Mig-21MF 3. Jagdgeschwader Nationale Volksarmee, Preschen Airbase 1990

scribed the panels which are appropriate also for the NVA jets. Luckily Eduard provided an etched template for it 

Finished inner wheel well ready for painting 

This turned aluminium air intake cone is pure luxury (as I did paid over 40 Euros for it...) but it looks spot on and provided the extra weight you need to to get a tail sitter later 

The inner part of the intake where the air gets parted into the left and right intake consists of an resin part 

Frontal view where you can see the exact alignment of all components 

Finished Eduard´s extra resin exhaust. Some delicate inner parts were sadly broken but repaired with thin sheet 

zoom shot of the inner exhaust 

Resin wheel wells. These parts looks much better then the plastic kit parts and are well worth the extra money 

Aircraft main body ready for interior color finish 

The frontal resin wheel well had to be integrated into the kit´s plastic cockpit platform 

View from the underside 

Resin pilot ready for painting 

Finished inner exhaust components 

zoomed look inside the exhaust 

 

Cockpit finished and exhaust glued in 

 

 

 

 

rear wheel wells lower parts with compressed air bottles 

rear wheel wells upper parts painting finished 

Rear resin wheel wells came out quite well 

wings glued in 

The last days were quite productive for this project. I glued together the wings and the hull sections, installed the frontal metal-resin air intake and the wheels 

Painted the canopy interior and the small olive green sections at the forward wing surfaces. The brass pitot was also glued on and the intake was covered up for the upcoming paint job 

The fit of this expensive metal-resin air intake cone is great and give you the guarantee this bird will not be a tail sitter 

 

resin landing wheels and retraction cylinders installed 

I pre painted the outer metal surfaces with Alclad burned metal and exhaust manifold over the steel surfaces. Looks quite convincing for me  

Finished the pilot. I had a hard time to find out what color the coveralls of the NVA pilots were but finally found out that these were in a dark blue-greyish color 

Backside of the ejection seat. Not visible anymore later... 

The fresh color is still a bit glossy. Will dissapear soon 

...and finally glued the pilot in its new workplace 

masked the prepainted areas and primed the whole remaining surfaces with Mr. Surfacer 1000 

 

Tried to resemble the original camouflage as good as I can. I used Vallejo 73610 parched grass and Tamiya XF-62 Olive drab. I am quite satisfied with the color matches 

 

 

Eduard suggested a brown decal for the cockpit sealant but I found only pictures of east german aircraft with plain white sealant so I painted it by hand