Today I'm posting a new topic here to show you the progress on the 1/48 MIG-21PFL I’m building to represent a North Vietnamese example, as featured in the Eduard KIT box. The caption I found in the instruction booklet is as follows:
"This aircraft was delivered to Vietnam in 1966 and served as a part of the 921 Fighter Regiment. Thirteen red stars painted on the nose depict victories gained by the pilots who flew this aircraft. One of them was Nguyen Van Coc, the most successful Vietnamese fighter ace with nine confirmed kills to his credit!
He downed F-4B BuNo. 151485 on May 7, 1968 while at the controls of this particular MiG. 'Red 4326' is currently displayed in the Air Force Museum in Hanoi."
I also got a book for reference: Aircraft of the Aces: MiG-21 Aces of the Vietnam War by Osprey. Online, you can find several photos of it at the Air Force Museum in Hanoi. Despite that, I took a few liberties with the representation; for example, I couldn’t determine the original colors of the cockpit and the wheel wells, so I used a grey for the cockpit and a metallic finish for the wheel wells. I’m using a bit of Tamiya and Gunze paints for the cockpit, while for the exterior I’m mixing metallic paints from AK, Alclad, and AMMO.
I hope you like it, and I’ll try to update the progress differently from previous times. I stopped building my Macchi several months ago because I had difficulties aligning the landing gear, but as soon as I gather the courage, I’ll get back to it…
37 attached images. Click to enlarge.
