[W] MiG-23MLD Flogger-K - Trumpeter 1:32.

[Gelerth]

Hi,

 

Few days ago I finished my sixth model in 1:32 and as it was A-10 it also was a fourth plane is US markings that's why I decided to go to the east and choose one of the former USSR planes. I have Su-27 but I'm not ready to it yet, also Su-25 was not a good choose as I just finish CAS plane. So the choice was simple: MiG-23MLD.

 

In quite a big box half of sprues is for armament - various missiles, bombs, gun pods, fuel tanks etc but MLD was an ultimate fighter so mostly air to air missiles were carried.

Plane have 7 mounting points but only 4 are available as the central one and left and right ones are reserved for fuel tanks.

I decide to mount 2 R-24R (1 per pylon) missiles and 4 R-60 (2 per pylon) in configuration as below:

 

After gluing I had to sand it a little bit, rescribe some lines, paint with primer and sand a little more:

 

In the meantime I ordered a Aires detail set (2196)

http://www.aires.cz/get/image.php?object=product-photo&id=2287

 

And also a Pitot tube from Master, Air Scoops and Chute brake from Quickboost.

 

Still I'm not sure about painting as Trumpeter is offering two quite interesting schemes, but in the meantime I found on the wiki interesting photo:

 

Camo like Su-27 and idea for a base. 

 

 

Waiting for resin parts I'm trying to glue and prepare as many parts as I can:

 

[zak]

Love the flogger, will be watching with interest

[geedubelyer]

Great idea for a display base. This will look superb.

[Gelerth]

Love the flogger, will be watching with interest

Thank you.

 

 

Great idea for a display base. This will look superb.

 

Quite cool. I have to think how to build it and attach plane to it.

 

I received pack of resin parts.

 

At the begining I try to fit the main wheel wells as the attachment is a little bit different then kits parts - they are open at the top while resin have all the sides full.

To properly attach some plastic blocks have to be removed from one of the part supporting wings.

 

Next I tried to fit exhaust. It is larger in diameter then kits one, so a lot of plastic have to removed from the rear halves of hull:

 

This is how it fits:

 

Unfortunately exhaust is a little bit smaller then end of the hull:

 

Those parts will be fitted in the engine:

 

More to come soon - I glued a lot of parts but some of them have to reshaped or cut to properly fit resin parts.

[RNoAF]

What decals are you planning to use?

[Gelerth]

Today I tried to visualize the monument and the plane on the base:

 

Angle of the plane is not too big as the base with plane should not exceed 25cm in height.

 

Then I had to destroy some more parts to fit resin:

 

And I sand smooth the air intake, but probably it won't be seen after mounting:

 

I paint wheel wells (without wash yet):

 

And a color check for cockpit:

[geedubelyer]

Those wheel bays look magnificent Gelerth, good job.

[Gelerth]

Thank you Geedubelyer.

[Zero77]

That's an amazing start. The resin engine looks very beautiful and your paint job on the wheel bays is outstanding.

 

I'll be following this one for sure !

[FunkyZeit]

Awesome! I'm thinking of doing a 23 right away here!

[Gelerth]

That's an amazing start. The resin engine looks very beautiful and your paint job on the wheel bays is outstanding.

 

I'll be following this one for sure !

Thank you very much.

 

 

Awesome! I'm thinking of doing a 23 right away here!

 

Don't think about it. 

Do it as soon as you can.

 

In the meantime I finished cockpit and ejection seat:

[misha71]

great start and work

[Gelerth]

I decided that I won't install electronic bays as  plane on monuments usually do not have such hatch opened so I glued frotn fuselage parts with cockpit and front gear bay. It's not perfect but it's better that I expected as halves do not fit only in ole place:

 

Anyway this place will be covered with canopy, so I do not mess with it not to break to much. I only had to cut canopyy a little in one spot and glue some HIPS in another:

 

I glued also the main gear bays:

 

In the meantime I'm trying to figure out how to build a strong and light monument, I started with some 4mm thick plaster blocks:

 

I will carve a bricks on them later.

 

I glued front windscreen (it covered with maskol)...:

 

... and ejection seat:

 

Now I'm waiting to vaporate rest of CA glue (otherwise it might damage canopy shield) so on photo it is only temporary to see how it fits:

 

 

[Gelerth]

Then I finally put together a wing moving mechanism - I had to modify it a little bit as it was too loose and wing were moving freely without control:

 

Then with regret I glued airbrake elements as again monument planes cannot have such parts open:

 

And dry fit on all main components:

 

I'm still thinking how to do an option to open/close tail to reveal engine - I started from the kits parts - then I will try to add some wiring:

 

To fit with resin parts of engine, kits one have to cut almost in half:

 

Dry fit of plastic and resin parts:

 

So far that's it... More to come soon...

[Loic]

:popcorn: