MiG-23MLA 'Flogger-G' (Clearprop, 1:72)

Started by Sebastijan Videc · 61 · 1 year ago
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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Very nice progress, Sebastijan @inflames
    Hope you had a wonderful holiday.

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    Sebastijan Videc said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Thank you Spiros and John! Yeah indeed I had a great one - 5 days at a heavy metal festival in the most beautiful Alpine valley working as a photographer followed by a week with my family by the Aegean sea at the island of Kos.

    Finished the main wheel wells over the weekend. The detailing is really nice, but due to the limits of plastic moulding, more details can be added. Looks decent out of the box but looks even better with some additional wiring.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Very nice work on the additional wiring, Sebastijan @inflames
    Look really good.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Excellent job on the wheel wells, my friend @inflames!

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    Sebastijan Videc said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Thank you, guys!

    Since I will be doing the wings fully swept configuration, the recommended weight in the nose is 10gr. To be honest, there's not really a lot of place in that nose, so I'll be combining the usual lead fishing weights with Uschi van der Rosten's Three Greens product.


    Unfortunately as it is apparent from the last photo, the first fit issues start showing up - I cannot get a nice clean joint between the lower part of the fuselage and the fuselage halves - the gap appears almost identical on the other side as well.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Nice fitting of the weights, my friend @inflames! Pity for the fit, however with your skills you will effectively tackle it.

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    Sebastijan Videc said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Thank you, @fiveten. The fit is what it is, I will deal with it, but I fear the worst is yet to come.

    You may have seen the product in my last post but Uschi van der Rosten's Three Green product is simply awesome if you need noseweight in tight places... For a swept wing option, Clearprop suggests adding 10g of weight in the nose and it's not a very voluminous nose, so adding additional weight in the form of this product in combination of fishing weights provides more than enough of it, to prevent a nasty tailseater!

    By chance I also discovered my favourite new "putty". Most of you probably know, CA or "super" glue can act as a filler, but most of these glues, when dry, become hard as a rock and are really tough to sand. Here comes the VMS Black CA glue. This thing dries up nicely but unlike other glues, stays relatively soft and thus easy to sand. In combination with the recently acquired DSPIAE curved sander, it's a combination hard to beat on rounded fuselages. I only have to rescribe the details around those dreaded side gaps.



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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Great that you figured out a way to add weight using the Uschi product, my friend @inflames! Also, excellent result using the soft black CA putty.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Very good progress, Sebastijan @inflames
    Not the easiest build but you seem to tackle the issues perfectly.

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Cockpit looks great, Sebastijan @inflames, as do the wheel wells. The extra work was certainly worth it. Clear Prop kits usually fit well, sorry this is the exception.

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    Sebastijan Videc said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Thanks guys, the struggle continues!

    Since painting the area between the fuselage and the splitter plates is hard to reach when assembled, I've decided to paint those areas beforehand. The tip of the splitter plate was masked and painted with Anodized Aluminium.

    Now the whole bunch of problems arose - The complex nature of the kits fuselage breakdown caused fit issues. While the sides of the fuselage were somewhat cooperative, the upper part defies a good fit. It is interesting that the pieces over the intakes fit perfectly yet both the central piece behind the cockpit and the rear fuselage behind the wing box appear too long. As it appears, this will now be the hardest part to solve. As I am leaving for a short weekend trip to Netherlands and Belgium (Any of my followers going to the Kleine Brogel airshow?) expect the next progress update next week.



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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    You are making some really good progress despite the struggles, Sebastijan @inflames

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Excellent progress so far, my friend @inflames! I am sure that you will solve all fit issues in your usual excellent manner. Wish I were close to Kleine Brogel...

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Every Mig-23 I have built has problems in the area around the intakes and rear canopy, Sebastijan (@inflames), and it doesn't seem to matter if it is 1/72 or 1/48. I am sure you will solve the problem after a great model show.

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    Sebastijan Videc said 1 year, 2 months ago:

    Thanks, guys! I am really loosing my mojo on this one but I keep struggling on.
    I have finally added the wings and the leading edge extensions - wings fit nicely but the extensions again needed putty and filling. The resin exhaust's fit was also poor - while I managed to attach it, following the upper (most visible) curve it created quite a step at the bottom, which I tried to at least reduce slightly using Mr.Paint's putty. Oh well, at least it is starting to look like a 23 now!