Danstream

Mikoyan-Gurevich MIG 15 Bis Red 40 - Nikolay Shkodin, 1953 (Trumpeter 1:48) Hereinafter the pictures of my completed model of this Soviet fighter. The build presented few fitting issues, but at the end I am pleased with the result. I chose not to install the jet engine inside the rear fuselage and to display it next to the aircraft. I used aftermarket seatbelt, instrument panel and resin main wheels for increased detailing. The Jet engine Klimov-vk1 is fairly reproduced for this scale and, as said, I display it on a scratch build static stand. The model was finished with Tamiya acrylic colors mixes and Vallejo metallic for the metallic finished parts. I tried the camouflage bands by spraying them free-hand to obtain feathered demarcations. However, perhaps the effect that I obtained is a bit out of scale. I obtained the 2 x 23 mm gun muzzles by aluminium tubes, while the muzzle of the 37 mm cannon is an Eduard replacement. I modified the oversimplified pilot seat to better reproduce the type used at the time of this aircraft. The panel lines were obtained by oil colors washes. Other small stains were made with watercolor pencils. I found this aircraft rather interesting to build and I hope you like my final pictures. The complete build log is reported in the above pages. I would like to thanks all those that followed my long build and especially those that have provided comments and suggestions. Best regards, Dan

Hi all, being domestic commitments for the festivities over, these are the really last pictures of the last missing bits. The engine was completed and put on its finished stand: Clearly, there is no claim for accuracy, being the added wiring and tubing is just an over simplification and its purpose was just to convey the impression of the real thing. Finally, the wire aerial, although it is barely visible in this picture: Next, canopy and final pictures. Thanks for following, Dan.

@king derelict thanks for your clarification about the stand. I am glad that you find it adequately reproducing something realistic, I will pose it next to the aircraft. Best regards, Dan.

As said in an another post of yours, this interior looks very nice. Greetings, Dan.

Javlin, this interior looks very carefully and nicely assembled and finished. About the weathering, beside what Egilman said, i.e. any state must have occurred in the life of a vehicle, including the state when it was new, if you want to apply oil colors or pre-prepared washes, do not forget to gloss the surfaces first with a gloss paint which must be based on a different solvent than the wash. But probably you already know that. Greetings, Dan.

Hi all, I wrote that my post was the last one, but actually, I am still posting a WIP for the engine stand which I scratch built blending various configurations posted above by @Egilman. Clearly, the comparison with the workshop equipment built by Gary in its diorama is intimidating, at any rate that's mine: I built that from plastic card and evergreen profiles. This is how it is supposed to look with the engine temporarily posed on it: I am afraid this is not a proper workshop stand, but rather one similar to the ones used for static display of the engine, but I didn't feel to embark a more complex design. This is it after a coat of color and brown staining: Now, the engine needs to be refined a bit more and some wiring added. Greetings to all, Dan

Dear all, Thanks for all the likes and for following. About the external loads, I always tend to omit them, but I can also see Ken's point. Sometimes, I am attracted by a model by seeing the unbelievable quantity of loads the it carries under its wings. This is a bit part of your 'philosophy' (what a big word) of the hobby. Personally, I am often more interested in representing an aircraft perhaps isolated from its context, others might want to pick more the aspects or a particular moment of its operational life. Surely, I imagine there must be always discussions going on between the aerodynamic engineering department and the operation and sales departments 🙂! Following Ken's kind message, I also wish all of you and the ones you love a Merry Christmas and a healthy and peaceful New Year. Dan.

Here the magic starts again. I am curious to see how the complex Sptfire surfaces are resolved this time. In particular, in the real plane, forming the fairing of the wing leading edge was apparently a challenge because of its double curvature. Cheers, Dan.

Hi, The last missing bits always take more time than anticipated, but eventually they went into place. The pitot tube was replaced by one which I made out of metallic micro-tubes: The airbrakes with their oleo jacks. The jacks are rally awful, but I did not have the patience to replace them, so I left the ones OOB: The main landing gear completed with the equally awful OOB oleo jacks: Now last touch ups, then the wire antenna and the canopy are the last details to be mounted. I prepared the drop tanks, but at the end, I like the model better without them. Hence, the next installment will be the conclusive one with proper pictures, but not before I scratch build the trolley for the engine. See you next time, Dan.

I am still looking for my jaw which dropped when I saw these pictures and in particular the last one with your spectacles. Fantastic result, moreover, it was also greatly entertaining to follow step by step your build. Each combination of lightning conveys a different mood and I cannot decide which one I prefer. Cannot imagine what would be next, congratulations, Dan.

After long time, a very small step about the antennae (or antennas?). I added a pin to the antenna mast made with a metallic wire. I also made a blade antenna made by hammering flat a brass rod and another short one made with small brass tube. These will replace the fiddly plastic parts. Here the antennas are inserted and glued: Now the metallic parts needs to be primed and then painted. Best regards, Dan.

Your Tiger Moth is truly awesome, Chris! The level of detail is unbelievable. I couldn't have never imagined that that was possible with a paper model. Every day I learn something. Congrats, Dan.

Lou, I think that you are generally correct. Jets operating from tarmac runways have a high pressure tires and on ground you can see only a very small footprint. For those, I omit the lateral bulging that can be obtained by heating the plastic, as Gary said, but I just file a bit the wheel where it contacts the ground. This eliminate the 'tiptoe' appearence given by a wheel that touches just on one spot, which does not happens in reality. For aircraft intended to operate from grass, the tire pressure is lower and a bit more pronounced effect might be appropriate. However, I am not concerned with these subtle differences and I just file a bit the tires in all cases. Dan

Hi Gary, the wheels are a resin aftermarket from Eduard and they came already flattened. Yes, it is a nice feature which I often add also to items OOB to give an otherwise round wheel the impression of carrying some weight. In addition, in this case, the flat portion of the tire is also functional to maintain the precarious equilibrium that I mentioned for this model. Believe it or not, with round wheels, the model would sit on its tail 🤔. Dan

Thank you for your comment, Sir! 🙂 Lines on the airframe (which were done with tube oil colors) came out OK, but it could be better. Otherwise, yes, I use the the Tamiya panel line accent (black and brown) quite often to highlight details and they are quite handy to use. Best regards, Dan.

Lovely interior. Very, very stilish car. I wouldn't see myself out of place driving that car 🙂. Yes, scribing a model is always a chore. Great model, Dan.

Dear all, I started to 'furnish' the model with the last bits and for me, this means progressing at a more glacial pace than my usual with very small progress at every step. Here, I rebuilt the arched frame that is located inside the canopy and which was provided as an obvious solid piece in the kit. This is how it looks once painted and glued inside the canopy. I find that this is a little improvement which is easy to implement. Then, it was the turn of the landing gears and wheels which were treated with panel liner to let their nice details to pop out: Followed by doors and other little details: Landing gears are not completed yet (oleo jacks still missing), but the MiG can finally stands on its own legs now: Well, the model is an hopeless tail sitter and its final equilibrium will be decided by fraction of grams of the addition of the last details, despite the amount of lead that I added in the gun compartment (and the omission of the jet engine). A detail of the Eduard's cannon muzzle which is a nice addition. All the muzzles were brushed with graphite powder to give a bit of shine to their metallic paint: Another riddle: the main antenna mast doesn't have any pin to get securely fixed to the smooth and curved fuselage skin (it is supposed to get positioned below the oval panel pictured just below the canopy edge) . A simple butt glued join with such a small contact area is clearly not adequate and I will have to find a better way to glue it. That is all for now, thanks for watching and kind regards, Dan.

Hi Mark, you must refer to the defection of one MiG 25 which took place in 1976. The MiG 25 was an interceptor capable of Mach 3+. But, indeed, no great sophistication was found from a close inspection of it, just massive power and an airframe made mainly of a nickel steel alloy that could perform at the high temperatures of Mach 3+ flight. No high performing titanium or the like. Clearly, it was a one-point design being designed to accomplish just a single type of mission (although it was also used as a reconnaissance aircraft), but it did the task it was designed for. Let me say that the point you mentioned about the rivets is a bit too simple, if I may say so. Surely the protruding rivets were used where they could be tolerated from aerodynamic point of view being most of the airframe welded. Surely, it required a massive trust to reach 3.2 Mach, but looking at its configuration (huge intakes, vast wing surface, high weight), I guess that the rivets where not the main reason for the need of that. At any rate, the pragmatic unsophisticated and often spartan approach is one of the interesting factors for me about these Russian planes.

You should indicate which pictures are of the model and which are of the real things because in many cases this is not evident to me 🤔 Dan

Very nice pieces. Also young Leonardo da Vinci started with painting tarantulas and snakes that looked so real that people were scared off 😀. Waiting to see the hedgehog finished. Dan.

Indeed, this is my first model of a Soviet aircraft and I had never been greatly attracted by them before because I thought they looked 'different'. However, lately I had the occasion to read more about these early jets and I was pushed to try one. Now, I am very intrigued by their being 'different', by their look and by their engineering. Surely this will not be my last one. Thanks for your appreciation of my work! 😉 Thanks Alan, happy that you like it. The result of the panel lines depends a lot on how good is the model. In this case, the finesse of the starting pieces was not bad, but, because of extensive filling and sanding I had to scribe again the lost details (I did not do all of them, though because it is such a boring work). Here is where you need same more skills. Otherwise, the process is not difficult and capillarity and chemistry do most of the job for you. 🙂 Thanks also for all the likes!

Hi all, thanks for the comments and the likes. After a long interval, I am now finishing a bunch of small items. I cleaned up the landing gears and added the piping of the breaks, as seen in walkaround pictures, to busy them up. Prepared the aux tanks and wheels. I replaced the main wheel with Eduard's resin parts which are nicer. Then sprayed the landing gears, painted details, brushed floor polish and completed them with Tamiya panel liner (black and brown). As said before, the idea is to get the feel of the real thing. To break the more tedious works, I also started to add small stains and scratches using watercolor pencils. This is the underside with stains and the main landing gear legs finally glued in place. A light coat of matt clear will remove the remaining shine. The split flaps are dry tested in place: Also the nose landing gear is now in its place: That is all for now, comments, suggestion, critiques are as always welcome. Dan.

Fuselage turned out fantastic.

Nice cockpit in such a small scale! Dan.

Nice model of this iconic spacecraft and mission. Very rarely seen. Dan.