HobbyBoss 1/48 MiG-31B Foxhound

[dmminiatures]

When I obtained the kit, the only thing I could think of was the scene where US Forces dug out a massive fighter jet from the Iraqi desert after Desert Storm 2.0. It was probably a Foxhound or a Foxbat but that image was so unique that it kept pinging on my mind to this day.

The HobbyBoss Kit
The box was very large and sturdy and that gave a really good impression of how big the actual kit may have been. The boxart was also very good.



Once opening the box, I saw that the kit has a lot of parts, by just looking that the sprues which filled up the entire space of the box. They were all in light grey. The box was divided into two section. The main area with all the major sprues and a small section on the righ/left side that housed smaller spues, rubber vinyl tires, white metal landing gear, and PE sets. A truly multimedia kit!


If you like lots of parts then you would like this kit. however, I found out it was only a first impression. once you start building, you will find out that the kit is very simple and that the large part count is for the cockpit, landing gear and wheel bay, and missiles set.


PE was rather basic but after building this kit, not many were needed


White metal landing gear. Its not a truly 100% white metal landing gear. They are meant to work in conjunction with the plastic pieces so that the overall landing gear is sturdy.


The love and hate of vinyl tires. They are nicely molded and have no serious flaw on their thread. The only caveat in using vinyl tires are that you will need to find a different way to make them look 'weighted'. On thing that was bugging me was the fact that the tires were a tad to wide for the rim (they were not a really tight fit) and thus slightly a bit wobbly when installed.

[dmminiatures]

Cockpit - The Short Honeymoon
By far of anything else, I think the construction of the cockpit surpassed the builder's experience of a smooth and bug-free WIP. The fit was great, there were minimum flash, the Instrument panel was excellent as well as the decals.



The experience in building the cockpit was so pleasing that I assumed I would be having the same pleasantry in the next phase. Sadly, it was all downhill from here. Almost every step of the WIP has been a PITA and disappointment. Working on the cockpit was by all means a very short honeymoon.



I painted the Russian cockpit green color by mixing Gunze acrilic Acrision paint No.25 with No.46 with a ration of 1:3. Later I would brush paint some of the instruction panels that were black using XF-1 Flat Black.



All the gauges, dials and MFD that you see on the instrument panels (IP) are decals. HobbyBoss provided a complete set of IP decals. One problem with the decals was that they came in one big single sheet. The IP, however, had a 3D-ish surface, with producing and sunken surfaces.

Of course, there was no way to get the one-sheet decals to work on that kind of surface. The solution was to cut the one-piece decals into several smaller parts. I cut them based on the surface level. I notice space was very limited and I also cut away some of the transparent carrier film too.



This was the first time that I noticed the good-quality decals. They were thin and worked very well with Mr. Mark Setter. to complete the decaling process, after adding MM Setter, I pressed the decals carefully onto the surface. as expected, the decals adhered very well to the recessed and embossed surface detail.

The last bit of work on the cockpit was to wash it with AMMO MIG A.1602 PLW Deep Grey using a pointed No.0 brush. While the clean up was done using regular cotton swabs (cotton buds).

[dmminiatures]

Interior Parts

Cockpit and Front Wheel Bay
Surprisingly there weren't many interior parts to deal with. Aside the cockpit, I had to construct the front landing gear bay, main landing gear bay, and intake ducts.



The fishing lead weighs were glued using CA glue inside the cone. It was more of a gamble that of being scientific to how much should the lead adds up. I might have given the nose too much weight!


One of the kit's design flaws that just irked me was the need to install the landing struts in advance of the building process. Every modeler knows that the landing struts will eventually get in their way of other processes. And I think that was the reason why many kit manufacturer dropped this approach (Perhaps they did listed to the voice of modelers?). The only time you would find this kind of arrangement are with re-issued old Revell-Monogram, Hasegawa, or testor kit.



I installed the the cockpit tub before gluing the two front fuselage halves together. The front wheel bay came separate, but together with the main fuselage. These front halves went together very smooth.

Intake Ducts


Hobby boss gave me a complete intake duct that protruded inwards all the way to the engine's out-most compressor blades. The interior of the ducts and compressor blades were painted X-32 Titanium Silver and washed with Tamiya Panel Line Accent Black. From the outside, there was very little to be seen once the complete intakes were installed.

Main Landing Gear Bay
I think these ejector marks were probably the silliest mistake that Hobby Boss designers could ever make. As you can see in the photo, each of the interior of the wheel bay are littered with 11 (eleven) ejector marks. However, if you turn them around, I found NOT A SINGLE ejector marks. I think the designers at Hobby Boss mistook which sides that would actually face outwards (where obviously everyone can see) and the inner side (while will be completely hidden in the belly of the kit).



I was literally upset when I saw these parts. Pretty much speechless. But to move on, I decided to fill the ejector marks with Tamiya regular (white) putty and clean the excess with a cotton swab loaded with acetone.

[dmminiatures]

Putting the Fuselage Together
This was quite a straight-forward process. Hobby Boss molded the main part of the fuselage into one long piece of plastic, being top and bottom part. Once I installed the main landing gear bay, I put the halves together. The surface detail of the fuselage was just exquisite with fine rivets and panel lines and all had a very nice smooth surface.



But the easiness of gluing the long fuselage halves do not correlate well with the quality of the joints. Overall, the joints were "less than average". many section of the joints were slightly misaligned and small gaps and different location made the whole experience disappointing.



Like when you see this picture above and below, you kinda of wonder why is it that Hobby Boss mad such an effort to come up with a very nice surface detail, but fell so short on the quality of the joints. if it's like they gave you only 98% of their efforts. So close of being a really nice kit, but at the end it felt so far.

[dmminiatures]

The assembled kit, viewed from a distance looks really huge. I installed the wings a bit later after the fuselage was strong enough to cope with the additional weight. Unseen in the photo, the starboard wing was slightly warp downwards. I had to pull it up a few times to get it straightened.

[dmminiatures]

Gap Galore
Almost every kit that we make have gaps, big and small. This MiG-31 kit is no different. In fact I found many gaps all over the kit. Some in areas that I think was just poorly designed and could have been avoided in the design phase of the molding process. Here are photos that show some of the gaps either still in its natural form or being treated with putty.



Gaps on the lower wing root, starboard side. Treatment was to insert a 0.2mm sheet stryene and glue it in place with TET cement followed by a putty.



Gaps on the lower front fuselage, forward of the front landing gear. You can see the while putty filling the small gaps and the Tamiya two-part epoxy putty (yellow) to cover larger holes.



Gaps and step on ahead of the front windscreen. Tamiya two-part epoxy putty (yellow) was necessary to cover the issue.



One of the large gaps was between the upper spine and fuselage with the chute housing.

[Handiabled]

Almost as much putty as a rusted out 74 Ford Pinto with gaps like that! Keep hammering my friend it looks awesome thus far!

[BlackSheep214]

Just make sure you don’t paint with the dead spider onto the underside near the wheel well. Looking good considering the issues from the kit.

[Duke Maddog]

Wow, you are sure beating this kit into submission. Very nicely done!

It's a thrill to follow your work again.

[dmminiatures]

Thanks, Guys. - And Happy New Year too!

Duke - Oh how I want to badly to get this project over with!

Blacksheep - Poor little critter! I think it was dead before I found it. I remember giving it a proper funeral LOL

Handiabled - I never saw a Pinto in real life, but looking at pictures of in on the net, I don't blame people for hating it, particularly if its filled with gaps and already rusting!