Cold War accuracy?

[John R]

There was an Lavochkin La 176. After much work I managed to turn it into something resembling the actual a/c because I 'knew' that nobody else would produce a kit of such a little known a/c. A year later Prop & Jet produced a superb resin version.

[Hook]

Then there's the three crew stations in the greenhouse of Hasegawa's Hind-A. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[CT7567]

2 hours ago, Hook said:

Well, the age of the KP kits should be taken into account. Their MiG-21MF was first released in the early 80s, for instance. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

Don't misunderstand, I think the KP kits from that era are great, but comparing fidelity of fine details in a Hasegawa or Monogram kit from the same era as KP's early releases shows they weren't quite "cutting edge" kits. Fundamentals such as alignment pins and clarity of clear parts had vast room for improvement (and don't even ask about their decals from that timeframe).

 

I'd make the analogy that KP kits in the early 80s were somewhat like Italeri is typically considered today: not the best, far from the worst, and generally a go-to if they did a subject no one else covered (or price was a primary factor over highest available quality).

[Shorty84]

13 hours ago, Doom3r said:

On a note of the fake models I always wondered what is Zvezda's Ka-58 based off?

As far as I've read (don't remember where but it was on some other forum) the Ka-58 is a complete fake and not based on any real or proposed design. Most likely just done as Stealth aircraft were quite popular at that time and Zvezda hoped it would sell equally well like the fictional F-19 and MiG-37 kits from Testors.

 

The F-19 is a well known case of deception. At this time it was not known how a real stealth aircraft would look like, so the DoD 'leaked' this fake design through it's connection to Testors. Still, it was one of their best-selling kits. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-19

 

Due to the success of the F-19 kit, Testors produced the purely fictional MiG-37 'Ferret' later, as one can read here: https://fantastic-plastic.com/TESTORS MIG 37-B FERRETT PAGE.htm

Purely conjectural, the design nonetheless turned out to be closer in shape to the actual F-117 Nighthawk than was Testors' own hypothetical F-19.

The enormous success of its conceptual F-19 Stealth kit prompted Testors to create and release this Soviet Air Force version two years later.  Although not nearly as successful commercially as the F-19, the MiG 37B "Ferret" was nonetheless re-released by Testors' European sister company, Italeri, several years later with new box art.

 

Cheers

Markus

Edited May 8, 2022 by Shorty84

[SouthViper]

Hi

Don"t have any pics here, but I remember the FIREFOX from the Movie starring Clint Eastwood ...

 

SouthViper from Brazil 

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by SouthViper

[AWFK10]

The Academy MiG-23 and MiG-27, and presumably the Hasegawa kits they were cloned from. The fuselage is significantly short, with the errors in multiple places. The canopy is wrong, certainly on the MiG-27. The wings may be short on chord, though I recall reading something in the "Famous Russian Aircraft" book on the Flogger that implied the chord was increased on later variants so the kit may be correct for the early MiG-23 airframe it's based on. IIRC the tail surfaces lack chord and are wrong in outline.

 

The Pantera Su-17, more recently boxed by MisterCraft. The rear fuselage is bulged, which was a modification made to the Su-22 to accommodate a different engine and isn't correct for the Su-17.

 

 

[modelldoc]

Hobbycraft and her Mig-29 comes with markings for the Finish Air Force:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hobbycraft-mig-29-fulcrum--1011713

 

modelldoc

[Bonehammer]

9 hours ago, modelldoc said:

Hobbycraft and her Mig-29 comes with markings for the Finish Air Force:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hobbycraft-mig-29-fulcrum--1011713

 

modelldoc

Ah, I remember Hobbycraft's boxtops from their "Tron meets Thomas Kinkade" period. Had a MiG-27 that was seizure-inducing.

[spruecutter96]

On 5/8/2022 at 6:12 AM, Doom3r said:

On a note of the fake models I always wondered what is Zvezda's Ka-58 based off

I'm guessing that a conceptual model of the type went missing from a Moscow armament trade-fair...?

 

Chris. 

[spruecutter96]

It's not just the more obscure, Eastern-European makers that don't worry too much about accuracy. I remember that the very first version of Tamiya's 1/48th A-10 were produced from photos/measurements of one of the prototype airframes. This meant it had a 20-mm Vulcan cannon sitting in the nose (the 30-mm GAU-8 wasn't ready to be fitted at that time, so they went with the much smaller gun). Also, the vertical tail-surfaces were much smaller than in production aircraft, IIRC. Now, it can be argued that Tamiya's efforts were pretty accurate for that A-10 ONLY, but not for any subsequent ones). I believe they produced new sprues for operational aircraft a few years after the initial batch.  

 

Chris. 

[Rob de Bie]

On 5/14/2022 at 1:58 PM, AWFK10 said:

The Academy MiG-23 and MiG-27, and presumably the Hasegawa kits they were cloned from. The fuselage is significantly short, with the errors in multiple places. The canopy is wrong, certainly on the MiG-27. The wings may be short on chord, though I recall reading something in the "Famous Russian Aircraft" book on the Flogger that implied the chord was increased on later variants so the kit may be correct for the early MiG-23 airframe it's based on. IIRC the tail surfaces lack chord and are wrong in outline.

 

Ah yes, the Academy 1/72 MiG-27 with its ridiculous nose.. I recently came across the project that I started in the nineties. Here's my work on the nose section. More here.

 

 

I'm also working on the Hasegawa 1/72 MiG-23MF, correcting it as far as possible, just to see what can be done. It has a lowered front fuselage / cockpit, modified radome, modified speed brakes, enlarged vertical tail, larger wing chord, new spine..  Slowly getting there.

 

Rob

 

 

 

[modelldoc]

Double fiction:

My Italeri  MiG-37 in East German markings:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/17559258629/in/photolist-2es8nVF-T5Ls9X-tkHoji-sKDMQr-s64Ray-s64R9w-s64R7N-rWMnQK-rWH1SX-rWMvSX-rWDZnQ-rCspfM-qm7i3a-qm5UyB-pFKUY4-kMV179-iA8ct2-aFRuAK-9rvs1a-9gHqQE-9gHqQu-9pjo5g-9kKabQ-9rvpjv-9q5s1U-9q5uGf-9q2ryK

 

and the Zvezda / Revell Kamov for the same owner:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/18580015744/in/photolist-uL1Haa-uL1H9D-uiRrmG-uiRrn3-uiRro5-i5rKZY-hvDCYY-bspyLo

 

modelldoc

 

[exdraken]

On 5/14/2022 at 2:19 PM, modelldoc said:

Hobbycraft and her Mig-29 comes with markings for the Finish Air Force:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hobbycraft-mig-29-fulcrum--1011713

 

modelldoc

Finnland was once a very likely costumer of the MiG-29. I think the first visit to a "western" country was a sales pitch to Finnland somewhen in the mid 80s...

Remember that Finnland operated MiG-21s until the late 90s  early 2000s...

[Michou]

Don't forget the I.L.-38!
Well, it looks like a Myasishchev M-4 but "Detailed! Accurate!"  This is the claim of the 1960 boxing whereas the original 1956 release merely stated "Scaled from available data".  As a box of plastic components it went together quite well as the rows of rivets running around the fuselage circumference are all present and I obviously had no need to file and paper the fuselage seam.

 

 

Il-38

 

Il-38

 

Mike