1/48 Academy Mig-29

by Fernan De Gannes

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Academy's Mig 29 is a good start for making a decent model of this aircraft.  The weakest parts of the kit are the cockpit and the front landing gear.  I substituted the Aires cockpit which is a gem, and added some scratch built details to correct the gear. 

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Other improvements included:-

    • Added plumbing to the main wheel wells and hydraulic lines to all the gear legs. 
    • Thinned the exhausts for better scale appearance.
    • Added static dischargers to wings, stabilators and rudders.
    • Added lifting eyes to top of rear fuselage.
    • Reshaped the scoop on the spine.
    • Scratch built the pitch fork antenna on the starboard tail.
    • Corrected the antenna array under the nose area and corrected the shape of the nose.
    • Reduced the size of the various probes for better scale appearance

I painted the model using Model Master Fulcrum Grey and Fulcrum Green.  I added a few drops of Gunship Grey to the green to give it a more greyish hue.  The exhaust area was painted with Model Master Metalizeres - Burnt Metal streaked with Exhaust.  A final touch to this area was to mix some Tamiya Clear Yellow with some Future and apply this with a damp rag.  This gave it the discoloured look usually found on these aircraft.  The model was then coated with Future in preparation for decals.

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Decals are from Super Scale and depict an aircraft from the Soviet OKB Test Bureau.   A dark grey wash, light application of pastels, a shot of Testors Dull Coat and that was it.  I opted for a clean aircraft hence I did not arm it.  That's it for now, hope you like the model.

Fernan 

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Photos and text © by Fernan De Gannes