Scargsy Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 So the first of my pair of entries is this: I've never built a Zvezda kit but they are Russian and it comes officially licenced too (according to the box). The box is a top sleeve over a sturdy top opening cardboard box, inside there's the following: The kit comes with a stand (nice addition), a pilot figure - always a gripe of mine that for the amount of plastic a lot of manufacturers don't include one. Instruction booklet seems clear enough, in black and white and show options for having the undercarriage up or down (nice, I like to do up). The decals are quite sparse - though I really don't mind as I find placing 100s of stencils on aircraft rather tedious - options for a few aircraft, I think I'll go with the Polish version as I want to try doing a NMF. I have some aftermarket paint masks from Eduard but other than that I plan on just doing it straight OOB. More to follow, once I actually get to make a start on it - the PBY5a Catalina is taking up a lot of workbench space at the moment. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 Another very nice choice, and great to have a Zvezda kit for a change. I haven't built one of these but I believe it to be a good one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klr Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 I have this on my build list as well, but I plan on doing the camouflaged Soviet (Russian?) version on the cover. I don't think the stand can be used if the external tank is fitted to the centreline pylon, not unless you want to do some surgery on the tank itself. The kit also includes RATO units, but IMHO those would spoil the lines of the aircraft (... you didn't think the MiG 21 had any "lines" to spoil, did you?) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 Welcome aboard sir looking forward to this as Ive not seen the Zvezda kit built yet. Nothing wrong with a Polish bird. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 A nice choice as I am interested in seeing one built Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scargsy Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 So I forgot to take any photos whilst building up the interior but it all went together fairly easily - had a little difficulty with getting the control panel in once the pilot was in place. Also in terms of lining up the engine, cockpit, nose cone and front wheel well I took it steadily in stages (glue one half of one piece at a time, then get the main halves lined up as a jig whilst the glue set off). I painted up the nosecone / radome and exhaust before attaching the halves (just in case I couldn't easily get to some visible bits later). The pilot's uniform I painted blue (not sure if it should be) and the interior in turquoise though they are both showing up blue in my photos. After that I attached the upper 'spine' after initially fitting the rear vertical stabiliser into it. BTW the peg and sanding sponge are more greenish looking in real life. Generally the fit of the parts seems nice, I like the additional spine part (possibly done so the kit parts can make different variants) - it nicely hides any joint seam down the top of the aircraft. The wings went on next - what a refreshing change to have single part wings rather than two halves! Everything was going swimmingly then it got to adding the undercarriage doors - one of the things that attracted me to the kit was that it appeared to be built to allow this easily (looking at the instructions)... Looks like I'm going to need to do some filling around those doors! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Thats coming together really nicely, a bit of filling required but nothing major. 🇺🇦 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scargsy Posted March 21, 2022 Author Share Posted March 21, 2022 So I've managed to get another GB over the finish line, it's been tandem built along side my MiG21I so that kind of helped - especially with my 'free' photo limit rapidly filling up on Flickr! First thing was to get all the small details attached and fill the joins. The canopy was clear dipped in Pledge before attaching the canopy mask. One thing with the mask - it was an Eduard mask set for this kit however it didn't seem to be developed for it! Firstly the main canopy cover was too short (I had to snip them in half then fill the gap with some tape) and also the kit has a small sensor array/mirror/something lump on the top of the canopy part, which the mask set didn't seem to be designed for. Still after a bit of fiddling I managed to get everything where it needed to be. I decided to apply the weapon loadout as shown on the box art (multi-launch rocket pods on the outer pylons and the larger missles on the inner). From the info I could find it appeared that the pods and the drop tank should be bare aluminium like the rest of the aircraft so I decided to attach them now before paint. One odd think in the kit is that it supplies a little 'jig' to correctly position the outer pylons relative to the inner ones, though this was a bit fraught trying to line this up and get everything glued together without the glue wicking underneath the jig and sticking it, since it's also styrene, but I managed to do it without creating a glue bomb! One thing I noticed is that unfortunately the top side of the wings had deformed where I'd pushed the undercarriage doors in to make them flush (this plus the glue must have softened them enough that the shape now pops through the topside somewhat annoyingly! Primer was Mr Surfacer black 1500 (white for the missiles) mixed 1:1 with self leveling thinners. I decided to try AK Xtreme metal for the surfaces. First I airbrushed a bit of dark aluminium over the whole thing, then mixed that with aluminium and then additionally a few patches were overshot with their dull aluminium, I'm not sure I got the effect I was looking for but I was aiming for something that didn't look too uniform in colour across the whole aircraft. The small green patches on the tail fin and stabilizer I hand painted in green. I decided to apply the decals directly to the metal coat, then do a sealing clear over everything. I avoided using any Microset as I wasn't sure how well the metal colour would react. however with just water the decals were a little prone to moving (I can see one of the stencils on the left side of the tail fin has wandered off somewhat!) I managed to get some scratch marks when attempting to buff the metal coat but applied some AK 'True Metal' paste which seems to have covered the worst of it. I also used some on the exhaust portion of the fuselage to attempt to get a slightly different colour. I did see somewhere a review of this kit suggesting that it shouldn't have the Polish emblems on the top sides of the wings given the age of the aircraft but given I'd kind of messed up with the undercarriage doors poking through I decided to apply them anyway to attempt to distract from the humps and bumps! The underside wing emblems the kit instructions would have had me place underneath where the rocket pods and pylons are located, I decided to move them inboard for visibility. Overall the decals went down very nicely - the large 9494 ones I'd been worried wouldn't conform or would silver but they went down amazingly well. I gave the decals a small going over with some MicroSol, hoping that the solvent would help melt and 'stick' them where they were a little reluctant to stay, such as some of the tiny stencils. With the decals on and dried I gave the whole thing a clear coat with Mr Topcoat Gloss rattle can, then left it overnight to cure. The final stage was a wash with Flory Models 'grime' - it's a clay/water based mixture, you apply it, let it dry then using a moist cloth, etc. remove the excess to taste. So that's it finished, another GB finished that, as always, takes twice as long as I predict it will when I start! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 I really like that. The metallic finish looks spot on for the painted aluminium finish of Soviet/WARPAC aircraft and makes me want to do one for myself. Very well done on both of your builds and thank you for having taken part in the GB. 🇺🇦 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 Its Polish whst else do I need to say ! 👍🏻 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vultures1 Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 Lovely job! Looks great in its aluminium finish 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim R-T-C Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 Seen in the gallery, a lovely pair of MiGs you have built - I thought you had set an elaborate backdrop with rivers and desert for the planes to fly over - but I realise it is just the folds in your sheet! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arfa1983 Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 6 hours ago, Tim R-T-C said: Seen in the gallery, a lovely pair of MiGs you have built - I thought you had set an elaborate backdrop with rivers and desert for the planes to fly over - but I realise it is just the folds in your sheet! I thought the same. High altitude photoshop 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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