Wow, what an assembly line, terrific work ,Louis ! I remember the old Hawk chrome kits, I did their F-84G in the before time. It's funny but five minutes ago I couldn't see your photos now their here.

Today I finished the basic assembly of two MiGs. Then I spent a little time with cleaning up the seams. Nothing major and no filler was needed. Just a few swipes with a razor and then a little bit of clean up using fine sandpaper.

Once I was happy with how it was looking, I sprayed the underside in a light blue color.

I have decided that I’m going to have two MiG-15’s wearing camouflage. So I painted two planes with the light blue underneath.

I finished the forward fuselage on the remaining two MiG 15’s. One is the chrome plated version and the other is a standard Tamiya model molded in gray plastic.

I assembled the majority of the chrome plated MiG and used various shades of Bare Metal Foil to take care of the areas where the seams ran. Here you can see the fuselage is almost complete now. The stabilizers have been installed too.

I have finished up the forward section of the fuselage. It’s ready for decals now. The wings and engine have also been done. This is a close up picture of the finished section. The bare metal foil is looking fantastic where I had to do some touch up work on the joints.

I also started applying the foil to the last remaining fuselage section. It’s coming along nicely too. Here’s a picture of the final MiG 15 as it sits now. The section behind the cockpit has been covered with foil.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get the wings installed on the last two MiG 15’s and spray the landing gear wells and inner flap sections in gray.

Please stay tuned for the next installment.

As always comments are encouraged.

Thanks !

Great production line, Louis. I like how you handled the seams on the chrome plated kit with foil.

Today was spent working on the various MiG's...

I masked off the remaining wheel well and flap areas on all of the Tamiya MiG-15's, and next I sprayed them gray. Here is a single photo showing some of the work. The remaining parts for the "Chrome Plated" MiG were also painted as needed.

Since I was spraying the color, I also painted the wells on the Hobbycraft MiG-17.

A nice bonus happened when I removed the masking tape. Some of the exterior greens came off with the tape. This happened in a random fashion and is exactly what I was hoping for...

The tape was wrapped around the leading edge and it happened here too... Perfect ! Just what the doctor ordered...

I assembled the landing gear and "borrowed" a set of chrome plated drop tanks from the Tamiya MiG 15 kit. With some careful measuring, and after 3 small holes were drilled into each wing, the Tamiya drop tanks fit like a charm... and it was a definite improvement over the kit supplied parts.


The instructions on how to install the landing gear on the Hobby Craft kit were very vague. I went online and looked at a lot of photos of the real MiG-17 to use as a reference. The nose wheel and gear doors were installed.

The resin replacement nose wheel was not used. It was too wide to fit in between the front oleo forks. If I had it before I painted the nose strut, I could have shimmed the parts and used the wheel. Instead I took the easy route, and simply used the original kit supplied nose wheel. It was not too bad to begin with. I bought the resin wheels to replace the mains, as they are rather crude.

The resin main wheels have been painted, but still need installation.

Finally, I painted the exhaust nozzle and installed it... The pitot tubes, and landing light lens were also added at this time.

I went back and randomly picked away at the green paint in some places. This revealed the shiny "Metalizer" base coat. Now it looks like the paint is peeling away, and I'm quite happy with the results.

If things go as planned, this one will be finished tomorrow. If I'm lucky, the MiG-17 just might even get posted in the headlines section too. There's some masking to be done on the camouflaged Tamiya MiG-15's. Once that's done I'll spray the next color... which will be a shade of tan.

As always,
Comments are encouraged.

Thanks Robert ! These MiG builds are highly addictive. I just ordered one from Sprue Brothers. It is the Trumpeter 1/48 MiG-15 and it’s pro going to arrive in a week or less.

They’re just like the Focke Wulf 190 and the Bf-109. So many paint schemes to choose from. And every single one of them look sinister...

Thanks again buddy for the kind words. I wrapped it up late last night when I added the wheels.

I’m sure that MiG was a sight to see ! I’ve only had the opportunity to see a MiG -15 in flight once. It was a two seater UTI variant. Very cool and they don’t have the same sounds as your typical civilian jet when they fly overhead.

To my ears, all military jets have a distinct sound of their own.

Take care !

The Grumman line next to the Mikoyan production line. Amazing progress Louis. The Gardner works at full production. Check your reference if I remember correctly I believe the wheels on the MiG-17 should be Russian Hub Green. Otherwise the rest of the MiGs are coming along nicely. I remember building a Chrome MiG-15 in the late 70's I think it was either Aurora or Hawk. Very simple build. As i remember you can see through the nose to the tail, there was no plug in the intake to block the view to that tail exhaust cone. Keep them coming. Really hard to tell the difference on a MiG-17 and a MiG-15.

That’s a mighty impressive MIg you got there Louis! Not that the others are inferior but the green dappled MiG just fills up the room. You could have fooled me with the chipping not being “accidental” 🙂

Hey Pedro ! @holzhamer
You saw right through the alleged "accident"... It was done on purpose and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I just posted it in the headline section now, and I thank you again for the kind comments you left for me...