The RPM Wing

 


The wing is rather good, with well-detailed--even if a bit too flat--undercarriage wells, and a recessed heat exchanger vane.
I had to rebuild the trim plate (on the left wing only).

 
The navigation lights on the wing had the external clear coloured cover; one can choose to paint them (dark red, left; blue-green, right), but I have found that scratchbuilding clear parts and painting them with clear red and blue-green could give a more realistic effect.

The landing light on the left wing could be rebuilt with clear plastic; note that the transparent profile is not the rectangular panel engraved on the wing, but it’s internal to it; it’s rounded on the upper part, and squared on the lower part.
To reproduce this detail I have:
  • thermoformed a transparent panel on the wing leading edge (in a position near the wing end, to compensate for the thickness of clear plastic),
  • cut a rectangular shape, as the panel lines indicate;
  • made a rectangular hole in the wing and thinned the interior of the panel;
  • painted the recess black, and added a 2 mm car light
  • attached the transparent piece with Clear-fix,
  • masked the shape of the winow;
  • painted with blue-grey first;
  • then painted with exterior colours.
A good result, even if this work could be more rewarding on a 1/48 kit.


 
Before joining the wing to the fuselage, we have to close with some filler and plasticard the wing root air intakes; you have to add a plate simulating a net filter about 2 mm after the inlet.

The air intakes were slightly reshaped with the addition of a small plasticard triangle on the upper lip; further reshaping must be done after joining to the fuselage.

Before joining the wing to the fuselage, add a 0.2 mm thick plate on the contact surface between the wing and fuselage near the end of the fairings to improve the final alignment of the ventral surfaces.


The pitot tube is badly moulded and must be scratchbuilt using the kit's one as a guide. 


If one wants to cut the flaps to make them open, these drawings could be useful.



 The interior color looks the light blue-green interior primer.

The Part photoetched sheet has pieces to make the flaps down.
 
Back to the MiG-3 Building
Back to MiG-3 Main