History

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-15; NATO reporting name: "Fagot") is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters, and achieved fame in the skies over Korea, where, early in the war, it outclassed all straight-winged enemy fighters in most applications.
Later, the MiG-15 would also serve as a starting point for the development of the more advanced MiG-17. The MiG-15 is believed to have been one of the most widely produced jet aircraft ever made; in excess of 12,000 were manufactured. Licensed foreign production may have raised the production total to over 18,000. The MiG-15 is often mentioned, along with the North American F-86 Sabre, as the best fighter aircraft of the Korean War, and among the best fighter aircraft of all time.
Info from Wikipedia

In the box

Eduard's MiG-15bis dates back too 2014 and comes in a re-sealable plastic bag, with one aircraft, a set of decals, and a set of instructions. A handy set of masks for the canopy and the wheel hubs are also supplied.
The kit breaks down into around 56 parts, on two dark grey sprues and one clear sprue, all of which are superbly moulded with no sign of injection pin marks or flash present.

The fuselage is made up of two halves split into upper and lower parts, with the wings attached to the upper section, all of which have some very fine recessed panel lines adorning the exterior.
The wings have the flaps and ailerons moulded onto the wings.
A separate tail and tail planes are supplied, but all the control surfaces are fixed.

Interior detail comprises of a one piece cockpit tub, complete with an ejection seat, with a decal seat harness, and control column, and a decal for the instrument panel which is built into the cockpit tub.

The wheels wells have a nice bit of detail moulded into them in the form of raised spars and a rib effect. The wheels themselves are one piece each, and have a tread pattern moulded in, which looks good, but is a little overdone in this small scale.
The nose wheel is moulded as one part.
The main undercarriage legs look a little fragile, so care will be needed taking these off the sprues. Separate gear doors finish the main build sequence.
Two choices of main wheels are given, with one set having slightly more detail moulded onto them. Wheels and tyres are one piece each,

A one piece exhaust pipe slots into the rear of the fuselage.
A air inlet splitter attaches to the front of the cockpit tub, so the see through look is eliminated.

External stores for the kit comprise of 3 under nose cannons, and two types of external fuel tanks.

Decals and markings

The instruction booklet is the typical Eduard folded A4 size booklet, printed on glossy paper, with a logical build sequence. Internal colours are given for the Gunze range of paints.

A handy mask set for the canopy and wheels are supplied. The masks cover the windscreen and the main canopy which will really help in painting this tiny part. The tyres get a mask so the hubs can be painted.

The decals are produced by Eduardand are in register with very little carrier film.
Having used Eduard decals before I can't see any problems with their application.

Four marking options are supplied with this kit, which are as follows -

A - MiG-15bis - flown by Maj. Mikhail Ivanovich Mikhin, 518th IAP, North Korea, May 1953

B - MiG-15bis - No. 20 Squadron, Egypt, Late 50s / Early 1960s

C - MiG-15bis - c/n 613234, flown by kpt. Oldřich Paldus, 15. slp, Cottbus Airfield, German Democratic Republic, August 30th, 1957

D - MiG-15bis - c/n 1315376, ex 64th IAK, Soviet Union, mid 50's.

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