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Trumpeter 1/48 Mig-15bis


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This was a long term resident of my pile of doom. I had opened the box and snipped a few parts off the sprues, tried a dry test fit and quickly put it back in the box and buried it deep. Last week I was at a loose end and decided to see if I could get any of the parts to fit together. I quickly deviated away from the recommended build sequence and ditched the engine and gun bay. I wrestled with the "fit" of the nose wheel bay which was supposed to attach to the bottom of the cockpit and the intake nose ring. After lots of hacking and filing and much swearing I got all the bits inside the fuselage halves and thought I was over the worst, wrong! The fit of the wings is almost non existent in that it could easily have flapped them to get airborne. The fuselage was intended to be split front and back to allow access to the engine and the cross sections of each half weren't the same. None of this was giving me much confidence that a natural metal finish was going to be viable. Anyhow it's finished now, not my best work by any means but it was quite satisfying in a strange kind of way.

Painted with Tamiya AS-12 decanted from the rattle can, which is my usual base for more NMF paints, but in this case I decided to use it as the top coat. Some panels picked out with Ammo by Mig metallic oil brushers (these things are brilliant). Finally the whole thing was splashed with very diluted enamel wash to try to simulate oxidised aluminium, this doesn't show up in the photos very well but it has left a pleasing staining effect.

 

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Here are a couple of the in progress photos

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Although it doesn't look like it in this last picture but this was where the most time was spent of the whole build. The gun pack cover and the interior behind it took a lot of work to get it close to lining up. I doubt very much that it would have fitted at all if I'd followed the instructions. I sanded right through the back of the nose wheel bay trying to get it to fit.

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Would I build another? No chance. Did I enjoy it? Oddly, yes I did!

 

Duncan B

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1 hour ago, Duncan B said:

not my best work by any means

 

You're a hard self-critic, that's a really good NMF on a really good looking model.

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Your fight paid off big-time. I think succeeding despite problems often provides a greater sense of achievement than a straightforward build.

My problem builds always look like they've been a problem.

You had to tell us about the problem you had with this otherwise nobody would know.

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9 hours ago, Duncan B said:

Finally the whole thing was splashed with very diluted enamel wash to try to simulate oxidised aluminium,

Great finish from a build that sounded like a battle.

 

Maybe of use for future use, the aluminium of VVS jets isn't bare metal, but an aluminium varnish,  

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234949599-mig-15-korean-war-camo-colours/#elControls_1451131_menu

 

"That was so-called "serebryanka" - Nitrogliphtalevaya Emal' NGE-70 (Nitroglyptal enamel).

That was an opaque paint made of aluminium powder mixed with glyptal resin and thinner, its drying time was about 30 to 40 min."

 

Just a bit of information that does seem to get lost,  though I don't know how opaque it was, as photos shows panel variations.  

 

Model looks fab, :goodjob: 

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13 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

Great finish from a build that sounded like a battle.

 

Maybe of use for future use, the aluminium of VVS jets isn't bare metal, but an aluminium varnish,  

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234949599-mig-15-korean-war-camo-colours/#elControls_1451131_menu

 

"That was so-called "serebryanka" - Nitrogliphtalevaya Emal' NGE-70 (Nitroglyptal enamel).

That was an opaque paint made of aluminium powder mixed with glyptal resin and thinner, its drying time was about 30 to 40 min."

 

Just a bit of information that does seem to get lost,  though I don't know how opaque it was, as photos shows panel variations.  

 

Model looks fab, :goodjob: 

Thanks for that Troy. That explains why I wasn't seeing a lot of variation in panels when I went looking at photos, which is why I decided to just go with the AS-12 finish as opposed to varying every second panel like I would normally for a NMF.

 

Duncan B

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