The two seater kit got extra detailing in the cockpit area which will be done at a later stage.  

It was decided that the scheme as given in the Trumpeter kit of the Czech Demo MiG-21 UM  aircraft would be very nice and would give a special model. A book was obtained called "Czech Tigers in detail" of the WWP series of Petr Soukop that has more pictures on various demo planes, including the one of the plane numbered "3756" as it first appeared in April 1995; this jet gave many demo's at air shows (see my photo on previous page).

From the pictures in the book it was seen that the upper wing and stabilizer coloring is heavily weathered; it has a wooden brown look with an uneven darker red/brown detailing the various panel lines. Also, the brick pattern as seen on wheel doors and bays and leading edges of the wing pylons are dark red with white brick lines.

First the brown, gray and blue colors were applied. 

In order to weather the upper brown colored flying surfaces the following trick was used:
1. apply 3 coats of acrylic Johnson Clear varnish over these areas, let dry 2 hours.
2. with a brush, apply ample enamel (oil based) paint stripes of the red/brown mix at the various panellines of top of the varnish; let dry 24 hours

3. with a cloth damped in enamel paint thinner, remove the red/brown painted wash stripes as desired in various locations, it may be uneven. This is the weathering effect. Remove in a forward/backward direction of the airflow. 

  please note that also the upper surfaces of the horizontal stabilizers got a similar treatment (not seen on these pictures)

The rear area at the exhaust was given a slightly weathered metal sheen coat with an air brush to simulate the burned off paint at the end of the engine exhaust as seen in real pictures. 

Next steps are final finishing of the cockpit, undercarriages and other details.
The forward part of the ventral fin should be green as usual on many MiGs and the wooden nerve pattern will be applied with the decals as in kit.

the gunsight area

Various cockpit parts are available through the many kits here under construction, and in addition an Eduard cockpit set (number # 32-055 (for the MF) was obtained. This set provides some additional details of cockpit instrument panels and the clocks and dials. However, through combining the various parts, you can make a whole bunch of good detailed cockpits. In certain areas, a converted Trumpeter part is better than a "flat" Eduard etched part, but sometimes the other way around is true. 
Also, by using a combination of decals films as provided by Trumpeter, the Eduard color instrument prints and pieces of scrap, card en sprue, nice results are obtained.

It is difficult to explain here exactly what to do and how it was done, but through the studying pictures, the Eduard instructions and using common sense good results can be obtained.

What can be said is that:
- the fit of the seats in the tubs does not enable the Eduard leg restraints (numbers 5/6) to be used
- the Eduard metal seat straps and belts were not used, tape is better.

After preparation, all parts were give spray of russian cockpit interior green Extracolor X629
UM panel, cut in pieces 

The MiG-21-MF panel, to be installed later in the MF kit

 

First, the overall model got a gloss coat of Johnson Future/PLEDGE / Clear. The decals themselves can be applied in the conventional way. The decals of the "bricks" on a red background were not used, but the provided white patterns decals only, the red background being painted. 

Also, some aluminum "strap"  markings were added from decals from the spare decals box; they are missing on the provided Trumpeter kit decals. 

After recalling, the overall model got a coat of semi gloss varnish (Clear/Future mixed with 15% Tamiya Flat Base) 

The cockpit seats, some seatbelt and straps added and set into the cockpit.

The Czech markings MiG-21 UM model is now finished and has a very special scheme....

Now.. still a Trumpeter MiG-21MF kit to be made. But for now we leave the MiGs.....

Check out also my MiG-21 pages in 1/72 scale

Back to MiG-21 page 1....