1/72 Airfix MiG-21C Fishbed

by Justin Davenport

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The MiG-21 (NATO codename “Fishbed”) was developed in the 1950’s as a Mach 2 interceptor to counter supersonic aircraft entering service in the West.  The Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau tried a swept winged and a delta winged prototype, and decided to go with the delta wing for production machines.  Production started in 1959 and over the years the MiG has been sold to practically every Soviet ally and many Third World countries, and is even in service now with major air forces such as India’s. 

The MiG was fast and flew well but had limited range and armament, and the Soviets tried to remedy these shortcomings with bigger nose cones and deeper “spines” on the fuselage carrying extra fuel and avionics.  But the Airfix MiG-21 that I built had none of those improvements; it was a MiG-21C (listed in the instructions). 

THE MODEL

The Airfix MiG-21 was originally issued in the early sixties – thanks to Bill Clark and the others who informed me of that.  The current boxing has a neat painting of a Soviet MiG streaking through a blue sky with the pilot wearing a yellow helmet (or is that helmet really supposed to be white but somehow has a yellow tint?).  The kit has decals for three aircraft: a Soviet AF, a Finnish AF, and a Czech AF bird.  However, all 3 aircraft use the same paint scheme, in other words, you can use any color you want to paint the plane as long as it’s silver!!!  The kit is very basic; it has raised panel lines, and all you have for armament is 2 AA-2 Atoll missiles as well as a fuel tank.  Also there is no detail in the cockpit, all you have is a seat and a pilot figure.  In other words, a nice simple basic kit that doesn’t take very long to make.

THE CONSTRUCTION 

When the Out of the Box challenge was laid down to ARC members, I thought about which kits I could use for this.  I had originally bought the MiG-21 kit so that I could use an old Microscale MiG-21 decal sheet.  However, that decal sheet had no instructions.  And so the kit languished in my pile.  Then I thought “ah ha”….and I pressed the kit into service.  I had been wrestling with the Tomcat for so long that I needed a break from it.  And my trip to Phoenix for my youngest brother’s wedding was coming up.  Perfect timing.   The MiG was just what I needed to restore my sanity and relax

When my Grandpa and I drove down to Pinetop to the family cabin that was the perfect time to start the project.  We didn’t have access to cable or the internet there (I went to the library for that) and so there weren’t a lot of distractions.  I broke out my tools; I went to the one local hobby shop and bought two packs of Testors acrylic bottle paints (not sold under Model Master brand – one pack was military colors and the other pack was general colors) as well as Model Master RLM 25 Hellgrau, which sort of matched the bluish green cockpit color of Soviet birds, Model Master Silver, and Model Master Semi Gloss White.  I ended up using just seven bottles of paint: the three aforementioned MM paints along with Flat Black, Gloss Yellow, Dark Green, and Light Ghost Gray.  I mixed some of these colors to get, for example, flesh tones for the pilot and burnt metal for the burner can.  And I used the Gloss Yellow to paint the pilot’s helmet, simply because I like the look of that – adds a dash of color to the whole bird and I think it looks better than a white helmet.  I guess the boxtop inspired me. 

I also used a can of gray primer and Rustoleum’s Metallic spray paint for the overall finish of the MiG.  I used three brushes – one small, one medium, and one large – as well as a tube of Testors cement, a tube of Tamiya putty, a pair of scissors, Scotch tape, and two sheets of sandpaper from a Testors set.  Finally, for the pilot’s visor and the seeker heads on the Atoll missiles I dabbed a tiny glob of tube glue on them to make them gloss black and to add a little thickness to them (just a little!).  

The model was very straightforward.  The hardest and longest part of the exercise was waiting for the gray primer and the Rustoleum Metallic paint to dry in the cold air (45-50 degrees in the daytime).  I got crow’s feet at first and had to use the sandpaper to clear that up.  Anyway, I got it done on the day we left for Phoenix to go to my brother’s wedding, and I got to see the MiG again when I came back to the cabin!  (I also got to finish another simple kit that I did – the Heller 1/200th scale Caravelle, and I started another one – the R-M P-51D, I’m including a bonus shot of the Spamcan). 

Click on center image below to see larger image

Happy Modeling! 

Justin 

Reference: http://www.flug-revue.rotor.com/FRHeft/FRH9811/FR9811h.htm

Photos and text © by Justin Davenport