Migina 1 - profile by Arc3371

[Weaver]

Tonight's roster (not worth photographing):

MiG fuselage and left wing puttied up (sanding that's going to be interesting....)

Right wing built (bit easier than the first one)

Gina intake and cockpit painted black, on the "you can't see anything because it's a deep, dark hole, not because there's nothing there, honest" principle.....

Undercoated pilot (rattle can white)

[John Howling Mouse]

This kind of bash-n-smash of dissimilar kit parts is what got me into modelling.  Nice to see this coming together so well.  Keep it up.   

[Weaver]

Cheers JHM 

As predicted, I'm not finding much time to progress this. However, the front and rear halves are now glued together and sat drying and NOT BEING TOUCHED on the bench. Some more PSR done, started painting the pilot, and I've had to remove the rear cockpit bulkhead I made because I forgot that the Gina fuselage has to be pinched slightly to fit the MiG body and the bulkhead didn't allow this.... The seat back will now be supported on the edge of the rear decking.

[Weaver]

Finally got a little time to work on this.

Fuselage together, cockpit decking done, lots of subtle sanding/PSR to get things fitting, and gun bulges made. Pilot painted some more, five shades of grey cammo paint bought and tested.

Looking at the design, I realised that there wouldn't be room for two big cannons in the lower fuselage as the profile suggests, so I've made bulges out of G.91 drop-tank halves and brass barrels. The latter might get cut down a bit yet. Of course, the fact that these bulges happen to cover the fuselage join doesn't hurt......

The cannons also add to it's raison d-etre (close support), since it doesn't carry much in the way of underwing stores, having just two pylons (u/c occupies the inner part of the wing, and any more pylons further out would impede agility). I'm having an asymetric bombload on two MERs: three anti-personnel bombs on one side and two-rocket-boosted armour-piercing bombs on the other.



Note the precision-engineered nose ballast.....

[Arc3371]

I am frankly surprised how well its progressing, good work!

[ysi_maniac]

This combination is a perfect idea

I would try Gina's wings too

[Weaver]

This combination is a perfect idea

I would try Gina's wings too

I had a long, hard look at that, but:

a) it violates Arc's original profile a lot,

b) it worked against my backstory requirement, which called for a light jet with short, grass-field capabilites,

c) the Gina's u/c wheels are in the fuselage whilst the MiG's are in the wing, so you'd have to either i) cut new wheel bays in the non-existant space in the MiG's fuselage, or ii) cut enlarged u/c bays in the one-piece Gina wings: not easy.

[sotoolslinger]

This is really working out well I love the cannon pods

[Weaver]

Really, REALLY doubt this is going to be ready for the deadline.....

1. Put the nose on last night and made a pig's ear of it (my fault): lots of sanding to correct now.

2. Had a play with the tailplanes for the first time. They're a disaster: two shallow pins on each plane and two oversize holes in the fin, which means there is nothing to keep them at the proper angle: even if I jigged and glued them, they'd still be so fragile that they'd break in a heartbeat. I'm currently thinking along the lines of drilling them in order to fit a wire armature for a bit of strength.

3. Had a go at putting the engine nozzles together. They're rubbish: a whole mini PSR job just to get two tubes.... I was considering different engine nozzles anyway but I havn't got any the right size, so now I've cut a couple of bits of alloy tube to do the job.

None of this is fatal, but the paint scheme also needs multiple passes with drying time in between, and extra contruction time is now eating the remaining painting opportunities. The irony is that it's not the Migina concept that's causing the problems, it's the crappiness of the basic kits: if Tamiya made 1/72nd G.91s and MiG-9s it'd be done by now.....

On the upside, I put some ink washes on the pilot last night and he's looking pretty keen, plus the stores are going well.

[pyro-manic]

Looking really good, Weaver! Those cannon pods are sexy.

[Weaver]

Partial recovery last night:

1. Fixing the nose joint went quickly and perfectly for once. Re-scribed the gun bay doors and they look okay too.

2. Drilled and pinned the tailplanes (pictures later) and amazingly, that worked without any cock-ups either.

More time lost though: have to go and socialize (mutter, mumble) with Canadians (mutter, mumble, mumble MUTTER) tonight......

[Weaver]

Okay, pinning pictures, as promised:

The pin is .20" brass rod from KP, the holes were drilled by hand with an archimedian drill and fear:



The pin is only as long as it needs to be - the longer the holes in the tailplanes, the greater the chance of one of them breaking out. The hole alignment was anything but perfect, which is why the pin is slightly bent and the holes slightly ovalised:



This is how it holds the tailplanes (without glue):



The tubes next to it are the new jetpipes, by the way. I'm still debating if they look right, being untapered, and whether I should put the Jumo 003-style cones in the middle of them.

[sotoolslinger]

Yes  ;Dand  yes

[Weaver]

Yes  ;Dand  yes

So that's a "yes" then? 

I'm using the original kit cones for now, which have exaggerated "fishtails" on them. If they end up looking stupid though, I have a backup in the form of the cones from my new (and sacrificial) Smer Me.262: they'd bigger, but have no fishtails at all. Made up some bigger plastic mounting discs for them, which means I can superglue the whole nozzle assembly together and then fit them to the model with plastic cement, rather than trying to superglue onto a finished and painted model....

Good bits today: pilot painted some more (keep forgetting to photograph him... ), wing pylons made by wrapping a length of 0.1 Evergreen around a 0.25 spacer to make an aerofoil section  , AP bomb carrier made successfully but then discarded because I had a cooler idea, gun pods on and putty drying.

Bad bits today: trying to make the u/c doors fit: they're MUCH too big and arn't even vaguely the right shape.... , having to file the cockpit opening bigger in order to test-fit the seat and pilot: I must have pinched it together a bit when mating up the fuselage sections.

[sotoolslinger]

That is in fact a yes,  Really looking forward to seeing how those engines turn out . I scored a 1/72 Scorpion today but ended up giving it to Scooterman (not really I made him give me 5 bucks ) But I also got a Mig 15 to go with my GINA so I can do a Mark II