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Best 1/72 Mig23 Available


snowen250

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Hello,

 

I'd ideally like to add a model of the MiG-23 in 1/72 (any variant but preferably one used by smaller air forces) to my collection.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations on the best available kit? By best i mean, reasonably accurate and also not a pain to stick together!

 

Cheers

 

Simon

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if you want a reasonably accurate kit that's not too hard to assemble, then I'm afraid there's none in this scale.... or better, not yet

Basically you have these options:

RV/KP, where KP reboxed the RV kit without the small photoetched sheet at a much better price. Seems to be the most accurate although I've seen some aspects criticised, sure is the best detailed. This started as a short-run kit, and for this reason fit is not what one may expect from more "mainstream" manufacturers. It's covered in rivets that may or not be something you like. In any case they are not too obtrusive. This is probably the one that will look best when built and both early and later variants are available.

Zvezda/Italeri: easy to find and cheap but with very little detail and raised panel lines. Accuracy-wise is not perfect, being somewhat shorter than it should be. Fit is better than the RV kits but still not great. Both an MF and MLD variants were issued based on the same mould.

Hasegawa: not particularly accurate and little detailed, at least they seem to have decent fit. They've been on the market for a long time so can be found for good prices. Only the early Mig-23M can be built from it. Panel lines are raised but if this is a problem for you you can get the last option...

Academy: basically a copy of the hasegawa kit with recessed panel lines. Accuracy not good but fit is decent. Again very little detail and since shape it's the same it's an early variant.

 

Now for the latest and potentially best kit: Clearprop have announced a new MiG-23 to be issued in 2021. Based on previous products from the same company this promises to be a very good kit in all aspects, so it may be worth waiting for this one. However this will probably be a pretty expensive kit considering the prices of their other offerings. I'm expecting something in the £30 range while the KP kits sell for £16-17, the Zvezda can be found for £12 and the Academy kits for under £10....

Edited by Giorgio N
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I can vouch for Giorgio's opinion that the Academy is easy to build.  It looked like a Mig-23 of some sort at the end. 

Unlike another 1/144 Mig-23 in my stash which dates from the mid 60s and is actually the Ye-152?? that the West feared was the Mig-23 before Mikoyan had started thinking of a -23!

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1 hour ago, malpaso said:

I can vouch for Giorgio's opinion that the Academy is easy to build.  It looked like a Mig-23 of some sort at the end. 

Unlike another 1/144 Mig-23 in my stash which dates from the mid 60s and is actually the Ye-152?? that the West feared was the Mig-23 before Mikoyan had started thinking of a -23!

Ah, yes.  The mis-identified 'Mig-23' Flipper!   Still a very cool looking aircraft IMHO.


David

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The Academy kit is way off the mark, unfortunately. The fuselage is missing some length behind the cockpit and both the wings and tailplanes are noticeably short in chord.  The canopy is the wrong shape. The one I reworked was the MiG-27, most of which is common with the MiG-23 kit that I also have, and the 27 nose is short as well: I don't know if the 23's the same but I wouldn't be surprised. I've not had the Hasegawa kit but presumably that'll have the same issues.

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On 1/25/2021 at 2:54 PM, malpaso said:

Unlike another 1/144 Mig-23 in my stash which dates from the mid 60s and is actually the Ye-152?? that the West feared was the Mig-23 before Mikoyan had started thinking of a -23!

 

On 1/25/2021 at 4:32 PM, David Womby said:

Ah, yes.  The mis-identified 'Mig-23' Flipper!   Still a very cool looking aircraft IMHO.

 

Contrary to popular belief, the "23" Flipper is not entirely unrelated to the "23" Flogger.

Just take a look at the "23-01" Faithless STOL prototype, combining the Flogger fuselage with Flipper wings and undercarriage.

Cheers

Michael

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4 hours ago, Ryan Hothersall said:

If you are looking for a variant of the MiG-23 that was operated by smaller air forces, the MiG-23MS was operated by various Middle eastern and North African air forces. 
 

Only kit of that variant is made by RV. 

 

True. A conversion from any MF kit is not hard, though - scribe a few panel lines around the nose and a smaller radome, change the missiles and associated rails to K-13/13Ms and APU-13's and you're there.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

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  • 6 months later...
10 minutes ago, Mike Esposito said:

I too have been looking g for a MiG 23 in 1/72. 

 

Was interested in the RV or KP. Cannot find one at a reasonable price. There's one on Ebay for 60 +20 USD!!😡😡🤬🤬🤬

 

Gimme a break! 

Well I've seen similar on UK ebay and I've now gone off building one... it's a small model too... no way near as big as an F-111. Still, if the ClearProp new tooling is released sounds like it might come in at around 30 USD may be.

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7 hours ago, Knight_Flyer said:

Well I've seen similar on UK ebay and I've now gone off building one... it's a small model too... no way near as big as an F-111. Still, if the ClearProp new tooling is released sounds like it might come in at around 30 USD may be.

But you still have Hannants!!!

 

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42 minutes ago, Wulfman said:

I have the Hasegawa Mig-23 and 27, is there any way I can get a reasonably accurate 23/27 by combining the two?

 

Wulfman

 

Depends on your personal definition of reasonably accurate...

The Hasegawa kits (and their Academy clones) are noticeably short in the fuselage and the wings and tailplanes are not great either. There are other issues in the canopy and intakes and I may have missed several more. At the same time if built from the box they will not be mistaken for anything else than a MiG-23 or 27...

My personal view is that they would be best built as they are, since correcting the various errors may end up being quite a lot of work. Said that, I'm slowly building a 23 from the Academy kit adding some extra length and correcting some other issues. Worth it ? Probably not, the completed model will be more accurate than the starting point but will still lag behind other kits. When I started this project there weren't easily available alternatives, today at least the Zvezda kits seem to be pretty easy to find and rescribing them will take less time than correcting the japanese kit issues.

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On 1/25/2021 at 2:54 PM, malpaso said:

 

Unlike another 1/144 Mig-23 in my stash which dates from the mid 60s and is actually the Ye-152?? that the West feared was the Mig-23 before Mikoyan had started thinking of a -23!

I‘d be surprised if the Otaki kit was anywhere near real 1/144 - their early kits were all over the ballpark and „nominal“ 144 at best.

 I am surprised the Airfix kit hasn’t even got a mention. True, it’s old, quite basic and has been off the market for a long time. But IIRC it was tooled making use of information gleaned during a Soviet squadron visit to France in 1978 or thereabouts, and I think was considered considerably more accurate than the Hase kit. At least at the time…

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A good kit of the MiG-23 is needed. And, the same for the MiG-27 as well; these were the USSR's support and protection from the '70s to the '90s. I have both the Hasegawa and the Zvesda kits. @Giorgio N's description of the Zvesda's kits are correct; those were some of their ones made after the The USSR's breakup. Perhaps Zvesda will produce new MiG-23 and MiG-27 kits. They did with the Su-33. One thing to mention about their MiG-27 is that they do show the outside cockpit armor plates on it. And, the placement of a pair of missile(AAM type) is incorrect on the MiG-27 IIRC. However, it is an easy correction.

Joe

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