My 1/48 Eduard mig-21 has arrived and the build has started as usual with the cockpit, which will be closed, because I like seeing planes in the air.

But this time I hope to depict a plane coming into land, air brakes on, fuel tanks jettisoned, undercarriage 1/2 down.

Finding photos of Migs in this state is hard so my first question is did the pilot drop the wheels then flair the brakes or could the brakes be on before the carriage was fully dropped.

My second question to all you jet gurus is what position would flaps etc be at when the brakes were fully deployed but before the wheels were fully down.m

And finally, if i was depicting a Mig with UB-16 rocket launchers, does anybody know of any photos of ones which had been used (ie empty tubes and rocket burn marks). On this note, when the pilot let rip, did all the rockets deploy or is it possible to model a half expended UB—16?

Air brakes are used whenever the pilot feels that he's going too fast. A properly executed landing exactly by the book won't require the use of air brakes.

But since the real world isn't a book, sometimes a pilot might need to pop the brakes for a second or 2 to scrub off a few too many knots. This can happen any time in the landing cycle so your scenario isn't unheard of. Flaps are independent of air brakes, but in your scenario they'd probably be partially down, probably about 20 degrees or so.

Remember that the MiG-21's main wheels rotated to remain vertical in their wells, so your half-extended wheels need to show this.