Author Topic: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight  (Read 9751 times)

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #25 on: June 17, 2020, 03:52:49 PM »
 :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #26 on: June 17, 2020, 08:26:17 PM »
Those are coming along very nicely Moritz  :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Offline Frank3k

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #27 on: June 18, 2020, 02:12:45 AM »
Good progress! Those paint disasters are the bane of my existence. If the arrow is simple enough, you should try a mask, maybe large enough to cover the damage?

The drop tanks look ready to go - it's hard to believe these are 1/144.

Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #28 on: June 18, 2020, 06:59:49 AM »
Must have missed this the first time, but got my attention now :smiley:

Impressive work so far

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #29 on: June 19, 2020, 09:30:45 AM »
Thanks, people!  :smiley:

Good progress! Those paint disasters are the bane of my existence. If the arrow is simple enough, you should try a mask, maybe large enough to cover the damage?

The drop tanks look ready to go - it's hard to believe these are 1/144.

Simple, yes. But also fairly large. Masks should still be easier. I will try some of the other decals on that Linden Hill sheet on some scrap pieces and see how they perform, but I'm leaning towards masks and Tamiya XF-2.

ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx4-05 by Motschke, on Flickr

Also, they're 1/72.  ;) I guess there are people that could do this in 1/144, but I'm not one of them.  ;D

Here's a shot of tanks' undersides. Quite happy with how they turned out, considering it was my first attempt at hairspray weathering. Some of them really did look that beaten-up in real life..

ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx58 by Motschke, on Flickr

Also managed to repair the damage done by the decal. Paint looks a little lighter, but that's because it's flat (and barely five minutes old), unlike the shiny rest of the plane. Should even out once it's also clear-coated.

ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx59 by Motschke, on Flickr

Also masked the little antenna covers under the wings. Thankfully included on Eduard's mask sheet. You're supposed to paint them before the underside colour and mask them, but since I was a tad impatient, it had to be done the other way round, using the left-over "waste bits" for masks. Worked out okay.  :smiley:

ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx60 by Motschke, on Flickr
Cheers,
Moritz

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Offline apophenia

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #30 on: June 19, 2020, 10:15:24 AM »
Nice work on the drop tanks! The weathering looks excellent  :smiley:

Good recovery on the paintwork too! Did you decide whether you're going with decals or masking and spraying the white arrows?
Froglord: "... amphibious doom descends ... approach the alter and swear your allegiance to the swamp."

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #31 on: June 19, 2020, 03:58:34 PM »
I couldn't do it in 1/72, so; Hat's off to ya! :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #32 on: June 22, 2020, 01:39:41 AM »
Thanks, guys!  :smiley:

<...> Good recovery on the paintwork too! Did you decide whether you're going with decals or masking and spraying the white arrows?

Tried some of the Linden Hills decals on a test bird and wasn't too happy wih the results. It was one of their very first sheets so is quite old now. Maybe that hasbto do with it. It also didn't confrom too well to panel lines.
Looks like it's going to be masks then.
May even invest in one of them Silhouette Portrait stencil cutters that are all the rage these days. Can see lots of modelling applications where one of those could come in handy.
Cheers,
Moritz

"The appropriate response to reality is to go insane!"

Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #33 on: June 22, 2020, 07:44:18 AM »
Love the tanks and also the kahunas to put masking tape over decals :o

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #34 on: June 22, 2020, 02:33:42 PM »
The tape was sitably de-tacked on back of hand before applying to model. Also not burnished down in any way.
The kahuna move will be trying a mask for the white arrow.  :o
Cheers,
Moritz

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Offline Frank3k

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #35 on: June 22, 2020, 11:43:20 PM »
Pretty impressive masking-fu and paint repair!

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #36 on: September 09, 2020, 12:13:33 PM »
Work on the Fishbed continues. Made a lot of progress on the armament.
Masking  four rollerons each on ten missiles was tedious.




Stencilling them was almost as tedious. Eduard and ResKit certainly didn’t skimp on stencils. Lots of work, but looks the part, I think. Also added a medium grey wash to bring out the details on the missiles. On the UB-16 rocket pods, I went for a black wash.




Pylons were also painted and got between six and eleven  stencils. I will swap out a pair of the APU-3 rails for a different set of APU-13 rails specific to the radar-guided R-3R Atolls. These rails had a slightly different front end. ResKit only provides the R-3R missiles themselves, but since Eduard’s recently-released set of R-3R missiles does include such rails, I want to use them.




The lower pair of APU-60 rails on is painted a different grey, but sadly it doesn’t properly show in the pictures (the chipping, on the other hand, shows a little too well). They’re for the Bulgarian MiG. Pics of Bulgarian Fishbeds frequently show them with differently painted missile rails.




The Angolan MiG is the one farthest along. I’ve painted the engine section in some shades of AK Extreme Metals. The canopy was also painted in AK’s Dark Aluminium. Tom Cooper’s profile in the Africa@War volume on Angolan/Cuban forces at war shows this. Cooper mentions in one of the “Arab MiGs” books that canopies were at times unpainted because of problems with the plexiglass that necessitated repairs.




 Applied some chipping. It looks almost overdone to the naked eye, but hardly shows up in the pics. Interesting.




Panel lines were partly post-shaded with a highly-diluted dark-brown mix of Tamiya colours. Also added some streaking with Oilbrushers.




The soot from the GSha-23 is pretty hefty on purpose. In one particular battle that lasted over a week, the MiGs each flew an average of about three sorties daily in an effort to provide close air support. I don’t think they had much time to clean off the powder residue.  The oil deposits near the horizontal tails attachment points are a bit overdone, I think. May tone that down a tad.

Cheers,
Moritz

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Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #37 on: September 09, 2020, 12:14:55 PM »
Close up of the cockpit area. I’m glad the amber lens of the HUD shows up so well. I guess painting the underside of the clear HUD assembly (good move, Eduard!) silver and a drop of orange clear colour on top worked out as planned.




Another shot, showing  how well the instrument panel and associated details remain visible and also showing that masking the clear part of the mirror on the canopy worked as intended. Eduard don’t mention it, but a teeny-tiny bit of masking tape here goes a long way. I suppose Eduard didn’t include it on the masking sheet as it would’ve just been too small. I had to give it three or four tries because it loved to stick to the tweezers and was then difficult get off the tweezers and place it properly.




Disaster!  :icon_twisted: The inside of the left-hand side of the canopy has some crazing. You can make it out just ahead of and slightly below the pilot’s mask and just above his shoulder. It’s difficult to capture in the pic. It looks worse to the naked eye. I guess the reflection of the lamp and the fact that the pic has just a fixed angle makes it appear less worse in the pic. Don’t know what to do about it. Kinda torn. Either just accepting it and carrying on OR actually ripping off the canopy and replacing it. It’s not gonna come off easily, though, as I glued it with Tamiya Extra-Thin QS. I don’t know what caused it. I masked it well after the glue had set.




I wanted to do the canopy and windscreen sealant and peeled of the masks. Was happy with how the windscreen turned out and went on to peel off the canopy masking……  :-X
On the bright side, the beautiful detail on the instrument panel coaming and HUD remains well visible.




Some shots of the painted and weathered drop tank destined for the Angolan MiG.




 
The canopy issue is a bit of a downer. The Angolan MiG was really close to being finished. Some details to add, but nothing much.
Next up should be the Egyptian and Bulgarian MiGs. Those have been stencilled and chipped. No weathering apart from that yet. Oh, and I did manage to break off the pitot tube on the Bulgarian Fishbed. The only one without any apparent mishaps – for now! - is the Egyptian MiG. Exciting times!  :P
Cheers,
Moritz

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Offline Frank3k

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #38 on: September 09, 2020, 01:39:49 PM »
Perfect is the enemy of the good - keep the canopy; maybe it’s bird poop, or just low quality Soviet Lexan (or whatever they use). You could try a tiny drop of Future or clear varnish to see if it changes the index of refraction enough to make the internal crazing less visible.

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #39 on: September 10, 2020, 12:58:51 AM »
 :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #40 on: September 10, 2020, 06:53:15 AM »
At the moment I'm kinda leaning towards just accepting it as it is. Put it in the display cabinet looking at the right-hand side.
With my luck I'd rip off the windscreen as well when trying to pry off the canopy. In fact, the windscreen would probably pop off before the canopy just to spite me.  ;D
I may just leave this one alone for the moment and continue with the other MiGs and look at the canopy issue again in a few days.
It would be interesting to rip it off just to see what actually caused this. I left the glued canopies unmasked for some time to ensure this wouldn't happen.  :uuu:
Cheers,
Moritz

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Offline apophenia

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #41 on: September 10, 2020, 08:37:03 AM »
Good call. The rest is looking great. So, try Frank's Future technique. If that doesn't work, just display the starboard side  :smiley:
Froglord: "... amphibious doom descends ... approach the alter and swear your allegiance to the swamp."

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #42 on: September 10, 2020, 02:14:57 PM »
Doesn't look like normal crazing to me. Looks more like a clear coat has lifted off in places. ??? :-\
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #43 on: September 13, 2020, 12:54:53 PM »
Made a decision: Canopy had to come off!
I suppose the canopy issue would’ve bugged me every time I looked at it. Perhaps more importantly, I also had to try to find out what caused it.
Here’s a pic trying to show the problem. It’s really difficult to catch on camera, but immediately obvious to the naked eye.


In the words of Bob Ross: “Time for your bravery test!”  :icon_surprised: Out came the cutting disc in the Proxxon.  I made some cuts to take out the clear (ha ha!  :icon_twisted:) portion of the canopy. I also used a milling bit to further reduce the frame. To remove the remainder of the frame, I made a couple of small incisions perpendicular to the frame up to the surrounding area. The little bits were then carefully broken off with pliers. They came off quite cleanly and I didn’t have to sand or cut too much to get a smooth cockpit opening again.



Sadly, I didn’t really find out what caused the problem in the first place. The “crazing” was actually some kind of fogging or dusting and was easily removed with a dry cotton bud. It simply wiped off. Perfectly clear. Following up with some isopropyl alcohol and it looked as good as new. Hmmm.  :-\


Here’s how things look now with a replacement canopy glued in place. I played it safe and dipped it in Pledge/Future/Klear beforehand. Also evident are some unintended chips and slips with the scalpel that happened when cleaning up the opening.



I will leave this for a couple of days before looking at any small gaps that need to be filled. I can already see a few spots where gaps need sealing (above rear canopy hinge, canopy/spine join,…). I guess PVA will be the weapon of choice here.  Then it’s back to masking, interior colour, some sand colour repairs, more masking, primer (may skip that), Dark Aluminium….
I hope this was the right decision.  :icon_beer:
Cheers,
Moritz

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Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #44 on: September 13, 2020, 02:32:59 PM »
Wow, pretty drastic action. I hope it comes off ok.
These are looking very nice

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #45 on: September 13, 2020, 05:29:24 PM »
So far it looks like the right decision. :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline ChernayaAkula

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #46 on: December 31, 2020, 02:20:11 PM »
Yup. I'm now sure it was the right decision.  :smiley:

----
Time for a last small 2020 update on the Fishbeds.
Managed to repair the damage to the cockpit canopy. Some filling, sanding and even filling and sanding that nasty scar down the fuselage side with Mr Surfacer 500. Getting it back to where I was before wasn’t without setbacks, though. Wholly self-inflicted, too.  :-X I resprayed the cockpit green with AKAN and let it dry. Or so I thought. Followed with AK’s Extreme Metal Aluminium. It crazed immediately. I wasn’t patient enough. Luckily, though, the crazed paint came off easily, including the turquoise AKAN colour. I resprayed with a blue green from Vallejo and followed that with some Vallejo “Metal Color” Aluminium. That worked flawlessy, both being acrylics. The Vallejo Metal Color is wonderful stuff.
Okay, the Angolan MiG was all but finished now. Even had the final flat coat on. I thought I might get it finished before year’s end. But it wasn’t to be. To quote the Dude: “New sh!t has come to light!”
Notice anything?

ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx81 by Motschke, on Flickr


Yeah, Eduard botched the colours on the rudder.  :icon_twisted: I had my suspicions earlier, but couldn’t get any proof. Seeing some pics in the third volume (delivered this morning) of “War of Intervention in Angola: Angolan and Cuban Air Forces, 1975-1989 (Africa@War series)” did confirm that the red would be at the top. Other pics I had seen were either at bad angles (one pic had the MiG at a perfect angle, but the rudder defelcted away from the camera!  :-\) or inconclusive due to the quality of the picture.
It makes sense, looking at Angola’s flag.
Okay, more masking and spraying. Tamiya’s white, black and red to the resuce.

ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx82 by Motschke, on Flickr


There. Much better.  :icon_beer:

ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx83 by Motschke, on Flickr


Showing the lighter colour (red) at the top of the rudder and the darker (black) at the bottom of the rudder.

ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx84 by Motschke, on Flickr

I should be able to finish the Angolan MiG soon. The black is a gloss colour and needs some flat coat. Also needs some oil staining n the rudder hinge.
Work continues on the Egyptian and Bulgarian Fishbeds. The Egyptian one only needs some minor weathering and some chipping to be ready for the final flat coat, while the Bulgarian is in the middle of the weathering stage. Didn’t do much on the Soviet MiG, but did get a boxing of KP’s re-worked R.V. Aircraft MiG-21M/SM to nab the decals from.
All three did have more colours applied to their engine sections for a livelier look.

ChernayaAkula-Edu72Fishbedx85 by Motschke, on Flickr

So much for 2020.  :icon_meditation: Up next should be finished pics of the Angolan MiG.
Cheers,
Moritz

"The appropriate response to reality is to go insane!"

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #47 on: December 31, 2020, 07:19:24 PM »
This is going to be a brilliant display, especially if you set them up in formation! 8) 8)
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline FAR148

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Re: Real world!!! Four 1/72 Eduard MiG-21MF Fishbeds, all in-flight
« Reply #48 on: January 14, 2021, 07:52:16 AM »
Very Cool Project Moritz  :smiley:




Steven