reini Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 Mozambique Air Force "MiG 21" Story goes Lt Adriano Bomba, a Portuguese speaking MiG pilot, was recruited to defect a MiG-21 to South Africa. What might have been a case of error in translation - on Wednesday, 8th of July 1981 it was not a MiG-21 that entered South African airspace but a MiG-17 with registration number "21". Lt Bomba was intercepted and escorted by two SAAF Mirage F1AZ's to a local air base where the "21" made a succesfull landing. SAAF did not really have a reason to evaluate MiG-17 but was test flown few times anyway before returned to Mozambique. Thanks again @Avgas for bringing this story to my attention, it's interesting stuff and certainly made the build even more interesting And it's just not a story, a MiG-17 "Fresco-A" registration number "21" did defect to South Africa 8th of July 1981 and was flown by Lt Adriano Bomba - but of course the other details are debatable. There are quite a few pics to be found from the internet about this plane and also - what appears to be - somekind of TV news videoy which shows Lt Bomba in the cockpit of this plane and keeping a press conference. Kit: Airfix Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F 'Fresco' (Shenyang J-5) (A03091) Scale: 1/72 Paints: Vallejo Model Air, Vallejo Metal Colour Aftermarket: Berna & Print Scale decals, Eduard Brassin wheels, Eduard PE set, Master pitot tubes & guns Weathering: Oil paints, Tamiya weathering products, Ammo Mig weathering products, A lovely kit by Airfix, the best MiG-17 around in this scale. Second one I built, first one was OOB, this with some aftermarket stuff. The intake ring can give you some trouble but other than that it should be quite hassle free build. This Airfix kit offers the MiG-17F "Fresco-C" while the subject was MiG-17 "Fresco-A". Biggest difference is the tail shape around the exhaust and the shape and size of the air brakes. So this part of the build was scratch built/altered. Also added few of the antennas that were missing, mainly the T-shaped antennas under the wings and small (what must be a) aux pitot tube on the right side of the nose. Also added nose wheel down indictator rod on the left side of the nose as the main wheel indicators were already included on the wings. Also some panel line/detail changes such as moving the signal flare launchers from the tail to the rear of the fuselage. (Thank you @RidgeRunner for mentioning few of the details that needed to be changed, I hope I remembered them all ) It was quite PE heavy build with the air brakes (which had to be cut open), wheel well covers (which ended up looking real good) and cockpit details. Berna decals were pretty thick and awful but offered better details (mainly on the insgnia) than Print Scale so they were used instead. "21" is from the Print Scale sheet. You can see more of the actual build process here: 51 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiampieroSilvestri Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 Fantastic Mig-17! Saluti Giampiero 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fox1_BE Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 Wonderful job; great work on the extended/adapted exhaust 👍👍 Patrick 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mig88 Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 Lovely! Very nicely finished! Miguel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulfman Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 Great looking MiG, love those African colour schemes ! Wulfman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 She is superb, Reini :). You should be proud of that!! Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted June 15, 2021 Share Posted June 15, 2021 That's a great looking Mig! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry1954 Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 Beautiful Mig-17, well done! Terry 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Brantley Posted June 17, 2021 Share Posted June 17, 2021 Very nice MiG indeed! Great work reini! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Hothersall Posted June 17, 2021 Share Posted June 17, 2021 Nice build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Keg Posted June 17, 2021 Share Posted June 17, 2021 This is by no means an easy kit to assemble and detail but Reini, you have put your superb skills to great effect. Despite the simple solitary color, the Fresco turned out great. Very nice and my best compliments to you on this beautiful presentation. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted June 18, 2021 Share Posted June 18, 2021 A beautiful build Reini, I'm liking that very much. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted June 21, 2021 Author Share Posted June 21, 2021 On 18/06/2021 at 02:32, Sky Keg said: This is by no means an easy kit to assemble and detail but Reini, you have put your superb skills to great effect. Despite the simple solitary color, the Fresco turned out great. Very nice and my best compliments to you on this beautiful presentation. Mike Thanks! I think its a rather good kit, maybe just the nose can give you some extra trouble. Sure, the tail modification and PE parts added complications to this build but they were mostly self-induced Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano353 Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 That's nice! I'm not really a fan of the aircraft but looks really good here and that story is unreal lol so out of curiosity was South Africa trying to steal a Mig from Mozambique? I'm only asking as I've never heard of this story but it's a good one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted June 21, 2021 Author Share Posted June 21, 2021 @Deano353 Apparently they had such plans. For evaluation / training purpose according to this forum: http://www.saairforce.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?t=938 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano353 Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 (edited) Hey man thanks for the link I didn't know what to search for on Google, that story is awesome. My girlfriend's uncle was in the Angolan war he armed Mirage IIIs for the SAAF don't know if he worked on anything else though. I'll get the story passed on in case he hasn't heard of it. Some interesting stories from that continent my best friends dad was in the Rhodesian Army as a tracker/recce he told me some stories about the fighting there as well. Probably a gold mine for aircraft subjects to be fair I do like Migs and there's some good schemes to be had. Edited June 21, 2021 by Deano353 Auto correct wrecking my brain 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted June 21, 2021 Author Share Posted June 21, 2021 @Deano353 Sounds like interesting stuff! I'm sure there are plenty of other interesting stories just waiting to be found I'm actually contemplating to turn this MiG into a diorama, together with SAAF Mirage F. 1. Both parked on the ground and Lt Bomba presenting the plane to spectators. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano353 Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Thats a good idea for a diorama and I'm sure original as I doubt anyone has made it. I would love to get my hands on Eduards Bunny Fighter it was a 1/48 kit of a Mig 21 which was flown by a mercenary pilot in Burkina Faso and used for assassinations and operations and was painted with rabbits on the wings and tail thing is I don't think you can get it anymore but possibly a rep from Eduard will come across the thread lol. But hey there's the north and south Sudan conflict with Hind attack helicopters and Uganda with the SU-30 and Eritrea with their SU-27s and Nigerian Jaguars so there a plenty of good schemes and possibly dozens of conflicts at the least not to mention the Libyan Mig-23s where two Floggers were shot down by F-14 Tomcats within 60 seconds. Egyptian Mig 25s which were Soviet recon aircraft with Egyption insignia I could go on. To be fair I should be making lists of ideas for subjects. Also the new Algerian SU-30s well probably 10 years old now but they ordered Migs and when delivered they were found to be ageing airframesthat had been mothballed where the Algerians sent the Migs back and went to Sukhoi instead. So loads and loads and not to me tion how cool the green/sand South African Air force colours looked. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Masters Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Beautiful paint job Reini. Excellent panel-line washes. What did you use? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted June 22, 2021 Author Share Posted June 22, 2021 @John Masters Thanks. I used oil paints mostly and Flory Models wash to tidy up things where I had removed too much of the oil paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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