Hi folks!
I have started another model some time ago. There's not much to show so far as I don't have too much time for modelling. However I managed to assemble and even paint few parts. The kit is a well known Academy product improved with three Wolfpack Design sets: cockpit, wheel bays and fuselage spine with vertical stabalizer. It will be finished in the colours of Polish Air Force with the artwork of a large Merlin fish on the fuselage. It's a special "Polish Air Force" edition of the Academy kit, released about two years ago.

















Wheel bays will be repainted as the colours shown below are wrong for the machine which I'm going to build.

Hi Michal,

nice progress so far! What kind of putty do you use?

Thanks and best regards,

Sebastian

Hi Sebastian. On this kit it was mostly CA glue and thinned Surfacer 1000.

One more remark about the kit. I will have to rework the fuselage spine. Wolfpack spine is a complete crap, it has wrong shape and don't fit the Academy fuselage at all. So I used original Academy spine which is more accurate for the "Bis" version. This will have to be deeply reworked but I'm still thinking about proper technique. If you have any ideas please don't hesitate to share.

Hi Michal

Great stuff! It seems odd the spine set isn't up to the quality of the others.

All the best

Rowan

Definitelly it wasn't their best shot. The spine has almost the same shape and size as original Academy part but also has much worse fitting, leaving about 2-2,5mm gap in front and 1,5mm gap along lower edge. If I fit it in the way that leaves no gap in front it looks like the SMT spine along the upper edge but the gap at the bottom rises to about 2mm... No matter how you turn, your butt is still behind you.

I think I will cut out the spine and will have to completely rework its shape. I don't want to buy another aftermarket set, for example from Aires or CMK, just to get their spine.

Hi Michal,

thanks! I also try to use Superglue whereever possible because it dries fast and sands easily.

Looking forward to seeing your finished Polish MiG. Polish MiG´s never wore a camo, right?

Regards,

Sebastian

In a typical meaning right, but there are many exceptions so we can't say it was "never".

For example there is a well known F-13 "2015" in the two or three tones of green and blue underside. Of MFs there're "9111" or "7809" of two-tone grey, at least five different planes, including UM's, in a "tiger stripes" cammo (9308, 9292, 9349, 4105, 9351) or "Golden MiG" 9107. My 6814 was painted in a two very light tones of grey.

Hi Michal ,

thanks for reply!
I just found a photo which shows such a new painted MiG-21 in grey colors.
http://www.mig-21.de/english/newsarchive/radom2002.htm

Sorry, I did not know! But very interesting!

One last question, was the BMF on those Polish MiGs really bare metal or a protecting coat?

Thanks & regards

Sebastian

As far as I know it was a silver paint.

Time is not on my side but I managed somehow to make small progress.

Instrument panel. At first I wanted to paint the gauges myself but then I reminded about Airscale decals. It's a fantastic product, first class service of the company. Now I only worry about the size as I feel that the instruments on the Wolpack panel are slightly too small for these decals.



GSh-23 machine gun, slightly enhanced with scratch built details.



Nose section. The air outlet was slightly shallowed and I removed the step by applying the surfacer and sanding many times.





Here's a reworked air intake, also from scratch. The same is on the opposite side.



Just few details added and a lot of filling and sanding at the joints of airbrakes, fuselage halves and wing root. Removing gaps and rescribing is not finished yet.



Quickboost air intakes already in place.



One of the panels in the wheelbay had to be repainted as it was always in the NMF.



And a general view on the model in a current state.

Just a quick update. I managed to complete the instrument panel. The gauges are Airscale decals. Unfortunatelly, although the quality of decals is great, they did not fit into the Wolfpack "rings" of instruments. I managed to fit just two or three of the bigger decals, all other are randomly choosen just to fit to the gauges.

This is the complete instrument panel with the "clocks" filled with Gunze gloss laquer and subtle Vallejo wash.



And here is the panel fitted to the fuselage with just a small drop of glue.

Great looking start it looks like its going to turn out nice

Thanks Justin, I'm doing my best

Cockpit is almost readyfofinal asembly and closing. Wolfpack have made another slip-up and shown the worng possition of the front panel and dashborad. Their assembly instructions shows it inthe possition as on my last photo while itshould seat much higher. Only thanks to careful study of refferences I could fit it correctly. Now it's beeing painted and detailed, canopy masked on both sides and I'm preparing for final assembly.

I also managed to assemble the Pitot tube. By assembling I mean attaching those %#$#^$& tiny wings on it's front. I decided to solder parts together becuase of the most reliable joint. Using CA glue here was just a waste of time as these parts are too small and the connection was close to none so the parts were falling of from just a puff.

Here are just two shots on the front cockpit section. I have taken them without any preparation and using mobile phone so forgive me please quality of the pics.

wow that canopy just fits like butter I wish they all were like that.

I tried some of wolfpacks stuff on a couple F-14's its alright lots modification needed.

Those dials are way cool I will have to look in to getting some. Great job man keep up the good work

Slowly but steady I'm moving on with this bird. Front section of the cockpit is almost finished. There's just one part missing which willbe added later.

At the moment when I write these words the whole model is more-less assembled together and first layer of primer is applied. Now it's time to find all imperfections of the surface and joint lines. There are few so it will take me some time to fill and sand everything.

This is the last shot of cockpit interior before attaching the windscreen.

Looking good so far Michal. Nice bit of scratchbuilding going on there.
How does the Academy kit compare to the Eduard offerings?
Now throw those review samples to one side and finish this .
Andy

Looking great mate!

No, it doesn't. What about that giant step on the back? It shouldn't be there by any mean. The same with instrument - you wouldn't be able to make a real-looking dashboard as the gauges have too small diameter. All good fit is thanks to a lot of trials, reshaping and filling holes with putty or thick CA glue. It wasn't peace of cake at any step. The Wolfpack spine was a complete crap, waste of money and time for reshpaing and filling. I just used the back end of it, about 1cm long.

I have not published this picture before but here's fit of Wolfpack spine. No matter how you would fix it, it would still look bad. The upper curve looks to me like an SMT spine (sic!)


Andy, after all there's not so much of scratch. Just few details easy to be build with basic tools and materials like sheet of plastic, files, CA glue, injection needle, sanding paper.

I have no idea about the comparison with Eduard's 21 as I have never had any in my hands. I suppose it won't withstand the competition due to its age and too many simplifications. Beside Academy MF better fits for the Bis than MF. The fit is rather good, I have build much worse kits, although I spent a lot of time on sanding and polishing the joint lines (and it payed off after priming). I wanted this kit because of the fish artwork of the fuselage. I said it loud three months too early - before Eduard released their MiG. My girlfriend heard that and bought me an Academy "Mig with fish", as she said to the seller, for the birthday or Christmass, just before Eduard release.

Here's the current state of my model - primed and ready for the last filling and polishing before painting.

It's more than a year since my latest post in this thread. In the meantime I managed to finish my Fishbed although did not have any time for shooting photos of the progress. Here's a sneak preview of the completed model. If time and staff permits I will try to write some short feature about my adventure with Academy's kit.

The model took 2nd place in the October MoM Contest so I guess it has at least few followers - thanks to all of you for your votes!