1/48 Academy Mig 21 PF

Gallery Article by Shaun "vapour trail" Naude on Apr 29 2009

--------------------

 

Hello fellow modelers and lovers of all things flight related.  This is my first submission to ARC and I hope that it will not be the last.

This is my 1/48th Academy Mig 21 PF in NVA guise built straight OOB.  It was my last build for 2008 and took me approximately a month to complete with an average of six hours’ building per day. 

DECALS

Decals came from the kit and I must say that they went on without a problem except for the nose number which broke and I then decided to rather leave.

THE KIT

As is usual with Academy, the kit is in grey plastic not too soft and not too hard with finely engraved lines. It went together very well with minor problems experienced in the wing root area where some filling was necessary. The only down side to this kit was that I did not get any decal instructions in my box, I mailed Academy about this, but as yet did not receive any reply.

CONSTRUCTION

COCKPIT:  As usual the construction started off with the office and I painted the tub on the sprue with a self mixed Russian blue.  Next I assembled and built the seat and painted it in the various colours as needed to bring it to life.  Following the seat came the instrument panel painted in black and then dry brushed to get the illusion of jumping out at you. The instrument on the sides of the tub was also painted black and then drybrushed in silver.

FUSELAGE AND WINGS:       Next I decided to ignore all other kit steps of instruction and glued the nose cone in the one halve of the forward part of the fuselage. After the mentioned I made all wing surfaces and then glued the front halves of the fuselage to the rear halves. I then glued the wings to the two halves and then filled in the gaps between the wing roots and fuselage. In went the tub glued to the one half and the halves got glued together.

SMALL PARTS AND WHEEL WELLS:      The next part was painting the wheel wells again in my home mixed Russian blue.  I waited for the paint to dry and then masked the cockpit and wheel wells for the inevitable task of painting with wet tissue paper. The wheels and struts, the landing gear doors, the various antennae and actuators and the missiles were airbrushed with Academy and Humbrol oil colours.  The centreline fuel tank was done with ALCLAD silver and polished after drying (Thanks Charley).

Click on images below to see larger images

  

PAINTING:  The whole model was painted using Humbrol matt enamels and Academy oil colours.  The centreline drop tank was done in Alclad as already mentioned and this with the complements of a very dear friend by the name of Charley Deale.  For those of you that do not know Academy colours, they are great, good colour intensity, needs no thinning to be shot through an airbrush and dry literally within minutes. Now down to the nads:

  • 1.   Model pre-shaded with Academy matt black over all panel lines.

  • 2.   Edges done with Humbrol no 11 silver fox.

  • 3.    Silver edges masked in drops and lines with maskall to later simulate the chipping of paint.

  • 4.   Shot a layer of Academy Vietnam green over the entire model and wait to dry.

  • 5.   Shot a spiderweb pattern over the whole model with Humbrol camouflage grey and wait to dry.

  • 6.   Shot a fine mist of Academy light green over the entire model to simulate the mottling.

  • 7.   Tore off the masks and removed the now dry tissue paper

  • 8.   Mask the canopy and then shot the open parts with Academy aero white

DECALING:          The decals went on without a hitch as previously mentioned with exception of the nose number which I then decided to leave off due to its breaking numerous times.

FINAL TOUCHES:         The small parts fixed a layer of cobra floor polish (which is the local equivalent to future) shot the whole model over.  After the floor polish dried, I highlighted the panel lines with a very thin mixture of artists’ colours (lamp black) and artist spirits I then waited for this to dry and then shot another layer of polish over the model.  Next came the decals and then another layer of floor polish and lastly a coat of Humbrol matt varnish.  Clear parts were then attached with white glue.  I hope you enjoy and thanks to Steve for a great site.

Shaun "vapour trail" Naude

Photos and text © by Shaun “vapour trail”Naude