1:48 MiG-21 - Cuban Air Force

[TeaWeasel]

Time for something completely different from my usual projects. I went into Hannants looking for a Su-25. As the only one they had was a second-hand from some old Russian company I've never heard of I decided to snap up this nice looking MiG-21.

 

 

It just caught my eye, being my first full-Eduard kit it'd also be nice to see how it compares to Airfix and Tamiya. I was also pleasantly surprised that it comes with the masks and photoetch cockpit already. 

 

Box contents are pretty nice, 6 frames of grey and 1 of clear nicely bagged up. I don't know if the camera picked it up but the panel detail's pretty good overall. The plastic itself feels a little...flimsier...than what I'm used to with Airfix. 

 

 

The decals and extras are packed separately, and again I do like Eduard's approach of including it all in one, saves having to get it all individually. So plan is to build it straight out of the box, no aftermarket parts needed. 

 

 

 

5 colour schemes are included. There's the standard Soviet that's on the box, a couple of plain silver Soviet and Czech ones, but this caught my eye; a very striking blue/green Cuban Air Force scheme.

 

 

Again I can't put my finger on it but I just really like that one. The diagram states that this particular aircraft had a black cockpit instead of the turquoise shown on the photoetch. I did a little bit of research and found sources stating the CAF did have some MiGs with the Soviet turquoise. It'll add a nice bit of variation *and* means I can use all the photoetch supplied; while there's a black panel included for the dials, the side panels are only supplied in turquoise.

 

First step will be the front undercarriage bay, currently looking over that and waiting for paint to arrive, but thanks all. Comments appreciated.

 

Joe

[franky boy]

Nice choice Joe. 
 

You’ll enjoy this one, I’m building one at the moment. Only minor thing to look out for is a gap at the wing roots.
 

You can fix this if you need to by sanding off a little bit from the end of the lower wing part on the angled line where the upper wing section buts up to it. 
 

Look forward to seeing some progress shots. 
 

James 

[TeaWeasel]

2 hours ago, franky boy said:

Nice choice Joe. 
 

You’ll enjoy this one, I’m building one at the moment. Only minor thing to look out for is a gap at the wing roots.
 

You can fix this if you need to by sanding off a little bit from the end of the lower wing part on the angled line where the upper wing section buts up to it. 
 

Look forward to seeing some progress shots. 
 

James 

 

Cheers, and thanks for the headsup.

 

Joe

[TeaWeasel]

So the paints arrived around 20 mins after the first post. During some downtime at work I was able to get the first couple of bits together, mainly the front undercarriage bay and rear engine funnel.

 

 

They went together easily enough but if I'm honest I'm not a fan of the Mr Color paints. Not sure what's in them but they seem to really clog up the airbrush a lot more than the other brands I'm used to. 

 

I decided to go for the recommended turquoise to match the photoetch but for the rest, I'll probably go with Vallejo or Tamiya matches.

 

Thanks all

[TeaWeasel]

Hello again everyone. 

 

Continuing the work on the engine exhaust, not sure what this particular part is but the rest of the engine went together with no problems. 

 

 

Only the very tip of the exhaust will be visible on the final thing. The remaining parts were painted with Citadel for the metallics, but the interior was the Mr Color. I do like the shade of green, I think it's a great match but the actual consistency of the paint is pretty terrible. I mentioned before that it seems to clog up the airbrush but even standard paintbrushes are just full of rubbery residue. It's almost like I'm trying to brush-paint primer. Is there something about this brand of paint I've missed?

 

Moving onto the cockpit I've added the first parts of the photoetch. I think this bit could be designed better as you really have to be precise on the placement, otherwise one edge of the etch simply falls into the fuselage wall cavity. 

 

 

I went over the cockpit walls with a light wash but it seems to stain the shade too much. Once it's dried I'll go back over with the turquoise. I do love the extra detail you can get from these photoetch parts, but I'm not looking forward to the seatbelts. In preparation for that I took a look at the ejector seat. It's nicely detailed but I do wonder wherever this level of complexity was needed for the seat. Every kit I've done in the past has used, at the most, 3 parts for the seat. This one has 17 and does lack detail compared to my TSR-2 or Lightning.

 

 

 

Stay tuned for the next update. I did say this will be an out-of-box build, but had to go for one particular aftermarket bit, more info next time. 

 

 

[TeaWeasel]

Hi all,

 

The only aftermarket I hope to use arrived today, the Eduard Look upgrade. I bought one of these for a 1/48 Mustang and I honestly can't get over the detail in it, a far leap from my first kits around 15 years ago.

 

 

After about 2 hours' work I soon had the cockpit and seat completed. I was hesitant about using the photoetch seatbelts as I was expecting the brass to just bend back out of shape once fixed, but the Eduard ones are actually pretty nice and hold their shape well.

 

 

If I had one critique, it's that the instructions could be clearer on the belt assembly. As of now there are two small straps still to be attached and it's not clear how they should go on. I've decided to leave it as it looks fine as-is. 

 

Once that was finished I glued the cockpit floor into one fuselage half and added the Look panels and yoke.

 

 

 

 

 

[TeaWeasel]

Just giving this a bump as some feedback would really be appreciated. Both this and the Lightning in my sig are just digital ghost-towns it seems. 

[franky boy]

Great work Teaweasel

 

The Eduard Look set looks to be well worth the investment and certainly brings the best out of the kit bang seat. 

 

It it looks as though you’re ready to start thinking about the wings and fuselage spine?

 

James

[Deano353]

It's a great kit for sure. Don't forget the nose weight. I placed a bolt just behind the rear bulkhead of the cockpit it seemed a better place than the cone as weight might cause misalignment. It's a brilliant kit I got my second one a week ago I get the weekend edition ones as they're about £20 and I still got 4 decal options that was the BIS version. Your cockpit is looking really good that detail set is very good. When you have to install the dashboard or whatever it's called on a plane there's a big gap either side but don't worry aboutit as it's not going to be visible with the front end of the canopy on and painted.

[TeaWeasel]

21 hours ago, franky boy said:

Great work Teaweasel

 

The Eduard Look set looks to be well worth the investment and certainly brings the best out of the kit bang seat. 

 

It it looks as though you’re ready to start thinking about the wings and fuselage spine?

 

James

 

Bit ahead of you there. I assembled the undercarriage bay while the cockpit was drying. It's a pretty fiddly area once the actual undercarriage box is attached, particularly with the strange round parts which I assume are gas/fluid bottles of some kind based on photography. It still fits together nicely although a fair bit of pressure is needed on the box to get a clean join with the wings.

 

 

 

 

20 hours ago, Deano353 said:

It's a great kit for sure. Don't forget the nose weight. I placed a bolt just behind the rear bulkhead of the cockpit it seemed a better place than the cone as weight might cause misalignment. It's a brilliant kit I got my second one a week ago I get the weekend edition ones as they're about £20 and I still got 4 decal options that was the BIS version. Your cockpit is looking really good that detail set is very good. When you have to install the dashboard or whatever it's called on a plane there's a big gap either side but don't worry aboutit as it's not going to be visible with the front end of the canopy on and painted.

 

I had the same idea with the weight, although I put some behind the nosecone as well just in case but waited until the cone had dried fully first. I used a few scrap bolts for my Lightning but didn't have any for the MiG, instead I've used spare change. Usually it's Euros and Dollars which exchange booths won't take anyway, so might as well put it to good use. 

 

 

I've done some dryfitting and I've noticed the gap you mentioned, going to leave that open for now just incase it needs some more weight, I can always jam some putty in there. 

 

I've also begun to shoot ahead with it now the cockpit's finished, and moved onto the tail and spine assembly.

 

 

With this I'm really happy with the approach Eduard has taken. That large square tab is fantastic at making sure the tail is nice and square. Sounds like a small thing but it makes the job a lot easier. Same with that spine part to the right; it avoids the ugly seam running down the fuselage, and with this kit you really want to avoid sanding where possible due to the shallow panel lines. 

 

And here she is so far. The wings aren't yet attached to the fuselage but it's definitely MiG-shaped now. 

 

 

Next steps would be to paint the inner-wing area with the various gas bottles before attaching the upper wing. Hopefully it won't take too much longer before I can start painting.

 

Thanks all,

Joe

[Steve Coombs]

Looking good!

I confess my inner miser won't let me use odd coins as weight; I find washers in various diameters do a nice job, as do fishing weights in different sizes and squeezed into some semblance of a useful shape. On the theme of fishing, I am a great fan of tungsten putty, ostensibly for carp rigs, to fill nose cones and cram into odd niches for that little bit extra up front.

[franky boy]

Joe

 

I think some of those round bits in the uc bay might be compressed air canisters. I could be wrong though?

 

James 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Sorry Ive missed this one, just so you know there is an MiG-21 single type group build currently running down in the group build section. You're more than welcome to come and visit, check out all the builds and if interested possibly start one ? 
 

Dennis

[amos brierley]

Hello TeaWeasel.    Firstly, that’s a nicely finished cockpit. I think these new technologies are here to help modellers, they may be fighting for our hard earned money, but, I think as for A/C such as fighters usually a cockpit it the focal point of the subject. I’m all for saving precious modelling time and adding a step change in the level of details. 
Secondly, I too am looking in the future to do a Cuban Mig.  It’s an evocative colour scheme, so, having done some preparations, here’s the paint I’m hoping to use. 

 

Hope this helps.      😉

 

 

 

[Gondor44]

On 3/21/2022 at 6:23 PM, TeaWeasel said:

Hello again everyone. 

 

Continuing the work on the engine exhaust, not sure what this particular part is but the rest of the engine went together with no problems. 

 

 

 

I am reasonably sure that that is the guttering for the flame holder which is part of the afterburner for the engine, off the top of my head so if I am wrong I apologise.

 

Gondor

[amos brierley]

Hello again everyone. 

 

“Continuing the work on the engine exhaust, not sure what this particular part is but therest of the engine went together with no problems….”

 

I think the ring is the re-heat fuel spray bar, once the engine has burned the fuel to produce hot gases, throw some fresh fuel into these gases for a bit extra whoosh.  That’s my best guess.   I too could be wrong.  Gondor44 and my self have both said the same, just different terminology.     😉

[TeaWeasel]

Hello all,

 

Took a bit of a break from this to work on some other projects. Decided to pick it back up again after spending some time looking up the shades and techniques needed for painting. After my first experience with Gunze paints I was very put off, but some folks on here recommended the Levelling Thinner and honestly, now they're some of the best paints I've ever used. 

 

So the whole thing was primed in grey, then panel shading applied with Vallejo Dark Sea Grey. I normally use black for panel shading but as the underside would be a rather pale grey I didn't want it to be too stark, so went with the DSG which is a very very dark grey. At this moment I also went over the strange green accents; no idea why these small panels are green in every scheme provided but I did it anyway. They were then masked off and the basecoat of Gunze Light Grey went on. 

 

 

I thought I was quite lucky to get hold of this particular shade, apparently it's been discontinued so was eager to snap a pot up wherever I could.

 

After that the green areas were masked off and the blue applied. This went on very nicely thanks to the thinner, and the panel lines look nicely shaded. I went over the larger panels with another coat just to try to mottle it a bit more. 

 

 

Those of you with sharp eyes will notice a little bit of blue somehow got onto the underside. I'm not too fussed as the undercarriage doors and pylons still need grey-ing, and while i'm doing that I'll go back over the underside as a whole.

 

Next steps will be to give this a couple of days to dry thoroughly, then start applying the blu-tack sausages ready for the green camo. Might need a fair bit of blu-tack for this. In the meantime any comments and feedback are welcome.

 

Cheers,

Joe

 

 

[amos brierley]

That top colour blue has an un-canny resemblance to your Avatar    which I assume is a TeaWeasel, not that I know what one of them is. ( shame on me ).    Looking nice indeed.    😉

[TeaWeasel]

And after much stress the green is pretty much finished.

 

Used blu-tack sausages to mark out the camo, after one or two patches I realised it'd be easier to just freehand it. I kinda jumped the gun on that and the borders were too indistinct for my liking. Eventually I bit the bullet and went back over the affected areas with the sausages. 

 

 

 

 

 

The border between the blue/green and grey has been left deliberately messy as I'll go back over that with the grey and use tape to get a nice clean edge, and spray the weapons while I'm at it. For now I'm also wondering how to go about the weathering; would it be worth airbrushing some sort of wash over it, or should I go about with a brush and pin-wash the whole thing one panel line at a time? Some ideas on what shades to use would also be welcome.

 

Thanks all

 

[RaceAddict]

On 5/6/2022 at 12:28 PM, TeaWeasel said:

At this moment I also went over the strange green accents; no idea why these small panels are green in every scheme provided but I did it anyway. They were then masked off and the basecoat of Gunze Light Grey went on. 

 

 

 

 

The green accents are dielectric panels... composite materials (usually a type of fiberglass I think) covering up things like the radar (nose cone) or various antennae (comms, navigation, etc). Older Russian/Soviet planes had them all in green, more modern ones have grey or white radomes and panels.

Edited May 13, 2022 by RaceAddict

[GiampieroSilvestri]

Fantastic Mig-21R!

 

Here is a picture of the real aircraft Black 111.

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

 

[Bell209]

On 3/26/2022 at 3:35 AM, Steve Coombs said:

I find washers in various diameters do a nice job, as do fishing weights in different sizes and squeezed into some semblance of a useful shape.

I use shotgun pellets. You can buy them in bulk from gun shops without a licence and they get into the smallest places. Held in place with PVA glue.

 

Nice model, too. I did the Trumepter J-7G a while back and it's nowhere near as good as the Eduard MiG-21 series.

[TeaWeasel]

11 hours ago, GiampieroSilvestri said:

Fantastic Mig-21R!

 

Here is a picture of the real aircraft Black 111.

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

 

 

 

Thanks for that, always nice to see the real thing. 

 

6 hours ago, Bell209 said:

I use shotgun pellets. You can buy them in bulk from gun shops without a licence and they get into the smallest places. Held in place with PVA glue.

 

Nice model, too. I did the Trumepter J-7G a while back and it's nowhere near as good as the Eduard MiG-21 series.

 

It's my first full Eduard set, and it definitely has its merits. I'm not 100% convinced however, a lot of the detail seems rather unnecessary. Those little raised flaps near the wingtips can be plastic or photoetch in this kit. The detail is so minute its not worth using the PE.

[TeaWeasel]

Just thought I'd give this a bump as I'm a little stumped with the next steps, which would be to add some sort of wash to help with the weathering process, both for this and my 1/48 Meteor. I tried Vallejo Model Wash before and I wasn't fully satisfied; from my experience there's a minute difference between the effect you want and it suddenly flooding with wash. 

 

Are there any other products or techniques that would help? 

[Pete in Lincs]

Here's a technique I've used in the past. Go along the panel lines with a fine pencil tip.

On the moving surfaces lick your fingertip and spread the pencil lead to the rear, you get an oil leak effect. 

If you don't like it you can wash it off.

You can also spread your dirty fingertip around under the belly or around the engine bay for a dirty effect.