Completed Review – Airfix MiG-15 (A02037) – Part 3

Scale: 1:72, RRP - £7.99

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...

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.

Build Review – Airfix MiG-15 (A02037) – Part 2

It been a while since I last posted an update on my ongoing MiG-15 1:72 scale build. Free time has been at a premium during the last month, the modellers curse that effect us all at some time...

However the good news it what time I have spent on this build has been productive. After finishing the cockpit I assembled the fuselage. This went together fairly well, however there was a large join between the two halves which at the time I incorrectly assumed was meant to be a join between panels.

Next up were the wings, they fitted perfectly and in no time I had the bare metal coat silver coat of paint on the model, Tamiya AS-12 straight from the spray can. The nose was airbrushed red with Tamiya XF-7 and attached after I've finished spraying the silver.

The landing gear was assembled attached and then painted. The gear covers and under wing fuel tanks were painted separately while still on the sprues and then attached. Overall it was nothing too difficult, with a pair of tweezers and some careful glueing I had myself a MiG-15.


So far, so good, a fun build for novice and expert alike. My only complaint is the join between the two halves of the fuselage. It took a few tries of filling, sanding and repainting and I still could not  hide it to my satisfaction.

                                   

Despite this I feel I can already recommend this kit, baring any major issues with the decals which I will discuss in my next build post, along with my final score.

Build Review – Airfix MiG 15 (A02037) – Part 1

I know this is a slight deviation from my to do list but I've had this kit a while now and I got a sudden urge to build a cold war jet. I had originally decide to do an in box review of this kit but got carried away and started building it...


The kit itself is one of the more recent toolings, from late 2009. This is few years after Hornby took over the Airfix brand and had started to drag it out of the model kit dark ages. While not as good as the very latest Airfix kits we've been seeing it was certainly a step in the right direction when it was released.

So in the box, how does it look?

First thoughts are, it looks good, the shape looks like a MiG-15. The details are a little heavy in places but in my opinion that doesn't take anything away from the model. I did notice that a few details were mirrored on both sides of the aircraft which isn't the case in real life, but again that won't spoil the model in any way. Also I feel the wheels do look a bit small for this scale and I think one of the bars across the canopy is missing.

The marking options certainly caught my eye. There's three options, an iconic silver VVS (Soviet Airforce) one, a thin striped green and yellow variant from the Korean war and finally a three tone camouflaged Hungarian aircraft from the 1970's. I think these 3 options give a good range to modellers of varying skill levels. In addition to this there's plenty of decals, the silver option has many, should you wish to detail warning signs and instructions that seem to adorn every panel of the aircraft.

I decided to opt for the silver version myself, wanting a straight forward paint job and the chance to apply plenty of decals for a change. But before I could get on with that I had to start with the cockpit which I was going to detail with some Eduard Zoom extras (set SS358).

The cockpit was painted grey using a mix of Citadel paints to produce the required shade. I have seen some modellers painting the interiors of MiG 15s that vivid Soviet turquoise that is so common in Soviet era aircraft. However I believe that was only adopted later (probably around the time MiG-21s came in service) and so isn't correct for this aircraft.

This cockpit is tiny when it comes to super-detailing and was a bit of a challenge. I think the basic cockpit is perfectly suitable for the beginner, especially if you want to add the pilot figure. I didn't and so that was the only reason I decided to use the Eduard extras.

Apart from that I used some liquid green stuff to add a bit more detail to the seat as it would be visible, some photo-etch seatbelts (which were incredibly fiddly) and that was the cockpit done.

Silver paint was then added to various interior parts and then I was ready to start assembling the fuselage and wings. More on that in part 2.

Build Review – Academy P-39N/Q Airacobra (2177) – Part 3

So the clamps came off (see part 2) and as expected some filling was needed along the join between the two halves. So after filling, respraying I was ready to add decals.

As mentioned before I was going to use the decals from the Airfix P-39Q Airacobra (A01039).

Comparing the two they looked similar. A nice touch on the Airfix decals is the green backgrounds, a slightly different shade to the green of the actual aircraft. This reflects how the US insignia was often painted over with whatever green paint the VVS had to hand at the time.

However here I learnt an important lesson. Just because the scale is the same don't assume the decals are the same size... The Airfix ones seem slightly too big for this scale, or at least the Academy P-39. But as I'd started with this scheme it was too late to go back.

Despite the size issue they went on well, a bit of decal softener helped them settle into place and ensured the panel lines showed through where they should.

Next up was more construction, time to add the tricycle landing gear.

The instructions tell you to add the nose wheel when joining the two halves of fuselage. This to me seems impractical and far too early in the construction process. So I'd cut a small hole in the side where the gear attached to allow me to add it at this later stage. Using a slower setting glue I attached the nose wheel, positioned it and let it set in place

So with the rear wheels added it was time for the moment of truth, was this one going to be a tail sitter?

 Looks good to me and I still have some backup weight to attach (in the drop tank)!