Through all
my years of modeling I have had some kind of fascination with the Russian jet
fighter, especially the Migs. This was my first attempt at building the Mig-21
in a larger scale and I decided to do it after building basically this same
aircraft for a friend in 1/48th scale. The outcome of that kit was so impressive
I wanted one in the larger scale for my own collection. I remember seeing the
old Revell kit of this variant and I wasn't really that impressed with the die
work, but seeing what was produced by Trumpeter sold me on making a purchase of
this kit. The die work on this thing is just about flawless, heck you could
almost put it together without cement the parts fit so well. The detail is
second to no one, and the model finished out of the box I'm sure would make
the most experienced modeler want to gawk at it a few times. As the build
progressed I did find a couple things that were inherent problems. Those gripes
are the radar cone that fits into the front of the nose, there's not a whole lot
of material there to make a strong fastening point, so if you're not careful
handling it, it will easily break off...and become a real pain in the you know
what to get it back in the right spot to re-fasten it. After breaking the nose
cone off a couple of times I did come up with a way to remedy this though.
I took some 1/8 inch plastic stringer and spanned the inside of the nose in the
form of a cross then cemented the nose cone to this cross, it worked out
nicely and made a nice strong attach point. The other gripe is the
main landing gear, it doesn't hold up real well for such a heavy model
when it's finished. You will need to add weight to the nose to keep the CG right
and keep the nose wheel on the ground.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The cockpit
interior is adequately detailed and I used almost all of it out of the box.
However, I chose to scratch build the instrument panel and did so with some .030
sheet styrene and a Waldron jet instrument set and Bezels to finish it out. The
ejection seat, side panels, etc are all nicely done. I added some seat and
shoulder harnesses using the Waldron jet buckle set to finish out
the seat. I did no converting to the exterior of this kit. All I had to decide
was the kind of color scheme I wanted to use and how to arm the jet. I
chose to model the purely interceptor version of this fighter so I mounted air
to air missiles on both the inside and outside under wing pylons.
For the
color scheme I decided on a purely four tone Russian camouflage, 1 brown
and 2 greens over a light grey underside in Russian markings. The decal
sheet is of good quality and adhesion and I experienced no problems in the
application. This aircraft operated out of a base near Moscow in the home defense
role and it later served in operations in Afghanistan also. This is a very nice
kit from Trumpeter and it makes a nice addition to any 1/32 scale aircraft
collection.
Steve
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