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1/32 scale MiG 3 build
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Author Topic: 1/32 scale MiG 3 build  (Read 27136 times)
Spitfire
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« on: January 22, 2015, 07:47:14 PM »

After a very frustrating time building an MDC 1/32 scale Hawker Typhoon resin kit I wanted to build a modern plastic kit for a change. I also wanted to build a Soviet WW2 aircraft as they are much neglected but look great, so for my next build I picked the Trumpeter MiG 3.
This will be a very basic build using what is in the box without worrying too much about the kits faults, with only a couple of aftermarket items.
Before I started this one I wanted to nail down the colours, the aircraft will be in green and black upper surfaces with Blue under surfaces. But which colours?
The answer I got from Massimo was that this particular aircraft looks as if it was painted with AMT- 4 and AMT- 6 on the top and the older AII Blue colours on the undersides.
See here for the discussion
http://sovietwarplanes.com/board/index.php?topic=1904.0

I have bought a selection of AKAN paints (enamels) but their formula makes them very smelly and I could not use them in the house, and no, I do not use acrylics.

So I matched up the AKAN paints with easy to find model paints that have a more acceptable smell.

The only reference books that I have on the MiG 3 are the following:
MMP MiG-1/MiG-3 (Massimo Tessitori)
Red Star Volume 13, Mikoyan?s Piston Engined Fighters (Yefim Gordon and Keith Dexter.
Here is the box art, note that the windscreen is accurate in the picture.

and here is what is in the box




More soon

Dennis
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Spitfire
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« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2015, 07:51:01 PM »

More box contents






More to come
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Spitfire
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« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2015, 07:54:07 PM »

After market parts

Paint masks



Cheers

Dennis
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Massimo Tessitori
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« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2015, 09:44:23 AM »

Hi Dennis,
I've this kit still to build, a French detail set (I don't remember its firm) and some Hungarian made decals sheet. I wonder if I will ever build it.
I think that the most important thing to modify is the spinner, it's too rounded as it is. I wonder why nearly all Il-2s and MiG-3s kits have the same error on their spinner.
Regards
Massimo
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Spitfire
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« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2015, 01:01:55 PM »

Thanks Massimo I will have a look at the spinner and see what can be done, I have not got that far yet so there is still time.


Cheers

Dennis
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Spitfire
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Posts: 145


« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2015, 01:11:16 PM »

And on with the build, I have cheated here as I am quite a bit into the build but held back on posting in case I failed !
So on with the build:

I Started the build as I usually do by cutting the cockpit parts from the sprues and mounted them in clips or onto plastic labels using Blu Tac or Tamiya tape ready for painting.
I decided on the following colours for the cockpit

Cockpit floor - A-14
Rear Fuselage interior ? Bare wood
Radio shelf - Bare wood shelf with Olive green surround.
Fuselage tubing ? A-14
Fuselage sides - blue
Instrument panel ? Photos show a light colour (AE-9)
Seat Back - Olive Green
Seat pan - A-14
Control column ? A-14
Canopy framing, internal ? A-14
Headrest ? Brown
Switch boxes ? Black
Radio boxes ? A-14
Using the following model paints
A -14, Humbrol H140
Olive Green ? Humbrol 150 or 226
Blue -  MM2126 and Humbrol 65
Aluminium ? Humbrol H56 Aluminium
AE-9, FS 25630,  Humbrol 147 or for a Satin finish 196






Cheers

Dennis
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Spitfire
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Posts: 145


« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2015, 01:16:55 PM »

More cockpit components


The instrument panel was then detailed using a mixture of MDC and Airscale decals and placards, there are no Russian ones available so I used a mix of RAF, Luftwaffe and US decals.
I used the photos and diagrams in my MiG 1/3 book to choose the instrument dials picking ones that looked the closest was the best that I could do, some dials and placards were also place on the cockpit side wall boxes.
I was not happy with the artificial horizon instrument decal that I had used so I changed it to a Luftwaffe one from MDC which looked more like the one in the photos.

More details on the sidewall frames

The undercarriage came next, I decided to paint the main undercarriage oleos blue, for this I used Humbrol 65, the legs appear to have had gators so these were painted with H33 Matt Black.
The tail wheel struts and the tail wheel hub were painted Humbrol 65. The main wheel tyres were assembled and painted with Humbrol 67, while this paint was out the tail wheel tyre was also painted.
The wheel hubs and the plate behind the spinner were painted with Humbrol 150.

Cheers

Dennis
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Spitfire
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Posts: 145


« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2015, 01:23:52 PM »

And finally the cockpit tub coming together,

I did buy a Quickboost seat which although looking very nice did not have a very secure means of attaching the seat back to the seat base, as the kit will be handled quite a bit (sanding seams etc) I went with the more sturdy kit seat. I made a new padded section for the it as the kit one looked nothing like the real thing, I cut two holes in this for the shoulder straps. This and the headrest were then painted to simulate brown leather with Humbrol 133 satin brown. The seatbelts were bodged together from bits and pieces of Eduard RAF Sutton harness parts using a picture in the Mig-1/Mig-3 book.
The seatback was a green colour, for this I used Humbrol 226 Matt interior green.
And the side walls of the cockpit tub, I know in reality this is not really accurate but should look acceptable.


and the completed "tub".


Cheers

Dennis
« Last Edit: January 23, 2015, 01:26:06 PM by Spitfire » Logged
Spitfire
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Posts: 145


« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2015, 02:27:06 PM »

I then started to assemble the flaps, ailerons and tail planes using the rod and PE hinges, this went fine and was not as hard a job as some reviews make out.

Attention then turned to the rockets, after reading some information on this site I went for a green nose and fins with a black body and green rocket rails, for the green I used Humbrol 150, the black used was Humbrol 85 satin coal black.

Here's some of the completed parts


The wings were next to receive some attention, the flaps and ailerons were glued into the lower wing section using the PE hinges, this was a three handed job, but eventually they all went in fine.
The top sections of the wings were then added, they were also a good fit, and the completed wings were left on the shelf overnight for the CA to cure fully.


Cheers

Dennis
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Spitfire
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Posts: 145


« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2015, 02:32:28 PM »

Test fitting of the cockpit tub in the fuselage showed a very good fit, most impressive Mr Trumpeter. Just to make sure all was well the nose top sections were cut from their sprues and test fitted with the cockpit installed, again this was a good fit.
The tail wheel parts were test fitted in the fuselage and the fit was good though the assembly is a bit fragile.
The cockpit tub was fitted into the fuselage along with the radio shelf and tail wheel, fitting the latter was very fiddley but eventually it all went in. The fuselage was then glued closed and left on the shelf for the CA to go off fully.
I did notice that the clear part of the gun sight had vanished during the fuselage closing , this was the third one I had lost, the original kit part disappeared into the ether after pinging out of my tweezers, followed by a replacement I had made from clear plastic sheet. Another was made and attached to the gun sight.




Next up was the wings air intakes, these fitted well but with a slight lip, before sanding this down I used a very fine drill to deepen the ?rivet? detail.

The leading edge slats were cut from the sprue and cleaned up, I managed to snap one during this process and had to glue it back together very carefully. After some trimming the slats were successfully fitted, and some clean up taken care of.

Cheers

Dennis
« Last Edit: January 23, 2015, 02:38:18 PM by Spitfire » Logged
Spitfire
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Posts: 145


« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2015, 02:41:17 PM »

Then I came to the part when a kit build that can turn into a disaster, joining the wings and fuselage, test fitting showed a good match up so I went ahead and applied the CA.
The tail planes were test fitted and as there was only a very small gap visible they were glued in place.
After the CA had been allowed to cure I ended up with some very thin gaps to be filled. They were all on panel lines, as I wanted to fill the gaps but leave the lines I decided to fill them with Mr Surfacer 1200. I applied the Mr Surfacer with a toothpick and then ran a cotton bud soaked in Mr Color thinner along the joint, and hey presto I had a filled gap but with the panel line still showing. A few of the indented rivets were filled in the process but the ones most visible were repaired with a very fine drill bit.





Cheers

Dennis
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Spitfire
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Posts: 145


« Reply #11 on: January 23, 2015, 02:47:50 PM »

While the main part of the airframe was setting I started work on the clear parts, they were cut from their sprues, cleaned up and dipped in Kleer. to keep the dust away they were then put inside my lettuce saver.


Once dry they were masked off with the masks that came with the Montex set.

The under fuselage air intake was then fitted, this was a snug fit that did not need any filler at all.
The Quickboost exhausts were detached from their casting block and cleaned up, a test fit showed a nice fit so they were made ready for painting and put to one side as I usually fit exhausts once the main painting is done.
As I wanted the rudder to be detachable to enable me to detach the rudder to either apply a decal or paint on the star as it overlaps the rudder and fin I omitted the Trumpeter PE hinges when I glued the two halves together. I made up some plastic card hinges to attach it after the markings have been applied.
I painted the area above and around the radios with MM1715 interior green as this is the colour that I will be using for AMT-4.
The air inlet trunking sections on either side of the nose were attached, and again they were a nice fit.
Now that the airframe was complete it was time to paint the undersides, as ?my? MiG had the earlier paint finish rather than AMT-7 I will be using two colours on the underside to represent the different paints used for metal and wood areas. For the wood areas (AII Blue) I will use Xtracolor X601 and for the metal areas Xtracolor X602 (A18), these were good matches for the AKAN paints.


The metal sections of the undersides were masked of and the outer wing panels and underside of the rear fuselage was airbrushed with AII Blue (Xtracolor X601).

Cheers

Dennis
« Last Edit: January 23, 2015, 02:51:36 PM by Spitfire » Logged
Spitfire
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Posts: 145


« Reply #12 on: January 23, 2015, 02:53:55 PM »

This went on really well (50:50 paint/thinners at 12psi)


However I realised that I had made a mistake masking off the metal sections as when I mask off the AII blue to airbrush the A-18 I could end up with a strip of bare plastic if I made a mistake. So the masking was removed and the airbrush was loaded again and the edges of the metal parts were painted as were the ailerons that I had mistakenly masked off.
And that brings us right up to date

Cheers

Dennis

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otto
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« Reply #13 on: January 23, 2015, 04:47:41 PM »

Good and neat job, Spitfire! Grin
Trumpeter MiG-3, although not superdetailed, is rather a good kit. The only thing I don't like of it is the overdone raised detail of the control surfaces.
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Spitfire
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Posts: 145


« Reply #14 on: January 23, 2015, 05:11:23 PM »

Thank you otto, and yes the finish on the control surfaces is rather overdone, I should really have filled and sanded it to tone it done a bit.

Cheers

Dennis
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