1/48 Tamiya MiG 15 bis

by Alan Williamson

--------------------

 

Kit          Tamiya MiG-15bis 1/48

Additions    4014 Aires MiG-15bis Cockpit Set 1/48

Click on images below to see larger images

Construction

Tamiya has produced a very simple and easy kit to construct, however I thought that the cockpit lack detail. I solved the problem with the use of Aires, whom provided a very nice and well detailed cockpit. Although like most aftermarket cockpits there are some modifications to be made to the kit, in order to fit the cockpit in. Tamiya also provide a metal solid cylinder weight which is placed into the nose or to be more exact under the cockpit to keep the model sitting on all its wheels. The problem I had was installing the Aires cockpit and that of the weight, the depth of the Aires cockpit was a considerable amount to that of the kit cockpit, and Aires do not allow to much removal of the base floor of the cockpit, because to much sanding or removal of the cockpit floor and you start ending up with holes in the floor of the cockpit. But the Aires cockpit does not have enough weight to keep the model sitting on all wheels, so the kit weight is still needed. In the end to over come the drama I did what I call a cram and jam which was glue the Aires cockpit into the fuselage then proceed to join the two fuselage halves together. Once all is dry cram the weight into the bottom of the fuselage in what ever space is available. This procedure is not one I adopt as a way to construct my kits but it paid off in this situation. The rest of the kit was very straight forward to build.

 
Painting and Finish
 
The kit was painted in Model master metal cote paints with a little pastel wash, followed by some gloss clear. The decals were then applied and another cote of gloss clear finished it off.
 
Thanks to Craig from Aeroworks for supplying the Aires cockpit aeroworks@iprimus.com.au
Alan
 

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Alan Williamson