Slovak Air Force MiG-21MF Chad 1982

Don't know how/why a Slovak Air Force MiG-21MF would be involved in a desert war in Chad? Whatever the situation was it managed to shoot down a MiG-19. But who's????

Slovak "What if?"

Here we have a Slovak MiG-21MF (7708) in its final year of service in the Slovak Air Force. (replaced by Su-27's)

In 1983, 24 Slovak MiG-21MF's (including 7708) were sold to Gambia in a special trade deal. These jets didn't receive the tender love and care they deserved and quickly fell into disrepair, although they were kept flying.

Engine bits.

Once I had put the engine exhaust together as a test fit (no glue) I realised that there was going to be a quite noticeable gap between parts C7 and C55 that could indeed be easily seen with the naked eye. So, it had to be filled and sanded. To do this, once parts C7 & C55 were glued I applied some "goop" to the offending gap.

The "goop" is Tamiya extra thin cement mixed with sprue to form a very thick plastic filler that has the same consistency as the plastic of the kit. Once it is dry it can easily be sanded and does not shrink. I've found it the best solution to filling gaps for my needs. Though we modellers all have our preferred methods of doing things.

I have a post on Britmodeller about this here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9003

Also during the test fit I realised that parts C45 (the engine fan) & D24 would not be seen at all so there was absolutely no point in painting it. Same goes for the fitting of the photoecth part PE27. You're never going to see it so there is really no point fitting it.

Be careful cutting off PE28, I managed to bend it in the process! To attach PE28 to part D84 (both of which were already painted) I used Vallejo Matt Varnish. The bond must have been pretty good because the part survived a 4 foot fall onto concrete as I was getting ready to photograph it!

With the engine exhaust parts (C7 & C55) filled and dry it was ready to sand.

I rolled up a piece of wet & dry sand paper and rotated it whilst pushing it in and out. After about 15 minutes of that it was done.



Now, to re-paint it!....................

A little more progress and some more paint mixes.

First off a reference book that I highly reccomend for the Eduard MiG-21MF is this one....

In the instruction booklet Eduard states that the colour of the inside of the exhaust should be bright green! I wouldn't have believed it if not for this book!

The colour mix for this bright green I arrived at from these colours....

Game Color 72032 Escorpena Green : 2
Model Air 71094 Green Zinc : 4
Model Color 70883 Silver Grey : 1

All are acrylic paints from the various Vallejo paint ranges. Those of you not familiar with them should know they are fantastic acrylic paints and can be quite safely intermixed from the various ranges on offer, as I have here. I thin them with demineralised water.

The other colour that I have mixed is for the various 'green' panels and nose cone of the MiG-21MF. Colours are as follows...

Game Color 72032 Escorpena Green : 2

Model Air 71094  Green Zinc : 6

Model Air 71014 Gunship Green : 9

In the instruction booklet it shows that the area at the back of the nose cone is to be painted Dark Iron. The actual area, as shown clearly in the Wings & Wheels Publications book, is much larger than that shown in the instruction booklet and should cover an area much further forward, illustrated here in the pink.

Next up is the cockpit. Here you see the sidewalls under construction.

Busy MiG-21 night tonight!

And another version of South Sudan.

Eduard MiG-21 cockpit colour.

Finally I'm back in the model room and the experiments continue. After a lot of drops of paint I've finally matched the Eduard MiG-21 cokpit colour to Gunze paint!

Here's the number of times I tried.....

And finally a result that I was happy with!

In the end it turned out to be a 50/50 mix of Gunze Sangyo H25 Sky Blue and H46 Emerald Green.

There, the mystery is solved, now lets all start building!

What if? South Sudan MiG-21

Hi guys, feeling a lot better now, should be able to carry on with the Eduard MiG-21MF tomorrow. In the mean time here is a profile for a "What if?" South Sudan MiG-21.

I had a bit of fun creating the roundel design for this one. The leading contender at the moment is number 8. Let me know you're preference and I'll do another profile with the most popular.

Man down!

Sorry about the lack of update, I've gone and hurt my lower back quite badly and am currently in bed using the laptop to write this. I have a couple of bulging discs at the moment and am in quite a bit of discomfort and pain to say the least!

It is so frustrating because I can't even sit in a chair at the moment, so I can't do any modelling or profile art! Ahhhhh!

I had actually begun the paint mix experiment for the MiG-21 cockpit colour and nearly had it, then the next morning whilst playing with my kids prior to them going to school, I made a wrong move and ended up in this state!

I've been lying here checking out all the various posts on the Internet about the Eduard MiG-21. Damn, I've never been so keen to get started on a model kit like I am with this one! So, for a couple of days at least, I'll just have make do with watching what everybody else is doing with the kit. On one site I was looking at, the modeller commented and showed photos of just how good the fit of parts is. Very impressive stuff!

Thanks to those of you who have taken the time to comment, left a star rating or have ticked one of the reactions boxes. For me it's good feedback and it gives me some idea of what you think of my Blog and what I can do to improve things or provide more of what you want to see.

Something I hope to have active on my Blog soon is the ability to buy Gekko Graphics decals directly from the Blog using PayPal. The first two sheets that will be available will be the 48th scale RNZAF A-4G/K decal sheets. Parts 1 and 2.

On the subject of RNZAF Skyhawks, I am currently preparing the "Last Day" sheet which I know some of you have waited an eternity for. Well, it's finally happening. I'm trying out a layout that will have 32nd, 48th, 72nd and 144th scales on the one sheet. I'm not sure if I'll go ahead with it like that or not just yet, but I would appreciate some feedback on whether you'd like it in multi scales on one sheet or individual releases??

Cheers!