Kit
Tamiya MiG-15bis 1/48
Additions
4014 Aires MiG-15bis Cockpit Set 1/48
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Construction
Tamiya has produced
a very simple and easy kit to construct, however I thought that the
cockpit lack detail. I solved the problem with the use of Aires, whom
provided a very nice and well detailed cockpit. Although like most aftermarket
cockpits there are some modifications to be made to the kit, in order to fit the
cockpit in. Tamiya also provide a metal solid cylinder weight which is placed
into the nose or to be more exact under the cockpit to keep the model sitting on
all its wheels. The problem I had was installing the Aires cockpit and that of
the weight, the depth of the Aires cockpit was a considerable amount to
that of the kit cockpit, and Aires do not allow to much removal of the base
floor of the cockpit, because to much sanding or removal of the cockpit floor
and you start ending up with holes in the floor of the cockpit. But the Aires
cockpit does not have enough weight to keep the model sitting on all wheels, so
the kit weight is still needed. In the end to over come the drama I did what I
call a cram and jam which was glue the Aires cockpit into the fuselage then
proceed to join the two fuselage halves together. Once all is dry cram the
weight into the bottom of the fuselage in what ever space is available. This
procedure is not one I adopt as a way to construct my kits but it paid off in
this situation. The rest of the kit was very straight forward to build.
Painting and Finish
The kit was painted in Model
master metal cote paints with a little pastel wash, followed by some gloss
clear. The decals were then applied and another cote of gloss clear finished
it off.
Alan
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