MIG-21CDW "Fishplate"

[Spey_Phantom]

i know the GB doesnt start until teusday, but a sudden brainstorm gave me insperation to show you what i have planned. i know flying disks are a bit of a cliché, but i taking that to a whole new level 

Back History.

on October 16 1961, inhabitants of a small village in the siberian wastelands were suddenly shocked by a large sonic boom. first it was thought to be an air force jet on exercise in the near vacinity, but as people came outside to see the jets fly by, there were surprised to see something else. they seen a strange circular object, taking bends so sharp, that it outmaneuvered the SU-7's who flew out to interept it.

the next day, the story appeared in newspapers worldwide. the soviet air force denied the sighting and interception of such craft. however, 2 years later the strange craft appeared again, but this time over lake Bakayl. a local photographer was taking pictures at a wedding when the craft flew over. he took his camera and managed to take a picture. when that photo appeared in the paper, the kremlin decided that the game was up and revealed the secret. Mikoyan was contracted to design a revolutionary manuevrable fighter, capable of taking of from short unprepared landing strips. for this MIG took its latest model of the MIG-21bis, and replaced the delta wing with a new circular wing, witch gave the aircraft more lift and enabled it to slow down instantly in a dogfight.

the design was called MIG-21CDW (witch stands for Circular Disk Wing), the nato codenamed it "Fishplate", redesignated from fishbed. the flaps were fitted inside the wing instead of at the end, where the control surfaces are located. another benifit from the CDW is that the large wing enables more storage and payload. even today, there is not much know about the fishplate, but it is rumored at least 2 special air defence squadrons were eqiuped with it, good for a production of only 40 aircraft. only 2 are still flown today from the zhukovsky test facility, to examin the effects of the wing for implementation in another new design, the PAK-FA, of witch the MIG-2000 has a similat wing design.

the model.

the model will be a baseline 1/144 minicraft MIG-21 with a scratchbuild circular wing.
here's a quick profile of what i have planned. and as for the paint job, im planning on a soviet blue underside with silver or white top fuselage 

[Mossie]

Looks good to me Nils!  The Soviets flirted with circular wings on & off throught their history, so a fighter development is quite plausible.

[Daryl J.]

For fiddly-bits inspiration, it might be helpful to take a peek at the MiG-21 Analogue.     Neat idea!


Daryl J.

[Spey_Phantom]

ive started on my entry.

the first thing im working on is the wings, as you can see they are scratchbuild from styrene plating.
the black lines you see at the top are where the control surfaces will be located. ive already encounted some problems engraving the panel lines (for witch im using a hobby-knife) but those can be straightened out 

i might not be able to post many progres pics, mainly becausemy bandwitch expired and cant get full speed until wednesday  (crappy belgian internet providers  )

anyway, still a long way to go 

[Spey_Phantom]

im sorry  for the double post, but i have a quick update 

ive been so cought up in the wingmaking that i already started assembly of the main fuselage.
i was gonna post some pics but my camera ran out of juice (and my brother took all my spare batteries  )
guess i'll just have to use the webcam, i'll post the pics later 

[cthulhu77]

I hate that bandwitch !!!!      Looking cool, Sir Nils !

[sotoolslinger]

Effin tease I  circular wing too. Must have more pics. 

[McGreig]

It's looking good so far  I really love this idea - wish I'd thought of it first! 

[Patrick H]

looking good so far Nils.
And I feel your pain about the bandwith. I end up buying more every month 

[Spey_Phantom]

got 2 more progress pics, here they are.
the soviet flying CD is now taking on its treu form.

however, i kinda went off-track with the wing design, and i clipped the rear of the wings.
also fitted on te wingtips are tiprails for the AA-2 Atol missiles 
still need to figure out how to redesign the rear landing gear as she now rests on a lego brick 

[lancer]

Damm, Nils, that is looking teriffic!! For some reason that circular w9ng really suits the MiG. The whole wing shape is really smart, especially the triple vertical stabs. Damm fine work so far my friend!

[Ed S]

Great concept.  I like the wings better with the backs clipped.  I wonder if putting the missile rails under the wings might look better.  It would maintain the simple shape of the wings with clutter.  Have you considered a bicycle L/G arrangement with outriggers (ala Harrier)?

Ed

[Mossie]

I do like the clipped wing look.   I like Ed's suggestion of a bicylce undercarriage too.

[Spey_Phantom]

Super Picture update:

my brother bought a new camera today (Canon Powershot A470), and i wanted to give it a good focus test.
and what better way to test it then on the fishplate. so here it is, the 1/144 fishplate new High-Res pic 

tomorrow im gonna buy me the same one, from then on, all my pics will be this quality 

[Spey_Phantom]

ive been spending the last 2 days on my UCAV's for the junkyard GB, but at least i found some time to work on the CDW 
today, the fuselage top recieved its bare metal paint