MarkS

This is cool. Hopefully Kenny at Gator Masks will upscale his Viggen masks to 1/32 for the splinter scheme. I'd hate to try and do it by hand. Mark

Holy crap. I give up. Just amazing.

I stand (happily) corrected. Looks very nice. Mark

FYI, the Belcher Bits conversion is 1/48th scale.

Congratulations Harold. Sounds like a good move. Can't do better than selling through the, arguably, best online hobby store in the states (IMHO).

Beautiful! I love it

That's the Revell kit? WOW!!

Another good match is Floquil Railroad colors ATSF Yellow. Almost a perfect match for the Testors color but slightly less green hue to it.

I've seen some pretty wide variations in the colors depicted in profiles. Unless you have a good color photo to compare and even then, photos can and will distort the colors. In other words, its up to you and what you're happy with. Mark

Beautiful. Is there a build thread? I couldn't find it. I am fascinated by cold war Russian aircraft but I don't know if I could or should try to tackle one of the LEM kits. Mark

How about this one. No info on colors the colors though.

This one looks all green, but it's a static display, so not sure if the scheme is authentic.

Check out this video (about 2 minutes in). Looks like they only rotate a degree or two. Lots of nice shots of the MF. Mark Edit: Here's some video (about 6 minutes in) of MLs taking off. They definitely have to rotate more (link is about halfway down the page) http://www.ovguide.com/mikoyan-gurevich-mig-23-9202a8c04000641f800000000017152c

Here some drawings that illustrate the differences between the MF and ML... Mark

The photo you posted is (probably) a Mig-23 ML Flogger G. Note the shorter fin. The Flogger G's tail sits higher. Whether it is due to a redesign of the landing gear or due to reduced weight, I am not sure. The Flogger B's tail sits much lower and gives the aircraft it's distinctive nose up attitude when on the ground. The Trumpy kit contains two sets of landing gear. I think it is possible that, like the IPs, they included the landing gear for both B and G kits. If you are building a B, then it should use the gear that give it the nose up attitude with the tail lower to the ground. Mark

I just love Russian jets. Colorful, exotic and, some, even bizarre. Give me more! Mark

You're right it does have both. One (the "V" sprue) is the ML version. Interesting. I haven't actually seen a pic of the Aires IP (its not shown on the photo they've published). Since the rest of the cockpit is pretty much the same, would have been nice if they just included both IPs. Oh well. I may get the ML kit too anyway. There are some nice decals out for that version (sharks teeth ) Mark

Aires is releasing a cockpit set for the ML version. It includes the seat. There appears to be significant differences in the IP between the MF and ML. I suppose one could use the kit MF IP with the Aires set or get the Two Mikes set. Two Mikes is going to release a seat for their set in the near future too. I have the Two Mikes set (without seat) and some TD seats, but haven't tried fitting the seats to see how they fit. Mark P.S. I have the Aires wheel well set and it is very nice. I read a review that stated that, once the rim around the main wells is trimmed away, the wells literally snap in place.

I just noticed this, Aires is releasing a four spoke Spitfire wheel set sometime this month. http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=AI%202128 Mark

Upside down? As is the box it is sitting on? When I built mine, the front windshield was way too narrow to fit on the fuselage. I cut out the center piece of the windshield and inserted a slightly larger piece of clear plastic. Mark

I'm looking at drawings, in the 4+ book, of the MF and ML cockpits and there are differences in the IP. The pic on Luckymodel doesn't show the IP, so it's hard to tell what they actually modeled. The MF looks like it has a radar screen just below the HUD which is missing on the ML. Center console is different too. Side panels look the same. There are a number of external differences between the B and G, not the least of which is the fin/rudder (shorter on the G). Mark Mark

Something else to spend one's money on... http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=AI%202134 It doesn't look like it has been released yet and I see nothing on the Aires website yet either. Mark

What he said

OK, so its not USA addresses, but it could be ranges of addresses. I've seen Time Warner (my ISP) addresses get misreported as compromised or invalid to various lists that websites use to filter out bot attacks and such. Oh well. The proxy worked and I could read the article. If anyone else has the same problem I did, try going to this site: http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/ and enter the link for the interview in the "Enter URL" box at the bottom of the page and click on "Go". Mark

I don't think the site is accepting USA IP addresses. I accessed it using a UK proxy service and was able to get to the site. Odd that they would restrict it like that. Anyone from here in the US able to access it OK? It may be some range of addresses the site is targeting or something with their IPS. Mark