ESCI 1/48 MiG-23UM
Courtesy of [b]G. Galvan and P. François, Eagle Press.[/b]
The gallery of the "exotic" aircraft of Eagle Press is now enriched with a new subject, the MiG-23UM, NATO code "Flogger C". The Flogger is still the backbone of many Air Forces in the world, but not still of Russia, being less brilliant but technologically more advanced than the famous MiG-21.
Negative hero of many battles, on Sirti, Tirrenian Sea (Utica island), Lebanon and the Persian Gulf, the Flogger has some interest by the modeling market, which has materialized in various kits in 1/72 scale, of which most are MiG-23MF and ML, and of the MiG-27 Italeri.
While 1/48 the kit of MiG-23S and 27 (probably of Czech origin) has been commercialized by ESCI. The MiG-23S model from Hobbycraft can still be found with a little difficulty, while the MiG-27 is still widely available with the brand "Idea".
Having come in possession of a set of the English Scale Cast for the ESCI kit of the MiG-23 two seater, we decided to put it together. In effect this is one of the "good" ESCI kits, not exceptional in detail, but fairly precise. The box is titled to the MiG-23S Flogger B, and is good enough for the realization of a two seater MiG-23UM Flogger.
The box contains a hundred gray plastic parts, with panels lightly engraved and simplified details but fairly precise. The conversion n.48-003 of the Scale Cast, furnishes the complete nose antecedent containing the cockpit, the instrument panel, the consoles and the lengthened buckle in resin, the seats in Metal and the transparent canopies in acetate.
The necessary interventions for the assembly of the conversion consist of among the other things, the elimination of the wall before the fuselage, necessary to fix the antecedent nose. The rest requires the elimination of the original buckle of the model and of a portion of the inferior antecedent part of the fin. The latter step is required to adapt it to the dorsal shape of the two seater. To strengthen the back of the fuselage, weakened from the elimination of the dorsal spine, we added some of plasticard.
Before mounting the nose, it needs to be smoothened. It's good to pass a hand of spray putty to render the surface less porous and more similar to that of the plastics. Another preliminary operation is the incision of the paneling of the model, effected with the Squadron scribe.
The inside details of the cockpits of the Scale Cast set are good as far as the instrument panels are concerned, but we must add details to the lateral consoles and to the frontal lip of the rear instrument panel. The KM-1 seats are not glamorous, but acceptable with the addition of the belts and of buckles.
The colour of the interiors of the cockpit is the famous Clear Blue Green characteristic of the Soviet cockpits and we have realized it with l'80% of Gunze Sangyo H67, 10% of Gunze Sangyo H58 and 10% of Gunze Sangyo H326. The control columns are in semi-gloss Black, while the seats are in Light Grey with the cushion in Sand, the belts in Green and the ejection handles in Red.
No particular problems are created in joining the front resin part with the fuselage of the kit, and it could be caulked and systematized comfortably before mounting the air intakes. The closing of the up and down parts of the fuselage of the kit is not easy, and requires many dry proofs, and doesn't spare the ugly use of cyanoacrilate and putty. It's simple to assemble the wings, which are movable, but we fixed them open. The fin and of the tailplanes are easily put together. We have finished the back openings for the wings with adhesive ribbon.
The famous landing gear of the Flogger, so "baroque" - is well done in the kit, and the only problem is that the look of our MiG-23 appears to be that of a crane. So we have shortened the main landing gear of 3mm to render the characteristic "sat" look. The colour of the gear is aluminium while the wheels are of the classical Green 34096 (Gunze Sangyo H302). Under the right wing, in front of the pylon, we have scratchbulit the fuse of the RWR, present only on the two seater, with the sprue.
The inspiration for the subject of our model has come from an Internet site about the Indian Air Force (Rupak's INDIAN AIR FORCE Page - (address: http:// www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/), where we have seen a photo of a MiG-23UM of the IAF, MS code 211, taking off, belonging to the No.10 Squadron "The Winged Daggers," formerly composed for best part by MiG-23BN attack aircraft.
Thanks to the help of the webmaster, Rupak Chattopadhyay, e-mail address:- (rchatto@hotmail.com), we have been able to paint our Flogger accurately. The colour scheme, which appears in a relatively good condition on the photo, is of desert type, with wide bands of Sand, Green and Brown.
Identified respectively by us as Sand FS 33578 (Gunze H79), Light Green FS 34102 (Gunze H303) and Brown FS 30045 (80% Gunze H72+ 20% Black). For the under surfaces we adopted the Light Blue Gray.
Date: 08/25/2006
Owner: Webmaster
Size: 9 items
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