Pellsons Perceivings

[Dizzyfugu]

The Norm '81 VF-1 has been finished: https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=50222.msg949778#msg949778 


Macross +++ 1:100 Stonewell/Bellcom VF-1J "Valkyrie", aircraft "26+10" of the U.N. Spacy VFA(JaBoG)-32; Lechfeld (Germany), 2011 (What-if/Arii kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Macross +++ 1:100 Stonewell/Bellcom VF-1J "Valkyrie", aircraft "26+10" of the U.N. Spacy VFA(JaBoG)-32; Lechfeld (Germany), 2011 (What-if/Arii kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Macross +++ 1:100 Stonewell/Bellcom VF-1J "Valkyrie", aircraft "26+10" of the U.N. Spacy VFA(JaBoG)-32; Lechfeld (Germany), 2011 (What-if/Arii kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[Pellson]

It's amazing, and it is almost a bit surprising how well the Norm 81 scheme allows the machine to blend in against the backdrop. Fascinating!

It's been a really cool project to follow, Thomas, and it's contributed to the Luftwaffe rush I'm currently finding myself in. Really, really good fun! Thanks! 

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

This morning, I painted jet exhausts en masse, and while that dried up, I went about other business. Only some minor touches left on instrumentation, and then we'll be good to build for real again.
As I'm reassembling at the improvised modelling table, a couple of SAAB 39E Gripens are put through their paces overhead. Afterburners make a great soundtrack when modelling Cold War air power. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Thank you for the inspiring impulse! 

[Pellson]

Worrying news from the east front, and it's increasingly depressing to remember the joy I felt when I learned of the fall of the Berlin Wall in my youth. The end of the Cold War, we thought, never to return. And here we are again..

Here at home, a despicably wet and snowy morning turned into a rather nice, if chilly, day with some work but also quite a bit of modelling. As always, as I go forth, I find glitches and mistakes that I have to correct, but I actually managed to complete a MiG-23ML, modified from the equally venerable and inaccurate Airfix kit. This was the Heller edition, but make no mistake - this is NOT one of the so often very lovely French originals, but rather a reboxing, if one with a very nice box art.


Picture courtesy of the Scalemates site

I built the same kit many, many years ago, and revisiting it now, with limited ambition but better tools and an increased set of skills, is good fun. And if you just are prepared to overlook some strange shapes, it does build up to a decent Flogger.

The Airfix/Heller kit really depicts an earlier variant of the Flogger, but reading up, and allowing for some kit inherent inaccuracies, modernising the reliabilityplagued and quite unagile MiG-23M to the rather much better MiG-23ML (the ML was actually a better fighter than the F-16, the Israeli found when evaluating a Syrian ML brought by a defector) is mostly a matter of reprofiling the vertical fin. And while the originally so soft and easyworked British plastic over the years has hardened into a quite solid and even brittle material, some judicious carving and filing has produced a quite convincing shape.

As I'm in a German flow, I've been aiming for an ex-NVA machine taken over by the Luftwaffe. That also explains the mod from M to ML, and eventually it'll get an interpretation of the Luftwaffe Norm 81 scheme, but for now, I'm more inclined to continue building another model. You've got to stay with the mojo.. 

In the meantime, however, I've begun fiddling with the backstory. You could argue that the task would be pretty limited as Luftwaffe actually did get some MiGs after the unification, but as I'm planning for an in-service Flogger, and actually a for quite a few other Russian designs in Luftwaffe iron crosses, I thought that writing something up that'll cater not only for that, but maybe also for some older types kept in active service, might be a good idea. So keep your eyes peeled - something's coming!

Now - tea and just maybe another MiG...

[NARSES2]

and it's increasingly depressing to remember the joy I felt when I learned of the fall of the Berlin Wall in my youth.

I to can remember that feeling back then as a mere 37 year old 

I always liked the Mig-23, built a few of the Hasegawa ones back in the day when I was still building a lot of "modern stuff". Before I discovered the joys of whiffery Soviet types tended to offer far more choices in the way of possible markings.

[scooter]

and it's increasingly depressing to remember the joy I felt when I learned of the fall of the Berlin Wall in my youth.

I to can remember that feeling back then as a mere 37 year old 

I was 16, and watching on CNN, and agreed its increasingly depressing.

[Pellson]

The family has arrived. Really nice, but it does have some impact on my modelling time.

Despite this, I've actually built a MiG-21bis, also to be whiffed to a post-unification Luftwaffe. Having seen Dizzys superb MiG-21G, I think mine will be somewhat more lightly modified, rather depicting an emergency refurbishment under the barrel of a gun than a more deliberate peacetime modernisation. Hence, no Bison canopy, nor J79 engine. Rather some electronics and armament. Like a parallel ICE-upgrade. The timing works rather well for that, methinks.

I've also had a go at the Starfighter. Only halfway through there yet (making the build very different from the rather awful MiG from ICM/Eastern Express. Which - actually - despite that has built up to a reasonably nice rendition.)
I think I might try the Norm 81 scheme on the zipper too, the aircraft definitely being a multirole fighter, despite Dizzys warnings about just the combination Starfighter and Norm 81. Best case - I might prove him wrong, but the odds tend often to be more with him than me.  For a good reason, usually.. 

EDIT: My memory of Thomas's MiG-21G was, as so often nowadays, it seems, a bit foggy around the edges. The canopy was not the larger, rounded MiG-21-93/Bison variant I remembered, but rather the ubiquitous MiG canopy with its low line and shielded rear, and the standard flat windscreen. That is, the very same canopy solution I'm using. Thomas also used the RB199 turbofan from the Tornado bomber, necessitating an entirely different rear exhaust, however not the GE J79 exhaust I thought I remembered.

Ah, well..  it's a good thing that you can go back and look things up.. 



Looking at Thomas's awesome version above, I'm looking forward to completing my own.

[Pellson]

Slow but steady progress with the Starfighter, despite being somewhat impeded by someone that keeps saying I have to work. Evil people..

Also managed to break off the long nose pitot tube from the MiG-23, only to, not entirely unexpectedly, find that a stretched sprue replacement turned out very, very much better.

I accidentally found a rather nice DDR documentary from 1983 on YouTube about emergency deployment of MiG-23's to a roadbase. Not too different from how we did it ourselves here in Sweden during the same period, but for the fact that we'd NEVER park a line of fighter jets adjacent to each other. Cool pics from take-off and landing, though.

[Pellson]

That video of East German air force dispersed base operations can be found >>HERE<<

[Rheged]

I accidentally found a rather nice DDR documentary from 1983 on YouTube about emergency deployment of MiG-23's to a roadbase. Not too different from how we did it ourselves here in Sweden during the same period, but for the fact that we'd NEVER park a line of fighter jets adjacent to each other. Cool pics from take-off and landing, though.

Visiting Norway and Sweden with Senior Scouts in 1967, I can remember the minibus we were travelling in being stopped on a wide straight road near Vasteras, whilst a Lansen  taxied across  the road and disappeared into the woodland beyond.    I mentioned this to a highways engineer (a friend of my dad's)  and he was unsurprised;  "There are a great many British roads with wide mile-long straights.  They have been designed like that since 1946"  he told me.

[PR19_Kit]

That video of East German air force dispersed base operations can be found >>HERE<<

Amazing how the missile designers came up with almost EXACTLY the same design for a short range IR AA missile as the Sidewinder...... 

[Old Wombat]

That video of East German air force dispersed base operations can be found >>HERE<<

Amazing how the missile designers came up with almost EXACTLY the same design for a short range IR AA missile as the Sidewinder...... 

The Vympel K-13 (NATO reporting name: AA-2 "Atoll") is a short-range, infrared homing air-to-air missile developed by the Soviet Union reverse engineered, probably, from a US missile fired by a ROCAF F-86 that became lodged in a PLAAF MIG-17 in 1958.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-13_(missile)

[PR19_Kit]

'Probably'?

I'd say DEFINITELY!

[Old Wombat]

Well, there was an unlikely claim that they got the plans from a Swedish colonel convicted of spying for the Soviets.

So, although I'm 99.99% sure that the missile in the PLAAF MIG-17 was the actual source, I can't, with absolute certainty, discount the Swedish spy.

It may even have been a bit of both for all I know.

[Pellson]

No major progress at all, mainly, I think, due to the situation in Ukraine. It really, really burdens me with sorrow, totally draining me. I can't really explain why. God knows, there's been war and devastation in other places more or less constantly during the half century I've been aware, but this time, it does hit me harder.
Also heartbreaking is the Ukrainian president's incredibly courageous defiance in the face of the apparent brutality of his attackers, and also his restraint in namecalling, incredibly clearly demonstrated in contrast to the speech his Russian opposing number gave yesterday, trying to convince Ukrainian generals to defect. What an absolute disgrace of a human being that is! Not even being distantly related to any Russian, I'm actually ashamed on behalf of any Russian, just being of a similar skin coulour as that absolutely evil being! And Russia that can be the home of such marvellous culture. This saddens me beyond reason. And had I had a fifth of Mr Zhelenskys courage, I would have been invincible.

Anyway - today's my birthday. I'm at an age and economy that actually means I don't really wish for any gifts. I buy what I want (within reason), and am profoundly happy for some attention from my kids. But as it's supposed to be "my day", I might try to have a smallish go at the Heller MiG-19 aimed at a unified Luftwaffe. Having found some scrap remains of an old Matchbox MiG-21PF, I've found that the intake fits like a dream to the Farmer, which is most encouraging. We'll see where that takes me.

On another notice - I'm experiencing severe troubles writing on the forum from my Iphone. As I try the "Reply" or Quote"-buttons, I get a fault message saying thet the board doesn't exist, or that the session can't be verified. From the computer, however, it seems to work fine. Any assistance, if nothing else into understanding why this is happening, would be much appreciated.

Well, there was an unlikely claim that they got the plans from a Swedish colonel convicted of spying for the Soviets.

So, although I'm 99.99% sure that the missile in the PLAAF MIG-17 was the actual source, I can't, with absolute certainty, discount the Swedish spy.

It may even have been a bit of both for all I know.

That Swedish spy was really a sad story. My father in law knew him well, having had him as a mentor during his cadet training. I seems that he did what he did in a bid to gain attention and to financially cover his very much over-optimistic lifestyle. A kind man, in his own way, but a personality I don't think should have passed the security screenings of today.
But he did sell out quite some secrets, if not the Sidewinder, that, as described above, was reengineered from a dud stuck in a MiG-17.