1/72 Iraqi airfield

1/72 KP MiG-21MF, 1/72 Italeri Su-25K and 1/72 Su-25UB

by Tamás Skriba

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This is my first "larger" diorama. The idea came from the Gulf War in 1991. But some of the details I had to go on my own, because I couldn't find detailed pictures from the damaged hardened aircraft shelters (not to talk about the inside of an Iraqi hangar…). The aircraft are a MiG-21MF from KP, a Su-25K from Italeri, a Su-25UB from an older box (sorry but I don't remember the manufacturer). The damaged Su-25K was made by myself. I moulded the main parts from gips by using the original Italeri parts. The parts I made are not the best-detailed but I think for this application they are more then perfect.

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The ground plate is a 1,2x0,6 m plastic plate. The hangars are made from EPS plates because they are easy but also strong enough and it is easy to shape (especially the damaged roof). The infantry soldiers, pilots and the crew was taken from older ESCI kits. It needed a lot of changes on the figures to put them on the right position, by the loading of the munition on the MiG-21, and by the loading of the rockets and the para-brake on the Su-25.

The weapons for the aircraft where taken from other kits, the MiG-21 is armed with R-2US (AA-1 Alkali) and R-3S (AA-2 Atoll) missiles and with a fuel tank, the Su-25K’s load is: 4XUB-32 rockets, 2 R-60 missiles, 2 fuel tanks and bombs on 2 multiple ejector racks. The Su-25UB is armed with 4XB-8 rockets, 2 R-60 missiles, 2 fuel tanks and 2 H-29L missiles. I left some fuel tanks also in the damaged hangar. The Iraqi decals for the aircraft are all self made.

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I applied a lot of figures to the diorama. Some soldiers are by the damaged hangar, some are by the ZSU-23-2 AAA, also by the URAL vehicles. Then there are ground crews and pilots for the aircraft too.

I enjoyed the work very much, and hope that you will like it and find a lot of "extras" on the pictures!

Tamás

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Photos and text © by Tamás Skriba