No worries. Add the badge. And it looks awesome!!!

I will be doing a posting about the 2010-2011 GB later today or tomorrow.

See ya

Scott

Yow, sounds like an Accurate Miniatures kit, builds up into a great model if you go EXACTLY by the instuctions, any devation and the parts aren't going to fit. Still she looks great to me!

Always thought the little MiG had a nice 'hot rod' look to her that you captured well, and I love the sharp looking white and red paint scheme.

Randy -- top build! She looks great! Congrats on a tidy build that really looks the part! I wish I'd had the chance to get mine done but I seemed to lack motivation with all sorts of stuff piling up around me, and in truth I've only finished two models since the early part of the year (and started a lot more...) One of these days it'll get done!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

First off my apologies to M1 A1 A2 Tanker and all in the group for not meeting my commitment to the group. My first time not completing a build for a group and my first MiG build.

Allow me to say this ICM kit was both a blast to build and torture at the same time. The reason I say this, the blast part was the detail the kit offered, the torture side was this is NOT a kit for the meek. I consider myself an intermediate modeler and this kit, I think, needs advanced skill levels. I couldn't build it as I wanted because of some small mistakes I made that snowballed and wouldn't allow me to build it with an open engine cowl. The good thing is I know what I did wrong and I have 2 more of this kit on the shelf and will build it again much better this time. Anyway I am happy with the way the model turned out, and the things I learned with it along the way. So with out further ado here are the pictures.

12 Guards IAP Air Defense (PVO) of Moscow March 1942.

Thanks for looking guys

Ok just finished up the MiG-3 I will post pictures in the morning, need some natural light for this build.

Ok finished putting the decals on and painting the sliding canopy. I have to say the ICM decals laid down beautifully for me no solvent needed. However they are very thin and delicate breaking apart easily. The arrows on this sides of the nose were torture to apply. Each one broke into 3 or 4 sections . Anyway I got lucky and pieced them together and with a bit of touch up they should look ok. The star decals went on like a dream no trouble at all. Anyway should have some finished pictures in the next couple of days.

Gamera thanks its been getting very old feeling bad, and not doing anything.

Anyway here's a picture of the MiG, I painted forest green then over sprayed with white winter camo and the red wing tips. My plan, when the Tamiya paint is fully dry, this evening I hope, is to sand some of the white off so the green with show though where crew would walk and some on the leading edge of the wing. The it will be on to a coat of future, decals and weathering.

Good to see you're feeling better Randy and please post the photos! I'd love to see them even if you don't take the badge.

Well guys I know I have blown the end date by well miles and miles, but I finally got some paint on the MiG-3, and if our host will allow me, I would like to post finished  pictures and a few progress pictures here even though I cant claim the badge. This is the first time I haven't completed a GB and I am sorry. I will take a few pictures of the paint job in the morning and post them.

My MiG-3 is ready for masking and paint so I should have some pictures Tuesday and will hopefully get it finished by Friday Oct 1st. Talk about taking it right to the end geeze.

Not much of a progress report but here is one WIP picture got the radiator scoop all ready to go on, I am slow with this PE stuff but I like the results I can get with it.

I did take a couple of pictures of the front of it but they didn't come out well and I glued the scoop on before I found the pictures were bad . I have done some filling and sanding on the tail seams and should be fitting the canopy in the next couple of days.

My build is progressing and getting close to paint, and I did find the paints I will be needing too, finally.

WIP pictures soon

Gamera I did see them in my newest catalog and am planning to order them soon, thanks for letting me know.

Ok work on the MiG has been slow going due to very warm weather and life however I do have an update.

Got the gaps all filled and sanded, the tail feathers on it, and a few other bits and pieces added.

Control surfaces are next on the list

The engine with the rear cowl added still looks good.

I think I have out done myself on this cockpit as far as detail goes, I really like it. I will build this one with open canopy most assuredly.

Randy: looking forward to seeing your MiG done. BTW noticed that the Soviet ground crew set from ICM is back in the Squadron catalog if you still want a set.

Hey guys I finally got back to the MiG and filled those canyon gaps with some shaved plasticard and got some putty on them. I will get some sanding done tomorrow and see what I end up with, more than likely more putty and sanding will be in order.

I want to thank our host too for allowing me to finish my build here.

M1 A1 A2 Tanker

Hey      Jmart

     Since you really haven't started I'd say wait till the next GB in OCT. But if you had your heart set on this one then go ahead and build. Your choice.

 See ya

Scott

 

Hi Scott - I will wait till October, time just flew this Spring for me. I have plenty of Soviet stuff in the stash. Next time I will start AND finish on time ;) cheers, James

So I just wanted to throw out there that if you happen to do this again and I'm around to do it, I know exactly what I want to do thanks to a trip to the hobby store: Trumpeter 1:72 TU160 Blackjack bomber. That thing is HUGE! $150, but man that would look awesome hanging from the ceiling!

Hey

      Jmart

     Since you really haven't started I'd say wait till the next GB in OCT. But if you had your heart set on this one then go ahead and build. Your choice.

See ya

Scott

Sorry I could not be more of a participant as life, health issues, etc took me away from the workbench for the better part of the Spring. Some great builds! I truly enjoyed browsing thru the build pages.

I never got going on my little soviet Alpha class sub (besides the proverbial sprue washing and planning), a shame since we needed more floaty thingies!

Let me know if I can continue by build; all in all was a very enjoyable GB. Many types of eras, vehicles and types (not to mention build techniques!). I would join in your next "soviet" GB and will really finish next time! LOL

Cheers!

Randy, as someone who can't look at a model without magnifying specs on anymore, I symapthise entirely! It'll be next week before I can do more than fiddle with models on an easiest-come first-dealt-with basis, as I'm snowed under with work and stuff for uni. But hopefully next week I'll get a couple of free afternoons and be able to make some real progress on several of the current bench-sitters.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

PS: The Early MiG Fighters In Action book arrived -- I love the colour in these books now!

Alrighty then the Mig-3 is back on the bench and making headway, I hope to have some WIP pictures the first part of the week.

Thunderbolt I got out a magnifying glass and some good light to look at my pictures again, I guess I should have listened to my gut and not my eyes. I think you are right that gap should not be there  I think the shadows or the fact that the BW pictures are hard to decipher at times. Of course couldnt be my eyes could it ? With that said I prolly wouldnt have had the gaps as bad as they are had I done a bit more sanding to remove that gap.

Hi Randy,

Gadzooks, what gaps! Yikes... I think if mine lines up that way I'll let the curved contours line up, file the straight ones flush and shim them with strip plastic. Sheesh, why did they engineer the wing so complicated?

I checked the pics of the restored MiG-3 in Classic Wings and see no evidence of a gap below the cockpit -- a lateral strip where the subassemblies come together, but nothing resembling a gap. Hmmm, I always knew this would be a toughie to assemble, but I'm up for the challenge!

Hang in there, we'll have a strong pair of Arctic Hunters to defend the Motherland against the Facist Hordes.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Gamera thanks for your comments, I am looking forward to round 2 of this group. For that one I hope not to be in too many groups as I am now.

Mike sounds like you are way too busy building, kind of like me I guess. I too really like the 02 scheme, that NMF nose looks really good to me too. Maybe I will do one with the second kit I now have in my grimy hands.

Red drove me crazy too clogging my airbrush too. What I finally did was thin it more than I do other colors by 10 to 15%, takes more coats to cover but my brush doesnt clog anymore.

Here are 2 pictures of my troubled spots I am not sure if I caused it or the kit has this problem. When I dry fitted parts C4 and C5 to the wing the fit at the leading edge was good, however when I dry fitted the wing to the fuselage I found some huge caps at the wing root and at the lower cowling. Now when I pulled C4 and C5 on the fuse so the gaps there were gone the leading edge had a humongous gap. I messed around with them and tried to balance out the gaps to no avail. Oh I did find that the gap  under the cockpit is suppose to be there from pictures I looked at.

Hi Randy, yes indeed, it'll be good to do something differnt, and this certainly is. Right, you're doing "For the Motherland," I'm thinking of doing "02" at the top of the same page. I was going to do a camo scheme but with all the masking I have to do on other projects I would welcome something simpler. "02" has the red tops of the wings and a natural metal engine cowling, so there's plenty of variety, plus she has the rigged antenna wires so I get to stretch some EZline.

I was spraying til 1am last night, shading and fading a tank and mixing a red for the tail of an F-4 and the spinner of my S-199. Should have undercoated in white for luminoscity. Still, that was valuable experience, it's the first time in 30 years I've sprayed primary red -- it used to jam my AB instantly when I was a teenager, no matter what kind of paint I was using, I used to think it was a synthetic pigment that had different characteristics to other colours...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Mike and Randy: looking forward to seeing more updates!

Scott: I joined late of course but I'll have to say I enjoyed the GB and thought it went quite well. Some great models came out of it.

Thunderbolt379 Mike ! glad to see you are going to finish the MiG The markings I will be using are on page 7 #10 the bottom of the page.

As for mine I ran into a problem spot that I think I will be filling with some plasticard and a bit of putty. I will post a picture of it later today, not sure if I created the trouble or if its the kit. And maybe you have a better idea of how to fix it.

Thanks, Scott -- I'll try to get the cockpit painted and the main assembly along this week.

Randy -- did you make a final decision on markings for yours??? Sorry, I'm a bit out of touch here.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Yep. Go for it!!!

Hi Scott,

After months of being blocked, I have finally managed to get back to my ICM MiG-3. Earlier in the year I prepped the parts and assembled the wings and a couple of subassemblies associated with the engine, but wasn't able to resume. Does this count as enough of a start to continue with the GB?

I sprayed the cockpit and fuselage interior today, after some research on the web and in print. There is evidence that some MiG-3 cockpits were painted in Underside Blue, and the bird recently restored to flying status in Russia appears to have been finished this way, so that was my choice. I mixed the shade in Tamiya acrylics, 8 parts XF-2 Flat White to one part XF-54 Dark Sea Grey to one part X-14 Sky Blue.

I'll brush paint the seat backing in leather, there are some other items to paint such as the side panels and radio boxes in flat black, and the instrument panel, which is designed to accept a decal.

Please let me know if it's okay to continue this build under the auspices of the GB.

Cheers, Mike/TB379