Mig-29 Fulcrum 9-12 late build log

 

I'm building almost out of the box for this one, just the Quinta Studios cockpit decals and aftermarket Eritrean Air Force decals as extras. 

This will be the intended victim! 

May as well get the cockpit out of the way first. (I don't like painting cockpits!) 

I have jumped ahead to the bit of the build that I knew was going to be an issue. The fit of the engine pods is notoriously bad (and is the main reason why I kept putting off building this kit) 

I did spend some time dry fitting, trimming and sanding and more dry fitting these parts before deciding getting a perfect fit was a lost cause and going for the glue.  

I realised that I might spend days trying to get them to fit and still fail so opted for the more drastic filler and sanding route!
The inside of those intakes is a horror story too, best just cover them up!! 

Gaps everywhere! I don't have the time or the patience to keep trimming and testing so out with the filler. 

I'm going to use FOD covers on the intakes (and exhausts) so just slapped the filler over the engine pod joints. I'm not going to fit the complete engines either. 

The centreline drop tank will help to hide some of the area 

First round of filler smoothed off 

A quick blast of Mr Surfacer 1000 straight from the rattle can to show where I need to add more filler. 

That's good enough for me.  

I haven't been too fussy about the area between the engine pods as the drop tank will fill that area and cover it all anyway. 

The cockpit tub is installed into the top fuselage part 

I used a (left over from a previous build) Quinta Studios 3D decal set for the seat straps 

I also used another Quinta Studios 3D decal set for the cockpit consoles 

 

 

The fuselage halves went together without any problems or nasty joints 

 

The fins attach to the outside of the fuselage parts positively but they leave a bit of a gap on the insides that needs filling 

Care is needed when joining the top and bottom parts to get a decent join at the wingtips 

The radome did need a little filler but it lined up quite nicely without any step at the join. 

I did rescribe around the radome joint 

Wheel bays are painted and given a dirty wash 

The flare extensions need a bit of work  

The flare extensions need a lot of work in fact! 

After all the tidying up it was time for the first primer coat. Mr Surfacer 1000 straight from the rattle can and then flatted back with some 1500 grit 

Everything looks acceptable so onto the black for the balck basing 

Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black airbrushed on. Once it had dried off for a few hours I buffed it with some 2500 grit to make sure it was uniformly smooth. 

The first round of pre-shading with a highly thinned flat white 

 

 

The next stages were to fill in the gaps with a light blue, an olive green and a yellow/green 

 

The underside was left darker  

 

I'm happy with the way that has turned out. 

The underside painted with MRP paints thinned with their own thinners 

It's the same colour as the underside for the lighter of the two tone camo 

 

 

I'll leave that to fully cure before starting the light grey/green colour 

The ResKit exhaust cans have been painted 

 

I painted the grey/green colour freehand  

This is the first time I have used these colours from MRP so I don't know if they are accurate or not. I'm no expert on Russian aircraft. 

I must admit that I expected the grey to be slightly darker 

I will attempt to fade the colours with oils later. That African sun would have bleached the real things pretty quickly I guess?