Trumpeter 1/32 MiG-15bis, Korean Conflict

[Stew Dapple]

Hi gents  

 

Here's my latest completion, the Trumpeter MiG-15bis in 1/32 - my birthday present from my Dad: Thanks Dad, if you manage to work the link when I send it to you  

 

It's not accurately painted for reasons I'll try to explain after the pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kit itself has some innaccuracies, I read that they existed but did not seek any further information about what they are beyond that the cockpit canopy is not right (the reviewer mentioned this as being amongst or in addition to seven other faults with the kit so I couldn't help but see that one) but if you want a 1/32 MiG-15 bis you aren't exactly spoiled for choice anyway and if you are comparatively ignorant of the finer points of the design, as I am, it will be more than adequate for your needs. It did require a fair bit of filling and sanding - even then the seam of the fuselage join came back to haunt me when I could have sworn I obliterated it. That said it was a fun build, and took me about a month doing at most a couple of hours work most days. I built pretty much OOB but I did drill out the cannon barrels and the muzzle brake for the big gun, added a disc of Aluminium tape for the nose-mounted landling light (on the intake splitter, you can't see it and the landing light may have been moved to under the right wing by this time) and I used the Eduard mask set on the transparencies.

 

The paint scheme is innaccurate - I can state that with certainty, as from what little research I did it seems that standard colours were not used on the Russian MiGs that flew with the North Korean forces, they were sent basic colours like black, white, red, yellow, blue and grey and advised to mix colours that suited the local terrain. I did not do this  I used Colourcoats paints, an unlabelled tin of pale blue grey for the undersides (similar to RLM76 but a little darker and slightly less blue) AR101 Israeli Sand Grey, ARUS10 VVS Earth Red and ACF01 French Vert for the top surfaces. Given that a healthy human eye can allegedly distinguish one million different colours the chances I picked the right one for any of mine are literally one million to one, and for all four colours to be correct I think the odds should be about sixteen million to one (I'm not great at maths,it must be said). So with odds like that it's probably more likely that I would win the Lottery and in view of that I really hope I did not waste my luck on getting a camouflage scheme - that no-one else can verify - correct. The IFF and RT aerials were painted a light blue, and the Radio Altimeters under the wings a darker blue, I have seen these on preserved aircraft and I have no idea if they are appropriate for the aircraft I was representing but at that point... well you know, what the heck. I rubbed the paintwork down with 6000-grit Micromesh to give a worn, slightly patchy look, like a poor, frozen, bored ground crewman had been told to get the whole squadron painted by morning.

 

The markings came from the HAD Models set 32064 and I used the markings for '263' apparently flown by Capt. N M Zameskin of the 878 IAP based at Tatung-Kao in February 1953. The aircraft carries five victory stars just aft of the cockpit on the left-hand side - I have to say that the HAD transfers were superb, really lovely to use and very thin, but I did crumple the victory stars when applying them so one of them is a bit wonky - don't judge  I left  the upperwing stars off as I read that the Russian aircraft, in line with Soviet camouflage doctrine of the time, did not carry them. HAD also provides star/roundel national markings without the white background, I used the ones with the white just because I liked the look of them better. I used some Citadel spray varnish and it worked well.

 

I may be the only person still reading at this point, but if not, apologies for the rambling and thanks for your patient attention  

 

Cheers, 

 

Stew

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Thank you for a humourous post to accompany the nice little MiG. As a point of constructive criticism, you should look into getting fabric that doesn't crease for the background of your photographs.

[Stew Dapple]

5 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

you should look into getting fabric that doesn't crease for the background of your photographs

 

If only I'd thought of tha... hey, wait a minute!  

[RMCS]

Lovely work 

[Troy Smith]

4 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

I can state that with certainty, as from what little research I did it seems that standard colours were not used on the Russian MiGs that flew with the North Korean forces,

More that by this time the VVS had stopped using camouflage, so didn't have standard camo any more,  at least on jets, which were not natural metal, but aluminium paint. 

So, the one that were camouflaged,  were done  in theatre. 

4 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

the markings for '263' apparently flown by Capt. N M Zameskin of the 878 IAP based at Tatung-Kao in February 1953.

the other big problem with MiG -15 schemes is a shortage of photos..  the VVS pilot were officially not there, and photos were forbidden. 

 

 I've seen very few, I think the most were in a Russian language publication that I found a .pdf of when I was researching this myself.  And of those most were pretty vague on the sort of detail you might want,  the best (as in a visible airmframe and number) I dimly remember as being like luftwaffe type mirror wave over the aluminium paint, 

ah, this

Mostly you just get profiles....    which get recycled,  

 

the best documented is the North Korean defector.. which is not camouflaged

see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Moolah

 

digging into google, this turns up

http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/board/index.php?topic=2183.0

which has links back to here by me,  and this one,  by someone else

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/korean-war-camoflauged-mig-15-question.49531/

 

which has photos as revealing of these of the detail of 

"one that is Capt. Zameskin and Red 263 (he provided the photos to the publication and sites where I was searching and I'm assuming helped the author of the Soviet Mig-15 Aces of the Korean War book by Krlyov and Tepsuraekav make the side profile, as he is credited along with other pilots that flew during this time in the publication.

This is where my first question comes in (if you've been following till now hehe  Is there any profile showing the full camo scheme for his aircraft?
The positive is that the pictures reveal that the plane is in camo, but no total profile, photos below:"

 

this at least shows victory stars.. dimly visible right

 

 

 

 

which are not end of help for pinning down the detail of the scheme  

 

@Stew Dapple  just post the above to put your comments on the 'accuracy' of the scheme into perspective....

from here 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234949599-mig-15-korean-war-camo-colours/

  

On 08/11/2013 at 09:57, Yury Tepsurkaev said:

Honestly, you can use paints which you like more, as no one can say what the colours were in real life.

 

 

who is one of the authors of this...

 

hope the above helps explain Stew's comments....

 

Neat model,,

 

 

[GiampieroSilvestri]

Fantastic Mig-15Bis!

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

[Dave Klaatu]

Nice work, love the camo!

 

 

Dave

[CMSCHLOM]

Love that MiG!

[Samuraiwarrior]

Hi Stew, 

Nice work on your Mig 15,  although you honestly state that you had heard of issues with the kit, and your interpretation of colour is of yours, nevertheless it looks very nice and you should feel happy with the finished result. 

I too have nightmares with seams appearing late on or after the build done, so it happens probably to every one of us on here at some point. 

Thanks for sharing 

Kevin