1/72 Red Star Models Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 3 (Completed Pg. 2)

I used to have a link to sovietwarplanes.com, but it's a redirect to ads now and doesn't work. It was full of photos and correct color samples for the early Soviet AC. Now the best I can do is IPMS. When I built both of my early Soviet birds the site showed the cockpits in a light grey color and had unrestored photo examples. I found that the RLM02 was a close match. I wish that site still worked, it was the best thing I've seen for the VSS stuff. I guess I'll have to start looking hard again.

I FOUND IT !!!!   

http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/mig3/mig3.html

This is a treasure trove of information on the Mig 3 and you can dig around and really learn a ton from this site. I also found the photo of the correct interior colors. The sides and floor were the color like RLM02, the front of the pit, inst panel and tubing, was black, seat was dark green. If you look at the photo you'll see the grey green on the far left tubing and some of the boxes. As you can see there were 3 primary colors in the early planes. Most people paint them light grey and that's it, but they are grey/green, dark green and black. There is not alot of detail in most of these kits so the colors help make the lack of detail more interesting.

This is a restored bird, but the color scheme is close to correct from what I've found in my research. 

I really need to build another one. I wonder how the lend lease AC were painted inside? Hmm.?

BK

And since yours in Red O2, you might find this link helpful.

http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/mig3/red02.html

Oh, and I think you kit looks stellar!! You have really lit a fire under me to build another Mig.

I've got the landing gear bays and doors painted now. I finally mixed a shade of green that actually looks good (and not minty). Now I wish I had found it sooner because my cockpit had several different shades of green and one of them was kinda minty. 

I still need to paint some rubber on those tires and round out the rest of the details before I gloss this bird.

Almost done.  :)

ManCityFan

Looks great! Maybe your compressor should kick up more often, since the hand painting looks excellent. LOL. Seriously, hope you can sort out your compressor.

 

I think it sorted itself out for me. It does weird stuff once in a while. I painted the nose on the MiG and the black base coat went down in sputters, but I pushed through with a lot of patience and got it down. Next came the Vallejo "Metal" aluminum. It started off spurting, but then it just seemed to let go, and it started spraying  perfectly fine. No idea why.

So I think I probably should have shaken the bottle more, because this aluminum looks more like silver. Not quite what i was expecting, but I'm sure it will dul down after some minor effects are applied.

That aluminum looks almost chrome. I think that's my fault though.

BrandonK

Hand painted or not it is looking SWEET. I totally dig these little Migs. I need to build another one. Maybe a dark camo green one with the black nose or a light green one with a NMF nose. So many options, they all look cool.

And yes the forum was not working last night. I thought it was me as I just did a clean OS install and I was fighting that headache.

BK

 

Thanks! I've had far more practice over the years with the hairy sticks and the AB is still new to me. However, I've never been able to free hand stars before. I'm thrilled about that!

New OS installs are a pain. I've been trying to screw up the motivation to reformat my laptop for years. A third of the software doesn't work right anymore and I barely use it for more than the net these days. 

I tried loging in with my phone, tablet, and laptop with no luck last night. I kept coming back, but no one was posting anywhere so I didn't think I was alone. I wonder what happened?

Hand painted or not it is looking SWEET. I totally dig these little Migs. I need to build another one. Maybe a dark camo green one with the black nose or a light green one with a NMF nose. So many options, they all look cool.

And yes the forum was not working last night. I thought it was me as I just did a clean OS install and I was fighting that headache.

BK

Did anyone else get locked out last night? Looked like the entire forum locked up and I couldnt log in. 

Anyways, here's what I couldn't post last night;

*********************

Hand painted numbers for the tail and hand painted stars for the bottom of the wings. 

I'm quite chuffed with myself. Typically my attemps at such hand painting fail horribly. Good job, me! Lol.

My compressor is acting up again so I went old school and hand painted the bottom. I can live with it.

Toshi

 

 

BrandonK

To prevent any bleeding under you masking, shoot a gloss clear over the edge first, then shoot the red and you will have zero bleeding. Ever.

It is looking really good.

BK

 

 

 

 

Ditto!  I use this technique religiously!

 

 

[Facepalm] why didn't I know about this? 

Okay, well... I got lucky. I didn't have any bleed, but I did have compressor issues. Lol

BrandonK

To prevent any bleeding under you masking, shoot a gloss clear over the edge first, then shoot the red and you will have zero bleeding. Ever.

It is looking really good.

BK

 

Why didn't I know that?? Thank you, Brandon. That seems so obvious and simple. I don't know why I didn't know that! D'oh.

BrandonK

To prevent any bleeding under you masking, shoot a gloss clear over the edge first, then shoot the red and you will have zero bleeding. Ever.

It is looking really good.

BK

 

To prevent any bleeding under you masking, shoot a gloss clear over the edge first, then shoot the red and you will have zero bleeding. Ever.

It is looking really good.

BK

Round two... FIGHT! (Mortal Combat pun)

Okay so, yeah. Second round of primer went on and I decided to paint the topside first this time.

Since I'm painting the topside in white I chose to put down Neutral Grey as a base.

After that I shaded with an off White for to make it easiermfor the pure White to lay over.

Then finally just straight White. The end results are nice and subdued.

I finished with a flat clear coat in preparation for the Red on the outboard upper wings. I traditionally have issues with red bleeding so I'm going to be real careful with my masking from this point forward. I don't want this next step to be any more trouble than it has to be lol. 

Oh you say that now, but you just wait. Your skills will improve. Mine did.  

I wasn't much better than you when I joined up.

Your skill are beyond anything I could even dream about lol

ManCityFan

 

 

Bish

Thats some impresive work thereMike, never seen a scratched canopy before. Hats off to you for that one.

 

 

 

 

  As for unexpected setbacks, they can happen with a straight kit build, and I would imagine scratch building just ups the chances of that happening.  That said, I feel your frustration.  But....pulling off a scratched canopy is something few could say they have done, and many would say they wouldn't even try (like me ).

Your builds are always fascinating, so thanks for sharing.

D

 

Thanks D. As I'm finding out, there was a better way to do this lol. The center section is done and I began painting the pit and the pilot. Shame about the paint getting rubbed off but it just means I'll have to do better.

Bish

Thats some impresive work thereMike, never seen a scratched canopy before. Hats off to you for that one.

 

Well next time I'm going to try Pawel's suggestion. That rear window was trouble.

Bish

Thats some impresive work thereMike, never seen a scratched canopy before. Hats off to you for that one.

 

  As for unexpected setbacks, they can happen with a straight kit build, and I would imagine scratch building just ups the chances of that happening.  That said, I feel your frustration.  But....pulling off a scratched canopy is something few could say they have done, and many would say they wouldn't even try (like me ).

Your builds are always fascinating, so thanks for sharing.

D

Thats some impresive work thereMike, never seen a scratched canopy before. Hats off to you for that one.

Well... two out of three so far. 

I couldn't find my thin acetate and I had to substutute for thicker stuff. This caused a problem with the rear window and I had to sand it. Its now a bit foggy because I couldn't polish it well enough due to the type of acetate it is. (Sigh) so moving forward I am just going to live with it. 

Do to my heavy handedness while sanding I managed to rub off my paint at the trailing edge of the wings, plus I forgot to mask the landing light. So it looks like a repaint is in order..  :/

Once I get the last canopy piece completed I'll finish the pit, paint the pilot, and reprimer for a second time. I should've done this right the first time.

Hahaha! Brindos magic! That's new lol!!

Thank you my friend!  :D

I just love watching the "Brindos" magic happen before Forums members very eyes!  This is just too good.  Great job sir, this is just superb!

Toshi

And finally, the first bit of color. I mixed Sky Blue with White over black primer and I only faded it just a pinch to get some subtle shading. Nothing too fancy, just enough to break up the monotony of the overall color.

I probably should've done the pit first lol.

I entertained the idea of saving it for spares for maybe a minute. Then I thought I'd just put it together for fun. Now its probably going to be in my tiny museum lol.

Since I have no russian A/C in there this will be a welcome addition.  :)

Looking good.  Your scratch building continues to amaze me.  Nice save from what probably would have caused me to chuck it in the spare parts bin. 

D

I had one last thing to do before primer and that was to make my patterns for the acetate.

The simple solution;

I can also use this tape for masking later. :)

The difference between a modern model kit and one from the 80's.

The new Airfix is a dream kit, but this older MiG kit goes together surprisingly well with few EP marks, little flash, and very light seams. As with all kits from that era the detail bits are overly thick and lack any real details, but man is this enjoyable. :D

It's very MiG-like lol.

Yeah it's more work than this kit deserves, but that did keep me busy for a while. Micro engineering is challenging lol. 

Almost wish I'd tossed some more details in that pit lol. The pilot will fill the space however, so I'm not going to fret over it.

Oh ya, that looks the part. Far more work than the kit probably deserves but it looks great.

BK

It's late (or early) and I think I'm done whittling on these canopy frames. They're still a little overly thick, but for this kit I think they'll do fine.

Now I just have to find some suitable acetate to work with. :)

Yeah, I have taken a big bite alright. I've got the center canopy frame built up and I'll sand it to shape later. I've also got the rest of the plane sanded and ready for paint. Just need to finish this canopy and attach some acetate.