Hi All
I finished this kit a few weeks ago and would like to share it with you as it is the second model and first aircraft I have built following my return to kit building (the first was a Bishop Tank the less said about that the better), it was chosen because it was small and simple and had less than thirty parts.
![](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/948/42065376982_c1d49f479b.jpg)
by
Robomog, on Flickr
The model was from my stash circa 1979 so a cheap start to the hobby.
It was one of a number model kits I purchased when Frog went bust and they were reissued by Novo, thinking that this would be a short run and they would be worth something later on.
How wrong was I!!
The old Frog moulds are still going, only the other day I brought a Mistercraft Hunter F6 only to find it was a re-boxing of a re-boxing of a re-boxing of the original Frog mould.
So no massive killings here then.
The kit was pretty Spartan and appeared fairly good for its age with a little flash on some components the only addition being a rough and ready tab on the sprue announcing “made in USSR”, that was until I started to put it together.
As it was an open cockpit I added some extra details because they would not be hidden by a canopy. So you will see a scratch built, control panel, compass, and joystick in both cockpits.
![](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/980/41210289535_b3db99e6ca_z.jpg)
by
Robomog, on Flickr
![](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/955/41391305644_0f40a94028_z.jpg)
by
Robomog, on Flickr
The fuselage did not go together well, although no filler was required the fit was bad and much scraping was needed to smooth the join lines.
The main wings were equally bad and required filling all round, the tail planes were appalling the mould had really suffered here over the years and if I had fitted them as is, they would have had a markedly inaccurate forward sweep, so a few sessions of trimming and PSR was needed to get them right.
The painting took a while partly because as at this point I started building Jings! Followed by BUDD which meant this build went on the back burner for a while, also I was still getting used to painting with acrylics again so there are about three coats of brown and green and about six of yellow. I did read somewhere that yellow paint could be problematical, it’s true!
The decals had not stood the test of time very well, the roundels were faded and out of register so I replaced them with spares from my stash intending to use the original serial numbers. However this was not to be. While the first underwing serial number was in soak face down I noticed a thin black stream drifting down from the paper and on inspection the whole lot had powdered and was falling off the sheet. In desperation I tried giving the remaining transfers a couple of coats of varnish but they just shattered into larger pieces.
My decal stash gave me replacements for some but they were curled and a bit suspect so I had to bite the bullet and purchase some new numbers to finish it off, so much for a cheap starter kit. As it turned out some of the decals on the sheets I bought were still too big so I had to use the old sheets anyway and my worst fears were realised. The letters on the outside edges were fine but the ones in the middle were damaged so between both sheets I had six S’s and I managed to complete the serial on both wings with one S to spare!
A few more shots of the finished project, it’s not perfect but in my eyes, acceptable.
![](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/974/42111294821_92d7b495cd_z.jpg)
by
Robomog, on Flickr
![](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/971/28238298978_a24f8222df_z.jpg)
by
Robomog, on Flickr
![](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/980/40304086100_e30212ae18_z.jpg)
by
Robomog, on Flickr
![](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/830/41391309734_ef385480a9_z.jpg)
by
Robomog, on Flickr
![](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/944/27240816447_c64fbd027a_z.jpg)
by
Robomog, on Flickr
As always any comments or criticisms gratefully received.
Mog
>^-.-^<