Moving house recently inspired a culling of broken and damaged models. However, some old "what ifs" inspired me with the feeling that they'd be worth rescuing and restoring.

This MiG Reconnaissance System is the first. It was conceived as a drone carrier and launcher. The drone is long gone but will be replaced by a GTD-21 (in real life, the Russians began to reverse engineer this, but then abandoned the project).

However, apart from the obvious replacing of undercarriage parts etc, this might also be a good opportunity to change things on the model that I'm not really happy with.

For example - the inner fins were left off as they would interfere with the drone (carried on the pylon on the centre section) but I'm not sure that the remaining fins are enough to provide stability. Should these be enlarged, or should extra ventral fins be added? Or possibly triangular fins at the wing tips as on the  early MiG-25s?

Then there are the noses. At the moment they are painted as if one has recce equipment and the other a fighter radar. But why would it need a fighter radar? Perhaps one nose should have no radar etc at all?

And, of course, there's the colour scheme. Should it be left dark grey or would it look better in a more conventional Foxbat style light grey? Or various shades of grey and blue like the MiG-29 or Su-27? (It will not be natural metal).

All comments and suggestions welcomed.

Welcome to the forum Mc Greig!  Interesting whiff you've got there, I love the idea of the drone carrier!

Canards maybe for extra stability?  Would give some focus at the front end of the model too.  Larger ventral fins?

Is one of the cockpits is used to control the drone?  I guess you'd need a powerful radar to track & control it, as well as any threats that it may encounter, so you could keep it on that basis.

Take your pic on colour schemes!  Okay MiG-25's were almost exlclusively light grey but theres plenty of possibilities. If you want to stay in the sobre realms, your current dark grey or a MiG-25 scheme is great.  You could also go with markings of any MiG-25 operator.  This green/browns over blue would look pretty striking:
http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww3/f/38/1/1/4

Going a bit off the mainstream, you could put in the colours of Su-27's/MiG-29's as you mentioned, or how about a modern OKB test scheme, hired out as a high speed high altitude research platform?  A US version, either 'appropriated' during the cold war, or leased to the Nasa for research purposes & evaluation?

For true craziness, pick anything you like!  Your own scheme & made up nation, or maybe Iranian, Venezeulan, or Aircraft For Make Benefit of Glorious Nation Kazakhstan???  

My personal favourites would be the OKB test colours, or maybe Urkanian markings.  Keep up the good work McGreig!

Simon    

WOW!!! B)  I like the way it is right now, so anything you add will be a bonus. Welcome to the Asylum.  
  Eddie  

Ditto!
Nothing to add, save your enhancements to an already enhanced subject!!!

I love it!!    

Rafa

I think I'd go for ventral fins, four of them, under each vertical fin or where the vertical fin would "normally" be.  I'm not sure that the large triangular endplates on the wing would help stability much.

Wow....one of those Migs is cool enough, but stick a pair of them together ? Wicked !

It does look good just as it is. But now that you mention it, the missing tails do kind of stick out. Might also look good in the lighter colour grey you suggested. As for the noses, I'd leave 'em the way they are. Might as well keep your fighter radar, as in a combat situation, you just never know ! Besides, with two fuselages and that big center section, there's lots of room for some AAMs !

 

OOOOhhhh... a big Kingfish missile underneath...can you imagine the anti-shipping potential?

  Love it !

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for all the encouraging comments.

I wish I'd discovered this forum years ago. My main interest is in Soviet Aircraft and the reaction here is incredibly refreshing compared to what I often hear when mounting the Soviet Aircraft SIG display (A visitor once criticised me for building a Yak-15 when I'd no idea what colour the inside of the wheel wells should have been! He couldn't see that my model was built and his never would be.)

As for the MiG - based on the feedback so far, I'm inclined to leave the noses unchanged and replace the ventral strakes with the larger versions found on the original MiG-25 prototypes. It's probably correct that the triangular endplates wouldn't do much for stability, as they were deleted from the original MiG-25.

And canards will probably be added - how come I never thought of that myself?! Thanks Mossie. The MiG Ye-152M and MiG-25 were both designed to have trapezoidal canards, although neither flew with them, so I'll take the shape from those.

I'm still undecided on the colour, although I'm leaning towards leaving it as it is. This is partly to keep things simple and partly because I'm tempted to use up part of the stash by building a second model as that anti-shipping version in various shades of blue - - -

I'll post pictures as the restoration work proceeds.

It's good that you got here and that's what matters. Looking forward to this project and others that you may have planned.
  Eddie

........and remember to post things you've done in the past, you seem to be a natural for this whiff stuff!!

You and your models are more than Welcome!!

Rafa

QuoteAnd canards will probably be added - how come I never thought of that myself?! Thanks Mossie. The MiG Ye-152M and MiG-25 were both designed to have trapezoidal canards, although neither flew with them, so I'll take the shape from those.

I'm still undecided on the colour, although I'm leaning towards leaving it as it is. This is partly to keep things simple and partly because I'm tempted to use up part of the stash by building a second model as that anti-shipping version in various shades of blue - - -

Your more than welcome McGreig, it's good to see someone new with some great ideas.  Looking forward to seeing it finished, & that blue anti-ship version!  

Is very nice!  How much?

Only idea I could muster:
Would you consider reshaping the central section into a pointed "chevron" shape?
Leading edge could come to a forward-facing point and aft end would come to an inverted "V" shape...does this make sense?

Either way, I'm liking it (and will send pics to Tophe, our former resident lover of twinned aircraft).

Can't really add any suggestions at this stage.

I will however say that looking at your dark grey MiG now has me wondering how to develop a carrier based version of the MiG-25.  Maybe something like the proposed VG variant?

Regards,

Greg

QuoteI wish I'd discovered this forum years ago. My main interest is in Soviet Aircraft and the reaction here is incredibly refreshing compared to what I often hear when mounting the Soviet Aircraft SIG display (A visitor once criticised me for building a Yak-15 when I'd no idea what colour the inside of the wheel wells should have been! He couldn't see that my model was built and his never would be.)

Thats absolutely stupid    

The Soviet AF SIG and Between the Wars SIG are 2 of the SIG stands I always look out for. Some amazing work of what are often quite unusual subjects. I really admired the TB 3's (especially as I look at my one in the stash and shudder   )

Wellcome

Chris