AREA 88 1/144 - A MiG-27 by any other name...

strobez · August 04, 2018, 07:47:59 AM

So, one thing that bothered me about how my 1-week group build entry turned out was the nose (or lack thereof) on my converted 1/144 MiG-23 to MiG-27 entries.

That, coupled with the fact that I really didn't do a good job on the camouflage scheme, had got me thinking about a bit of a redo. After all, it only took me a week before, right!

Anyway, I've spent some quality time with the Academy 1/144 MiG-23 kit, trying to refashion it into a better representation of the MiG-27.

I know it's not going to be perfect, but I'm having a bit of trouble to get the shape right. The first thing I did was add a shin behind the cockpit section to make the bottom flatter. Then I sanded the heck out of the top of the nose to get the slant right. Then I attached the tip of the nose from another 1/144 donor (F-15 I think) and shaped it a bit.

I've been looking at it for so long, I can no longer decide if I'm on the right track or not. So before I sand it down to just a nub, I thought I'd open it up for comments.

Is it close enough? Or is there more to be done? Do I give up, or soldier on!

I'm a bit beholden to the shape of the cockpit canopy, which kind of skews the whole thing, but I don't think there's much Incan do about it

Spey_Phantom · August 04, 2018, 12:27:17 PM

looks good, but try to flatten the bottom of the nose and sand the top off a bit.
shape it more like this:

zenrat · August 04, 2018, 05:41:43 PM

Quote from: strobez on August 04, 2018, 07:47:59 AM

If you go on this three view from wikipedia then it looks a bit short and the angle of the opening part of the canopy is too steep. Hard to fix that though. Are there different versions of the 27 with nose variations?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_MiG-27
Looking at my preview, it appears you have a bit of a droop in your snoot.

I'd be happy with it though (FWIW

).

nighthunter · August 06, 2018, 10:42:26 AM

Is it cost based as to why you're not using the Dragon or Revell offerings of the MiG-27?

zenrat · August 07, 2018, 03:53:07 AM

I've got a spare 1/72 MiG 27 nose but that's prolly not much use unless you have an instant reducing machine...

strobez · August 07, 2018, 08:46:02 AM

Quote from: nighthunter on August 06, 2018, 10:42:26 AM
Is it cost based as to why you're not using the Dragon or Revell offerings of the MiG-27?

More or less... first of all, I need three for my project and at $30+shipping on eBay I think it's a bit cost prohibitive. However I might not mind to pay the price (I've been known to do so when there's really only one option to fit my needs), except for the fact that from what I've seen of built up models... there's very little difference in quality between them and the $3 Academy kits I have on hand - except for that silly little bit of a nose.

I'm more or less planning to re-do my "Bloody Screw" build from the 1-week GB (after all, it only took a week!~) for two main reasons. 1) I'm not happy with the paint job I did. and 2) I'm also not happy with how the noses look... they just feel a bit off.

Anyway, I've decided to take Nils' advice and picked up 3 Trumpeter/Mini Hobby kits off Aliexpress. They're MiG-23 BN, but the nose is pretty much exactly the same as the MiG-27. I'll marry up the Trumpeter noses to the Academy bodies and call it even... and at $5 a pop (including shipping) for the Trumpeter kits, it's a solution I can live with.

nighthunter · August 11, 2018, 08:46:39 PM

Quote from: strobez on August 07, 2018, 08:46:02 AM
Quote from: nighthunter on August 06, 2018, 10:42:26 AM
Is it cost based as to why you're not using the Dragon or Revell offerings of the MiG-27?

More or less... first of all, I need three for my project and at $30+shipping on eBay I think it's a bit cost prohibitive. However I might not mind to pay the price (I've been known to do so when there's really only one option to fit my needs), except for the fact that from what I've seen of built up models... there's very little difference in quality between them and the $3 Academy kits I have on hand - except for that silly little bit of a nose.

I'm more or less planning to re-do my "Bloody Screw" build from the 1-week GB (after all, it only took a week!~) for two main reasons. 1) I'm not happy with the paint job I did. and 2) I'm also not happy with how the noses look... they just feel a bit off.

Anyway, I've decided to take Nils' advice and picked up 3 Trumpeter/Mini Hobby kits off Aliexpress. They're MiG-23 BN, but the nose is pretty much exactly the same as the MiG-27. I'll marry up the Trumpeter noses to the Academy bodies and call it even... and at $5 a pop (including shipping) for the Trumpeter kits, it's a solution I can live with.

Cool, looking forward to it!

strobez · August 16, 2018, 08:45:15 AM

Well the wait is over. My shipment of Mini Hobby Models arrived... 4 crushed boxes (I also ordered a MiG-21... which I plan to blow up...

) dumped out of a generic grey plastic shipping envelope. Wow... I'm glad I'm not actually planning to build any of them. They look like a MiG-23BN... made out of bubble gum. The gaps are canyons, the locating pins just get in the way and the details are so soft they're plushy.

But... the shape of the nose seems right (enough), and that's what they're there for. So, since all my other projects are also awaiting some secret supplies to arrive from China anyway, let's get cracking.

Ahh... the box. Like an old friend already...

This lot looks strangely familiar as well. I pretty much have the parts count memorized by now.

So glueing most of the fuselage together was super easy... but the fun was over way too soon. Now we wait for reinforcements.

Ahh... the reinforcements have arrived. I had to fluff up the box just to be able to take a picture.

Is it just me, or do there seem to be even less parts in this box?

Ooops! Before we get started on the nose surgery, I forgot I wanted to add a bit of detail to the airbrakes.

Ok... the nose looks pretty good... the rest of the plane looks terrible. I'm not usually that picky over most kits. Even the old ones have a lot of potential, but this one is pretty much useless from the neck down.

After a bit of fiddling and a semi-dry fit (I needed more fingers than I have, so I temporarily glued a few bits on lightly to make sure the spacing works.

Now that's a silhouette I think I can live with! It's going to take a fair bit of sanding to make these two come together, but I think it can be done... and that's half the battle.

The other half is making it out from under a mountain of Tamiya grey putty dust...

NARSES2 · August 17, 2018, 06:30:36 AM

It's only when you see the glue bottle you realise how small these are

strobez · August 17, 2018, 08:34:47 AM

Quote from: NARSES2 on August 17, 2018, 06:30:36 AM
It's only when you see the glue bottle you realise how small these are

I take that as a compliment! Investing in those oversize tools and Tamiya products has really paid off.

Speaking of small... I needed to cut the canopy to make the fit work. Sawing that little canopy on an angle, without scratching the whole thing to pieces took a bit of doing, but it was worth it.

Of course, I have to do everything three times (one of them HAS to be my best possible work, right?)

We're almost there in terms of the kitbash portion. I'm a little worried about sanding through the now very thin cockpit floor, but on the whole I'm quite pleased with the result. A few scribed panel lines and we'll be cooking with oil~

NARSES2 · August 18, 2018, 01:58:14 AM

Quote from: strobez on August 17, 2018, 08:34:47 AM
Quote from: NARSES2 on August 17, 2018, 06:30:36 AM
It's only when you see the glue bottle you realise how small these are

I take that as a compliment! Investing in those oversize tools and Tamiya products has really paid off.

Seriously, it was meant as one

zenrat · August 18, 2018, 07:01:50 AM

Hmmmm. Cheap 1/144 jet fighters as the basis for 1/72 ALCM has some possibilities.

These are already looking good dude.

strobez · August 18, 2018, 08:18:14 AM

Got a bit more sanding done and then glued on the rest of the fins. I'm pretty happy with the shape I think, now it's some fine-tuning to try and match the two halves together. I had to stick numbers on them so I could marry up the canopies with the same jet I cut them off from. The fit will already be suspect enough without me playing a game of three-card-monty.

I don't know about ALCMs... but I have a plan to turn the front end of a 1/144 F-15 into a fancy 1/72 scale anime motorcycle. Not sure when I'll get that one into the rotation, but it's on the (mental) list.

strobez · August 27, 2018, 05:01:48 PM

I got a bit side-tracked sanding the heck out of my B-1 bomber that I neglected these guys a bit. But we're back at it now... with more PSR! Yay!

A bit of paint highlighted what needed to be (re)done, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Just a bit more putty in some key spots and we should be good.

After I got the nose to more or less match the rest of the fuselage, I turned my attention to the cockpit. I needed to add a bit at the front for the instrument panel and box in the rear after I turned part of the canopy into an extension of the fuselage.

Next up is boxing in the wheel wells. Since this is "in flight" they need to be closed, but the Academy kit strangely has no bits to do that. So I carefully my own out of scrap styrene sheets.

After the nose, this was the part that bugged me the most the first time around. Since that was a 1-week build, I let it go. But this time I'm taking my time to get it right. The fit was pretty good, but because of the curved corner, it'll need some shaving, sanding, a bit of putty for the gaps, a bit more sanding and some patience.

strobez · September 02, 2018, 02:43:04 PM

One thing I've discovered is that working on a 3-plane mini-diorama means you have to do everything 3 times! Or... in my case 6!

I don't know how I ever completed the first version of this project for the 1-week GB. Kit-bashing the Trumpeter nose onto the Academy body has taken a lot longer than I would've expected (at least to smooth out the transition zone). Having said that, I think I've finally made it out the other side.

Since the cockpit wasn't even a hole, just a slight flat spot on the fuselage where the canopy is supposed to be attached, we're doing the whole thing from scratch. Besides adding in the hud display and the control panel, I also needed to add a bit of framing around the canopy. I sanded it down so much to make it fit, the canopy is now slightly to wide, so it makes for a bit of a transition piece.

Added a few more details. It's actually starting to look like something now. That large gaping hole was beginning to get on my nerves.

Upon reflection, I think the problem I had with the previous version of this build was not really the shape - or at least not the angle - of the nose, but rather the length. I've measured this several times and the re-do version seems to be as spot-on as I can ask for in 1/144 scale. It's funny how just a few mm makes such a huge difference.

And there we go... well, almost. I noticed a few more spots that needed touch up. After I sand it down, I'll be able to put some paint down on it. I don't expect it to be perfect, but just let me know which spots still need a bit of work and which are fine. I'm debating what colour to paint the cockpit. I haven't had good luck mixing up some Tamiya acrylics to match that "soviet blue/green", so I'm thinking either just "cockpit green" or some shade of grey (just not all 50 of them~).

I've been trying to find appropriate 1/144 scale pilots to go with these builds, but I'm not having a lot of luck. The two fellows that came with my Lindberg B-1 seem to have been recruited straight from their college basketball teams into the airforce. The ones I got in the Platz F-4E Phantom II box were extremely small and the somewhat "fetal" appearance didn't really help their cause. I did order some "modern pilot" figures from an Italian website (https://heroesmodels.it/shop/resin/1144-modern-pilots-seated-pose-1/), and while they're the best of the bunch, even they seem a bit oversized.

I think the process for making 1/144 scale figures is "a bit smaller than 1/100... meh, good enough... who's gonna know anyway".