Following my last post I decided to make one last push at finishing this model and giving it the all important final score.
I'd decided that I wanted this aircraft to looked used, partly because I felt it would be good to try my hand at weathering. I shaded the panel lines with Citadel inks before spraying a Tamiya flat coat (TS-80 spray) to take the shine off as I wasn't looking for a factory finish. I'd found a particularly useful set of photos here which showed a couple of well weathered MiG-15s and these formed the basis for the finish I was hoping to achieve.
The next step was to add the decals and for this scheme there are a lot of them! I was a bit concerned at this scale the model would look too "busy" with all the warning signs etc. The other schemes had considerably less decals. However I think I was proved wrong, as the decals went on I started to feel like I had a good looking model.
In the past Airfix decals have had a bit of a bad reputation. I'm pleased to say those days seem to be behind them, these decals were excellent and went on easily. There was one slight hitch, one of the red stars curled and came apart when I tried to correct it. This was entirely due to an error on my part, I'd not taken enough care in fixing it.
I attempted to mask and repaint the star but this was more difficult than I first envisaged and so I reluctantly had to opt for a somewhat weathered star.
The final step was to add the canopy, before I did, I took one last look at the Eduard enhanced cockpit before it was almost hidden from view...
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This was probably the most disappointing part of the kit, I already had an idea from dry fitting that it wasn't going to fit well and sadly that was the case. There were rather large gaps between the canopy and the fuselage that took some filling. I do have a Pavla vacform canopy stashed away somewhere and with hindsight I should have probably used it this time. I guess it can wait for my next MiG-15 build.
So my final conclusions: This is a surprisingly good kit and shows the steps that Airfix were making to improve their kits a few years ago. Granted their new kits are a further improvement but this one still holds up well. I think it's a good kit for beginners and experts alike, either as a straight from the box build or as the basis for a more advanced build The overall ease of the build is a plus as are the excellent decals, I just feel the fit issues of the two fuselage halves and the canopy let it down a bit.
In addition to this I should also add that the Eduard Zoom set, SS358, is highly recommended should you wish to enhance the cockpit.
And finally as this is the first completed model on this blog I decided that it deserved to be mounted in a display case. The case was one of Trumpeter's excellent cases, a 170 x 170 x 70mm size case (product code 09812) and the base was made from ICM's 1:72 scale PAG-14 Soviet Airfield Plates (72214).
Overall Build Score: 3 out of 5, a good simple build that looks like a MiG-15, slightly let down by fit issues.
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