SPA Modeler

Look how weighted the tires are

They're feeling deflated...

Today's lunchtime modelling session saw yet another new kit hit the front seat, Zvezda's Mig-21BIS. The boxes for the 1/48 kits are a tad too bulky for my car, so it's back to some 1/72 Jets.



It's not a bad looking kit, plenty of parts in the box.



So far I've assembled the cockpit tub, mounted the sidewalls and main u/c bays into the fuselage halves, and them slapped lovely green paint over everything.





After that I have a rather tasty vegan curried pie and some hash browns

This kit will soon be joined by another -21, although the level of detail might be a bit lower...





Cheers Comrades

Nice work from the front seat! Lunch sounds good, too!

Thanks Lyle - it was rather tasty.

I'm going to have to source some colours for the scheme as I want to do a camouflaged but know nowt about Russian Air force Colours - I'll be going with the 'close enough' principle.

The painting guide in this kit is the rather old fashioned black and white kind which is no help. I did find this on line that looks rather funky.

For Soviet camo colors, close enough will work. Standard patterns are pretty much non existent. Late models and some earlier export models were camo painted at the factories in semi standardized colors and patterns. But early types like your kit were built in NMF, and if they received a camo scheme, it was done locally, with colors available and the pattern at the whim of the paint crew.
There used to be a great site that had various Soviet aircraft types camo profiles and color call outs using Humbrol paints, but it shut down several years ago. Fortunately some folks have saved some of those profiles online on other sites. Here is a Mig-23 pattern with those Humbrol color call outs. So using those colors, and the explanation of Soviet camo practices, you can do as you like on your Mig-21 Stuart.

Thanks for the info Carlos - that's a great help! good to know nothing was standard!

portman wrote:Thanks for the info Carlos - that's a great help! good to know nothing was standard!

Unfortunately the quality of Cold War Soviet Color photos is widely varied. I suspect that like US FS colors or U.K. BSC colors, the Soviet Air Force had a wide palette of paint colors to choose from. Soviet Aircraft based in Eastern Europe wore darker, more temperate color schemes, while those based in their Southern and central republics wore lighter color schemes suited for those more arid environments.

Stuart, looking great so far, Nice choice on the latest models. That Airfix one will bring back memories for me as I built a few! As Carlos said, "close enough" is just right; that's the way I always painted my Soviet aircraft.

Looking forward to seeing more.