Nice pyjamas

A poke around under my bench recently revealed a MiG 21 in 1/32 scale. It was the Revell kit I'd bought last year. At the same time I picked up a set of Microscale decals. I had a very specific colour scheme in mind when I bought them.


What got me going in the first place was a copy of 'Fighting Colours' that I bought years ago. It was essentially a catalogue of camouflage schemes for military aircraft, but I was instantly taken with not just the imaginative paint jobs on display, but the dramatic look of this small Russian jet. I began to appreciate Russian aircraft design and became a regular builder of their aircraft models. But I am digressing in my enthusiasm...

I did some of the work on this model late last year but became too busy to continue with it. A momentary lull in work has given me the chance to pick it up again. I'd chosen the Indian Air Force scheme from the Indo-Pakistan war in 1971 - a really interesting scheme and something of a challenge.

With the build largely complete, the model was undercoated and then sprayed in US dark green. After 24 hours drying time I was able to mask up. To achieve the 'pyjamas' effect, I decided to use Blu Tac.

As you can imagine, I needed a great deal of it! It was very time consuming, but I felt that any other method would not produce the result I was after. I sat for hours rolling out long thin sausages of Blu Tac ( and then White Tac when the Blu ran out), carefully shaping them with the end of an old paint brush. Check the photo - the model in the grip of an alien face-hugger!


In spraying on the next colour I used a beige-green. This job had to be performed with great care. I needed to angle the airbrush to get in the corners - hundreds of corners - and apply it in layers to avoid rapid paint build up.

Later I carefully removed the Blu (and White) Tac. This revealed what you see in the last photo. It isn't perfect. Certain areas need a bit of attention, but it has the basics of a good job.
This MiG 21 now has its pyjamas on, I just need to sort out their fit.

Catching Up

Eons ago, when building models was still just a hobby, I used to spend two or three hours a day in my model room (single men could do that...) Now it's a job, a structured day is very important. It's a good thing I don't enjoy daytime TV, and that I enjoy a degree of motivation that some people who work from home claim hard to find.

A busy day flies by, and before I know it the day is done. What have I achieved lately to show for all this time spent at the bench? Here's a few photos....

This Do 217K is of course the Revell tooling. The parts fit is very good and it has some lovely detail. The cockpit especially is worth spending your valuable time on - and I did.


This FW 190A-4 is reasonably well known. Can you name its pilot? He was a famous commander. I was a little disappointed with this Hasegawa kit - they are keen to get as many variants as possible out of the mould, with the result that fit is poor for the nose, and wing roots. Nothing that can't be overcome though. The Eduard cockpit made quite a difference to the overall finish.


Finally, who would have thought it - a 1/48 Super Mystere. A big model, very like an F-100, and for me, my first Fonderie kit. Not a bad kit, though not without problems, as mentioned on here before. But it has some very nice features too, and the completed model is a real eye-ful!

So all those hours locked away in my room really do produce something!

Inside and Outside

A few postings ago I added some photos of a fuselage interior and asked the sharp eyed readers amongst you to guess which aircraft it is.

No-one is for saying, so here's a couple more shots - some more fuselage pictures and engine cowlings. I've chosen these particular photos because they show the problem areas I've been dealing with. Getting the engines into their cowlings (beautiful engines by the way) and the cockpit into the fuselage was a non starter.

I did not want to touch the engines, so thinning down the cowlings was the only option. With the cockpit, floors and bulkheads all had to be reduced in order to close the fuselage. To make matters more difficult, each fuselage half was a different thickness. This meant that blending the openings for the cockpit, turret and so on had to be carefully accomplished to eliminate the large step created by the mismatch.

Next up, a full rub down of all the parts and attaching all the flying surfaces.