Think in Russian! - MiG-31 Firefox

[Mig88]

Here is my latest kit: the MiG-31 Firefox of the 1982 Clint Eastwood film. It's the Anigrand 1:144 resin kit.

 

 

 

Keeping in mind the discrepancies between the full-scale film prop and the "flying models", the kit has some inaccuracies, namely around the undercarriage. The nosewheel should have twin wheels and the bays and doors are wrong but I left well alone and only cut the nose bay door in a way that made it closer to what we see in the film. My only other modifications were replacing the WW2-type seat with one from a Revell/Mark I F-104 kit (chopped down a bit in height to fit) and adding a landing light to the nose u/c leg.

 

 

 

 

One of the major discrepancies is the finish. The full scale prop was a dark grey colour whereas the flying models had a highly glossy or metallic) blue-grey tone. I found a comment of the prop designer in internet that stated that Clint Eastwood wanted the plane to be very shiny and that the plane was a dark blue-grey colour. I tried to get somewhere in between. I made some mixes and the final one was Tamiya Gun Metal with Medium Blue and Gloss Black (+ Vallejo Black when the latter ran out). I got a nice pearly dark blue-grey colour.

 

 

 

The kit was fully painted by brush. The kit's painting  instructions were fictitious so I tried to follow what I could make out from the film. The leading edge panels were painted Vallejo Natural Steel. The kit's decals were oversized so I used some from a Mark I red stars sheet and I placed them according to what I could make out in the ice floe scene. I applied a slightly gloss satin varnish (mixed from Vallejo varnishes) since a high-gloss sheen would look awful.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome as usual.
Miguel

[Pete in a shed]

Nice work Miguel. I'm surprised Clint managed to make anything work on that aeroplane as he had such a strong American accent when thinking in Russian it must have struggled to understand him.😁

Pete

[albymoore]

That looks fantastic, Miguel. It's been many many years since I last seen Firefox.

[Parabat]

Fantastic model, always nice to see this. That second last shot is brilliant, really looks the part!

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Brilliant!

 

TT

[Mig88]

On 29/04/2021 at 21:17, Pete in a shed said:

Nice work Miguel. I'm surprised Clint managed to make anything work on that aeroplane as he had such a strong American accent when thinking in Russian it must have struggled to understand him.😁

Pete

Thanks a lot Pete! Ha ha! Indeed! All of the other actors put on some accent to imply they were speaking russian but when in theory Clint is speaking in russian too he doesn't change accent 😜!

Another curious detail I noticed when reviewing scenes as research, on both occasions he gets in the cockpit, he plugs the air hose, flicks loads of switches and takes off... without strapping on any belts or harnesses 🤣!

 

 

On 29/04/2021 at 21:19, albymoore said:

That looks fantastic, Miguel. It's been many many years since I last seen Firefox.

 

On 30/04/2021 at 00:01, Parabat said:

Fantastic model, always nice to see this. That second last shot is brilliant, really looks the part!

Yes! I like taking some ground-level three-quarters shots like that one as it gives a nice perspective.

 

20 hours ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

Brilliant!

 

TT

 

Thank you very much everyone!

 

Miguel

[Wulfman]

Fabulous Firefox, great build !

 

Wulfman

[Mig88]

18 hours ago, Wulfman said:

Fabulous Firefox, great build !

 

Wulfman

 

Thank you very much!

 

Miguel