1/72 Hasegawa MiG-29 Fulcrum 

by Tamás Skriba

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The MiG-29 has been in service with the Hungarian Air Force since 1993.  Hungary received 22 MiG-29B Type 9.12 single seater and 6 MiG-29UB trainers.  They replaced the MiG-21 in Kecskemét by the 59th Szentgyörgyi Dezső Tactical Fighter Wing. In 2003.  The aircraft where painted to the "NATO-standard" colours.  Since I planned to build it with Hungarian markings.  Last year I found this old Hasegawa kit (E11, MiG-29 Fulcrum Farnborough with weapons) in a shop.  I think that the kit was made soon after the first public appearance of the jet.  Maybe this is the reason why some parts and details are not correct (the cockpit is very poor, the centerline fuel tank is totally different, and so on).  To tell the truth, the kits scale is not an exactly 1/72.

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I started with the cockpit.  I wanted to build it with an open canopy but because of the poor shape of the inside I used accessories from Aries.  It contains foto etched and resin parts, the full cockpit with the K-36 seat, and also the two electronic bays on the side (it is beautiful!).  The only problem was that it was made for the Italeri kit, so I had to carve a lot on the fuselage.  I opened the brakes and added different antennas.  The fuel tank also needed a lot of work. 

For the painting I used a lot of pictures from the original planes.  The decals are from HAD.  It contains a lot of small stencils and detailed instructions.  The overall quality of the decals is very good, but I think that the black used by the numbers is a little bit to dark. 

The armament in the kit contains 4xR60, 2xR-27 (1 radar and 1 infra guided, but this assimetrical using is not typical), and the centerline fuel tank.  On the pictures I have seen the Hungarian Fulcrums are flying with R-27 or with R-73 missiles.  The R-60 was used only by live firing exercises (in Poland), but on some pictures the missile rails for the R-60 is also mounted (mostly on the UBs).  To the fully armed plane I used the R-73s and their rail from a Su-27 kit, the rest of the missiles are out of the box.

Tamás 

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Photos and text © by Tamás Skriba