Hi, Don!
Well, your story is better than mine, for sure. I'm waiting for follow up.

UPDATE
Rust-oleum aluminum sprayed:




I know it looks a little gritty, but I experimented it once before and is very resilient by comparison with my other alternative available: MM silver chrome. A good buffing and the clear coat will fix that (I hope).

Cheers!
Gabriel

Howdy Y'all
I didn't realize the Dragon Mig-15 kit was so crummy. Oh well, this is more about the aluminum finish-good practice.

I couldn't get the landing gear to sit flush with the wings. I'll use some putty and sandpaper to keep moving on this project.
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

Hi, guys!

Don, just a speed bump. Easy fix otherwise.

UPDATE
Several panels masked and sprayed with a different shade of aluminum:


The airbrakes:


The radio compartment cover:


I decided to paint the blast shields by hand, with a darker shade (yet to be done)

Gloss-coated:



Cheers!
Gabriel

@Gabriel
Your MiG is coming along nicely! Looking forward to your next steps.
I still have to decide what I will choose from my stash

I'm in with Kawasaki Ki-61-Id Hien from Tamiya in 1/48 scale. Quite fresh model with excellent detail and engineering. I will go for marking option with clear metal finish without green mottling. I'm still thinking about some aftermarket details, but most likely at most it will be resin 20mm gun barrels, which are really missing details and perhaps cockpit PE.

But for now traditional opening photo:

Hi, guys!

Peter, thank you! My choices were easy: Eduard's MiG or Special Hobby's Yak Flora For me this is the first NMF aircraft, that's why I used surrogate paints (just ordered my Alclads) and maybe I re-join the campaign with the Yak.

Damian excellent choice, sir! I might try one of this days a IJN green over NMF - who knows!

UPDATE
Decals printed by Cartograf - an absolute pleasure to work with



Couple of masks removed:



Blast shields painted by hand and front landing wheel added:


Wheel bays painted and landing gear added (I forgot to paint two wheel covers and now I'm having some delay - nothing serious)


Cheers!
Gabriel

That's a really nice looking build going on there Gabriel

I will be changing my entry, the "Streak Eagle" is a bit more work than I can manage for a campaign now that I am back at uni.

So I will be going with my hobby boss Tunnan. Will try and get a start pic up of it tomorrow.

Hi all,

Does it have to be all NMF? I'm wanting to do a PT-20 (Testors), with Lone star interior. I know the wings are yellow, but they are gloss yellow, so all the NMF work still has to be done. The fuselage is NMF. What do you all say?

John

@Gabriel-that has turned out to be a beautiful Mig-15. Excuse my ignorance, but what country's markings are used? Keep up the great work.
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

So my new entry will be this fellow

@Gabriel - Great job on your MiG! Congrats!

@Iain - Looking forward to your Tunnan!

It is an old style (prior to 1985) Romanian marking.

Damian

Hi, guys!

Iain, Thank you, sir! Very nice choice at your turn. I have a soft spot for Swedish aircraft, albeit I never built one...

Peter, Thank you!

Don Thanks! You have all the right to be confused Romania changed her markings a few times during last century: tricolor roundels at first (blue, yellow, red) (Romania was the second country in the world to adopt roundels, after France!). From 1940, after Romania aligned to Axis Powers, ARR adopted "King Michael's Cross" until 23 August 1944. After Romania defected from Axis, she readopted the tricolor roundels, but the Soviet Comrades demanded from 1946 to change them with the Communist bright star. After '80s, Romania started drifting apart from Moscow and, as an act of defiance, Romanian reinstated the original roundels, for all army branches. Side note: the Romanians were never proud of the red star and avoided its use whenever possible. In many instances, the "second line" army equipment sported no insignia over the Romanian olive drab or - specially for aircraft - civilian markings were provided with only a tricolor flash as identification. Sorry for the long explanation - I just felt compelled to do it.

I managed to put all the landing gear parts together eventually, but I didn't wanted to fiddle too much with the assembly, so I took no photos yet. I will update the build log soon!

Cheers!
Gabriel

Hi, guys!

UPDATE

I managed eventually to install all the bits together.

Landing gear bits:


Antenna:


Another antenna - this one I needed to scratch-build it because I sacrificed the first one to the Carpet Monster


I'm ready now for the last clear coat and some weathering!

More updates soon.

Cheers!
Gabriel

Hi all

Starting in on my Meng P51

Hi, Linus! Interesting. I'm waiting for your build to unfold...

UPDATE

I applied the second coat of clear:


I know I have mentioned earlier the decals, but I cannot hold myself to do it again: the clear film just vanished!


After I address some minor imperfect areas, I'll be ready for pin-wash and some weathering:



Cheers!
Gabriel

Hello, guys!

UPDATE:

I masked and painted the walk lines:


I wasn't quite happy with what I've got and re-touched them:


And... NO! She's not a tail-sitter! (I was nervous about that, being my first "tricycle" aircraft):



Pin-wash follows!

Cheers!
Gabriel

Hi, guys.

Last update

I applied washes and some subtle oil weathering, and there she is:













Can anyone believe that are just a few years gap between these two aircraft?


Conclusion to my build: I liked pretty much working with Eduard profipack and I loved Cartograf decals. I didn't really like my paint job because the metallic flake is too big in Rust-oleum paints and the clear coat adds a magnifying effect. I liked it in 1/48 scale; it looks quite bad in 1/72. Otherwise, the finish is great. All in all, I think for a "first", I did OK. And because I am quite dissapointed with my finish, I bought some Alclad paints and another MiG - Academy MiG 21 in 1/72 (yes, the old barren one) to use it as test bed before messing some nice Special Hobby Yak as I intended to. So, if the time is in my side, I'll rejoin this campaign with my MiG-21. I keep following the thread and meanwhile I'm moving to another group build.
It was a very instructive campaign for me. Thank you, guys!

Gabriel,
Don't be so hard on yourself, you've finished a model
I've learned from your build, thanks. I put the Mig aside for a couple of weeks, got some family time I need to take care of. No complaints, I love my family.
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

Thanks, Don! Well, I'm eager to do it again! I will follow your build. All best wishes for your family!

Cheers!
Gabriel

Howdy Y'all
I did some work on my Mig-15 this weekend and ran into more problems. I decided to glue the canopy closed and paint it black. I sanded on the canopy a little to see if I could replicate the scratched up look but gave up. The canopy has some fit problems if you glue it closed. I think I'll set this aside and work on another campaign.

Take care,
Don "Lakota"

Cockpit of the Tunnan is done. Instruction call for grey and black, but all the photos I could find show shades of green so that is what I did.





And got the fuselage closed up with as much lead weight in the front as I could fit.

I have started work on my Ki-61. The cockpit is almost done and right now it's waiting for final weathering, then I will close the fuselage. I'm going through the drawing showing riveting details, still considering if to add them.

Learning so much from these builds.

My P51-D unprimed then primed.

Iain Nice detail in that cockpit.

Damian: Looking good, bud!

Linus Just glue it! mantra works after all. Nice progress! What is your choice of metallic color?

Keep it up, guys! Nice campaign so far

Cheers!
Gabriel