Bilek's 1/72 scale
MiG-19PF

by Yufei Mao

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This is my recent work,1/72 Bilek MiG-19PM.Also another new comer to my 1/72 MiG series collection.

MiG-19PM,called as “Farmer E”,is the intercepetor type in the MiG-19 family.Different from MiG-19P, two 30mm cannons are deleted so a PM usually carries four RS-2U(AA-1 “Alkali”) missiles.

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.

During my construction, I’d like to aware those who want to make this kit several points as below:

1. 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 was also need to be scratch-build.

2. The 4 RS-2U missiles are quite rough.I replaced the fins by 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.

3. Some wiring work will greatly improve the look of landing gears.I also scratch-built some landing lamps by clear sprues

4. Rescirbing 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.

5. 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 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 firtly 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.

6. 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.

7. 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 Czechslovak Air FoRce in 1965.

All paints are from Gunze Sangyo Mr.Color.#8 Siliver+#1 White as the main colour of aluminum, with many shading colours created by #8 Siliver+#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 stickness 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 rador area on the nose is red on that sheet...

I began my build on December 2, 2006 and finished it on Janurary 6, 2007, in one month with 5 weekends and a 3 days new year vocation used.

As my first work in 2007,wish you a best 2007 and hope you like it!

References:

Czech 4+ Publication 4+021 MiG-19P

And some photos from the Internet

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images: 

Model, Images & Text Copyright © 2007 by Yufei Mao