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Hello all! Having recently purchased the 1/32 Trumpeter MiG-21 MF kit, I started to compare it with my 1/48 Eduard MF, just to see if fuselage dimensions were similar after enlarging them 150%. I noticed the front fuselage was off and turned to a good scale plan and published dimensions of the fuselage length. The plan is from Wings and Wheels Publications and more dimensions came from the Docavia #33 on the MiG design bureau and has much information. Photos show the problem. The nose is short 8mm. It also looks shrunken. The error is all in the front fuselage starting at the dark vertical pencil line. The airbrake is OK, but the auxiliary air intake below the leading edge is 4mm too far back, and all ads up to 8mm total. I decided to check the diameter of the intake opening and found it also too small. The diameter should be 870mm, or 27.2mm in 1/32. This is represented by the circle drawn in the center of the photo. on the right is the same circle with the diameter of the Trump part drawn within it to show the difference easily. I wonder if anyone has noticed this before and if so, what you may have done to correct this, as it does seem to me to make a difference in the look of the finished model. Thank you in advance for your observations and remarks! Alain

Dear LSP community. I have been lurking around the forum here for a while. Finally I got around to photographing and sharing my first RFI post. This is the Trumpeter 1/32 Scale MiG-21UM in Czech Air Force colors. The model is pretty much out of the box. I had the Verlinden set, but its pretty useless if you ask me. The seats are undersized so I used the photo-etched parts only. The other goodies included Quickboost air scoops and pitot and AOA sensor. The rest is as in the box with the ejection seats heavily modified using all kinds of material. Not 100% accurate but a bit better than in the box version. The markings for this CzAF jet are a combination of kit decals (stencils) my own masks (national Insignia, tail art, serial number) and decals (the little guy on the front) that I had cut and printed locally. The model was "riveted" using RB Productions Rivet-R according to drawings published in the WWP and 4+ publications. Paints Used: ALCLADII, Gunze H, Vallejo, Future and I used Dark wash from Sira Hobby and my own custom mix of oil paints. A word of caution for the MiG-21 experts: I did not modify the shape inaccuracies the kit has. I know they are plentiful, but I just did not have the nerves to do the changes. It does look like a MiG-21UM to me. Yes a sinful approach, and yes I did spend quite some time working on the MiG-21 and other CzAF aircraft but this still did not convince me that the model needed to be modified, as it was a question of forever parking the project to the shelf of doom, or just soldier on and finish the kit as is the best way I can. Photos are a mix of white and black background as I was trying to see what works best, so I apologize for the non-uniformity of the images. Cheers, Jarda Hajecek

Hi, A new project for me. I had the Trumpeter kit starring at me for years, and i was looking for a reason to not to. With release of a Mig-21 Lancer from Icaerodesign, it was just to much to resist. This conversion looks very nice at the first sight, and i must say that it's even better when you start playing with, at least for the cockpit (i only started the cockpit so far). The fit is really excellent and it's a simple replacement of the kit parts. No surgery needed. It's designed to build a Lancer C, the air to air version. There are also a strike version and a 2 seater A and B, with different camos, but i dont know which are the technical differences with the C version, nor if one can build a A with the C conversion. Anyway, the supplied decals/masks are for a C version. So, let's start with the begining : the cockpit. I still have to paint it, but it's a drop fit. I also add a HAD KM-1 seat as the seat is not included in the conversion (nor the control stick). A control stick is supplied with the seat, but the end with the button is very different in the Lancer, so i will make one from scratch later. All the parts waiting for a coat of primer. Yes there's also another cockpit for another project.