Wings of the Red Star Volume I – MiG-29
This article is part of a series:
Well, at least I'm not the one to break the D-Day streak. Honestly I think it's the kit's fault as it kept horning in on my own D-Day build. Well, anyway here goes the rest of the article. It will sound way better if you imagine it being read by Sir Peter Ustinov!
This is the old Monogram kit, warts and all. There are instructions and templates to covert the rudders to the wider chord found on production versions. Likewise, there are also templates to do the lower strakes found on the early prototypes. Oddly, this is a detail that was removed from the MiG-29, but added to the Su-27. I think all of the errors in this kit are not totally Monogram's fault. The kit was released before detailed information was available to us in the west and they did the best they could with what they had access to. (For instance, the parachute housing is only depicted in plan view, in profile, this area is flat on the model.)
I decided to paint mine similarly to how they appeared at Farnborough in 1988. (Fortunately the weather for the photos today is similar to the weather during their visit!)The green was hard to replicate as the color seems to change depending on the lighting conditions. I ended up using some medium green mixed with neutral grey and the main color is neutral grey. (Anyone wanting to get familiar with an airbrush, this would be a good model to start with as the color scheme is very basic.) The radome and various antennae were gunship grey darkened with some black. The green I use for the wheels is just the plain Testors gloss green in the small bottle mixed with some flat black. I don't have a ratio, rather I go by the TLAR method and mix as needed. Consequently, the wheels on all my Russian aircraft are all a different shade of this basic color. All of my reference photos came from the Tony Lake book documenting the Fulcrum's visit to England. Now I just hope FHC brings their MiG-29UB to Oshkosh this year! (And maybe the Stumovic as well!)
For those of you with some really deep pockets, there have been a couple of these as well as a pair of Su-27s for sale in Trade-a-Plane. Four million sounds like a lot of money, but it actually is a bargain compared to what they cost new. (I can't believe I actually said that!) Both the Flankers have already sold, so act fast as these things are flying off the shelves! 😀
Josh, is this 1/48? Nice presentation of a challenging kit.
Yes, it's the 1/48. I don't know if I'd call it challenging. The worst part was the joint at the intake to the nacelle. It took a while to smooth that out as there was a pretty nasty step. I actually had to use some filler there. I didn't much care for the seam running completely around the nose, but at least everything fit decent there. All I had to do was sand. I did have a lot of fun painting it though, mixing colors trying to match the photographs rather than using color right out of the bottle. Now i just have to go back and clean up the tyre/rim color separation. (Or did the ground crew just get sloppy repainting the wheels?)
A fine build Josh. as for the ground crew , well put them on extra duties.
Well done Josh.
Extra duties...In Siberia!
Good, clean build Josh.
Nice clean build, Josh.
I remember the mid eighties when pictures of the back then brand new Russian aircrafts were released. We used to think that an Eagle or Tomcat was unbeatable, but the MiG-29 and the Su-27 looked awesome, definitely competitive and also a bit frightening.
Great to see one of them again!
Josh,
Looks good to me. You did a real fine job on this.
beautiful paintjob
Nice mate! I love these jets.
Josh, I'm sure we would have forgiven you if you had been the one to break the "D-Day streak", because this is a great looking model. Not sure I could afford to buy a real one, even at those bargain prices, and just think of the running costs!