Academy 1/48 MIG-21F Fishbed D # 2166

[Guest]

Hi All,

I dont really know much about who is who in modeling market.

I had a read over past few days about some manufacturers, Hasegawa, Italery, tamiya (not mentioning airfix, they are a household name ) and few others.

I went for Academy 1/48 MIG-21F Fishbed D # 2166.

Anyone has any knowledege of Academy, and/or this kit?

Cheers

[yak face]

hi vekiq,welcome to the forum. ive had experience of academy kits but not this one.Theyve always been very good, fitting together well and with very good, crisp detail, i dont think youll have any problems with it. cheers tony

[Guest]

hi vekiq,welcome to the forum. ive had experience of academy kits but not this one.Theyve always been very good, fitting together well and with very good, crisp detail, i dont think youll have any problems with it. cheers tony

Thanks Tony.

Which paints did you find best to use with academy kits?

I am hand brushing, i will not be investing into air brushing at this stage.

Cheers

[Guest]

I am at this stage also handbrushing my modles, most of them Academy and have found good old humbrol works well if thinned down.Where I lived it was humbrol or Tamia acrylics wich realy dont brush well for me.

Theuns

[Guest]

I am at this stage also handbrushing my modles, most of them Academy and have found good old humbrol works well if thinned down.Where I lived it was humbrol or Tamia acrylics wich realy dont brush well for me.Theuns

Theuns, did you use Humbrol Enamel?

what did you thin it with?

[Guest]

Indeed enamel and thinned with plain old lacer thinners. I can already hear the gasps of horror for using the wrong stuff, but I just used what I had in the house at the time.

I add between 15 to 20% depending on how thick the paint was.I find it much better to aply 2 light coats than 1 heavy one,especially on metalics like #11 silver.The allu flakes in the paint tend to "run" and setle inside the coat of paint if to thick.

I attach a pic of an Atlas Impala in 1/48 scale I painted with a very cheap pot slyle airbrush and #11 thinned down.Took only 1 coat to do, so if you don't want to invest in an expensive airbrush, the results from a "el cheapo" one could do for now.

Post some pix of your build, would be nice to see.

I rather like the Academy brand, not to expencive and the parts fit well enough for my limited skill level.

Theuns

[ATTACH]20209.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that this tipe of airbrush is realy only good for big bacecoat tipe of work and I doubt if it could be used for fine cammo patterns.But maybe it is well worth having such a AB to do big areas like the silver or one collour projects.

I paid ZAR 95-00 (approx) 8 pound (UK) for it and I run it off a small compressor, nothing fancy.

Hope it helps.

T

[Guest]

Indeed enamel and thinned with plain old lacer thinners. I can already hear the gasps of horror for using the wrong stuff, but I just used what I had in the house at the time.I add between 15 to 20% depending on how thick the paint was.I find it much better to aply 2 light coats than 1 heavy one,especially on metalics like #11 silver.The allu flakes in the paint tend to "run" and setle inside the coat of paint if to thick.

I attach a pic of an Atlas Impala in 1/48 scale I painted with a very cheap pot slyle airbrush and #11 thinned down.Took only 1 coat to do, so if you don't want to invest in an expensive airbrush, the results from a "el cheapo" one could do for now.

Post some pix of your build, would be nice to see.

I rather like the Academy brand, not to expencive and the parts fit well enough for my limited skill level.

Theuns

Thanks for the tips.

I have done 1/72 scale airfix spitfire and 1/72 airfix Eurofighter typhoon so far, but they are my first two kits i ever built, they came together in same package with some paints, it was cheap kit, that's what i wanted to do as a fitst one just to see how it turns out. I painted them both badly by the way, and are not worth showing off

I have Revel`s mig 3 kit gonna start on it now, i might be brave enough to show that one off, but really Academy kit that will arrive in the post for the weekend will be my first popper effort.

One thing that i found missing when buying the kits, none of them tell you before you buy which paints you will need, i did look for the info on many places, but i have not found it. As soon as kit arrives i will get correct paints and thinners, but it would be handy to have this info before hand, i am surprised that online shops have not grasped that already, i would have surely spent more money with them if i knew what to buy.

[yak face]

hi vekiq, i agree with theuns, if youre brushing then humbrol enamels are the best thing,although ive had good results with brushing the games workshop acrylics. post some pics of the mig when its finished , cheers tony

[Guest]

Mate we all mess up planes in the start....................infact I still regularly do so :-).

A good tip I picked up ,might even have been here ,is to lightly sand down the model after brush painting the different collours.It gets rid of the worst of the joint line between paints.

Just do it VERY carefully as not to go through the paint onto the model.Then you can put on the decals and clearcoat.

Come on post some pix, you have nothing to loose.

T

[Guest]

Mate we all mess up planes in the start....................infact I still regularly do so :-).A good tip I picked up ,might even have been here ,is to lightly sand down the model after brush painting the different collours.It gets rid of the worst of the joint line between paints.

Just do it VERY carefully as not to go through the paint onto the model.Then you can put on the decals and clearcoat.

Come on post some pix, you have nothing to loose.

T

one thing is to mess up sometimes, and another thing is just to make it complete mess out of it lol. I am going to post some snaps after i polished it a little bit following your advice.

Working on Revel`s MiG-3 kit, seems to be poorer quality than Airfix models i made. Parts don't line up, quite soft bendy parts, not impressed by Revel at all, i hope other kits are better, i quite fancy making JU-52 and only model i found is by Revel.

[Gern]

Hi there and welcome to the forum.

I just wanted to say don't give up on Revell just 'cos one kit you have tried has problems. Some of their older kits do suffer from fit problems and flash etc due to old moulds.

Have a look at their new(ish) 1/32 Ju 88. I've just bought one and it looks incredible in the box. It was also voted Kit of the Year on another forum. I also have one of their Piper Cubs in 1/32 and the fit on that is just perfect.

Just my 2p worth.

Gern

[Guest]

Hi Gern

Is that cub kit the # 04208?

I have been looking for one here in S.A. but allas I cant find one.I would lkie to modify it slightly inorder to look like my full size L-18 super cub I fly.See pic.

Glad to hear that the parts fit well, with all the glass on it hiding mistakes will be hard I recon.

I have had good quality and bad quality from some kit makers.I realy like Academy, but the last PBY5 was also soft and bendy. Revelle's 1/32 Alloette 2 was difficult to get the tailboom to be "untwisted"

The fit on my 1/72 airfix seaking was so bad that my little one is now playing with it!Yet some of their other stuff looks nice, so it seems to be luck of the draw!

I Have had only good luck with Italeri's Mb323 and Grippen, but for that you pay slightly more.

The quality on Italeri's T-6 harvard looks very nice and clear.Can't wait to get started on that one.

Sorry for the hijack.

Theuns

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[ATTACH]20220.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Hi there and welcome to the forum.I just wanted to say don't give up on Revell just 'cos one kit you have tried has problems. Some of their older kits do suffer from fit problems and flash etc due to old moulds.

Have a look at their new(ish) 1/32 Ju 88. I've just bought one and it looks incredible in the box. It was also voted Kit of the Year on another forum. I also have one of their Piper Cubs in 1/32 and the fit on that is just perfect.

Just my 2p worth.

Gern

I have been reading on the net about various manufacturers, it is a fact that one manufacturer can have very good and very bad kits, i suppose its now just a matter of choosing which kit get from who, there is reasonable amount of reviews available.

I am concentrating at the moment on early and cold war jet age. I will stick to 1/48 scale, i find 1/72 tad too small.

If anyone can recommend good kits in these catogories i will appreciate.

I will write review of MiG 21 i am starting on this weekend as i go along

[Guest]

Was that Impala really brush-painted Theuns? That's very very good! Better than I could manage with an AB methinks!

Patrick