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ACADEMY/MINICRAFT 1:72 MIKOYAN MIG-21F FISHBED |
Reviewer:
Hrvoje Šafhauzer (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted: 2 November 2009
Kit Details:
Aircraft History:
Spurred by the experiences of the Korean War and requirements from VVS (Soviet Air Force), the MiG Design Bureau started development of a Mach-2 high climbing interceptor, intended for fighting the anticipated next generation of western jet bombers. The new fighter was required to be maintenance-friendly, something that was not the case with its predecessor the MiG-19. The eventual result was an agile fast frontline fighter, that in various developments was produced in approximately 13,500 units, being the most produced jet combat aircraft ever, it served in more countries than any military jet, and participated in more conflicts than any other plane.
At the time of development, MiG designers were not sure about the best aerodynamic shapes for bi-sonic planes so two designs were made: E-2 with a highly swept wing, and E-4 with delta-wing and classic tailplane. Both designs used the same fuselage, and were powered by same 37.3 kN (3,800 kp) static thrust Tumanski RD-9 axial turbojet. After detailed comparison flight testing and many modifications, including adoption of a new Tumanski RD-11 jet engine, the delta wing prototype proved to offer certain advantages like higher speed and bigger fuel capacity, and so an E-6 prototype was adopted for series production. The first series production planes appeared in 1958, differing from prototypes with certain changes and the inclusion of an underfuselage hardpoint. These were named MiG-21F, and armed with two 30 mm NR-30 cannon in fuselage front lower sides. Three-position nose intake shock cone housed a SRD-5 ranging radar, tied to ASP-5ND gyro-stabilized optical gunsight. This variant was introduced in Soviet Front-line aviation and produced in relatively few numbers, being replaced by newer missile-compatible sub-variant. A two-seat MiG-21 U conversion trainer appeared in 1961.
The MiG-21 f13 (type 74) got two underwing hardpoints for K-13 IC-homing missile each (copy of Chinese-captured AIM-9B Sidewinders), or 250 kg aircraft bomb, or 57 UB-16-57 rocket pod, or S-24 air-ground rocket each. Port 30 mm cannon was replaced with the avionics required for missiles, and underfuselage station was used mostly for auxiliary 490-litre drop tank for increasing highly limited endurance. A 56.4 kN (5,750 kp) thrust two-stage Tumanski R-11F-300 with afterburning was introduced, and excelled with reliability and single-stage engine operation controls. Improved SRD-5M ranging radar was introduced, as well as IFF suite. This all turned plane into maneuverable first class short range fighter with limited ground attack capabilities.
In combat the MiG-21 f13 proved to be a highly agile and swift fighter, but was also hampered by a lack of range and early K-13's feature that only outgoing targets could be acquired and fired against. Also the pilot was buried within fuselage, with his view to front and sides being pretty limited - this being a one of the reasons for mixed results achieved in combat by various users. On the other hand operating it was relatively simple, and for instance Egyptian land crews were able to refuel and rearm an aircraft in only seven minutes in wartime conditions. Mig-21 f13 was license-built in Czechoslovakia, and reversed engineered by the Chinese as Chengdu J-7 (F-7) and developed in a number of indigenous subvariants/upgrades and produced into 21st century, with over 1,000 units churned out, and exported under favourable conditions.
The Soviets continued development with higher powered engines, better radars and armament starting with missile-only P/FL/PF/PFM, through S/M/MF, and MT/SMT, to final bis series.The Kit:
I purchased this kit in a hobby shop during a training course in Brussels, Belgium, long ago in 1998. Until then I had only 1/100 scale VEB Plasticart (MiG-21F) and Starfix/Tamiya (MiG-21 f13) in my collection, plus KP's MiG-21 MFs, and this was kit of the important plane in Yugoslav military aviation history, so it was available there and purchased at once.
Light gray parts are arranged on two sprues, with separate clear cockpit canopy, all packed in a heat-sealed PE bag, and a smallish tube of glue was included. All this was placed in top opening sturdy box, of standard Academy (and Hasegawa), and wrapped in cellophane (that is why I do not remember the price). Parts have minimum flash, with slight mold misalignment at the rudder top, and annoying ejector pin marks on wheels, landing gear legs, wheels, missile bodies, and the like. Also the nose cone has slightly exaggerated concave shape, but at least it is there - often missed in some kits.
The cockpit is comprised of a floor only, with seat, front and rear bulkhead molded together, although pretty slim, with no rudder pedals, control stick or instrument panel parts for. Ejection seat upper parts are molded together with fuselage halves. Fin and rudder, and fuselage hump are molded with starboard fuselage part, making assembling simpler. Pilot, a sort of, is included also. Some of the parts are crude, and some are missing or simplified, but more on that later. Holes in lower wing surfaces are predrilled, so leaving the hardpoints off is not an option.
Instructions are on one letter-sized paper sheet folded in three to fit in the box. The front side has some history, painting and marking guide with two views only and a nose scrap view for a second marking option. The rear side provides five assembly steps with no interior detail painting instructions, key of the graphical signs and was copyrighted to 1986.
After coming back home, I compared the kit with drawings published in Reference 1, which showed that the kit is overscaled, as is the Hasegawa one. In fact some years later and with internet reviews available I found out that parts layout and shapes are almost identical with slightly different arrangement on the sprues. Not strange, having in mind previous Minicraft-Hasegawa relationships. Also, it is with non-transparent rear cockpit canopy – a feature of Czechoslovakian-built machines that definitively were not in JRV (Yugoslav Air Force) service. With no interior painting instructions, I prepainted kit parts in aluminum bronze, olive green and black (as shown at the images below), and consigned to unbuilt pile. Pilot was also removed and used in some of the models built since then, in general I do not place pilots in my jet models, so he is not at the parts photo below. The kit languished in stash, but after I purchased much better, and more than twice costly and with a strange omission of K-13 missiles, Revell kit some interesting options appeared.
Photo Credit: Yuvam Aerplan per
Reference below
Photo of a nosecone shape of a MiG-21 f13 with a probe canted upwards (taken from Reference 1).
The small decal sheet has options for two planes, both Finnish, with tailfin-located unit badges, ejection seat warning triangles, and a decal for instrument console - which should be either cut with backing and glued to position, or applied to peace of scrap styrene, since there is no dedicated part for it. Both planes are in natural metal finish, with green dielectric surfaces for the cones and underfuselage fin front panels. Units were not stated, but these are box-art depicted unit having a black lynx – distinctive sign of wartime HLeLv 24, and for which Revell claims that belonged to Test Flight/Air Force Depot in 1974, and other one being HavLV 11 in 1971.
© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009
Construction:
Since I decided to make an East German Luftstreitkraefte camouflaged plane, I sourced two UB-16-57 rocket pods from my spares box (surplus parts from KP kits) and I drilled their rear parts only – opening up the front tubes would be too much. Noting that exhaust nozzle was not closed, I made a blanking disc to prevent see-through effect looking from rear. Further on in construction, Revell glue, both in tube and liquid Contacta Professional with needle applicator, were used as well as the Revell putty. Paints were mostly Revell (R) too, with exceptions as indicated.
With Revell kit decals and interior painting instructions available now, I realized that repainting of the parts was needed. Aluminum bronze painted surfaces and gloss black tires were retained, as well as olive green dielectric surfaces – I preferred them to the Revell-indicated color, but everything else was to be redone. To keep in line with the previous job, I painted the rocket pods and some stretched sprue in aluminum bronze, and exhaust interior surfaces, piece of scrap styrene sheet for instrument panel and blanking disc in household gloss black. All the wheel hubs were painted in R48 lake green, and all cockpit interior parts and surfaces, including outside coaming, and headrest in R75 light gray – as indicated both by Revell instructions and Yugoslav authors. Instrument panel was to be black.
The next day, after drying, I applied R362 satin green-gray to seat cushions, not wanting to waste suggested R45 light olive. Since pilot was not to be placed, harnesses were to be made and I did it by hand using sharpened toothpick and R314 satin beige guided by Revell instructions – seat was pretty small and doing it in masking tape would be tricky and I am somewhat lazy. When it all dried, time came for assembling.
As a rule, cockpit was started first, with test fitting of the fuselage parts and position, which revealed the first issue with this kit. The cockpit was to be butt-joined to two pins protruding from fuselage sides, leaving significant gaps on both sides. Hmmmpf! Definitely Hasegawa-style from 70s. So, I took a scrap styrene sheet from a yoghurt cup, cut it roughly to required width, bent it to obtain a rear blanking surface also, glued it to "tub" underside, test fitted and trimmed, and painted in R75. While there I made a rudimentary pilot stick from stretched sprue, but decided not to make rudder pedals. The blanking disc was glued to cover the hole in the engine exhaust and instrument panel decal to black painted styrene sheet. The decal took ages to come off its backing paper, anhd only after slight pressing that broke it in two. It was transparent so was unnoticeable on the black background requiring transferring to a white styrene sheet as backing.
Another test fit of the cockpit showed that more detailing was required, so I made some rudimentary tub sides and side consoles from the same scrap styrene sheet, test fitted, trimmed and painted it in R75, including a positioned pilot stick. While drying, I assembled together drop tank and main wing parts, after removing ejector pin marks and doing some sanding. Otherwise the fit was excellent, as are the fuselage halves – a legacy of Hasegawa "parentage".
I removed a molded mid-dorsal antenna, this one was not shown on any profiles or photos that I have. Some wing panel lines were missing, but I opted not to engrave them, and I only drilled holes for retractable landing lights with a 2 mm dia. drill, one in each wing undersurface behind wheel wells, and placed some clear sprue secured by liquid glue, that was sanded flush. I was not able to find any similar underwing hardpoints in my spares box, so I used my modeling knife to remove the K-13 launching rails from the kit parts. While on detailing, and since starboard gun is just an elongated bulge, I cut its front and glued respective (oversized) parts from VEB kit, and some venting/cooling holes patterned by the Revell kit. Using black permanent soft tip pen, and copying Revell instructions, I drew some instrumentation and knobs on the fuselage sides and side consoles, as well as the pilot stick handle. While trimming, the "instrument panel" decal separated from its backing, showing its poor adhesion, so R2 clear matt came in play for fixing it. The cockpit tub was glued to starboard fuselage half, followed by instrument panel, and port half was placed for securing the position.
On the next day the lead weight was shaped and inserted into the nose, with the shallow nose wheel bay there was plenty of space available. The fuselage parts were glued together where liquid glue was judiciously used at the joint beneath the dorsal hump. Rubber bands were used for clamping the parts together, and I glued the nose intake with cone into its position. It was shaped more round when compared to the oval fuselage so some rotating was required to achieve mating with less sanding to follow. While it dried I prepared the pitot probe, scratchbuilding the missing four backward canted fins and adding part of thin stretched sprue at front to obtain necessary probe length. Both were trimmed later to the required size, after drying properly.
As a note, when Mig-21 f13's were parked with its cockpit canopy opened, the probes got protective caps on their tip and were canted upward but that was not an option with this kit. The fuselage seams were cleaned, sanded where required, and the damaged panel lines rescribed, and an added cannon part was blended with the rest of fuselage. Then I realized that very little of the instrument panel would be visible deep inside the cockpit so one could skip that part too, and I also painted headrest in dark blue using permanent soft tip pen.
The holes on the ventral position and fin tip for the subsequent placing of the IFF antennae were made, and a ventral airbrake was glued in position with liquid glue – the fit was again excellent and one could almost leave it and just overpaint it later. The ventral hardpoint was glued in place, since dry fitting with tank would be required when placing the main gear bay covers. These bays are shallow, also, and one could cut them and make them deeper if preferred. Tailplanes followed, with a smear of glue applied on the locating lugs only, these are all-moving "stabilators" and there shall be some gap between them and fuselage meaning no putty there. Moreover, former CO of JRV once in charge of maintaining the MiG-21 bis fighters told me that screwdriver head could be sometimes placed between the some panels handsomely. While test fitting them, I realized that Academy molded elongated thin bulge wrongly too high at the rear port fuselage and that would impede tailplane moving. So, using the drawing from the references, I removed it and made a new elongated one from thin stretched sprue at proper position. This easy modification is show at photo below. Some putty was applied at starboard side for further blending of added cannon front. Then I used liquid glue judiciously to attach the wings, first port and later starboard one taking care to obtain anhedral typical for MiG-21.
© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009
Time came for gluing the wheels to the landing gear legs, taking care to keep ejector pin marks towards the legs. The Nosewheel fitted nicely, but the main wheels had a center hole wider than its gear axis, so some positioning was required for proper placement while the glue cured – that was the first instance with this kit that I have found less than good fit. Some sanding to achieve better blending of a new cannon front, and landing gear members were glued into position, the nose one first followed by other and all fitted nicely and securely. Originally I intended to make missing retracting arms from scratch patterned by Zvezda MiG-21 PFM parts, but in spare box I found a pair of slightly shorter ones but with required hydraulic cylinder there so I used them.
While drying, with the model turned upside down, I positioned underfuselage tank using white glue, assembly needed for later positioning of the main wheel bay covers, but to be removed for making ventral IFF antennae. When all dried, main wheel bay covers were glued and positioned, followed by nose wheel bay covers, and with significant locating lugs all went nicely. Main wheel covers followed, being positioned at 45 degree angle to longitudinal axis, with lower parts positioned obliquely to upper, as indicated, and there some test fitting would be required to find correct side of a part to be joined to cover main part. Holes for the underwing hardpoints are too big for the pins, so these were filled with liquid glue, and it was used for assembling the hardpoints.
© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009
After glue dried, I removed the tank, cleaned the remains of white glue, and placed the tin pins made of starched sprue to be cut later for making both ventral and fin positioned IFF antennae. Using white glue, I attached cockpit canopy, previous dry fitting of which exhibited nice fit. That was followed by gluing undernose pitot-probe and antenna behind cockpit that I made from stretched sprue since I found original part being too thick. At the end, underfuselage tank was glued into position and plane was ready for painting.
© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009
Painting & Decalling:
From the Revell instructions I picked scheme for a plane from TAFS-47 located in Preschen in 1978. Undersurfaces were brush painted in R49 light blue, as required, and engine exhaust exterior surfaces in H53 gunmetal. For uppersurfaces Revell recommends to be painted in two tones, and one is their R17 Africabrown which I did not have so I brushed H93 desert yellow instead. Green is recommended to be mixture of dark green and yellow, strangely in same ratio as one of their recipes for RLM 82, so I used my already made RLM82 mixture. Revell instructions are inconsistent in top and side views regarding the camouflage pattern, and I applied some artistic license when applying cammo. Some touching up was required, and to prevent any troubles with Revell decals complete plane but canopy was covered by alkyd gloss clear paint. Time was for decaling.
© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009
I applied first the GDR national markings and number, followed by stencils, in sequence: undersurfaces-uppersurfaces-port side-starboard side. Decaling session took three days for enabling decals to adhere properly and for safe handling. Revell decals made no trouble on glossed surface, and I applied some to the rocket pods as suggested by Revell. Revell provided some additional GDR-specific stencils on decal sheet, but with no indication of their use, so I applied them also where I considered these should be positioned. In the process I managed to knock off one of fin IFF antennae repeatedly, but I always kept placing it.
In the end, R2 matt clear was used for sealing the decals, and rocket pods were attached using white glue.
© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009
Conclusions:
This particular kit is over 20 years in the tooth, and currently Academy offers it with the same number but different box artwork showing two Finnish machines with clear rear cockpit cover, but I suppose this is the same kit considering the price. However, besides some inaccuracies, some crude or missing parts, it for most part fits nicely and in no doubt could be good for the beginners and all of us who like uncomplicated builds. Moreover, due kit parts breakdown and uncomplicated joints, it could be used for basis for conversions like E-2 swept-wing prototype, for instance.
Review courtesy of my never reducing kit stash.
Note: While R48 paint's original German name is "Seegrun", Revell in their instructions states English name of "sea green" – I do not know any green sea but plenty of (deep) green lakes.
© Hrvoje Šafhauzer 2009
References:
© Hrvoje Šafhauzer2009
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