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MIG-29 9-12 Aggressor


thierry laurent

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Hi folks,

 

As there seems to have some interest in this project, I'm starting a thread to help the poor souls willing to get a similar result.

 

A short summary of this project is nonetheless necessary.

 

I was aware that the Revell kit was far from perfect and decided to avoid it for many years. The final release of the Begemot decal sheet changed my mind. So, I got the single-seater as well as the Zacto detail set (more bout this later).

 

A quick assessment showed that the resin set was really necessary to get something looking more or less like a MIG-29A. I purchased many detail and accessory sets to help me but the problem stayed for some areas.

 

P1060886.jpg

 

Assessment showed that the Revell main landing gear zone was really bad and asked for complete re-construction. I realized than that the Trumpeter MIG-29M could be a source of parts and solve some problems here and there.

 

The more I looked at both kits, the more I realized that the Revell kit had not ONE correct section, part or panel line. Nearly everything had to be replaced or corrected! The sole correct things are the general dimensions of the airframe.

 

This made me wondering if it would not be a better idea to use the Trumpeter kit as the starting point and the Revell kit for some parts here and there.

 

As SAS used to say: Who dares wins! So, I took the plunge! I enlarged some plans and  took my best razor saws!

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Ok,

 

This picture shows you that the main section to be retrieved from the Revell kit is the spine section (linked to the LERX- cockpit one). However, this still asks for major changes...

 

To my eyes, the most obvious problem of the Revell upper fuselage is the step between the upper fuselage on one hand and the spine and engines fairings on another hand. This does not exist on the plane and is a VERY visible error. BTW, the quarter scale Monogram kit has the same problem.

 

There are two ways to solve this: either add a smooth transition with epoxy putty or CA glue, fill all fantasy panel lines, sand and re-scribe everything or get the corresponding sections from the Chinese kit. The spine of the MIG-29M up to the air brake is noticeably different. So it is useless. However, the rear side of the upper fuselage (over the engines) are correctly shaped. I took the risky route but this is probably the best way to get two identical engine fairings.

 

So, with enlarged plans coming from the Zlinek booklet, callipers and a large grain of fear, I sawed the corresponding sections of both planes. I did this correctly as I did not have to fill any major seam. The big problem here is that you've to saw a very long section out of a rounded fuselage. So, this is a risky business and as you will read more than once in this thread, measure twice (should I say ten times?) and cut once!

 

As you see the new upper fuselage still asks for re-scribing. Nonetheless, I progressively reconstructed the transition between the spine and the upper fuselage. This was done with adding CA glue, sanding, adding CA glue, sanding, adding CA glue, sanding, adding CA glue, sanding, adding CA glue, sanding, etc. You get the idea! I still have to fill some micro holes here and there. But the worst part is behind me!

 

P1060867.jpg

 

The next tasks were:

 

- fill all panel lines of the Revell spine

- modify the side profile of the spine. it is a little bit convex whereas it should be a little bit concave

- correct the LERX position and front fuselage LERX

 

I also removed completely the airbrake section as it is completely inaccurate

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Next step,

 

I was a little bit frightened by the strength of the final assembly and suddenly an idea emerged from by brain: why not recycle the useless parts from both kits?

 

Hence, I sawed the appropriate sections of the removed parts and glued them on the internal face. There was just one problem: you must take care that they won't interfere with the other parts to add later (such as the wings or LG wells)!

 

P1060870.jpg

 

This picture shows here the Revell rear fuselage sections added inside.

 

I used a little bit of CA glue to mate the new upper fuselage together, than added the strengthening sections from the other kit with thick plastic glue and finally add cyano gel around the seam between the parts. The new fuselage is now rock-solid!

 

Another problem was solved!

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Here's another view of the full upper fuselage after the modifications.

 

P1060861.jpg

 

You'll also see that I removed the fantasy LERX louvres and the IR passive detector pod on the nose. They will be replaced by Zacto parts. However, take care when you correct the LERX area as the resin parts were made for the resin kit as it is, not for a corrected kit! So, a compromise has to be done here. It shall nonetheless be added that the LERX front fuselage may be reasonably corrected without the need to do major modifications of the resin parts.

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Ok,

 

Now we will look more closely at the spine corrections.

 

This is not necessarily obvious in the following picture but the spine side profile was corrected as above mentioned. This was simply a careful and lengthy sanding job intended to remove the bulge without damaging the spine rounded cross section.

 

P1060872.jpg

 

This also shows how the fuselage height was corrected. Rather than using plasticard, I used the same strategy: using the useless sections from the kits. This offered a positive side-effect: such plastics are harder and so this helped in avoiding a classical problem known by stratchbuilders: the difficulty to sand correctly a part or a section made of "soft" plasticard and hard CA glue. The main difficulty here is that this is not easy to do with a partially cut fuselage. After having made the large cuts in the front fuselage, it becomes very flimsy. So, it is necessary to work on both sides in parallel to avoid misalignement problems.

 

Last, you'll also note that the zone near the wing root asks for some work as the kits are noticeably different there. The misshaped LERX of the Revell kit do not help for sure!

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Now the cockpit zone!

 

The front fuselage height problem may not only solved by the correction of the LERX angle. Zacto gives you a part to help in correcting but you still have to change the sills angle. However, this has a side effect I've never seen mentioned by anyone: this changes the canopy angle and may create a problem if you want to close it. This annoyed me and after some additional checks I found another interesting thing!

 

The MIG-29A and M do not have the same canopy. However after looking closely at the canopy of both kits and at many pictures, I got the feeling that the Trumpeter part profile was in fact closer to the one of a MIG-29A than the Revell one. So, this resulted in another question: is it possible to get part of this zone of the Trumpeter fuselage on the Revell kit. After a lost of measures and checks I considered this to be possible. So I went back to the saw use!

 

With some elbow grease, CA glue and careful sanding, I got a far better result. This is still not 100% perfect but I don't think I'm too far.

 

P1060871.jpg

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For sure,

 

I copied your technique to correct the fuselage height!

 

In fact it is the amount of work you and two or three other modellers put into the correction of the Revell kit that convinced me to look after another solution. I may be a lazy person sometimes ;-)

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Guest Peterpools

Thierry

Terrific start on another amazing Mig build. Looking forward to following along. I also just finished re-reading Karl's Mig build and was completely blown away by his work and creativity.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

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