Six months since the last update? Ugh.
Among other smaller things that had to be done, I had to add the little FOD guards for the auxiliary air inlets. Top row left is what Eduard provides in the box (there’s also a plastic version, but that’s too thick): a butt joint in a groove in the fuselage. Can be made to work (I know because I tried), but pretty easy to knock off while handling the model (I know because I tried). A more durable solution had to be found. I’ve seen a build where the modeller soldered thin brass wire to a slit cut in the fins (subject was a BAe Hawk). I’ve also tried that. Result is in the lower right corner. Wasn’t happy with my soldering skills. Granted, this was my first try at soldering PE, but it was so frustrating at that moment that I tried another approach: CA. This seemed to work much better for me and turned out to be almost as strong. I will give soldering another try in the future, but I wanted to crack on with the Fishbeds and the FOD guards had sucked enough joy at that point and stalled the build(s) for a brief time. Well, brief? Given that my last update was in mid-January….
Anyway, the (suitably shortened) brass wires were then inserted in holes drilled in the grooves on the fuselages and secured with CA. Much stronger than the OOB solution.
Idea for Eduard: Instead of thin tabs that need to be cut, perhaps leave a full-thickness tab that can be glued in a drilled hole?
ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx50 by
Motschke, on Flickr
To cut the slots, I fashioned a zero-clearance bit from a piece of aluminium T-stock. That kept the PE from bending to the pressure of the fret saw.
ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx51 by
Motschke, on Flickr
Also had to paint the ordnance and the associated pylons. Drilled holes in all of them and inserted thin brass wire to hold them.
The Angolan MiG will get four UB-16 rocket pods. The Egyptian MiG will be armed with four R-3S/AA-2 Atolls. The Soviet MiG will be armed with two each R-13M/AA-2 Atoll and R-3R/AA-2 radar-guided Atolls. The Bulgarian MiG will get two R-60/AA-8 Aphids and two empty pylons.
All are from Eduard BRASSIN sets, except for the R-3R AAMs, which are from ResKit.
ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx52 by
Motschke, on Flickr
Resin and brass mobile.
ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx53 by
Motschke, on Flickr
Shiny MiGs! Tamiya X-22 thinned 1:1 with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner. Well, a tiny bit more thinner than X-22. 40/60-ish.
I’ve decided to paint the metal parts as late as possible.
ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx54 by
Motschke, on Flickr
First round of decals. The Angolan and Bulgarian markings are printed by Cartograf. The Egyptian markings are Eduard’s in-house decals. They weren’t too bad. Not quite Cartograf, but quite usable. With some Micro Set and Sol they wrapped around the conduit on the rear flank quite nicely. The stars on the Soviet MiG are from Cartograf (robbed an Eduard option for those), the White 17 is from a (rather old) Begemot sheet.
ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx55 by
Motschke, on Flickr
Disaster!
The white arrow on the Begemot sheet didn’t want to play ball. Wouldn’t lay into the panel lines no matter how much Micro Sol I threw at it. Also didn’t want to align properly. In the end, I had to take it off. The Sol didn’t get the decal to conform to the panel lines, but it sure made it stick like mad. It apparently also softened the clear coat, paint and underlying primer. Getting the decals off resulted in some paint flaking off.
I have another arrow on a Linden Hill sheet, but I’m thinking about making some masks and spraying it instead.
ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx56 by
Motschke, on Flickr
The drop tanks also got some paint. They were all painted in AK Extreme metal (Dark Aluminium, I think), got a coat of hairspray and then their camouflage colours. Some water was applied to activate the hairspray. I then used a stiff brush, tooth picks, bamboo skewers and tweezers to ding them up a bit. At the top is the tank for the Angolan MiG in a wrap-around scheme. Next up is the Soviet tank. I more or less went with a camo scheme similar to the full-sized MiG. I coulnd’t find any pics indicating a “proper” scheme. Bare metal? Overall grey/blue? Camouflaged? It seemed all options were used at some point, so I went with the option I liked best. Was there a standard? And were wing tanks painted differently from belly tanks? Next up are two Bulgarian tanks. Don’t know which one I’ll take. Looks like they used both. Much like the full-sized MiGs, there seems to be no standard as far as camo schemes go. But they often look pretty weathered and beaten up.
The overall metal tank will go on the Egyptian MiG.
ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx57 by
Motschke, on Flickr
That’s what I have pictures of. Will have to re-shoot some of the camo colours on the Soviet MiG. The other three have been stencilled. A hundred stencils each? Two hundred? Closer to the latter, I think. Took ages – one night for fuselage, one night for wings and pylons -, but was strangely relaxing.
Will also have to paint some of the smaller antennae bits and then it’s time to seal in the decals. Then it’s on to the weathering.
Hope the next update won’t take another six months.