The Bunny Fighter Club

Eduard’s Bunny Fighter Club is an exclusive club for modelling enthusiasts. Joining the club requires you to purchase one of the limited edition kits only available to BFC members, on the Eduard website.
The MiG-15bis Bunny Racer is the latest release following the MiG-21MF Bunny Fighter.

Membership Benefits
1. 15% Permanent Club discount at Eduard Store – you will receive permanent 15% discount on all Eduard products and also discount on various other non-Eduard products. Fixed, permanent, forever!
2. Unique valuable Club kits and accessories – you will gain access to unique and nowhere else to be sold products, specially made for BFC members.
3. Even better prices at Eduard events stand – do you know that Eduard usually has huge discounts on their products at fairs and events all over the world? BFC members will have even higher discount at these events.
4. Loyalty price bonuses – for each purchase of products at Eduard Store, you will be able to collect additional loyalty discount on each of your order. Accumulate even more discounts!
5. Club T-shirt – you will receive fancy BFC T-shirt with unique design and special barcode (used for event discounts). This exclusive T-shirt will be only available to the members of BFC.
6. Free entry fee on E-day – you will not have to pay a penny to visit Eduard’s E-day. That means lot of fun at E-day for two days and entry kit, absolutely free!

In the box

Packed in a largish box the two MiG-15bis kits are from the latest 1/72nd release from Eduard.
The six dark grey plastic sprues are packed in twos. Unfortunately I only have one clear plastic sprue in my boxing, which is packed separately in its own bag. A large Brassin box, containing the enough resin to fully kit out one of the Migs, which includes wheels, cockpit floor and walls, including the turtle deck, an ejection seat, air brakes and actuators.
Six photo etch sheets are packed, three for the cockpit, including harnesses, one fret for the air brakes, with two more frets holding several parts to improve the undercarriage, other smaller exterior details are included on this sheet. This sheet also holds a maintenance access platform, FOD covers, wheel chocks and also a protective mat which lies over the inboard wing area for maintenance. The last sheet of P.E has the landing flaps, which does require a little surgery to the plastic parts to fit them.
Two sets of masks are supplied with one for the canopies and wheels. The other mask sheet is for applying the arrow markings for the Bunny Racer scheme.
A fabric sheet also comes with the kit, which holds another set of harness and a yellow bra, “a what” you say, yes a yellow bra which adorns the ariel mast for the Bunny Racer.
Starting with the plastic parts, the detail for the exterior is very good with some fine panel lines for this scale and size of the kit.
The tail fin has a separate rudder so modelling off center shouldn’t be a problem.
The wings have the fences moulded onto them and are quite thin.
An extra underside wing panel is also on the sprue but this part is not used on this version.
The underside of the upper wings has some quite acceptable detail for the main gear wells moulded onto them.
The interior for the kit has not been compromised even with the inclusion of the Brassin parts, with the plastic parts having a very good level of detail. The inclusion of two sheets of photo etch for the cockpit instrument panel, ejection seat, sidewalls and rudder pedals, does mean you can still furnish both kits with a very good and detailed cockpit.
The cockpit walls double up as the air intakes for the aircraft, and a jet exhaust tunnel with a turbine at the rear stops the “see through” look.
The undercarriage legs have a very good level of detail, with one set of separate PE brake lines, door actuators, and main gear doors supplied for one aircraft. The plastic equivalent for the doors, though not as detailed as the PE parts are still acceptable.
Two types of resin wheels are supplied, one with spokes and one as a solid hub, so both kits can benefit from the resin upgrade.
External stores for the kit include two types of fuel tanks, and some bombs. You will have to decide early in the build what stores your aircraft will carry as holes have to be drilled out in the lower wing halves.
The nine clear parts are thin with very good clarity. The canopy is split into two halves with the windscreen and main canopy hood as two separate parts, so it can be modelled open or closed. The other parts include a landing light and the armoured glass plate that sits behind the pilot.

The Brassin parts, and Photo Etch sheets
As already stated there are enough resin and Photo etch parts to completely pimp out one of the MiG-15s,
The resin parts are packed in their own Brassin box inside the main box, and are packaged in three re-sealable bags cushioned in-between foam pads.
The first bag contains the cockpit items. This is a mix of dark and light grey resin parts. These include the cockpit sidewalls/air intake tunnel, ejection seat, rear cockpit wall, floor, and the cockpit turtle deck.
Detail is exceptional for this scale, and with some careful painting should look stunning.
A small amount of surgery is required to install the resin parts, but nothing that is too taxing.
Bag 2 holds the wheels, of which four are supplied, two with spoke and two with a solid hub. Detail is exquisite with even a tread pattern on the tyres.
Bag 3 has the air brakes, which can be modelled open, and will add interest to the aircraft. The detail for the inside of the doors is very good. The fuselage has a thinned section in the plastic for installing the resin parts. A P.E piece also needs to be bent and glued into place for the internal area for the air brakes. This is possibly the most time consuming and hardest part of the build as the jet pipe will also need thinning to install the air brakes.
Each part has a small pour plug attached which should be pretty easy to remove.
The three Photo Etch sheets for the cockpit and the air brakes are packed in separate bags, with the two exterior sheets packed in one bag with a cardboard insert in between.
The cockpit sheets are pre-coloured with the exterior sheets a normal brass colour.

Instructions, Decals and Markings

The instructions are printed in the usual Eduard format, of black on white line drawings, with coloured areas highlighting gluing surfaces for the resin parts, and areas to be removed or sanded.
Parts that can be replaced with resin have the Brassin symbol above them.
The build is easy to follow for the straight out of the box plastic version, but when building the aircraft with all the resin and P.E goodies, the build does get a little complicated as parts of the build are on different pages.
Internal colours are given along the way for the Mr Color and Aqueous range of paints.
The three schemes that you can model are –
1. Maj. Eduard Kleinkönnig, White 5, World Air Race Tour, early 1980's (Bunny Racer!)
2. Lt. Nadezda Ivanova Zayacovskaya, Soviet Instructor, 2nd FTR, Antung AB, Korea, early 1950's
3. No.3901, Capt. Jaromir Palečný, 11.slp, Žatec AB, 1960
I believe the first scheme is fictional.
All the profiles for the schemes are in colour with paint numbers for the Mr Color and Aqueous range of paints.
A single decal is sheet, printed by Eduard, and holds all the schemes. All the decals appear to be in full register, and nice and bright. Carrier film is minimal. As well as aircraft markings, a few stencils are also included, as well as the various cockpit decal options.
Last but not least is the two sets of masks that are supplied. The smaller sheet holds the masks for the canopy, landing and navigation lights and the tyres.
The second and larger sheet holds the markings for the arrow on the first scheme, and is a two part affair. The application and the use of the masks are given in the instruction booklet and look pretty easy to follow.
When purchase this kit you get an exclusive Bunny Fighter Club T-Shirt with it, so be sure to mark your correct size down when you order the kit.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.