MiG-23ML Flogger G

[Jamme]

Thank You Tim.

Nice color anyway.

Cheers,

Jamme

[TimW]

More Flogging!

 

 

 

[TimW]

Nosewheel.

 

 

[TimW]

The Aires KM-1 Bang Seat. I won't say the harness was easy or that I did it 100 percent accurately--but I like the effect I got.

 

[TimW]

Funny how fast these go once you're done with the cockpit and wheel wells!

 

I'll be ready to paint shortly.

 

The only fit problems I had were:

 

1. Gaps between the vertical stabilizer and fuselage--had this problem with the Su-25 as well and;

 

2. Fit of the engine. I had to remove some of the tab on the vertical stabilizer as it was bumping against the engine--the engine didn't want to fit through those bulkhead frames between the forward and after end of the fuselage, either. On top of that, the ventral fin locating tabs were interfering with some of the stuff on the outside of the engine (the various boxes and tubes).

 

I was going to do this to allow the engine to be seen, but decided not to bother.

 

Curious if anybody else had this sort of problem--it could have been me making a mistake, or unclear details on the plans?

 

No biggie, in the end, as things are progressing.

 

Should have some shots of the initial painting soon.

 

Tim W.

[Out2gtcha]

KEWL!

 

Yeah I know the feeling Tim, about the wells and pit. My Flanker has PLENTY of both. Probably STILL wont go that fast after there done.

 

Pit looks awesome mate! I like the effect on the seat as well. Real nice looking. This will be good tutorial for later, as I def do plan on doing a SU-25UB for SURE at some point. Nice to hear about any associated fit problems I might encounter.

 

Cheers,

Brian

Edited April 29, 2011 by Out2gtcha

[TimW]

KEWL!

 

Yeah I know the feeling Tim, about the wells and pit. My Flanker has PLENTY of both. Probably STILL wont go that fast after there done.

 

Pit looks awesome mate! I like the effect on the seat as well. Real nice looking. This will be good tutorial for later, as I def do plan on doing a SU-25UB for SURE at some point. Nice to hear about any associated fit problems I might encounter.

 

Cheers,

Brian

 

Brian--

 

The main issue with the Su I ran into was the gap between the vertical stabilizer and the fuselage. Real PITA! I learned from that and used the tape and putty trick on the Flogger, though. Much less of a nuisance.

 

Otherwise the Su has gone together fairly well.

 

Regards,

 

Tim W.

[TimW]

And now, the paint. This is far from done--still a lot of touching up, weathering and fading to do. But I figured I'd share progress thus far.

 

 

[TimW]

More.

 

 

[TimW]

Belly of the beast...

 

 

[Smokey]

Tim, been following your build and it looks very sharp. What colors did you use for the exterior colors? Did you use Model Masters? Dan

[TimW]

Tim, been following your build and it looks very sharp. What colors did you use for the exterior colors? Did you use Model Masters? Dan

 

I did indeed. The Linden Hill decal set has a nice little chart with FS and AKAN numbers on it. Between that and talking to a guy in our hobby club who has seen the '23 up close, I think I got pretty good matches.

 

I will do some fading/weathering as well, but according to the LH sheet, the 23s from 979 IAP appear to have been well maintained and not too beaten up during their service time in Afghanistan.

 

Regards,

 

Tim W

[TimW]

Ok...the MiG is done. Only a few teeny-tiny touch ups to do, here and there.

 

Once the stalwart pilot is done, I'll start taking pictures.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Tim W.

[scvrobeson]

Sounds great TIm. Can't wait to see the finished shots. How was the kit? How did it build up? The mig-23 is a cool looking plane, there's no way it could have been anything but Russian from the Cold War. It looks like so many of the parts for those planes came off of tractors and farm equipment, not military machines, but that's what makes them so cool, I think!

 

 

Matt

[TimW]

Sounds great TIm. Can't wait to see the finished shots. How was the kit? How did it build up? The mig-23 is a cool looking plane, there's no way it could have been anything but Russian from the Cold War. It looks like so many of the parts for those planes came off of tractors and farm equipment, not military machines, but that's what makes them so cool, I think!

 

 

Matt

 

Matt--

 

Overall, this kit builds up very nicely--very few problems with the exception of getting the engine into the tail section. I found that some of the stuff that goes on the engine itself wouldn't fit into the aft end of the fuselage. I was originally going to go with having a displayable engine, but gave it up as a bad idea after having lots of fit issues. I got it in there after removing some stuff, though.

 

The other problem (something of a Trumpeter feature) was the vertical fin--there's always a gap so wide you can see Irkutsk through it. Tamiya masking tape and putty took care of that.

 

Otherwise the kit is pretty well engineered. The cockpit and wheel wells are Aires replacements and they went in nicely. The swing-wing feature is particuarly well done and was less trouble than expected.

 

Another interesting feature--one of our hobby club guys (ex-AF) said that the '23 was engineered by the Soviets so that F-4 spare parts could be used on it. I guess they figured on using our stockpiles in West Germany....!

 

Take care,

 

Tim W.