MiG-29 Fulcrum

by

Jan Mikes

MiG-29

Academy's 1/48 scale MiG-29 Fulcrum is available online from Squadron.com

Here is my recently finished 1/48 MiG-29 Fulcrum in Czech Air Force camouflage scheme.

This is my first model after about seven years. I decided to come back to the hobby after my accidental last year’s visit to Israeli Air Force museum (near Beersheva in the Negev desert). The history connected with the planes, the colors and the beauty of the planes made me want to have similar museum at home for my everyday pleasure.

So after I came back home, I found my old modeling equipment and started to work on MiG-29 that I started and later abandoned in 1995.

My MiG-29 is the Academy 1/48 scale kit. I do not want to get into reviewing the kit because it was done by many people many times before. For me it is a beautifully engineered model with good fit …just cool looking.

The only major disappointment is cockpit area and ejection seat particularly. But again, this is something notoriously known for anybody who has seen academy MiG-29 or Su-27 kits.

The kit was built without any improvement. The only area where I tried to add some detail was cockpit. Adding a new ejection seat is a must given the sorry look of the original Academy thing. I used the beautiful Pavla Models 1/48 K-36 ejection seat.





 

The model depicts MiG-29 of *** ‘tiger’ 1. letka (flight) based in Zatec airbase, Czech Republic, in 1993.

The total of 24 MiG-29s were delivered to Czechoslovakia from the Soviet Union in 1989. They remained in service for a very short period. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992, 24 MiG-29s were split evenly between Czechia and Slovakia.

The Czech government and military authorities found cost of operation of only 12 machines too costly. To make Czech MiG-29 squadron fully operational, at least 24 machines would be needed.

New weapons acquirements from Russia was politically unacceptable and supplies of spare parts from Russia seemed unreliable and furthermore, so the government decided to sell twelve Czech MiGs to Poland.

The MiG-29 era of the Czech Air Force ended in 1994, i.e. only after about five years.

However, I think that MiG-29 in four-color Czech camo and with No.1 ‚Tiger‘ flight badges on tails and jet intakes makes a beautiful subject.

The markings come from Propagteam decal sheet. You can build about any Czech/Czechoslovak MiG-29 using this sheet. The sheet also contains stencil markings for one airplane (100+ stencils).

As for the weathering, I have practically done none as this particular plane had been only three years in service in 1992. I accentuated panel lines with pencil. I also tried to do some pre-shading, but as this was new technique to me, I airbrushed too much of upper coats of color, so the pre-shading does not show up.

Well, maybe next time…

So that’s it. I hope you enjoy my MiG.
 

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Model, Images and Article Copyright © 2002 by Jan Mikes
Page Created 10 November 2002
Last updated 04 June 2007

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