This is a rebox of
the Esci MiG-23 Flogger which was an early version – I think based on the
visit of 5 or so MiG-23s to Finland in the 80’s to great fanfare – remember
those days ? Now we don’t think twice about seeing Russian aircraft at air
shows – we’ve even had them here in South Africa – that was until BAe and
SAAB got the lucrative Gripen/Hawk/Lynx contract !
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images below to see larger images
Anyway, I love Russian
aircraft due to a combination of their odd design features (folding ventral
fin?) and agricultural looks. Unfortunately, the Italeri kit is largely a bunch
of anaemic looking plastic pieces sort of resembling the outline of a MiG-23. I
therefore decided to spend a bit of extra time trying to make it more
representative of the late model MiG-23MLD Flogger K. This was the ultimate
MiG-23 variant and modifications focused on improved aerodynamic performance.
It also had an improved radar system with look down/shoot down capability. The
MLD was not built new - former ML versions were converted to MLD. I've read a
couple of articles which consider the MLD to be the equal of the early F-16A
series…...
The following modifications to the kit were brought
about :
- The leading edge fillet on the
vertical stabilizer is cut short on the MLD – I pared the kit unit down
and finished off with a mix of plastic card and Milliput
- The MLD has a distinctive
notched at the wing leading edge/intake junction – major surgery (in 48th
scale terms !) was required to cut the kit parts and fair them into
something resembling a dog tooth – again lots of Milliput and sanding
- The MLD has a small
aerodynamic vortex generators either side of the pitot probe – thin
plasticard was used to replicate this.
- The MLD has a fatter more
ogival shaped nose than that provided by the kit – the most difficult part
of the build was getting the correct shape using Milliput and lots of
sanding, repeated several times.
- Reshaped IR housing beneath
the nose just forward of the nose gear bay.
- Use of larger nose wheels -
the MLD had larger diameter tyres than earlier versions.
- IFF odd rods replaced by later
single blade IFF antenna.
Other essential bits required to make a decent
MiG-23 are the Neomega cockpit set (the kit is really lousy in this area) and
the Eduard photo etch exhaust which is way better than the shallow kit part. I
added corrugations to the inside of the exhaust duct using stretched sprue and
thin plastic card. Some detail was added to the bare undercarriage bays. I also
added chaff and flare dispensers to the upper fuselage – these were very
prominent on MLDs. Additional panel lines were scribed all over the fuselage and
wings using 3-view reference drawings.
I decided to equip the aircraft in the air-to-air
role (that’s after all what the MLD was meant for) with two AA-7 Apex (R-23)
missiles on the fixed wing stations and four AA-8 Aphid (R-60) missiles on dual
rails beneath the fuselage. Kit weapons are rubbish and I scratch built the AA-7
missiles using the kit missile bodies, but adding fins from thin plastic card. I
scratch built both the AA-7 and AA-8 launch rails from plasticard – however,
by this time I was not in the mood to produce four Aphids from scratch. So the
racks went empty.
Other minor mods/additions were :
- Open up the auxilliary air
intake doors each side of the fuselage.
- Yaw and AOA vanes made out of
stretched sprue and thin plastic card.
The colour
scheme chosen was a late Soviet tac scheme. Painting was accomplished using
Gloss Xtracolour paints and an airbrush. I don’t think I got the colour mix
right but the colours used were :
X616 East German MiG-29 dark green + 20% X-2 white
X617 tan + 5% Tamiya X-2 white
X618 Czech MiG-29 dark green + 50% X-2 white
X619 Czech Mig-29 reb.brown + 20% X-2 white
Undersurface painted X625 Czech Mig-23 undersurface
grey/blue + spot X-2 white
Decals were then added – again, the curse of my
modeling career – they all silvered irrespective of the fact that I used gloss
paints and liters of MicroSol. So out came the Tamiya superthin glue – it
helps to remove the silvering by melting the decal to the paint. Tricky
operation as too much will make the decal colour run or the base paint wrinkle.
Weathering was applied using pastels and sealed with a matt varnish.
On the day I completed this long winded task,
Trumpeter announced a 32nd scale Mig-23. Go figure. Let’s hope it’s an MLD
followed by a late version MiG-27.
Malcolm Reid
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