Academy's 1/48 scale
MiG-21 bis

by Chris Wauchop

images by Brett Green

Academy's 1/48 scale MiG-21MF is available online from Squadron.com

Chris Wauchop built his1/48 scale MiG-21 bis back in 1996, not long after the Academy kit was released.

After-market accessories were not as prevalent in the mid-1990s as they are today, especially for such a recently released kit as Academy's Fishbed. Chris therefore scratch built the cockpit interior, including dozens of tiny switches on the side consoles, and significantly rebuilding Academy's KM-1M ejection seat.

Additions and modifications include:

• trailing edge static dischargers from fine wire with a red-painted blob of super glue on the end

• nose probe extended

• wheel well plumbing added using solder

• landing gear hydraulics added using solder

• angle of attach sensor added to port side of nose using plastic card

• wing leading edge antennas and navigation lights added, using Krystal Kleer

• trailing antennas on top of tail added

• all small cooling intakes etc, hollowed out

• tyres slightly flattened

The model was painted using the Testor Aztek A470 airbrush.

Being built nine years ago, Chris cannot recall all the exact paint colours and brands used for this model. he does remember that the lower surface colour was Gunze RLM 76 Light Blue.

However, he has obviously employed his usual weathering techniques, including post-shading panel lines with a thinly sprayed mix of Tamiya acrylic Red Brown and Black.

Markings for this Angolan subject were sourced from Aeromaster Decals sheet 48-240.

The camouflage pattern on the decal instructions differed significantly from those seen on reference photos in World Air Power Journal Vol. 19. Chris used the reference photos as his guide. The national markings and aircraft numbers were weathered by carefully hand painting over the decals with the underlying camouflage colours.

Photography

The photos were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 5700 digital camera and optimized in Photoshop CS.

The model was photographed against a plain blue sheet of cardboard as the background.

The images were cropped, resized to 700 pixels in width, and saved as a .jpg file for posting on HyperScale.

Reference

• Verlinden Productions' Lock On No.21

• World Air Power Journal Vol. 19

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Arab MiG-19 and MiG-21 Units in Combat (Combat Aircraft 44) Author: David Nicolle and Tom Cooper Illustrator: Mark Styling US Price: $19.95 UK Price: £12.99 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Publish Date: March 25, 2004 Details: 96 pages; ISBN: 1841766550 Shop Buy it from Osprey Publishing

Model  by Chris Wauchop
Text Copyright © 2005 by Chris Wauchop & Brett Green
Images Copyright © 2005 by Brett Green
Page Created 01 March, 2005
Last Updated 03 March, 2005

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