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The ďábel made me do it - Czechoslovak MiG-21PFM


Wings unlevel

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Thanks Craig and Dennis!

 

Some assembly.

 

Getting together

 

An unoriginal observation, but this little kit just builds itself, practically. Beautifully engineered.

 

Getting together

 

And now I have something very much MiG-shaped.

 

Getting together

 

Wings joined the fuse with a satisfying click. And no gaps to speak of.

 

Wings are level

 

I’m really savouring this build. It’s just the tonic I need while struggling with my Boston. I’m glad I succumbed to temptation!

 

Gerard

 

 

 

 

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Thanks Gents!

 

Now even more MiG-shaped!

 

MiG-like

 

Major assembly is mostly done - in the shot above I was dry fitting the exhaust and tailplanes to see what should be fitted/painted when. Then added the canopy and nose cone just because it looks cool!

 

Getting close to priming and painting...

 

More MiG shaped

 

...except I don't have my masks yet...So I'll finish off the bits and bobs and do what I can while I wait for the postie. Having seen Dennis' video on Charlie's build thread of the JATO assisted Czech MiGs I'll definitely stick them on mine. Plus the two Atolls and the centreline tank.

 

Giving in to temptation with this build sure has been a guilty pleasure, keeping my mind off my Boston build, which is proving a lot more devilish...

 

Cheers,

 

Gerard

 

 

 

 

 

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The Eduard masks arrived in the mail this week, very conveniently timed! So I didn’t waste much time applying them and painting the canopy its base coat of grey.

 

Masked and primed


And then on with black (SMS) primer:

 

Masked and primed

 

Which really effectively highlights the beautiful lines of the jet and the beautiful quality of the kit.

 

Am excited to apply the base coat. I’m using the Eduard recommended Mr Color Super Metallic Super Fine Silver. On the few bits and bobs I’ve applied it to so far, it really is super fine!

 

Just don’t tell my Boston build I’m being unfaithful - I only have eyes for this little beauty at the moment…

 

Gerard

 

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And Mr Color Super Mettallic is on:

 

Super fine 2


Super Fine Silver for the aircraft itself, some Super Stainless for the rocket pods and exhaust rear end.

 

Looks a little grainy under the direct lamp light but good to the naked eye. 👍

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Had a bit of tidying up to do so I ended gently sanding, well buffing really, the whole airframe again with 2000 grit, just smoothed out a little of the graininess, and then and light second coat.

 

The photos and lamp light still make It look a little grainy but to the naked eye, I'm pretty happy with it now.

 

Super Fine Silver2

 

Pretty shiny now! But look at that beautiful detailing. Such a great little kit! 

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More bits glued and now ready for decals! A few fishing sinkers in the radome and I think I’m safe from a tail sitter too (couldn’t see definitively that ballast was needed.).

 

Ready for decals

 

Having read the discussion on @Johnson’s thread about Eduard decals, a bit of Googling landed me back at BM, where I was pointed to this recent edition of the Eduard newsletter https://www.eduard.com/out/media/InfoEduard/archive/2021/info-eduard-2021-05-enrr.pdf 

 

From pg52 there’s a tutorial of and explanation about the new decals. So yes you can remove the carrier film: “This is even though they were not originally designed for such an application and the basis of their application is the classic procedure, where the varnish is not removed from the applied decal.”

 

Think I’ll stick to the classic procedure though…

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34 minutes ago, Wings unlevel said:

Think I’ll stick to the classic procedure though…

 

Not a bad strategy. See how they behave. I'll be doing the same. I have removed the carrier film with their early production ones where this behaviour was not expected. Very happy with the result.  I am not sure with later production. My MiG-21 1/48 decals look like they are made to do what they originally intended and just blend in the carrier film.

 

Ray 

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After reading Ray’s advice I did try peeling the carrier film which worked to a degree but started to lift some of the underlying decal, at which point I decided it wasn’t a good idea.

I think it may have been something to do with the surface I applied the decal to, Alclad 2 aluminium which looks great but really is a satin finish. Had it been a shiny gloss finish it might have worked better.

I’ll do some experiments with the remaining decals and see if I’m right.

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