Warsaw Pact Fishbeds
Vol. 1

Armycast, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Marcus Thornley

HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Squadron.com

I will not cover the background of the MIG-21 as it has been covered in great detail by more authoritative sources than myself. Suffice to say it was/is a small, nimble, powerful fighter quite capable of clubbing bigger more powerful fighters from the sky, not without its own shortcomings though. Modified variants are still in service today sporting Helmet mounted sights, MFDs, HUDs,multi-mode pulse Doppler radars, actively guided BVR missiles and Israeli jammers. All this in addition to the WVR IR missiles and gun that they always had. The legacy continues with the development of the Guizhou_JL-9.

Contrary to what their name might imply Armycast does not just focus on land based military modelling. They have a nice range of military and aviation based  resin sets and decals. I recommend the reader to spend a little time on Armycasts website and facebook  page having a look at some of the other things they do also.

The set in question  is their Warsaw Pact Fishbeds in 1/48 scale. The set comes supplied in a plastic zip lock bag with an instruction booklet and two large decal sheets, my first impression was simply, 'WOW'. All the different national markings seen in one place is stunning.

The set has options for 49 aircraft options from 9 Warsaw pact nations spanning the early 1960's through to 1990 . The decals themselves are superbly printed by the BOA Agency. The colour density and registration is perfect. The carrier film is nice and thin and closely cropped on the markings themselves.

Of the 49 possible schemes the aircraft represented are MiG-21F-13 / PF / FL / PFM & the two seat U (not technically a Fishbed as it carried the NATO reporting name of 'Mongol'). There are a few kits you could apply them to but if you are going to add to your stash, have a look at some kit reviews for the fantastic Eduard family of Fishbeds, MiG-21 PF & MiG-21 PFM, long story short, you will not find better kits of the latter Fishbeds.

If you are wanting a decal sheet for your MiG-21 aircraft that is value for money I think you can stop looking now. 49 aircraft options, 9 nations, the booklet has 19 pages of profiles. Some sheets you might be able to build two or three models from the supplied decals, more if you supply your own national markings to use up the remaining options. Not here though, there are enough markings for 1 Albanian aircraft. 2 each for Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, USSR and Yugoslavia. Czechoslovakia and Romania have 3 options each. That's 19 aircraft you can build from this decal set, less than 1 Euro per build.

There is plenty of variation in there also, natural metal finish, painted aluminium, grey and camouflaged airframes, there are all the relevant tactical numbers, squadron badges and crests provided. Stencil data is not provided and I can understand that, the sheer number of different nationalities precludes this.

The instruction booklet is printed in colour and has painting instructions and decal placement information for all 49 aircraft. The colour reference chart calls out FS colours and Gunze Sangyo Mr Color. Referencing all the pale colours from their shades alone can be a little difficult so I am thankful the aircraft profiles and colours are alphabetised.

A superb set of quality decals with a great many options, you will be able to build a bunch of different looking jets from this single set, recommended. If after finishing this set you still want more then prepare yourself for Armycasts Vol.2 set.

Thanks to Armycast for the review samples.

Text and Images Copyright © 2015 by Marcus Thornley
Page Created 10 August, 2015
Last updated 10 August, 2015

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