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MiG 25PD


Jabba

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I shall be using the new ICM 1/72nd kit of the MiG 25PD to make the aircraft that shot down a F/A-18C Hornet on the first night of the conflict. I will give fuller details of the event in my next post and will be making the model as how it was when it landed with only 3 missiles. Although this kit does have Iraqi markings I will again be using the Linden Hill sheet.

 

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On 19/02/2021 at 08:28, rafalbert said:

I am tempted to get this kit so am keen to see how it turns out :popcorn:

There were a lot of parts tightly packed into it, with a few that were loose in the bag that contained them.

 

Background story.

 

Scramble, scramble, scramble, the order from the ground control (GCI) left no place for hesitation and Capt Zuhair Dawood brought his Mig-25 to life. It was quite by accident that this young inexperience pilot was sitting in the aircrafts cockpit at 04:30 when the alarm call came. The night alert duty schedule had been prepared almost a week earlier, when nobody knew at what point the war would break out. Taking off  and headed off on prescribe heading. The GCI controller who was assigned to him was located on his base and was using the old - but capable - P35 radar. The voice of the controller was familiar to Dawood and he remembered conducting a number of intercept drills with him. Having checked all his instruments, noticing that all was fine and that his SPO-15 RWR showed no signals of enemy activity.

                                  His aircraft was armed in the standard way with 2 semi active radar guided R-40RD (AA-6C Acrid) and 2 infra-red homing R-40TD missiles. He climbed to 7000m and accelerated to Mach 1 arming all his missiles by engaging the master arm switch.  Heading west he got a call from his GCI to switch on his radar and after a few seconds a well defined target appeared on the display about 25km (15.5 miles) away and approaching. This was a total surprise to him, but he immediately put the cursor on the radar blip and locked onto it. Seconds later a strip of white noise appeared around the enemy aircraft, eventually spreading all over the radar range, engulfing the echo. The enemy was now jamming his radar. He recalled that to fire his missiles he had to know the range of the enemy aircraft, it had to lock onto the target before it could be fired. Several parameters including the target range, bearing and elevation supplied by the radar, together with radar- frequency and pulse-repetition frequency and a targets radar echo were required. Unless these parameters were present the fire control system would not provide the permission to fire. He switched to the range only element of the Smerch radar, which operated on a different frequency and could help determine only the range to the target even under heavy jamming.

                      Suddenly his display showed the targets range, the HUD showed that the aircrafts computer had functioned normally and calculated the inner and outer boundaries of the killing zone. Everything now happened very quickly. The selected R-40RD was buzzing like hell indicating that it had locked onto the target, the fire control system was showing the inner and outer boundaries of the missile killing zone and the enemy aircraft was inside it. The 'PR' light (indicating the Russian expression for 'Permission to fire') was illuminated, indicating that the computer had given permission to launch.

                  Dawood pressed the trigger on his control stick as his target was now less than 20kn (12 miles) away and approaching at speed of some 300m (985Ft) per second. Iraqi pilots had been told by soviet instructors not to look at the missile when firing at night as the flash could temporarily blind the pilot. He stuck to this procedure, but still could see light from the corner of his closed eyes as the missile thundered away from the rail and accelerated ahead. When he eventually raised his head he could see the faint red-orange glow of the missiles motor disappearing in the dark. Although it seemed like a eternity due to time compression associated with air combat the missile only flew for about 12 seconds. The screen suddenly flashed and the jamming immediately disappeared along with the target from the radar display. Dawood knew that the missile had hit the target, in front of him a large explosion lightened up the night skies and he shouted in the radio that the target had been destroyed. The reassuring voice of the CGI confirmed this, saying "congratulations, now back to base".

                  Dawood continued to watch the SPO display all the way back to base, thinking that the American knew that the was out there seeing that they had just lost one of their aircraft and were more than likely looking for him. Landing back at base he taxied to his shelter where the ground crew were waiting for him with smiles on their faces and they knew what the missing missile meant.

 

Although the re were lots of claims and counter claims during the first night of the war, when a F-14A+ was shot down with a SA-2 missile one of the crew under interrogation said that one of the ships aircraft that  he was sailing on had been missing from that night. This was the aircraft that Capt Dawood believed that he had shot down. It was not until 1993 that the IrAF intelligence became aware that the US Navy had declared Lieutenant Commander Michael Scott Speicher as killed in action on the morning of 17 Jan 1991. After cross examination of the data that became available in the US press with the report from Capt Dawood the IrAF concluded that the loss of Speicher matched Dawood's claim. It was not until 1995 that by then Major Dawood was confirmed by the Iraqi authorities  to have shot down a US Navy F/A-18 C  Hornet on the early morning of 17 Jan 91. Major Dawood was subsequently decorated with 3 bravery medals and a sum equivalent to $25000.

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I have started to build up a few sub assemblies whilst paint is drying on other parts. I also applied the decal to the instrument panel which was meant to be as one, but broke into several piece after soaking in water. I am meant to fit the nose U/C, but I think that I can get away with this until later, but will be unable to do this with the mains.

 

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A few more sub assemblies made. All so far have a positive placement except the horseshoe affair at the back of the Fwd fuselage which is a shame as this then sets up the mating with the rear and side fuselage parts. Hopefully I have got it in the right place.

 

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I got the lower rear fuselage part glued to the fwd part. It should have been simple, but whether it was just me it did not seem to be. There are a few positive locks on the rear part which do make the fitting of the part very good. Unfortunately these actually get in the way of fitting it. There is a tongue at the very front which I tried to hook into the fwd fuselage but could not due to the horseshoe part being exactly the same length away. So this was removed and although the fit was better there there were further locking parts that go into the inner intakes areas. The plastic on the intakes in this area is quite thin and actually folded over so that the locking piece of plastic could not be fitted in. If you look at the last picture you can make out the white areas on the intakes which had folded over and stressed it as bit, even more so when I pulled the intake back out to straighten it. So I cut off these parts, shaved down the horseshoe part and got a slightly better fit. Hopefully the side and top part fit a bit better.

 

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Now got a few more of the rear fuselage panels fitted. I first fitted the side panels in which one side fitted almost perfectly, whilst one the other I had to do a bit of fettling before in fitted well but not perfectly. with a little pressure of a clamp or two this was made better. I did a trial fit last night of the upper part which although fitting well when looking from the front  the left hand side did not fit at all. I was resigned to do more fettling, but this morning before going to work I did another trial and it clicked into place. So I left it there until I returned home from work when I applied glue to fit.to it and another couple of clamps. Whist fitting the main U/C I lost one of the parts as it again was a bit of a struggle trying to move the U/C in 3 directions at once to get it to fit. Luckily on a search of the carpet the monster relinquished it and I promptly glued it back into place. This kit appears to be like some of the recent Airfix releases in that the parts have a close tolerance of fit and one part that is slightly out of place can throw that next piece out of position and so on. Hopefully I will soon have the intake upper parts and fins fitted.

 

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Before I joined the wings to the fuselage I had to fit some plasti-card shims to the Stbd wing as it was a bit floppy when I test fitted it. The Port one was fine and just slotted  in, why the other was so loose I do not know. Anyhow both are now fitted and I have also glue the radome part of the fuselage together. There is something strange with this in that there are 4 odd rods (IFF system) rather than the usual 3. I will look to see which one requires removing.

 

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I have been trying to recreate the chafe/flare dispensers that were fitted to the wings of the Iraqi MiG-25s. I have done this y taking the flare section from the KP Mig-23 kit, the ends of the attempt at a flare dispenser from the Kondor kit and marrying them together. It may not look pretty, but it looks effective. I may have to fare in the front and back parts to the centre section, but I will see what I have to do.

 

MiG-23 part.

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Kondor part

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The end result.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
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All decals are now on. I gave up with the stencils only putting on some of the bigger ones as a lot of the others either folded up on me or it was a case of there are just too many of them. I am sure that some of them could have been just one decal rather than 3,4 or 5 that are provided. I have also built up and painted the missiles but I forgot to photo them, so will do soon. Hopefully a matt varnish soon and then on with the rest of the build. I do have a question for @modelling minion. When you built you 1/48 version how big were the axles for the main wheels? These ones seem very small and I have done a trial fit, but the wheels appear to be rather on the sloppy side and do not fit firmly. Any advise?

 

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@modelling minionhere is a picture of the spigot/axle that I have for the main U/C wheel, more of a cone than axle especially when compared to the nose U/C in the photo underneath this one.

 

I have also enclosed a picture of the missiles with the 2 IR ones from the kit and the other radar one from another kit.

 

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9 hours ago, modelling minion said:

That undercarriage really does look very strange indeed, I have never seen anything looking like that cone like piece before.

 

I do have another couple of variants of this kit in the loft and will have a look at those ones to see if they are different. Stranger still these are shown as per the photos the instructions.

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Now standing on its U/C. I added the nose U/C with ease, I don't know why ICM insist in the instructions that it should be added at the start of construction. I have also fitted the wheels, the mains again fitted quite easily despite that unusual axle. I have also painted the Black panel under the radome, not quite equal but will do for government work. Next the U/C doors and missiles.

 

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Very nice result!

:thumbsup:

Some slight weeathering maybe to hat least give some acentuation on hinges and moving surfaces would probably breakmup the grey a bit... there is still some time left ;)

 

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