MiG-25 Foxbat, Have Gate tactical exploitation *finished*

[sandiego89]

Contrary to reports of the time, defecting Lieutenant Belenko's MiG-25 Foxbat was not crated up and returned to the Soviet Union right away, but it was crated up and shipped to Area 51 under the Have Gate tactical exploitation program.   

1/72 Hasegawa/Minicraft by sandiego89

[Pellson]

Love the old Hasegawa kit. I have a few as well, one going post-unification Luftwaffe. Looking much forward to see this!

[PR19_Kit]

Cooer, I've never seen that box art before! Most impressive.

Mine was the 'standard' pop, mid 80s I think. I even built it RW too. 



Looking forward to yours Dave. 

[The Chaos]

Great i have a one in my stash 

[sandiego89]

The kit goes together well and quickly, low parts count.

Good, crisp detail



Gr1 Harrier for scale



Nice tabs to keep the top and bottom fuselage slabs from falling in

[sandiego89]

Cooer, I've never seen that box art before! Most impressive.

Yes great box art of the canvas over the fuselage and recovery from the over-run at Hokkaido, soon after the defection. 

[NARSES2]

I've never seen that box art either.

I can rememmber building this back in the day and being surprised by how big it was. Fascinating aircraft.

[zenrat]

Excellent box art and different to the one I have.

MiG-25 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

This shows just how big those engines are.


ISTR a lot of PSR on this kit.  I also remember just how shallow the kit nozzles are.  I used a pair of caps from big fat marker pens to add depth.

MiG-25 WIP 15-08-2020 02 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
MiG-25 WIP 15-08-2020 03 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
MiG 25 HAPPY - 20 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

HTH

[sandiego89]

I've never seen that box art either.

Scalemates shows it as a 1978 reboxing with the side numbers decals as flown by defecting LT Belenko. 

The back of the box is great too with a cutaway drawing.   



it is a big aricraft





primer on, looks great in black

[PR19_Kit]

Big it surely is, easily the size of a Wellington.

[zenrat]

It's big enough to park a Spitfire on.

MiG 25 HAPPY - 25 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

I have in the stash a Condor MiG 25 (with vac form canopies and resin 'pit and nose) and a Trumpeter MiG 31 (with BFO missile).  Both of which have much more detail than the Hasegawa kit but i'm not sure if they will be proportionately more fun to build.

[PR19_Kit]

I've got the Revell Mig-31 too, but somehow it doesn't look as 'pure MiG' as the -25 does. Weird..........

[sandiego89]

I've got the Revell Mig-31 too, but somehow it doesn't look as 'pure MiG' as the -25 does. Weird..........

I agree, the 25 looks so raw and brutish and has more of the 23 lineage. The 31 a little too refined, or at least a refined brute.   

[Wardukw]

I've got a 48th Mig25 in the stash and must check its size out ..compare it to a F15 or something like that cause I don't remember this one I've got looking that damn big .

[zenrat]

If I get time tomorrow i'll dig out a built F-15 and sit it next to a built MiG 25 for you.  They are both big boned girls.