Madmax Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 The MiG-23 is a quintessential Cold War fighter. It has all the funky paint colours, all the committee design features, the size, and all the nuts and bolts - a bit like a mach 2 combine harvester! The "junction" has a lot of rivets and nuts and bolts and stuff, so I have tried to recapture what I sanded away in fairing the joints. I also added rivets on the intakes and cockpit sides. The shiny lines are Tamiya extra thin cement, in an attempt to preserve the holes and lines during sanding and priming. Talking of rivets, it might seem insane to ADD rivets to a Trumpeter model - so I decided to balance the books. The vertical and horizontal stabs actually have aluminium clad honeycomb structures, so I filled the appropriate rivets with some perfect plastic putty. Now the books balance! The hinge of the horizontal stab is evidence of the committee design I referred to earlier. This is where I think it goes. I added a pushrod of sorts to fill the hole behind the hinge. Here is my folded Ventral fin. The vent lines supplied in the kit are a bit heavy gauged, but I didn't feel like scratching a new one. Lazy. Ready for primer - one high speed agricultural implement. It is actually quite attractive in plan view like this... Marcel111, Rivas, Greg W and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 Looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinnfb Posted June 8, 2018 Share Posted June 8, 2018 (edited) Fantastic effort, your attention to detail is very inspiring Cheers Martin Edited June 8, 2018 by Martinnfb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted June 8, 2018 Share Posted June 8, 2018 Indeed, its looking lovely for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmax Posted June 9, 2018 Author Share Posted June 9, 2018 Thanks very much Kagemusha, Martin and Brian! It is great to have you looking in and voicing your encouragement - it really does work. As a result I built some more... Kagemusha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmax Posted June 9, 2018 Author Share Posted June 9, 2018 (edited) I primed the whole model with Tamiya's fine surface primer. It worked beautifully except for the left intake and the "junction" where it filled my slaved over rivets and panels. Aaargh ! I must have just got carried away with the rattle can. So - sand the primer off, re-scribe and re-rivet. Now I was a little gun shy of the rattle can, so I have just sprayed Tamiya semi-gloss black (acrylic) in thin layers so as to preserve the surface detail. It may be a bit of a fragile base coat... but all the detail is crisp, as you can see by the panel lines and rivets I redid under the intakes. I'll just have to wear gloves when I eventually paint . While that was drying, I did some fun stuff. The 800l belly tank is a bit bland as moulded, so I gave it an upgraded pylon, some weld seams and a bit of tin-canning. Then I had to improvise a bit with the ordinance I want to use. These are not terribly popular nowadays, but I have seen pictures of the short RBK-500 on an airfield in Angola. The kit supplies the pointy-nosed long RBK-500, so with some of the wheels for the engine trolley and a Dremel tool, I turned the faces for the bomb. Just slice up the long cylinder, glue it all back together and voila! You can add detail to taste such as weld seams and the detail on the nose. I used some of the Trumpeter weapons decals, totally random but just to break up the dull grey paint. They still need some work, but just thought I'd show you in the meantime. Whilst ransacking the decal sheets, I thought I'd add some fictitious Cyrillic instructions for the crew to work on the gear legs. There really are instructions on both legs, really! And finally, I sprayed some silver over my black base, as a sort of a scratch-patch for the weathering to be. Now to work out the camouflage pattern... Cheers, Sean Edited June 11, 2018 by Madmax Tomcatfreak, johncrow, blackbetty and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 Tremendous work Sean! I think the effect of all the hard work and diligence with the paint will pay off. To tell yo the truth, I go through surgical gloves like they are going out of style. I use them a LOT, especially when I get close to paint work. It tends to keep my ham-fists in check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 Sean, First time I've noticed this thread. You've done some fantastic work and I'm looking forward to more! Gaz Out2gtcha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmax Posted June 13, 2018 Author Share Posted June 13, 2018 Thanks Brian! I have a bit of a history with paint to be honest. I know it should be chemistry, but for me its alchemy. You'll see soon enough. As an aside - I, like many others, am holding my breath to see your Extra 330 emerge from the dark side. Hello Gaz, Thanks for popping in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmax Posted June 13, 2018 Author Share Posted June 13, 2018 This is what motivated the build in the first place... Weathering heaven! I have unfortunately not done this kind of weathering before, and am foolish enough to attempt it in public. Ah, what the hell. So, I mentioned that I had to work out the camouflage pattern. Gregair kindly gave me a lot of material about the MiG's in Angola, and from what I can gather has personally been trying to decode the scheme of C 454 for some time. I decided to draw what I could see in the available photographs first. You will see some blank area's where there literally are no photo's available. The top of the aircraft is obviously the biggest problem, and even what you can see here is inferred from marginal side-on glimpses of the top of the wing or leading edges. This is just done with my kids old colour pencils, so please don't use it as a reference! I was hoping that the Linden Hill research would help, but alas, their findings don't tie in with what I can see. I bought the "Non-aligned Floggers part 2" decals, and at least the numbers and roundels look spot on. Their camouflage must be from a previous chapter in 454's existence, or a generic Angolan scheme which would look quite convincing anyway. Since I don't imagine any more photo's of 454 are going to emerge soon (unless any readers have some?), I have filled in the blanks based on the shape and pattern of the existing camo. Any thoughts? I am actually going to meet with Gregair later this week to discuss this very issue. In my excitement at getting some paint onto the beast last night, a snag emerged. I had a funny feeling about my priming, and I was right. Somewhere I got my chemistry wrong and the black paint was lifting when masked, and disastrous to sand. So, this is how she looks right now. As James May likes to say: "Oh c_ck!" Now if only I could find that book of spells and incantations for paint... Starfighter, Out2gtcha, Marcel111 and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Ouch! That hurts when that kind of thing happens. Bummer, but from all appearances in this thread, you have plenty of fortitude, and the modelling skill to go with it, so I have no doubts this will only be a small roadblock. Lately roadblocks are all I've been dealing with. Looking forward to some camo paint! Kagemusha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcel111 Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Sean, just love this build... fantastic modelling and even better narrative! Hope you recover quickly from that paint setback... hey, it will add to the weathered effect :-) Cheers, Marcel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 I'm really digging the research you put in. Please don't get me into Cold war jets... I only just recently entered a wood and canvas binge... Gaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 I love this topic, I'm still running behind trying to catch all the goor and useful info and technique Thanks for that Great job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmax Posted June 17, 2018 Author Share Posted June 17, 2018 Thanks for the encouragement Brian! You will see that I am through this first roadblock, and certainly hope that your Extra 330 is progressing apace. Hey Marcel, glad you are enjoying it. More to come... Gaz, I am equally afraid that your foray into the world of WnW is going to rub off on me! red Dog, good to have you looking in, Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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