Introduction

Italeri’s MiG-27 Flogger D has been around for a few years and is showing its age in places, and as such Eduard have released a couple of photo etch sets to update this kit. This review is for the exterior set, which complements the interior set reviewed here.

In the bag

The re-sealable bag contains two frets of photo etch and two pages of instructions.
Most of the parts on the frets are for updating the wheel wells and undercarriage.
Starting with the wheel wells of the aircraft, the etch parts completely replace the nose wheel well with a new several part affair, which include a new gear doors. The kit gear doors are moulded onto the front fuselage and have to be cut off and discarded then replaced with the better P.E ones. These have to be scribed with a ball point pen or similar tool to accentuate the relief in the doors.
The nose gear leg also receives a lot of new detail, with brake lines, new oleos and a couple more P.E parts adorning the leg. You will need a few lengths of plastic rod (not supplied) to also add the gear leg, with a new hydraulic leg being the main part to benefit. Eduard gives you the sizes of the length of rod you will need for all these parts.
The main wheel wells also benefit from this set with new internal parts incorporated onto the existing plastic wheel wells. A bit of removing of some of the plastic detailing is required for fitting these parts.
The gear doors have new outer skins added, and various smaller P.E parts for the internal side of the doors, as well as a hydraulic piston built from some more plastic rod.
The undercarriage legs receive a lot of new parts, including hydraulic pistons made from plastic rod. The wheels themselves have new P.E hubs added.
For the rest of the exterior, there are parts for, new aerials, bleed vents(?) for the air intakes, and the underside tail fin gets a hinge mechanism installed for when the aircraft is parked, and the fin is folded.
A P.E fuel cap for the external fuel tank is the last part that gets the Eduard treatment.

Instructions

The instructions are printed on two sheets of paper, one A4 size and the second sheet is half the size.
The build sequence is printed in usual black line drawings, and is easy to follow.
Each step has symbols alongside the parts that are to be replaced, removed or new parts to be bent into shape.
No colours for the internal parts are given, so cross referencing with the kit instructions will be needed.

Conclusion

This set along with the interior set really does benefit the kit, updating and replacing a lot of the plastic parts. This is not a set for the beginner mind, as both sets require a lot of folding of the P.E parts and switching between several sets of instructions during the build.

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