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Dear all,

being currently interested about cold war aircraft, I am starting a new kit which represents one of the protagonists of the post WWII period, the MiG 15 bis. For this iconic plane, I chosed the 1:48 Trumpeter kit, a brand that I never tried before. The Trumpeter kit is supposed to be a quite good representation of this jet, supposedly better than the Tamiya one. It is not my intention to spend too much efforts in detailing the cockpit because this is going to be a 'closed canopy' model.

Unfortunately, once I saw the ejection seat supplied in the box, I was quite disappointed by how inaccurately the seat and its headrest was reproduced. Being the seat and headrest the most prominent details that can be seen through a closed canopy, I decided to detail them it a bit. Trumpeter moulded a 'boxed' headrest, probably roughly copying the look of a seat which equips one of the several restaured MiG flying in US, but the real one had actually quite different a look.

 

p?i=2e07c588794e2d9763c5848430ab804c

 

Above, you can see the difference and the few improvements that I made with some Evergreen strips compared to the original one (the kit comes with two seats). To give a little 'busier' look to the cockpit, I also added few wiring along with the engine throttle which cannot be absent in a pilot's office. Before a coat of paint, I embellished a bit more the seat by adding also two side handles which can be well spotted from outside.

 

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p?i=2aa84241552405131e43d8a5ba3ed862

 

To give a little 'busier' look to the cockpit, I also added few wiring along with the engine throttle which cannot be absent in a pilot's office.

 

p?i=a267d4272e9e0ca92c4467ebc8200788

 

I am using the colors seen on various pictures on internet, but various shades can be found depicted. Eventually, I opted for a basic color obtained from the Tamiya Dark Sea Grey mixed with white (3 d.s.g. + 3 white) according to proportions that I decided by eye. I colored the ejection seat, added black paddings and seat belts from the Eduard set.

 

p?i=93e2ff757349872a753cce36262360e4

 

I have the impression that the seatbelts are a bit oversized, but they look the part.  I would like to give the cockpit a 'used' look, therefore I am liberally applying various washes on its parts which will appear less obvious through the canopy.

 

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p?i=91683c2418806d5a50b317d6cc64f297

 

Few old instrument decals were also used, while the instrument panel and the pedals are from the Eduard set, which is specifically made for the new recent Bronco kit, but the parts of which I can reasonably fit also on this kit. Now I have just to add a couple of red handles and a coat of matt varnish to reduce the shine.

 

This is my first Soviet aircraft and I know little about russian aircraft, hence I am curious to see how will this one turn out. I hope you will be also interested in it.

Best regards,

Dan.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

I have finished the cockpit parts and sprayed them with a coat of Tamiya matt clear which removed the shine and improved the overall look.

p?i=1bd99359bb8bc4f3477cd2aed298dd40

 

However, I encountered a problem with fitting the parts that I modified. The cockpit is quite cramped and indeed the added lateral handles of the seat could not fit in the small space between the walls and the seat. I hate when this happens, but I decided that life is too short for wasting time with that, so I cut out away the handles and I will proceed without adding them. Well, I said that this will be a closed-canopy model and nobody will peer into the cockpit to check whether all the handles are in there or not.

 

p?i=2d8894e4f7593f41c8200702f10c321d

 

Then, the nice Eduard instrument panel went into place:

 

p?i=5a939a52af59714190ecac02bc5974a6

p?i=fb6384de19a603aad4809a2dc9e0cfb8

 

As I sad earlier, I do not know much about Soviet planes, but, at the end, I am satisfied with the look of the cockpit which appears to have in my view a certain 'Russian' character. Seen the fit problem I had before, I tried to dry fit check all the parts to be sure that all components will fit inside the fusalage halves:

 

p?i=9763c8ac77da56c322efc2ed876bec58

 

I think I have understood now the reason for the narrow cockpit: the air passages the bring the air from the intake to the engine are located along the sides of the cockpit and the latter gets 'squeezed' in size to avoid a resulting too wide a fuselage. Anyway, some efforts seem to be required to fit everything inside.


I did not make up my mind about exposing or not the jet engine provided in the kit. Usually, I am a bit critical about these items, especially when they come with movable parts as in this case. The poseable parts have generally a toy-ish design which I am not a fan of. This case is not an exception being the details used to join the tail to the rest of the fuselage very obvious. For the moment, I will give it a try and I will defer the final decision to a later stage. Hence, I pulled the engine bulkhead out of the box and found not a very nice part, afflicted by extractor marks.

 

p?i=2f1f6ffe8bbc4cf9f3446ac8e2d5dab3

 

These marks are located on a web that shouldn't be there. I presume that these triangular holes are the air ducts and they should be opened up. This is what I did, adding also two curved wall that should represent the internal walls of the air ducts:

 

p?i=869614c727734135ab34bb55bb0a732b

 

The remaing horizontal sect should represent the wing spar that crosses the fuselage (and the ducts) in the middle. In the front air intake, on the vertical sect that splits the airflow, the headlight is faired in the sect. The transparent part of the headlight had an annoying extractor mark in the middle of its concave surface which deserves some cares because it will be a focal point of any frontal view of the aircraft. Therefore, I first sanded off the circular extractor mark and finally polished it with a Tamija fine compound. A coat of floor polish restored the shine and protects the part from the fumes of the glue.

 

p?i=56756ae0915c5ab186697121a224cbf2

 

Here, the finished trasparent part with its edges painted black and ready to be glued on the duct sect which is on the right. The three tiny holes on the part holder should help to make the headlight cavity not gas-tight. The headlight finally inside the air intake:

 

p?i=69b9fd4b1f67a7eae566042d5911044d

 

Ok, not perfect, but surely less obvious than before.

That is all for the moment,

best regards,

Dan.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Hi all,

slowly progressing on this build that I thought to be an easy OOB, but instead is requiring a lot of work because of the very poor fit of some of its parts. This is the ammunition compartment where I replaced the plastic barrels of the two 23 mm guns with aluminium tubes primed with the Tamiya white primer.

p?i=f4a0ec3ff64d91208684159c448f120c

The kit advertises the possibility to leave this compartment exposed, but I am not interested in that and I wanted to mount it closed to better reveal the lines of the fuselage. This was the beginning of some fit problems because the lid and the guns seem not to designed for that.

p?i=25b90e9ae281f407e8ff492378093e23

Once I tried to put the parts together, unexpected awfully wide gaps appeared everywhere around the lid. In addition, filing was required to persuade the gun barrels to fit into their slots. Perhaps it was my fault, but I am really surprised by such bad a fit in a modern kit. To fill the gaps, I started to contour the parts with strips of styrene card and to create a rabbet for the lid edges.

p?i=4d0787177fb1c3cdab502b6958892549

Before gluing the lid into place, I stuffed the weapon compartment with pieces of lead wire:

p?i=a207d21655685a5c5dc9dea7558bb737

After gluing the lid, the tip of the 32 mm gun barrel was removed to be later replaced by an Eduard part.

p?i=e530220da2bca0790a69e39ff6b870b3

I completed filling the gaps with pieces of styrene cards and stretched sprue. I also dry test fitted the Eduard muzzle into its fairing:

p?i=cc71e138ed80bde3dade6ba48588e2c1

Meanwhile, I started working also on the Klimov-vk1, the Russian version of the RR Nene jet engine. These are its various components just painted.

p?i=bd5bb785a6f62f4d81dafbd4f417d7c5

I searched on the web for pictures of this engine to find which colors were more likely to be used for it. I painted the matt parts of the jet pipe with a mix of Tamiya matt aluminium and matt white (2/1), while for the shiner parts I used various shades of Vallejo metallic colors. The black parts are painted with Tamiya flat black mixed with few drops of Tamiya clear.

p?i=a53c81166f1a8c45e6cd940ea8a29e50

I replaced the small plastic pins used to suspend the engine with brass tubes for added strength.

p?i=1537a20c70bd55d0c9957b86a4e07f2c

 

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I dry brushed the black parts with Humbrol gun metal to highlight some details and finally I used the Tamiya black and brown accent panel liners on the metallic parts to hint at some weathering.

p?i=11a8002c46247d526fbfd8d78f22fed0

Next, I will spray some light shades of brown to reproduce those parts of the engine that are discolored by the heat.

That's all for now, any comment is appreciated,

best regards,

Dan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dear all,

I completed the front office with the gunsight and glued the windscreen on. The windscreen part was masked with a combination of masking tape and masking liquid. This is how the cockpit looks like now:

 

p?i=a3be6f9dba4b29534673afda64dc3494

 

At the end, what is visible of the front cockpit doesn't look too bad. The characteristic vertical white strip, which is a trademark of Soviet fighters, is well noticeable.  Then, I had fun adding some weathering to the jet engine. I tried to reproduce some discoloration due to the heat by selectively spraying a very diluted red brown.

 

p?i=62c3a3e117f4fff91fb20a09b2387d62

 

This is the rear fuselage dry fitted with the front part. Finally, it starts to look as an airplane and not just like a bullet. The unmistakable lines of the Mig 15 can now be seen. Its short fuselage and the huge swept backward tail surface can be noticed resembling to some extent the configuration of the Focke Wulf 183. I posed the engine next to it because now I have to decide what to do with it.

 

p?i=4ef94b86a090748ceeea038add92187d

 

Once fitted inside, the installation of the rear fuselage becomes a bit problematic. The fuselage seems not to fit well the engine and a lot of force is needed to slide the jet pipe into the rear fuselage with the risk of scratching the paint of the engine. Hence, I am going to glue the fuselages together and scratch build a trolley for the engine for posing it next to the aircraft. This seems to me the most straightforward and good compromise for finishing the build within a reasonable time. This way, I would get a complete airframe showing the unbroken shape of the aircraft, which is the option I like most.

 

The fuselage got wings and a tail (not glued yet).

 

p?i=7972b19e0b6a7e03057f17efafcf34db

 

The fit of the wing roots is quite OK on the upper side but it is a bit disappointing on the other side:

 

p?i=c85fdc2882bfef14d9b24991968570b5

 

I resorted to fill the gaps with stretched sprue from the plastic of the kit for a minimal disruption of the surface  details:

 

p?i=d2254e6207282257897f314eae9a27a6

 

The P-51 paper tank in the background of the picture is waiting to become the new jet pipe to be installed inside the airframe. The tank was cut at its tapered end and its walls were sanded down to a suitable thin thickness. Supporting bracketry was improvised from styrene card:

 

p?i=49a75dfcc325098efcb4848422d90d62

 

An annular gap was left between the pipe and the airframe as was seen in pictures:

 

p?i=b38794e70c70a9ae81aa110915b5de1e

 

Then, I also built some fictional tubing into the wheel bays for added detailing:

 

p?i=0f60fc24ac851cf27e64b67e441ddaf0

 

Next, the main assemblies will be glued together and paintwork can begin.

That's all for now,

Best regards,

Dan.

Edited by Dstream
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  • 1 month later...

Hi all,

after quite some time, I am now back to my Mig 15. I glued all the main parts of the airframe, included the fuselage portions, and spent time on inscribing the lost details. In particular, the joint between the fore and aft fuselage parts needed several CA filling, sanding and scribing sessions. Then the airframe was readied for the primer by degreasing it with alcohol.

 

p?i=56be98184b469f51b813a0dbe6576d77

 

I sprayed a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 which went on nicely leaving a very smooth surface. To check the work on the re-scribed details, I applied some Tamiya black panel liner which revealed the lines and gave a more 3D appearance to the model. After few corrections, I sanded all the airframe with wet extra fine sand paper obtaining a very consistently smooth surface.

 

p?i=561d1d0f14082680a9778eb60bd0e4d6

 

p?i=0d27a931451732739bf5fdf65ae1654a

 

I applied a grey color to the wheel wells and added some oil colors for reproducing some grime inside the wells:

 

p?i=6773ee79088313e699dc24efb2d415b0

 

Then I masked all the bays and details that need not to be painted with the underside color:

 

p?i=6b3f90476874cc7f06b87b6750ae2f19

 

To render the light blue more interesting with some tonal variations, I started with an uniform dark color. I chose the Mr. Color Extra Dark Sea Grey which sprayed beautifully and dried with a slight shine finish.

 

p?i=17b62059e838996846e8b7d5fd23461a

 

Then, I sprayed random blotches of matt white on top of the EDSG (sort of black basing) followed by wet sanding everything. After that, I started spraying thin layers of the light blue paint to gradually cover and uniformize the marbled surface. The light blue was obtained by a mix of Tamiya XF-23 (2/3) and flat white (1/3). This is a picture that I took after few layers:

 

p?i=a1a450847d53557b26f8bee034b67bdd

 

Eventually, this the slightly non-uniform coverage of the light blue that was obtained. Later on, I will add a little post-shading with a darker tone of the blue.

 

p?i=17ec57bd1baa0b89f8df9f65de870e3f

 

p?i=f61aee93569a8d9338e2cbba7ca1697c

 

That is all for now, next I will tackle the upper surfaces. Thanks for visiting and any comment will be appreciated.

Best regards,

Dan.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi all,

after quite some time, I am able to post some progress on this build. I had to apply the camouflage with several iteration because I did not like the colors which I originally chose. At the end, for the light brown I started from a RAF Dark Earth which I lightened with white and yellow while for the green I made a 50-50 mix with the previous XF-13 and XF-5, which is a brighter green. Finally, I tried to spray the camouflage bands freehand with my airbrush. The final result was declared OK by me, after many repeated touch-ups to correct the most obvious oversprays.

 

p?i=91d337d7482b3e71b1c9ff4f5d79a38f

 

p?i=0a04403eabeeaa3c4e989fde641e9a72

 

I went on with the finish of the camouflage and brushed on a layer of floor polish to obtain a smooth surface in preparation for the decals. Actually I brushed two layers on the location of the decals.

 

p?i=bd81fed100080e07993edc67522c775d

 

It was followed by a very light wet sanding which removed any remaining roughness. Then the decals were applied and a layer of Tamiya gloss X-22 sealed the paint and the decals. As it can be noted, this version of MiG-15 is decorated with just few decals.

 

p?i=502184552ac9c9cf132187f0f26459cb

 

p?i=e625b663104efa0b84e2263dd5168006

 

The decals are sufficiently thin, with little visible carrier and conformed well to the surface.

 

p?i=5e4e0c771c492a7d799cb7776a732aca

 

p?i=7579a1312b1eaa5355ed1ed366195866

 

However, in my opinion, they lack saturation of their colors. The red tone, which is the predominant one for this aircraft, does not look as a full saturated red, but instead appears slightly discolored, almost pinkish:

 

p?i=e6ea124cb367f89542683633a36c861b

 

I think this is not appropriate for a Soviet aircraft! Unfortunately, I will have to live with that. Now the gloss paint needs to cure well for a couple of days before I can start working with oil washes for highlighting panels and details. Now, I will have to start working also on the remaining parts like the landing gears, the drop tanks, etc.

This is all for now, thanks for following,

best regards, 

Dan.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

after the gloss paint, I applied oil colors to highlight details and then I sprayed all the model with Tamiya flat clear which left a satin finish which I think is quite alright.

 

p?i=8556b5ca5b5e386f0ecc8efd77d99e7f

 

p?i=dc2d08fc73533dda87df6c3643d8a690

 

Once cured, I started to remove the masking from the jet pipe, windscreen and canopy.

 

p?i=3e3c8cc083e8c154b6e2904ef16a5139

 

p?i=be6b76c1b958bee4ad2cf45a861a0687

 

p?i=294f4cdbec2c1c4ae9abc7d9446c439d

 

p?i=9cb5f354cb78df2315e5d3aee3b9c8c9

 

In this picture, the unmasked canopy is just dry fitted in place:

 

p?i=9afac30e0b8cb1d4b0db0b12213b645c

 

That's all for now,

Best regards,

Dan.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all,

thanks for the likes. After a long interval, I have finished a bunch of small items of my MiG:

p?i=a6b98527f5a8f3b93d6d99b36e461b94

 

I cleaned up the landing gears and added the tubes of the breaks, as seen in walkaround pictures,  to busy them up. Prepared the aux tanks and wheels. I replaced the main wheels with Eduard's resin parts which look nicer. Then sprayed the landing gears, painted details and completed them with Tamiya panel liner (black and brown) to get the feel of the real thing.

p?i=38d446b4219833d37456287895a42434

 

To break the more tedious works, I also started to add small stains and scratches using watercolor pencils. 

p?i=e9d020cb787e448f5c823150cc4493ea

 

This is the underside with stains and the main landing gear legs finally glued in place. A light coat of matt clear will remove the remaining shine.

p?i=d06bc26fc379cd980b3ad626ca45471b

 

Then I started to 'furnish' the model with the last bits and for me, this means progressing at a even more glacial pace than my usual with very small progress at every step. Here, I rebuilt the arched frame that is located inside the canopy and which was provided as an obvious solid piece in the kit.

p?i=ad6a40b429db398a2b09b89a9d88ca19

 

This is how it looks once painted and glued inside the canopy. I find that this is a little improvement which is easy to implement.

p?i=256bedba48ea480ae39442d4a9aa1ade

 

Continuing with landing gear doors and other little details on the underside:

p?i=431db82fce73775e752f52a7efb323b2

 

p?i=9c9970ede8dc5edb3708861742e89524

 

The landing gears are not completed yet (oleo jacks still missing), but my MiG can finally stands on its own legs now:

p?i=389a0e424a2ded7a39f979cfafb34036

 

Well, the model is a hopeless tail sitter and its final equilibrium will be decided by fraction of grams of the addition of the last details, despite the amount of lead that I added in the gun compartment (and the omission of the jet engine).

p?i=5d65d13e87b35aa0e28acec05564db5c

 

A detail of the Eduard's cannon muzzle which is a nice addition. All the muzzles were brushed with graphite powder to give a bit of shine to their metallic paint:

p?i=9c5efa39884fc2ffaad350d5eadce2a0

 

That's all for now, thanks for watching.

 

Dan.

 

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4 hours ago, exdraken said:

Great work!

Camouflaged Soviet MiG-15s are rather rare, no?

I have not sen many models like that!

Yes, I haven't found pictures of this type of camouflage on the web. Here, on BM I read that Soviet intervention in Korea had not to be publicized, hence the scarcity of images spread around. 

Thank you for your comment,

Dan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

after long time, I am posting the mounting of the last bits which always take longer than expected. I added a pin to the antenna mast made with a metallic wire which otherwise would be impossible to glue on the rounded skin of the fuselage. I also made a blade antenna made by hammering flat a brass rod and another short one made with small brass tube. These will replace the fiddly plastic parts provided with the kit.

p?i=7d63ed414e6bdeded73942eb484b1eb6

 

Here the antennas are inserted and glued:

p?i=705628f72e0fd06bc58d3c8e00205a56

 

p?i=bb6f9aaf73929fb11d25088f0e1f882a

 

The pitot tube was replaced by one which I made out of metallic micro-tubes:

p?i=59eddf9646099881b7981bd129fc2956

 

The airbrakes with their oleo jacks were installed also. The jacks are really awful, but I did not have the patience to replace them with scratch built items, so I used the OOB ones:

p?i=200f6dff5364d3e6125607b48dbc2712

 

p?i=cba503346b17a581477fc3c581903913

 

The main landing gear was completed with the equally awful OOB oleo jacks:

p?i=3a02a397122d965cac5e5b50d9e47d2f

 

Now the last touch ups, then the antenna wire and the canopy are the last details to be mounted. I prepared the drop tanks, but at the end, I like the model better without them.

See you next time,

Dan.

 

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- Very nice building, I just would have hadded a more bluish color for the cockpit but it is only my own feeling. A camouflaged Soviet Fagot, why not, during their transfer from Russian factories to Korea they may have been adorned with Russian stars, this  transfer being made under a very strong veil of secrecy, that may explain why  photos are so rare, if ever there have been some ,but what ever, that doesn't lessen your very good work....

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22 minutes ago, IPMS19 said:

I just would have hadded a more bluish color for the cockpit

Thanks for your kind comments. As far as the color of the interior, I think that for that old aircraft, a grey tint should be appropriate. A more bluish tone is clearly appropriate for later types.

Thanks and best regards,

Dan.

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8 hours ago, IPMS19 said:

- Very nice building, I just would have hadded a more bluish color for the cockpit but it is only my own feeling. A camouflaged Soviet Fagot, why not, during their transfer from Russian factories to Korea they may have been adorned with Russian stars, this  transfer being made under a very strong veil of secrecy, that may explain why  photos are so rare, if ever there have been some ,but what ever, that doesn't lessen your very good work....


MiG cockpits were grey at least through the early MiG-21's, the famous cockpit blue/green came into use well after the MiG-15 ended production.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

I am still posting a WIP for the engine stand which I scratch built blending various configurations found on the web:

p?i=f8c8567405a667ee73006df27c7dcce3

 

I built that from plastic card and evergreen profiles. I am afraid this is not a proper workshop stand, but rather a simple one like those that might have been used for storage of the engine, but I didn't feel to embark a more complex design. This is it after a coat of color and brown staining:

p?i=81424688089ca983fb3ae99f95d5196b

 

The engine was completed with some tubing and wiring and put on its finished stand:

p?i=f6a7b920867afa8f4c467d9555dbd782

 

Clearly, there is no claim for accuracy here, being the added wiring and tubing an over simplification of the real thing, the purpose of which was just to busy up the engine. I will pose the engine next to the aircraft model once finished. Finally, the wire aerial, although it is barely visible in this picture:

p?i=697a39e5fba5559917c2a32cae8aa8a2

 

Next, canopy and final pictures. I expect to post the next installment on the R.F.I. section.

Thanks for following,

Dan.

 

 

 

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