Sovietwarplanes

I've got the paint on and am waiting for the tail numbers to arrive from Joseph Osborn of Fireball Modelworks. I designed them on my computer from Massimo's profile; he's printing them.

It looks, both from the profile and from photos of other 401 aircraft, that the red stars had no black outlines. Is this correct? About when did the change-over of styles occur?

Pip

Red stars on MiGs that were made before the GPW had black outlines!

(http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/9744/mig3wingjt4.jpg)

Very nice work! I just finished the Trumpeter MiG-3 Late Version (http://agapemodels.com/2013/03/06/build-report-dual-mig-3-build-pt-i-trumpeters-148-mig-3-late-version/) myself, as well as the Ark Models (ICM) kit (http://agapemodels.com/2013/03/04/build-report-ark-models-148-mig-3-ace-aleksandr-pokryshkin/) of the same airplane. I enjoyed both, but the Trumpeter was a much more pleasant build.

Your work looks great!

Thanks, Konstantin. What would be your opinion on the plane in question?

Pip

Thanks, Jon. I too built the ICM kit years ago, and actually thought it went together better than I was expecting given the complex wing-fuselage assembly. The Trumpeter kit is indeed more refined, but of course not without problems. I used an Eduard PE set to help the cockpit, filled and smoothed the skeletal control surfaces, and am presently trying to get the exhaust area truer to the early version.

Pip

Looks great - nice job of showing the distinction between AIIZ and A-19 paints.

John

Thanks, John. I used Model Master 34079 straight up for the AII Z, and half-and-half 34102-334151 for the A-19. It only works because the Model Master colors aren't particularly accurate representations of those FS numbers.

I'm still hoping for opinions on the stars -- black outlines or no outlines?

Pip

I suggest to choose stars with black outlines for the planes with the prewar finish.
Regards
Massimo

Black outline was standard from May 1940 to June 1941.  From summer 1941 black outline was supposed to disappear from VVS planes.
Was the plane in question made before June/July 1941?  If yes, stars had black outline.

Thanks, Massimo and Konstantin. Black outlines it is!

Pip

On another related topic, has anybody else noticed that the radio mast in the Trumpeter kit is drastically short? 9 mm compared to 18 mm in the ICM kit.

Nice. :D
Prints Fireball Modelworks every decals you prefer?

Absolutely. Fireball is Joseph Osborn, who lives in Florida. I'm always happy to recommend him. He does really nice work with his ALPS printer, and his rates are very reasonable. $5.00 including postage for the "36" sheet. I do the designs in Illustrator or InDesign, translate them to EPS format, and email them directly to him.

http://www.fireballmodels.info/
Contact and other information is at the page.
Pip

Pip, lower part of the rudder should be light blue.  This is according to the Manuel and according to Massimo's profile:

(http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/mig3/White36.jpg)

Right you are. Missed that, thanks.
Pip

Thanks.
Put that one in my favourites. :D
That's not expensive. :D

Since I last posted, the decals arrived from Fireball Modelworks. As usual, they went down beautifully. Here she is as of this evening. Incidentally, after looking at a bunch of photos at Massimo's MiG section, I've concluded that what looks like a black area sweeping down to the wing trailing edge root is actually an optical illusion caused by exhaust streaking that's lighter than the green. I attempted to replicate that effect. Pip

[picture deleted]

Very nice work! You've done an excellent job on that one.

Looks very nice, Pip!

Regards,

Jason

Very nice.  :D
And thanks to you I've discovered Fireball Modelworks. :D

Hi Seawinder,
very nice work so far. Decals looks very good, I have to chceck their web page. Thanks for link  ;)
However, are you sure with main wheel discs painted light blue instead of dark green?

regards,
     66misos

Those decals almost look handpainted...
Marvelous!

Thanks for the comments, folks. I appreciate them.

66misos: No, I'm not sure about the color of the wheel hubs. I based that decision on the walkaround photos of the plane restored by Aviarestoration. I also followed their example for cockpit colors, right or wrong. Period photographs are rather inconclusive since the visible hubs are always in shadow. However, in the photo of White 36 (taken from the video), there seems to be just a splash of a lighter color visible; and the in-air photo of White 19 (also 401 IAP) in the early-war solid color section, it looks as if the hubs are a lighter color. However, if there's solid evidence for green as the standard hub color, I could change it without too much difficulty.

warhawk: In a sense the 36 was hand drawn since I duplicated Massimo's profile in Illustrator. Incidentally, I ended up with an extra set of those decals, so if anybody is wanting to do White 36, I'll be happy to mail them to you.

I'll post some pics of the finished model. Should I do that here or in the General Modeling section? I've got to wait for delivery of another copy of the kit -- I managed to lose the leading edge landing light lens inside the wing (DOH!).

Pip

Okay, I repainted the wheel hubs green based on Misos's comment and Massimo's post to another MiG thread. I also repainted the seat bottom aluminum based on KL's post to the same thread. The cockpit interior will remain light blue. If/when I do another MiG-3, I'll use A-14. The whole cockpit color issue hasn't been resolved to my satisfaction anyway, so I don't think it's 100% that I got it wrong.

I'm also wondering about the two circular ports on the outboard section of each wing. They're clearly metal, so should they be painted A-19 even though they're surrounded by AII Green?

Pip

Where did I say the seat was painted alluminium?  ???
Seat was made of duralluminium;  duralluminium was always painted with oil paints to prevent corrosion.  A-14 steel gray was standard cockpit paint so the sat was painted gray (confirmed on wreck in Zadorozhni Museum).

Oops! Guess I read that post too hastily. Oh well, I'll just repaint it.     ;)
Pip

Hi Pip,
I have doubts on the light look of the stains. The movie seem to show greyish smoke, with a dark shadow under it that could be... simply a shadow. I would go with a dark shade for the stain traces.
Regards
Massimo

Hi Massimo.
Actually, the stains were done with 36118 Gunship Gray, which is pretty dark. Here's another photo of the model in black-and-white. I think it replicates the effect that can easily be interpreted as a black nose and down-sweeping extension:

[picture deleted]

However, I'll go back and look through the photos in your gallery again.

Best,
Pip

Hi Massimo.
Check the photograph of 46 and 44:
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/mig3/silver46.html

That's the effect I was after. However, on looking at all the photos in the gallery, I think I probably overdid it somewhat, so I may well wipe it off and try again, being more subtle.

Pip