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Sebastijan Videc
40 articles

MiG-29S ‘Fulcrum-C’ Strizhi (Zvezda, 1:72)

October 23, 2016 · in Aviation · · 29 · 4K

, despite being one of the most popular modern fighters, was poorly served by the scale modelling industry. Italeri's kit, which until just recently was deemed the most accurate of the currently available kits (though it had its fair share of issues) is more than 20 years old and the ICM kit of the 9.13 version was actually based on Italeri moulding and inherited most of its problems. Airfix still releases the old tool kit in a new boxing which was blown away ages ago by the aforementioned models, while Hasegawa and Fujimi are grossly inaccurate. Oh and there's a whole bunch of cheap Eastern European and Asian knock-offs of the all before mentioned models which you shouldn't even bother looking at if you strive for accuracy and ease of build.

So it was really great news when both Trumpeter and announced and released MiG-29 kits in 1:72 this year. I haven't tried building Trumpeter yet (coming soon though), but my experience with Zvezda, as with all their recent kits, was superb.

Despite some small shortcomings, the kit is really a joy to build, is accurate and it's the first MiG-29 kit in 1:72 that has correctly depicted open jet intakes and closed auxiliary intakes. The later are open only when the aircraft is on ground and the engines are running (from start-up to take-off and from landing to shutting down the engines). The engraved detail is well defined if a bit shallow, mostly on the curved surfaces like LERX. There are no engraved rivets present but I don't mind that, as they are more often than not over emphasized and don't look real. With a multitude of riveting tools present today on the market, making you own shouldn't be a problem. If building the Swifts version, the
easiest way of applying the top decals would be to wait with vertical stabilizers installation until after decaling. Decals themselves proved excellent, thin enough and didn't require any setting solutions.

All in all, an excellent kit and I'll be sure adding a few more to my collection.

Model Data

Company: Zvezda
Scale: 1:72
Aftermarket: none
Paints used: Mr.Paint (MRP-4 White, MRP-45 Dark Blue, MRP-98 Light Gull Grey),
Revell (36 Red, enamel)
Alclad (ALC-101 Aluminum, ALC-104 Pale Burnt Metal, ALC-111 Magnesium, ALC-123 Exhaust Manifold, ALC-405 Transparent Smoke, ALC-416 Hotmetal Sepia)

Reader reactions:
9  Awesome

18 additional images. Click to enlarge.


29 responses

  1. Nice looking build, sir...I assume it's part of a demonstration team?

  2. Lovely work. Great detail. Nicely described.

  3. Excellent build, Beautiful finish.

  4. I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of pretty paint jobs on military aircraft, but when they are done this well, I have to take notice, and give credit to a well made / nice looking model. Well done Sebastijan !

  5. Excellent build, the paint work is outstanding.
    Guess i will land by Zvezda or Trumpeter as well.

  6. Yes, very nice Sebastijan, thanks for the info, well done.

  7. That's a jazzy one! Great markings and fantastic skills.
    Feel free to post more of your collection!

  8. Nice looking MiG-29! I just ended up with a Zvezda Su-27 in my stash and am eager to get to it. Sounds like I should expect a decent build.
    I built the Fujimi MiG-29 years ago, and was somewhat disappointed with the experience. I may look to add one of these newer kits soon. I prefer the MiG-29 over the Su-27 as a smaller knife-fighter!

  9. Very smart looking. Top workmanship.

  10. The plane turned out very beautiful! Congratulations!

  11. Top Build, congrats!

  12. Well done !

    LIKE!

  13. 🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
    Nicely stunning build Sebastijan . Very clean, and that paint job is so sharp and crisp looking, very well done.

  14. Otlichnya! Looking forward to seeing more Russian aircraft from you.

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