Academy's 1/48 scale
MiG-21PF

by Timothy Holwick

Academy's 1/48 scale MiG-21MF is available online from Squadron

This is the Academy 1/48 Mig-21PF. This was a commission build for Graham Dorland, the founder of Airborne Express.

I met Graham through selling him one of my model on Ebay. He then commissioned me to build this model. What makes this project unique is that Graham recently purchased a real Mig-21PF that had served in the Polish Air Force and he wanted the model painted and marked the way he would have the real one done. Graham can be seen proudly standing next to his recently purchased and assembled Polish Mig-21PF early version.

Graham is an aviation enthusiast and his large "man-cave" attests to that. He has hundreds of models that range from simple purchases on Ebay, to one of a kind manufacturer models. I must admit, His model collection is more varied and unique than most museums I have been to.

Graham wanted me to use the Verlinden update kit for this model which includes resin and photo etched parts. For his particular model, which was to be painted and displayed like his real MIG (which has yet to be painted silver and marked in Russian insignias), he wanted all the speed brakes closed, the flaps and all control surfaces in standard flight configuration. So much of the Verlinden set was not used. However, particular attention was given to the very nice resin cockpit. We decided to leave the canopy unglued so as to make easy visual access to the detailed cockpit when desired.

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Thumbnail panels:

The Academy kit was an enjoyable build and has nice details in the panel lines and rivets. More enjoyable was getting the opportunity to meet Graham.

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2012 by Timothy Holwick
Page Created 25 June, 2012
Last Updated 25 June, 2012

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