Trumpeter MiG-29A.

[Lothar]

Pardon my ignorance, but I just found some pics in the LockOn No. 19 on the Mig-29A/C with

the FOD covers down in the parked position. Now I'm a bit confused.

Lothar

[Dave Williams]

15 minutes ago, Lothar said:

Pardon my ignorance, but I just found some pics in the LockOn No. 19 on the Mig-29A/C with

the FOD covers down in the parked position. Now I'm a bit confused.

Lothar

It’s likely possible for this to be done, but somewhat rare, like having the main gear doors or speed brakes open on a parked F-104.  Just look at pictures of parked MiG-29s on Airliners.net or other places on the web.  Plenty of pictures out there showing the FOD doors open.

 

 

[CZPetrP]

Yes, the machine can give the impulse to close ...
Practically both configurations are with the intervention of a mechanic.

But the standard situation after the engine shutdown is FOD open

[thierry laurent]

Hi, 

 

I do not remember exactly as I did not look at that for years but take care with the type of the plane you selected on the decal sheet. Some of the aggressors were very early 29s with different features (nose panels, rudder shape, gun vents, antennas, air intake shields, dry wing pylons, etc.). 

 

Nonetheless, a 29 is a very good choice. 

 

Thierry 

[ade rowlands]

2 hours ago, thierry laurent said:

Hi, 

 

I do not remember exactly as I did not look at that for years but take care with the type of the plane you selected on the decal sheet. Some of the aggressors were very early 29s with different features (nose panels, rudder shape, gun vents, antennas, air intake shields, dry wing pylons, etc.). 

 

Nonetheless, a 29 is a very good choice. 

 

Thierry 

Thanks Thierry. There’s plenty of 9.12’s on the sheet to chose from should I need to change. The kit has 2 gun vents on the sprues but instructions call for one type only. From what I’ve read the Aggressor unit was a bit of a ******* mix of 29’s from A’s through to C’s so I have some scope to move in should I need to, use the bulk of the decals for that scheme and cut my own Bort numbers should that be needed. I have a pretty decent looking book on the way so I’m holding off on most things until that arrives and I can have a read through. 

[BradG]

That's cool, I never knew that about the MiG 29 but I guess it makes sense if you're operating off a makeshift runway and where the intakes are located. 

[thierry laurent]

On 3/23/2020 at 10:05 AM, ade rowlands said:

Thanks Thierry. There’s plenty of 9.12’s on the sheet to chose from should I need to change. The kit has 2 gun vents on the sprues but instructions call for one type only. From what I’ve read the Aggressor unit was a bit of a ******* mix of 29’s from A’s through to C’s so I have some scope to move in should I need to, use the bulk of the decals for that scheme and cut my own Bort numbers should that be needed. I have a pretty decent looking book on the way so I’m holding off on most things until that arrives and I can have a read through. 

If that is the Gordon & Kommissarov book, you will get the best information ever published in English about Aggressors MiG-29s.

[ade rowlands]

It’s not specifically on the Aggressor MiG’s. It’s labelled as MiG-29 and MiG-35. 
 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1910809225/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I didn’t pay near that price for it though. I went for a used version from a seller I’ve used several times for used books. I wouldn’t normally buy a reference book if I was going to be doing a one off build of a type. I’d put my info together from the collective knowledge base on here and photos from the net but as I looked over the kit I started to quite like it. I can seem myself getting either the SMT or UB versions in the future. The C is too similar. 

[Dave Williams]

Yeah, I got the C also, but not sure that I’ll build it for the same reason (too similar to the A).  I do have the SMT, though, and very excited about that version.

[thierry laurent]

It is indeed that book. I got some years ago the first edition (that does not include the MiG-35).

[ade rowlands]

Well progress as promised, is slow. I’ve been working night shifts for a few days and I learnt long ago to not touch much on kits when working nights as the sleep deprived brain is prone to mistakes. I’ve mainly been going through the instructions working out where I can deviate from them and make things a little easier maybe. Like leaving the gear off until the end of the build rather than add the nose gear at the start as the instructions would have. Looking through the instructions it’s the kind of kit where you go from having a lot of not very much to a largely completed fuselage in the blink of an eye once all the little bits of nothing come together. Did a bit of work on it today. Not much though as I have a job interview tomorrow so busy reading my notes for that but I needed a break. 
Arrived in the post this morning. Didn’t realise quite how big a book it was when ordering. 

 

Added the blanks for the intake ducts on top of the fuselage and the gun vent cover. All quite good fits really which was a surprise as normally Trumpeter inserts give me a fight in that once glue is applied they sink in too deep or just plain don’t fit. Normally for inserts I use Epoxy glue as it doesn’t melt the styrene as a plastic cement does so that usually stops the sinking but a test fit of both sides revealed I didn’t need to worry. Tamiya Extra thin would be fine. Just required a quick polish with a sanding sponge to clean up. 

 

Landing gear bay parts added. Some side panels. Needed a bit of a going over with a sanding stick to get a nice trouble free fit. Then there’s the hub that the main gear will fit in to, that’s added early on but the rest of the gear can be done much later. 

Lastly for today is some of the intake trunking. I’ve decided to attempt to make them seamless rather than blank them off with the intake covers I’ve bought. It would be a waste to cover up the detail if the Zacto exhausts by adding the exhaust covers and it would look stupid with covers on the intakes but not the exhausts. And the FOD guards integral to the intakes are positioned in the up position when the aircraft is powered down as we established earlier. 

These then go in to the intake main part where the join will need to be gotten rid of but provided I can eradicate the seams in these main parts it should come out ok. 
So not much but it’s a start of sorts. 

[ade rowlands]

So a very quick look at the book during a break from studying my interview notes for tomorrow. I’ve compared what is in the book to my Begemot decals. I want to do the Soviet Aggressor scheme with the Hornet/Wasp on the tail. The decal sheet give some it’s serial as 2960505549 which matches a serial in the book that serves with the unit. Which is all good. The only discrepancy being the book has its bort number as Red 10 whilst the sheet is Red 01. Easily overcome that by reversing the decals as it is I0 rather than 10. Could do with some photos of the airframe to see which version is correct though. Also the serial number is quite an early 9-12. I don’t know if this makes a difference or not. I need to do a more thorough reading on what changed over time with these birds in the A series. Being a decal sheet with quite a few options I should be ok if I can’t find enough details for my planned scheme. There’s another 9-12 that isn’t as colourful but can serve my needs as a back up scheme. There’s 2 UB scheme too which is nice as I plan to get that kit in the future. 

[Dave Williams]

There are a few notable differences in the early 9-12s.  There were no flare/chaff dispensers in front of the tails, there were vertical ventral fins hanging down from the rear fuselage chimes that the tails sat on, and on very early aircraft, the rear of the rudders didn’t extend past the rear of the vertical tail.  The rudder extension seems to be a very early change (and was apparently retrofitted) so it wasn’t uncommon to see aircraft with the extended rudder, but still having the other early features.  From what I can find, Red 01 was a an early 9-12 with the ventral fins and no dispensers, but with the extended rudders.

 

Here’s an article with some early 9-12 info and pictures.

 

https://sirviper.com/index.php?page=fighters/mig-29/mig-29a

Edited March 25, 2020 by Dave Williams

[ade rowlands]

Thanks Dave. You seem to have found the same as me. The kit only has the extended rudders as far as I can see. It does have the strakes for the fuselage below the vertical tails. 

[ade rowlands]

So another break from the books early this afternoon had me checking the kit cockpit parts. Quite nice detail from the box. But the kit instrument panel is missing some instrument faces. 
From the box. 

 

With the fault warning indicator block added. 

What it should look like.

Quite close. It is just missing 2 instruments. The long one and one below it on the right hand side. There’s a couple of pieces on the Airscale etch set that I could use to approximate them but no room to add them. So my quandary now is do I fill in the kit dial faces with plasticard and eradicate the kit details and scratch the new details using Airscale stuff or leave it be? I can see how I would go about it. The left hand side of the panel is ok. Apart from the missing dial above the compass but there’s room to add that. It’s to the right of the panel the issues lie but again I can see there’s scope to create room for the missing panels in the right corner by moving things more to the left. Closer to the engraved partition line. That would also give me room for the big white spin recovery line on the panel. 
Do I really want to make this work for myself though? This is what will be seen. Cockpit parts dry fitted in to place with the coaming added. Canopy will be closed too.