1/48 Academy MiG-21SMT

by Miroslav Adamovic

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Throughout its history Yugoslavia always had a pretty strong aviation industry.  Many different aircraft types were locally produced from licensed or domestic plans.  In addition, for every foreign produced aircraft that was used by YAF, the local factories obtained license for general overhauling.  The MiG planes were among them and the overhauling was commercially done in Yugoslavia for some friendly (Unaligned) countries.  One of such customers was Iraq and in the late '80s they send a number of MiG-21SMT and MiG-23ML aircraft to "Zmaj" facility at Pleso near Zagreb.  Some aircraft have passed through the overhauling process in 1990, at the same time that the Iraqi Army invaded Kuwait.  Understandably, aircraft couldn't be returned to Iraqi Air Force, so they were incorporated into YAF and were used for test flights.  In 1991, the Civil War broke in Yugoslavia and Iraqi aircraft were transferred from Zagreb to "Moma Stanojlovic" depot near Belgrade.  After signing of Dayton Peace Accord, Iraqi MiGs were written off from YAF inventory due to downsizing in accordance with peace treaty. 

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I didn't believe that MiG-21 in question was actually of SMT sub type because it didn't have that enormous spine, but rather the spine of bis subtype.  After contacting some people in Serbia who actually worked close to the aircraft, I got the explanation: Before aircraft were delivered to Iraq, the Soviets removed the big spine and replaced it with the spine of bis subtype.  Iraqi aircraft also had desert air conditioning systems of Western origin installed....

Construction of my model started with the cockpit,  I used an excellent FM Models resin set and it was really a big improvement compared to the spartan kit's cockpit.  Wheel wells were detailed with soldering and fuse wire and I also added brake lines to the landing gear.  I also used a set of resin wheels which were not a big improvement from the Academy kit wheels.

The model was painted with Tamiya and Gunze acrylic paints and I've tried to keep the weathering to a minimum because these aircraft were freshly painted which was a part of overhauling process.

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The decals are from Lift Here, one of the best quality decals out there.  They are Serbian made decals, custom printed by Propagteam in Czech Republic.

I hope you like my MiG.

Miroslav 

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Photos and text © by Miroslav Adamovic