Once free of the yoke of Soviet Oppression, many former Warsaw Pact Air Forces allowed themselves to express their creativity by decorating their aircraft to celebrate special anniversaries. This one is one of the more striking examples.

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Thanks!

Michal,
A really impressive build with one of the best decaling efforts I've ever seen. That Dolphin had to have been a real challenge to say the least.
Joel

nice one!

A most impressive Mig-21. Very very nicely done.

Many thanks for your kind comments. To be honest the model is still far from being impressive and has a lot of weaknesses.

Decaling wasn't very difficult however time consuming. It took me three evenings to decal each side. There were some fitting problems caused by the differences in size of decal and kit but nothing very big and can be easily hidden. The clue was to prepare the surface under the decals (careful painting, polishing, gloss varnish) and using the decal agents (I use Micro Set and Sol). The decals were printed by Cartograf so you know the rest of the story. I only chopped the "nose" of the fish from the head which made applying the biggest decal much easier and I think I avoided tearing of the decal in the weakest point.

In the meantime of the building process Eduard have released their superb Fishbeds. From their kit I have taken the fuel tanks and wheels, replacing the original Academy parts and the RS-2US missiles replacing UB or AA missiles from Academy kit.

What I surely don't recommend for this kit is using the Wolfpack tail fin. I had serious fitting problems of the spine. What's more the fin was slightly wraped. I tried to straighten it but I'm affraid I'm failed. Thankfully it's visible just when you look at the real model and know what to look at. Wolfpack cockpit and wheel weels were quite ok, only needed some surgery in the plastic parts to accomodate the resin replacements.

Hi Michal

That looks superb! Great build - and a fantastic job applying the decals.

All the best

Rowan

Thanks Rowan, much appreciated.