Introduction

The Mig 25 came into service in the 1970’s and caused waves in the west, these waves resulted in the F-15 eagle design being revisited and altered. The Mig 25 was an interceptor aircraft with a top speed of just over Mach 2.8, but it is reported to be capable of over Mach 3.2 which also resulted in the engines having a very short lifespan and so the lower speed being listed. The task of the Mig 25 has today been overtaken by the Mig 31 in Russia, but large numbers of the Mig 25 have been mothballed or sold to friendly foreign powers and are still flying today in limited numbers.

Contents

This offering from ICM is supplied in what is now their standard packaging that means a card top with the artwork on it. Below this is a cardboard tray and flip top lid, this insures that the contents are protected against all but the roughest handling. The story inside is not as good as the sprues are packed in a single re-sealable plastic bag and that can lead to distortion if the kit is sat for a long time. The contents consist of:
7 grey sprues
A clear sprue
2 decal sheets
An instruction booklet

Review

Starting with a look over the sprues reveals nothing of major concern; there are quite a few ejector pin marks, but other than one I located inside each of the air intakes they should be hidden. There is a lot a flow marks present in the mouldings, but none of these look to have caused any issues. The sprue gates are of a reasonable size in most cases, but a couple of the sprue arms do not leave a lot of space to get to the sprue gate between sprue and the moulded part.

This offering from ICM starts in the usual way by tackling the cockpit and nose wheel bay. My reference is limited to the exterior of the aircraft and so I am unable to comment on the accuracy of these two areas. With that said there are aspects I like about this offering; the instrument panel has been tackled the way AirFix tackles the area in their 1/24th scale kits, a moulded clear part with the bezels and this attaches to a console with cut outs for the clear parts. There is no harness detail present on the seats and so some scratch work or after market parts will be required. Other than that I am happy with the cockpit and the limited view of it after assembly. The nose wheel bay has some nice detail present, but could be easily lifted via the addition of some cable detail added.

There is an unusual aspect to this model that I am unfamiliar with. The fuselage is more like panels attached to a frame rather than fuselage halves; I can see the logic in the approach as it will make alterations easy to do. I have checked the parts against schematics of the aircraft exterior and I have to say that ICM appears to have done a very good job as regards panel line details. The vertical tail fins are moulded as a single piece with the sides of the fuselage, this makes the angle of the fins the easiest to achieve of any model I have seen. The detail on the fins is nothing short of excellent; even the rivet detail is present and matches my reference very well.

The intake tunnels have a good depth to them, and while it is this area where I found the ejector pin mark that may be seen I am still pleased. The intake terminates at the first compressor fan, detail is fine considering how far inside the model it is. Moving to the jet exhausts and more good news. There are a surprising number of parts that make up the exhaust fairing and the detail is very good, a look inside the exhausts also reveals a very nice level of detail and ICM has done very well for a company that does not use photo etch. Moving back to the opposite end of the aircraft and I have to say what a great job ICM has done of the pitot, this is quite a complex area of the aircraft and the detail is good and spot on from what I can see visually.

The wings of the aircraft have also been very well detailed as regards panel lines, at least judging by my Mk 1 eyeball against the schematics I have. The control surfaces have been provided as separate parts and so can be assembled articulated as wanted by the modeller. A nice touch is that the tabs that insert into the fuselage have been angled and so I believe will accurately display the subtle drop of the wing.

The rear wheel wells have some nice detail present, but again this area will benefit from the addition of some cabling. The struts have been well done and do match the reference that I have; they do again require some cables to represent the hydraulic pipes. The wheels at the rear caught me out with their large size, but this does appear to be accurate. The wheels have nice detail, but the tyres let the detail down. There is no tread detail present on the tyres and the side wheel detail is weak, I would also have liked to see the tyres weighted. This is the one area of the model that I would seek to upgrade during the build.

Conclusion

I am very impressed with this offering from ICM, the only weak area as far as I am concerned are the tyres and the area I would look to replace. It is really interesting to me to see an aircraft model built on a frame rather than halves, and I look forward to seeing how well this all goes together.

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