The History
During the snow period, many MiG-3 were painted white, both at the factory and on the field.
The white cote had a different look depending by the mean of application (spray or brush), of the layer thickness, the wearing, the care etc. On many examples, it appeared as a very light grey instead that pure white. The white paint extends often on propeller spinner and blades, and even on the exhaust stacks. While summer camouflaged MiG-3s wore usually numbers on the fuselage side, in front of the stars, white MiG-3s wore them on the stabilizer, or don't have them at all. Very few exceptions to this rule were seen.
This aircraft was often interpreted as having red wing outer panels, silver engine cowling, red spinner and black number. The wings, of early type, are a replacement from another aircraft due to the originals being heavily damaged in combat.
The model
I started with the Encore 1/72 scale kit. This is not an easy kit to work with. It requires a lot of filling and even more sanding. Not to mention it is lacking in detail.
This build was plagued with problems from the beginning. It suffered its landing gear being broken off by mysterious means, torn off rear stabilizer while removing masking tape, a broken wing, and this was my first attempt at working with resin. Another issue I had was the landing gear doors. They give you these really tiny flat peices and expect you to bend them. I broke the doors on this kit and my spair kit. In the end I just scratch build flat doors.
As much as I liked this subject in the end I couldn't wait for it to be finished. In my first build I made a German captured P-51 and when it was completed it was had a very shiny finish. Not wanting to repeate the same mistake I learned of a product called "Flat Finish" by polly Scale. I applied as I was instructed but now the plane looks chalky and some of the decals were affected.
I have not mastered how to weather so for right now this is the end of the road for this bird.
