First model of the new year. Revell 1:144 MiG-31 Foxhound

Hello,

Happy New Year to you all. I present to you, my first model of the year.

MiG-31 Foxhound (Russian Air Force).

On with the build then:

Assembly: 
The kit was a pleasure to build and had very little flash on the spruces. It had a total of 35 parts, however, I improvised a little with the missiles and put 2 R-60 Aphid short-range missiles lying spare from an older MiG-29 kit making the total number of parts 37. I did away with the drop tanks available originally with the kit and placed missiles instead of that.

Minimum filling or sanding was required to bring the kit together. The only places where I actually faced troubles, were:

1) The top section of the nose up to the canopy: This section had a gaping seam line that was filled using putty and sanded off for a smooth finish.
2) Rear undercarriage: The slots for the rear undercarriage were not deep enough to accommodate the left and right wheel housings. So I used a file to deepen the slots and the wheel housing went in fine.
3) The slant of the left vertical stab: The right vertical fin fitted very well however, the left one was completely lose in the slot. Also, it did not fit at the correct angle so I had to fill and sand the slot to make it fit at the correct angle.

The rest of the kit came together without a problem. 

Paint:
I used a single coat of Munshell Grey (4S spray paint) for the underside and brushed on 2 coats of light grey (Fevicryl Black and White were mixed to achieve the correct tone since light grey is not available readily) for the rest of the body to give it the all-grey paint scheme of the Russian Air Force. The nose was painted in a slightly darker shade of the same grey paint on the rest of the body.

The missiles were painted in the famous all-white schemes with light grey stripes around the diameter and the warhead of the missiles.
The warheads of the short-range R-60 Aphid missiles were painted red.

The exhaust nozzles were painted black and later weathered with some dry brushing of a mix of Fevicryl "Vandyke Brown" and "Pure White" paints to give them a slightly worn-out look.

The MiG-31s have been in service for around 30 years now, and are still maintained in pristine condition in Russia. There hence was a need to give just a subtle bit of weathering to the jet, which I achieved by mixing some black ink in turpentine and 2 drops of Vim dish-washing liquid, to make the wash flow into the panel lines.

The tyres were painted Fevicryl Black and the rims were painted "Dark Green".

Decals:
The decals are in good register and went on well by keeping them dipped in lukewarm water for 30 secs and then gently sliding them onto the model. There were a few decals that were really tiny however, I was able to get them onto the model without messing them up. This aircraft is "Blue 17" and has the markings of the S.No. 92-367 of the Aerial Warfare Service Branch of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Well that's what BBC POCNN stands for, incase some of you wonder.

Finally, I was able to attach 6 missiles onto the jet. I had 2 R-60 Aphids available from a MiG-29 kit I made sometime back, which I slung beneath the outer-wing hardpoints,  2 R-33 Amos long range air-to-air missiles which were available originally with the kit, slung beneath the inner wing hardpoints, and 2 R-40 Acrid medium-range air-to-air missiles, which were left spare from a MiG-25 kit I made sometime back, slung beneath the fuselage. I clipped the wings of the R-40 missiles, in order to show them recessed under the fuselage.

I spent 2 weeks making this kit and it has come out much better than my expectations.

I leave you with some actual shots of the real one.