...Good thing I finished stenciling last night...I used the 20 or so stencils that came in the weekend kit, and then raided my spares to add a few more for interest. At least for the pylons, they look bare without them, even though most Cuban mig-21s don't show many stencils. The Aztec decals went pretty good. They were real slow to respond to Micro set/sol, so I tried some Gunze Mr. Mark softer and almost ruined some spots, so I have a bit of paint/decal touch up to do. I do wish the decal sheet would give you more multiple numbers and fin flashes/insignias, as there are 20 schemes or so, but you can only make 2 or 3 at the most, and only 2 Mig-21s, even though there are markings for 8 or so..??

two weeks to go from yesterday gentlemen... the home stretch,,,

Never tried to gloss coat something like that- looking forward to the photos of how she's turning out.

I am looking forward to more photos of your work

Castro's Mig is now gloss coated. I tried a new gloss coat combination and was pretty impressed. Tamiya Clear gloss thinned with Mr. Color thinner. This was sprayed on top of Gunze Aqueous base coats thinned with its own water/alcohol thinner and there was no ill affects when I sprayed the gloss. It went down smooth and leveled out nice. We'll see how long it takes to dry. I do know Tamiya's gloss coat thinned with X-20a kinda sucks, so this was a nice surprise.

Yes, some communist bloc colors were quite garish.

You know Nathan and Carlos I got the chance to see a Russian Hind around 23 years ago when I was stationed at Ft. Hood. It wasn't a museum piece either as it was a flyable captured aircraft and now that I'm thinking about it , the blue on the bottom side of that thing was almost flourescent. The cockpit was the same way.

They usually dolook better in person, unless you have a first rate photo booth set up.

Thanks Mustang. I really hate photographing the blue too. It never comes out right, and does look freaky. Not as bad in real life.

Man Nathan! Just got over here to check your build out and I'm glad I did. Wow!! Nice application on the camo man! That bright blue those guys use still freaks me out at how bright it is. lol

Thanks Stik and Gamera. Good to hear there will be no issues with the Aztec decals. The camo was certainly a challenge. Many different colors that I'm not used to working with, since I usually build WW II stuff. Its gonna be tough to bring all these colors together for weathering.

Ohhhhhhh, very nice Nathan!

Nathan, that camo job looks great. I usually prefer freehand soft edge, so you are right up my alley there. As far as I am concerend it looks just right. Aztec Decals are pretty opaque so the white base is not a necessity. But it wont hurt either.

Nice Camo lines GM. And thanks for the help on the Stencil issue. I got the main camo done and some shading with the airbrush. I have just a few small touch ups now. I used Gunze's buffing metalizers for the exhaust and while buffing it seemed to leave some scratches that look a little odd, but I think I'll just leave it. I air brushed the colors freehand, because masking those small intricate camo patterns looked impossible. Some photos showed a somewhat soft line anyway, so I think it looks acceptable:

I did paint most of the rudder white in case the decal ends up being somewhat transparent. Stik? Think its necessary with these Aztec decals?

Gloss coat up next!

GM: That does look really cool, looking forward to more photos.

GM, that is looking very good! I like that camo scheme! Not too much farther for you now.

I tried looking at piccies for you of early Migs. Apparently they were hard to take and from far away.

Definitely not Cyrillic.

Minimal too, as in just a few on covers that open etc.

I would think that they'd be in Spanish, but just guessing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R53S0VHQ1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dDkFqdzuSw

I have no idea Nathan but she sound really cool no matter which way you go there!

That is IF the Cubans did apply the stencils after camoing the Migs.

So...delivered in NMF with Russian stencils, then painted in Cuba and Spanish Stencils re-applied? Well, I don't think I can find AM stencils printed in Spanish. Only Russian, Czech, and Hungarian so far...

That is a good question... Seeing how the alphabet difference alone, Cyrillic vs. Latin, let alone the language differences. I would imagine that they should be in Spanish and in Latin letters.

Yeah I'm mostly ticked about the stencils. Kind of prominent on Jets. Another 14 bucks!! So would Cuban Migs have Russian stencils?

Cool! Looking forward to the photos. Masks are pretty essential, but pre made ones are just a shortcut to save time. A roll of Tamiya masking tape and a good xacto blade will see you thru many projects for the cost of one pre made mask.

Dang it! These stinkin Eduard Weekend kits are no longer such a bargain. First off, I consider masks almost essential, so I had to purchase those separately, and now, I just realized I need to buy $12 worth of stencils on a separate decal sheet, as they are too damn lazy to throw those in now!! I guess I got all this resin for cheap off ebay...but still.

I have the camo all done, just need to do some touch ups and some post shading. Pics coming up soon.

Getting close there now Nathan! I really like that underside blue!

Alright, progress! I finished spraying and masking the non-metallic parts, then sprayed the blue. Here's the underside:

I swear this blue color changes with every shot...Here's a close up showing more of the true color, along with some wheel well detail and some custom added wires:

The blue isn't quit dry yet, and the scheme calls for a hard demarcation line betweeen the upper and lower colors, so I have to still wait a bit til I can mask. But i did mess around with the topside colors a bit to try and get them right:

Here's the color line up. I had to custom mix the blue and the dark red/brown. The rest are right outa the jar:

Gear legs all primed up. I added some brake lines and hydraulic lines:

I actually can't do a darn thing till the paint dries, I even have the missle's painted and waiting.

Maybe...

Isn't he the same guy trying to start an early jets Group Build?

Speaking of Hawks, has anybody seen or heard from AJD3560? He was building a Hawk 75 for this GB, but has not posted any work here since late last year and no posts on FSM since early February.