experience, stencils can make an impressive build, but have a propensity to destroy an otherwise perfect job by silvering and remaining visibly proud from the surface. In this case they were good.

 

 

 

 

 

I had three supplier's decals to choose from for the roundels - the local Bulgarian decals , Linden Hill, and ModelMaker. The local decals were my first choice being the right size, more correct colours than ModelMaker, just not printed as well being slightly out of register with the green varying noticeably as a result. The white would need to be redone. They also were quite stiff and did not seem to suck into the surface even with Tamiya Mark Fit Super Strong  (yes I did try). The Linden Hill are nicely printed with good colours - just too small and look that way on the model (yes I did try again). So opted for the third option ModelMaker for good registration and size be it that the colours are a bit washed out. The green and red both needing to be more saturated. They did go on extremely well with Mr Mark Setter and Mr Mark Softer. The bright light and photo do make the colours look a little worse than they are. It made it easy to decide that I would not pursue the 4th, and often my usual, option - mask and paint.

 

 

The "243" numbers were the locally produced item and using cool water, adequate soak time and Mr Mark Setter went on with no issues. I did not need to give them a protective gloss coating before hand. My only concern being silvering. I ensured they went down well using Mr Mark Softer and then hot water on a cloth to push them in position and there was no evidence of silvering. As it is an assembled two-part decal - white base and red outline - of individual numbers on a gloss surface, it does give the appearance of silvering when viewed at an angle. I will see what they look like after a gloss coat, hopefully reducing the effect when compared to the other surfaces. If necessary, I will then try a matt coat to see what the final finish will look like and may have to do some targeted micro airbrushing if unhappy. 

 

 

Ordnance is nice:

 

 

Time for another gloss coat over all those decals and then into the weathering process. Although, I do have a suspicion I will be playing with the"243" a little more.

 

Ray

 

 

 

[modelling minion]

That is excellent work on the decals Ray, those stencils look great and not a bit of silvering in sight, fantastic!

[Col.]

Going to echo Craig's comment. Lovely work

[franky boy]

Excellent work Ray. She’s turning into a real beauty.
 

That CWS nose makes a huge difference. 

 

James

[Ray_W]

@modelling minion @Col.

 

Thanks guys for the kind words. 

 

I battled to eliminate the marginal silvering on the front numbers and in the end, and still not happy, decided to sand off the lot and respray the nose. This has since been completed. 

 

 

Unfortunately, I do not have enough of the "2"'s with the red surround. The local LHS is out of stock. Now I am waiting on a response on potential re-supply. I have plenty of the plain white numbers so have a second option by portraying this aircraft in its earlier guise. That is without the red surround. We will wait and see. I will bed these decals in the diluted Future mix, if I use them again. 

 

Now we wait. In the mean time, I have broken my "one kit at a time" rule and jumped across to ANZAC GB to start my Mirage IIIO - just some dry fitting of the major components.

 

Ray

 

 

[Ray_W]

2 hours ago, franky boy said:

Excellent work Ray. She’s turning into a real beauty.

 

Thanks James, although I will back track a little and get those front numbers right.

[exdraken]

Looks perfect!!

Congrats!

[modelling minion]

Sorry that the numbers on the nose didn't work out to your satisfaction Ray, but I can understand  your wanting them to look perfect as you have done such a great job on her. Nice job touching up where the old numbers were too, never something easy to get right.

[Ray_W]

9 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Nice job touching up where the old numbers were too, never something easy to get right.

Hi Craig,

 

Seems every project I do of late ends up with me not being totally satisfied in the markings with the result that some re-work is necessary. 

 

The base white numbers went down very well. Any silvering I think was in the top red border decals. Their application may of also weakened the adhesive on the white base. I expect this problem will disappear if bedded in a diluted Future mix and I will ensure at least 24 hours between the white and then the red surrounds being placed. All of this assuming I can get some replacements in time. 

 

Ray

[Col.]

Given the circumstances and your admirable commitment to such a continuous high quality on this one we can forgive you for breaking that one at a time rule  fingers crossed you get the required replacement decals.

[Ray_W]

On 1/27/2021 at 10:10 PM, Col. said:

you get the required replacement decals.

Great news, decals will arrive this coming week so we can have another attempt.

 

Ray

[Col.]

Great news indeed  

[Ray_W]

Knowing that the numeral decals should be here this week, it was time to show great self control and return the Mirage IIIO (next in the build queue) to its box and keep focus on the build at hand. Time to get the finer details ready and we all know these can be a challenge in finishing kits. With nothing else to tempt me, it is easy to get into them and once started these mini projects are fun and satisfying in their own right.

 

First I completed the cockpit details including some resin and PE. The canopy seals came up very nicely. 

 

 

I was about to spray some clear decal film to cut into thin strips for the canopy glazing seals. Looking at pictures of the aircraft, the sealant is quite conspicuous and looks like putty so I decided on hand painting and ...

 

 

... I think the result is more representative.

 

 

I finished the main undercarriage by fabricating the triangulated scissor mechanism with thinned styrene strip and styrene push rods and copper brake line loops. 

 

 

And then a number of other small bits and pieces such as aerials and pitot tubes. Not much to show though time consuming and now all ready. Let's hope the numbers arrive early in the week and all going well this build should finish within the week.

 

Ray

 

[modelling minion]

Thats very nice work indeed Ray.

The canopy sealant does look much better painted on, gives an effect very much like the real thing.

I find that all these small but essential jobs take me at least as long as the main assembly and struggle to not run out of steam when doing them.

[Ray_W]

3 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

I find that all these small but essential jobs take me at least as long as the main assembly and struggle to not run out of steam when doing them.

 

Craig, So true. I find it so good to have only one build on the bench these days and then it's easy to jump in and do a mini project, say, just the main undercarriage detail. Before you know it, all the tedious stuff is just sitting there waiting for final assembly. There never speed builds, but nearly always very enjoyable and satisfying like this lovely kit.

 

Ray

[Ray_W]

Waiting, waiting. With everything ready now for the next step, those front numeral decals, and wanting to hold off any weathering and finishing processes until they are fixed to my satisfaction and with some spare time available at the bench today, I'll break my golden rule (one kit at a time) and head back over to the ANZ Group Build and start some serious work on my Mirage IIIO. Hopefully the decals will arrive today.

 

 

Ray