This is one of trumpeters very earliest 1/32 scale kits ,and boy does it show!The sturdy lid and tray type box contains 4 sprues in a light grey plastic,with trumpeters usual recessed panel lines and rivets,1 sprue in clear and 3 rubber tyres.The parts count for this version is about 97, there being a number of parts extra as the sprues are common to their mig 17 pf kit (the engine and cockpit sprues being common to the mig 15 and jj5 kits too).The instructions are in a fold out a5 format and are very clear ,with colour callouts referring to tamiya paints. On to the build,i started as most of us do with the cockpit.This is fairly basic but not a bad basis for extra detailing,the seat in particular needing a bit of rectifying and extra detailing as the one supplied is nearer in general shape to the seat in the mig 15.Belts were added made from wine bottle foil as there arent any 1960's soviet etched belts available from the aftermarket suppliers.The instrument panel is reasonable but benefits from a few select instrument decals,I used MDC's .Once the cockpit is done its time to close up the forward fuselage not forgetting to trap the inlet centrebody.Usefully the cannon pack under the nose is a seperate piece so i was able to cram as much lead in as i could before fixing it on,as with that tall tail you need a lot!There is the option of building the engine and having the rear fuselage detachable ,theres even a trolley to support the rear fuselage,but as the engine needed a LOT of extra detail to get it looking realistic I decided to leave it out and glue the fuselage on .Before doing this I had to fabricate a jetpipe and exhaust nozzle ,the kit doesnt supply anything other than the engine, and as the mig 17f had an afterburning exhaust nozzle I had to fabricate one from a marker pen and plastic card.While I was at it round the rear fuselage ,its necessary to add plastic card and filler to the fairing above the jet pipe,as its the wrong shape,also the airbrakes are slightly wrong ,the front bottom corner should be rounded not square ,but as i was fixing them in the closed position due to the interiors being covered in ejector pin marks,I just filled the corners and rescribed.Moving up to the tail,the rudders are way too narrow,needing about 2mm adding to their front edge and the corresponding section of the tail removing.The elevators are also incorrect,having two slots on the elevator and two pins on the tailplane.These need cutting off /filling in, so its a straight joint,also two mass balance horns need adding just inboard of the ends and a corresponding slot cut in the tailplanes.Next the wings,these are quite good except for the fit of the ailerons,which again have pins and slots which need cutting off and filling.The fit of the tail,tailplanes,wings is really very good,needing only some careful dry fitting/fettling and a tiny wipe with vallejo putty smoothed off with a wet finger to produce a nice join.Now to the single most obvious flaw with the kit,the canopy.The windscreen as supplied bears no resemblance to any windscreen on any mig 17(the screen on the pf version being different to the others) There is a horizontal profile at the top of the armoured front screen which shouldnt be there,which makes the screen too upright.There are two options-buy the squadron vacform replacement(which is also for the mig 15 kit,this has the same problem) or ,as I did, carefully cut off the windscreen,sand back the sides and stick it back on ,right up to the canopy rail.The rear of the canopy has a seperate bottom frame,but the clear part also has bottom framing on it,this needs scraping off and repolishing to look correct,also a rear view periscope needs adding to the top if the plane youre modelling had one on(some did,some didnt)Moving on , the undercarriage isnt bad apart from the mainwheels.These are terrible being too wide and devoid of any detail,the backside is even hollow!The wheels and tyres were chucked in the spares box and replaced with a pair from a hasegawa 1/32 starfighter,suitably altered by fitting a disc of plastic card to each side of the hubs,leaving just detail round the edges.The nose undercarriage and wheel arent bad just needing some spokes adding to the hollow backed wheel and some extra detailing on the leg and doors.The mainwheel doors ,however,are full of ejector pin marks on the inside,so many in fact that i elected to replace four out of the six with fabricated ones using plastic card and strip.While i was at it i added some extra wires/boxes to the wheel bays and brake lines to the main legs from brass wire and solder.Moving to the drop tanks ,the holes for the sway braces are in completely the wrong place,needing to be further inboard ,directly under themiddle wing fence,but this is easily remedied by filling the holes and drilling new ones.The last bits to be added are the cannons ,which i replaced with brass tubing and aluminium ,drilled and filed,for the big 37mm one,and the mass balance poles on both wings(note these arent hollow pitot tubes but solid weights) which i replaced with brass tube and styrene rod as i find i dont knock these off as easily as the plastic ones supplied. Time for painting,the kit offers only one decal option,being a batural metal machine of the PLAAF (chinese air force).I wanted a camouflaged version and not being able to find a russian example(my favoured tipple!) I found one for the egyptian air force in an interesting 3 colour scheme,decals for which came from the spares box and having to hand draw the arabic numerals with a permanent cd pen.
The many inaccurracies with this kit,mean anyone wanting to make an accurate mig17 will need to do a lot of kit bashing,however the fit and finish is good so a reasonable result can be obtained by just replacing the canopy for a few quid if you prefer.The reference material I used was the excellent aerofax guide and the kagero topshots booklet.The kit can be readily obtained for about £12.95 from major suppliers such as hannants etc. I would rate this kit 3 out of 5 stars -not all bad and a reasonable result can be obtained,but could be better(and the later trumpeter releases are) . Yak face.
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The many inaccurracies with this kit,mean anyone wanting to make an accurate mig17 will need to do a lot of kit bashing,however the fit and finish is good so a reasonable result can be obtained by just replacing the canopy for a few quid if you prefer.The reference material I used was the excellent aerofax guide and the kagero topshots booklet.The kit can be readily obtained for about £12.95 from major suppliers such as hannants etc. I would rate this kit 3 out of 5 stars -not all bad and a reasonable result can be obtained,but could be better(and the later trumpeter releases are) . Yak face.
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[ATTACH]19771.IPB[/ATTACH]
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[ATTACH]19774.IPB[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]19775.IPB[/ATTACH]
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