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My another MiG series collection,1/72 MiG-19PM.
The only 1/72 “Famer E” kit available in the market now is from a Czech
brand “Bilek”.
The kit was released as one of the Bilek “Farmer” kit series
in 2001,with accurate panel lines and detailed parts such as landing gears and
wheels.
Otherwise, I used the customized PE part from Extratech, which
improved the small parts a lot.
Click on
images below to see larger images
During my construction, I’d like to aware those who want to
make this kit several points as below:
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The kit assembles very well,
except for the nose area. What’s more, the section of nose area appeared to
be elliptic. In order to correct it, I had to apply a lot of plastic card on
the nose and sand it after drying thoroughly. The nose landing gear bay
also needed to be scratch-build.
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The 4 RS-2U missiles are quite
rough. I replaced the fins with PE parts after a careful part-cleaning. Of
course, exhausts on the missiles and fairings on the PE landing gear covers
have to be scratch-built.
-
Some wiring work will greatly
improve the look of landing gear. I also scratch-built some landing lamps
with clear sprues.
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Rescribing work of the hatches
near the top of fuselage will be a challenge. No tool is suitable because the
raising fin on the back became the drag. I rescribed them only by a sewing
needle controlled by my fingers. There were no rivets on the original
kit, but
I think some riveting work will improve the look of this 50s-60s aircraft.
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I didn’t add too many details
such as a resin ejection seat in the cockpit as I chose the closed
condition. The original canopy parts of the kit are absolutely wrong. The
height is too high while width is too wide. I used a Pavla Models vacuum canopy
here which was also incorrect for the same problem, but much improved. The
vacuum canopy was first cut into 2 parts as windscreen and canopy.
Then
sanding from bottom to decrease the height, and from the cut area to reduce
the angel of windscreen. This procedure cost a lot of time as continuous
sanding/dry-fitting was necessary. But this procedure is the most important
step in the built, as in my opinion canopy is the “eye” of an aircraft
model.
-
There are many cooling air
intakes with different types and shapes on MiG-19.Most of them are skipped
in the kit so I had to make them by plastic rods with drills.
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The ladder was made by 0.35mm
brass rods. Fortunately, the structure is quite simple while wheel stops are
PE parts from UK Flightpath.
Next up is painting.
The MiG-19PM does not have as many
interesting choice as the MiG-19S or P, as most of them were unpainted only with
a vanish surfacing. I chose the most colourful one of them," Black 1113”
belonged to Former Czechoslovak Air Force in 1965.
All paints are from Gunze Sangyo Mr.Color. #8 Silver+#1 White as the main colour
of aluminum, with many shading colours created by #8 Silver+#2 Black and #8
Siliver+#41 Redbrown.
The decal provided by Bilek is made
by Czech Tally Ho!, which is already quite famous for its aftermarket goods
nowadays. No complaint can be found as the quality is the top class.
Clear, thin
and quite easy to use with the help of Gunze Mark Softer.
Washing material is Tamiya enamel
colours while another Tamiya goods is used for weathering, Taimiya weathering
material sets. I highly recommend the 2 sets as the powder particle is very fine
and stickiness is quite satisfying.
After finishing it for a while, I
found some pictures of the real bird in a Slovak air museum on Internet, which
proved that the Tally Ho! instruction sheet is totally wrong. The blue radar
area on the nose is red on that sheet...
I began my build on December 2, 2006 and finished it on January 6, 2007, in one
month with 5 weekends and a 3 days new year vacation used.
Any comments or critiques are
welcome! Feel free to contact me.
Yufei Mao
Click on
images below to see larger images
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