MiG 29A - Revell+Academy+ 1/144

[FlyingLow]

This is my first WIP on ARC. I am building this as part of a group build on another forum and since the project turned out to be anything else but easy and quick OOB.

It also puts to rest the myth that all 144 builds are matter of few days - I just can;t let it go without complicating it

Short history. I first purchased Academy kit and hoped for quick build. After opening the box it looked promising but somehow didn't look right. I didn't spend much time but got another kit, this time Revell since I had very good experience with their 144 kits. The disapointment was complete. Ok let's document the above statements:

Box art is nice and promising:

It is very suspicous that both kits are extremely similar, unfortunately that means that also errors are the same :blink:

White plastic is Revell, gray is Academy. At first glance it is clear that both kits have too short "nose". The panels on Revell kit seem a little crisper but it does not come with cockpit. Academy has very basic cockpit and seat.

Wings are identical:

Horizontal stabilizers as well:

How all that compares to actual plane?

The width and general outline of fuselage is quite OK, a little nos job and a little stretching on the sides of the engines should do:

Now the wings and stabilizers are total disaster. I have no idea where did they get references when they designed those. Clearly they were copying from each other because it is just impossible they would both make same errors on their own:

So decision had to be made, do I go for serious conversion or sitch to another scale. Since I couldn't pass on such a challenge I decided for the later.

I am not aware of any other Mig 29 kit in 1/144 so I hope this will be interesting for somebody...

[FlyingLow]

The first step was to scratch build the wings and horizontal stabilizers.

I only had 0.5 mm (0.20") styren so I had to laminate it. Four layers for wings and two for stabilizers.

While that was drying I cut the mask:

and outlined the wings:

After some cuting and rough sanding the shape was ready.

I am of course not 100% relying on blueprints but am also comparing to photos:

Another one:

[FlyingLow]

Since I am movin these posts from another forum I can do a little fast Forward.

Tools for shaping wing profile:

After couple of hours:

Nose job was faster than expected. I used the original Revell nose, filled it with lead and the cut around 10 styren circles and glued them on. After overnight drying I put everything into electric drill and sanded to shape:

Then followed a big decision, do I also correct the fuselage length or hope it will look OK. I was thinking that since I am already making such significant changes I better go all the way, so here I cut the Revell fuselage to half and inserted part from Academy:

the most challenign will of course be to make center bulge smooth or at least to make it appear nice and straight.

[Kingoalie]

You're off to a great start! I will be watching this. Have you thought about what markings you'll put on it? How about a Slovakian digital scheme:

[FlyingLow]

Thanks John. This is terrific looking scheme, I am just not sure how to achieve it in 1/144.

I haven't decided on the yet, I was thinking of doing the standard Soviet scheme from the late 80s.

[sv51macross]

I can get the Revell one for, like, $3 at the LHS. This is such a cool project, good luck this!

A little comment though, it seems that the front and rear sweep are close enough so that one could just split the wing and widen its chord.

But still, scratchbuilding the wings and lengthening the fuselage, it's really looking good!

Edited January 11, 2009 by sv51macross

[limyc]

You're off to a great start! I will be watching this. Have you thought about what markings you'll put on it? How about a Slovakian digital scheme:

that scheme looks ggreat, but it would be a pain to mask though

[Kingoalie]

We need it in decals :P After, of course, FlyingLow creates resin copies of his work :)

Edited January 12, 2009 by John King

[ChernayaAkula]

This is some amazing craftsmanship at work here, guys! We'd better pay attention! Might as well learn a thing or two.

Seriously amazing work! :)

What about the general cockpit area? Maybe it was down to the nose being way too short (didn't notice that before), but the area generally looks too fat on other builds.

[FlyingLow]

Thanks for the encouragement. So far it went pretty fast but I expect slowdown now that I am starting with all small details and precise sanding, scribings, etc.

During the Weekend I was able to stretch bottom part of the fuselage, Iscratch built the wheel wells (both models have just hole into the whole fuselage), I was able to fit the cockpit floor from Academy kit into Revell, and at last glued both parts of fuselage together. Fit is OK, just couple of small seams that were filled with pieces of styren and liquid putty.

The last major part of construction was adding nose to the fuselage, I think now it is finally starting to look like a MiG. Fit is pretty good, just some minor puttying and blending in still needs to be done and the basic shape will be finished.

Couple of photos:

After those pictures were taken I already engraved the stabilizers and did some more sanding.

[FlyingLow]

John, you really intrigued me with that scheme. I am able to make custom decals on color laser but am not sure how well I can match the colors. I will need to experiment a little bit, but for that I have couple of questions:

1. What are the visible changes to these birds after overhaul?

2. what are the colors used (pereferably in FS)?

[Sebastijan]

most noticable external difference is a slight hump with wide black antenna just behind the cockpit and "bird-slicer" IFF antenna in front of the pit - both can be seen clearly on the above pic ;)

[FlyingLow]

Hvala Sebastjan!

I played a little bit and it is fairly easy to design decals for this thing. It took me perhaps 15 minutes to "copy" design for the right stabilizer from the above photo:

The remaining questions is how to match colors and reduce the little dots from which the printout is made. Perhaps inkjet might be even better than laser, there are also bunch of other settings I can play with.

Edited January 13, 2009 by FlyingLow

[Aggressor Supporter]

Your little Fulcrum guys are looking good.

[ChristopherC]

Wow! Really neat, precise work there. Did you use any tricks to shape the wings so uniformly, or just lots of care? Do you plan to scribe in the panel lines? I always seem to have lots of trouble scribing uniformly on plastic card.

Looking really good!

Chris

[Kingoalie]

I wouldn't think that in such a small scale, that you would have to worry about the pixels when you print the decals.

[FlyingLow]

It was pretty busy week at work but I was still able to make some progress .

Next step was pretty simple, both Academy and Revell have rounded sections on sides from cockpit, simple straightening and thinning by sanding is enough, the picture below shows how it should be:

I first tested panel engraving on horizontal stabilizers and after a light coat of Mr. Surfacer I got pretty good idea how the rest of engraving will go. I used the smallest pin I could find. Because the pin actually pushes plastic to sides and does not remove material it requires few repeats of sanding and cleaning the grooves. I have at least one more sanding to do.

I had some problems on the wings. It seems that layers of styren didn't bond too well so when cuting the panels the layers separated in couple of places. But nothing some CA and sanding couldn't fix.

Current state of the fuselage from top:

And bottom:

Air intakes are built from scratch, glued to the model and roughly sanded. Some more sanding and blending in si required but they already look better than original ones from the kit.

ChristoperC, no there are no special tricks just careful sanding. To achieve flat surface I started with rough sandpaper on a piece of glass and then finished it of with several grades of sanding sticks. I had some problems engraving on main wings but generally pretty smooth sailing so far.

[FlyingLow]

I am slowly but surely moving forward.

I am finished with scribing wings, here photo of upper side:

And bottom:

Engine nozzles and all the plating will need to be scratched but before I glue on vertical stabilizer I better prepare:

There will be a lot of work and handling the model so I made sure to have solid bond between wings and fuselage:

At the end I was experimenting a little bit with materials for the nozzles. Styren didn't work too well, then I tried with aluminum from the Pepsi can and it seems promising. Parts on the picture of course are not final pieces but just for test:

I made so many surgical procedures on this tiny thing I am not sure anymore where the surface is nice and smooth and where not. I think it will soon be time for some primer to reveal any problem areas. After that I can start with details.

[FlyingLow]

Mr. Surfacer sat down nicely. Surface is quite nice but there will still be quite some fixing and polishing.

Ok John, you win. Ever since you teased me with the Slovakian digital scheme I can't get it out of my head, so I will attemp to make it. If it doesn't work I can still repaint it with something easier.

Of course in this scale masking is out of the question so I experimented a little bit. First I compared the output from InkJet vs. Color laser.

Here is InkJet printout:

And here LaserJet:

Of course both pictures are zoomed but it is pretty clear that color laser is actually too precise and the color raster too crisp. InkJet droplets blend and mix much nicer and is therefore more appropriate for printing decals. Of course with naked eyes that is not soo clear but I still decided to print my delac with InkJet.

[Kingoalie]

WOW this is one great build! You're making great progress!

^_^

[FlyingLow]

Thanks John, I am glad you like it, especially because you are responsible for the schema :D

This week it was time to experiment with making decals for the "digital" scheme. First step of course was to mix the base - the lightest gray. I ended up mixing it from white, light ghost gray and few drops of light blue.

Next task was to copy patterns for both horizontal stabilizers. To make resizing and adjusting possible software for vector drawing is required. I used fee program called Inkscape, which proved to be more than suitable.

After I copied the pattern from numerous photographs available on the net I had to resize it to fit. It turned out that single square in 144 scale is about 0.77 mm by 0.77 mm. Next step was to figure out colors. In theory it should be simple, just pick the color from one of the photos and use in drawing program, print and apply. Unfortunately there are many factors that complicate this process. At the end I probably printed at least 10 versions on paper before I was satisfied. I am sure the tones are not 100% correct but they look good enough to me.

I couldn't use much better color laser because of the reasons explained last time so I printed decals on my trusted old HP photosmart 7150. I had some testors decal paper already at home:

Becasue I wanted to test decals on some scrap plastic I printed three copies:

Here they are after applying:

I am pretty pleased with result so I will go forward and finish this model as Slovakian MiG 29AS cith number 0921. Next are all the tiny parts from antennas, cockpit, wheels, etc...

[Sebastijan]

Great work! Can't wait to see her in full camo :)

[ST0RM]

It amazes that you have gone through all of the "trouble" for a 1/144 kit, as most would not do the same for one in a larger scale . I applaud your work as a fellow 1/144 builder.

-S

[Berkut]

Dude, you have a lot of guts! Not only you cut up a tiny model (i have the academy kit) and scratched wings and nose, but you also made decals for a complex scheme, in 1/144!

[Kingoalie]

You are doing some amazing work! I'm looking forward to the next update!