Yaks MiG 21 Eduard 1/48 slovakian air force

[Guest]

Looking great Tony, loving it mate.

Have fun, John

[yak face]

Almost there now, Ive got the undercarriage and doors on , added some tiny knocky off bits and got the stores attached. Ive also removed the temporary canopy (fitted to save masking the cockpit , handily theres two in the kit) and fitted the resin seat. Whie looking at pictures of the actual aircraft , and also the excellent box top art , I noticed the canopy glass has a orange/brown seal at the edges so once i had removed the masking decided to attempt this . I used a fine line brush that i got in a set from Poundland ,originally intended for nail art i think, and it worked great (I needed the magnifier and i held my breath till i went blue trying to keep my hand steady!) This being the weekend kit its missing some fairly prominent parts ( i already covered the U/C door linkages) and the Angle of Attack Vane on the nose and the 'Odd Rods' IFF aerials under the nose and on top of the fin are not included in the kit. I made these from plastic card and brass rod respectively. I also had to add the static dump wicks on the rear edge of the wings, fin and elevators , using toothbrush bristles (29p soft kiddies brush -the bristles are thinner)I used one of these for the canopy stay too as the kit one was a bit overscale .
I also managed with a lot of sweating to assemble the turned brass pitot complete with four TINY brass fins , this will be the last thing to be fitted then its ready for photographing and its done , only three days late . heres a few pics , cheers tony[ATTACH]272523[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]272524[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]272525[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]272526[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]272527[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]272528[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]272529[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]272530[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]272531[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]272532[/ATTACH]

[papa 695]

Fantastic work so far Tony

[Guest]

I love the paintwork

[yak face]

DISASTER! In my haste to start taking photos of the completed model Ive had an ' incident'! The brass pitot was assembled ,painted and fitted , the joint having a tiny touch up of black paint .This was still glossy while wet and wanting to get on with taking the completed shots I held it in front of the halogen heater to dry it ---OH ! Flaming Heck ! (well the initial letters are the same) I melted the top of the nose and the nose ring. What a Silly Billy (again ,initial letters are the same) , If i could kick myself in the arse I would take a great big swing. I prised off the slightly deformed nose ring and VERY carefully sanded the top of the nose, which I have now filled. Whether I can sand and touch up this and rescue the build remains to be seen, more info later , yours sheepishly tony

[Guest]

Oh good grief You need to rescue it, it looks stunning.

[yak face]

[ATTACH]272648[/ATTACH] Heres the damage half way through repair, if we just keep this to ourselves i dont think anyone will notice

[rickoshea52]

[ATTACH]272648[/ATTACH] Heres the damage half way through repair, if we just keep this to ourselves i dont think anyone will notice

Oh no! No Mikey.

[Guest]

Drat & blast! I'm sure you'll fix it Tony, better than I'll fix mine after the cat knocked it off the table... and then I stepped on it, not knowing it was there

[yak face]

Drat & blast! I'm sure you'll fix it Tony, better than I'll fix mine after the cat knocked it off the table... and then I stepped on it, not knowing it was there

The mig or the cat!?

[Guest]

The mig or the cat!?

The MiG.. the cat had scarpered from the scene!

[yak face]

At least you had someone else to blame , mine was my own doing!!o_O

[papa 695]

Keep off the wine gums Tony.
Sorry to hear about the disaster, but at least you kept a COOL head, and you can see the LIGHT at the end of the tunnel.

[flyjoe180]

Looks repairable Tony, look forward to the repair and final reveal.

[yak face]

Well ive been having a think about the melted nose ring . I was going to put it back on but it would have niggled me. So i had a look in the spares box and look what i found. Its an empty cotton bobbin , the sort of thing my missus says' what are you saving that for?' Anyway it just so happens the end of this bobbin is EXACTLY the same diameter as the nose ring so off i went . Ive cut off the end portion and sanded it to the right depth, it just needs a slight chamfer sanding and its ready for painting. I think itll look 100% better than trying to re-use the deformed original . And just like an episode of He-Man theres a moral at the end of this tale , and that is dont throw anything away if you think it might someday be useful!
cheers , Prince Adam of Eternia