# 1/48 Hobby Boss Su-17 Fitter & Eduard MiG-21BIS WiP



## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

This started as a "Stay fit - build a Fitter" fun post in the Coronavirus thread, but as work progressed, I thought I might as well give a more detailed report here.
The Hobby Boss kit, released in 2017, is a pretty straightforward, but well-detailed kit with a comprehensive set of payload options. Two pitfalls I discovered during assembly: The shock cone has tabs that result in the target camera oriented sideways instead of pointing down, so just cut them off; and the color scheme for the Bagram bird is mostly fantasy – just get the instructions for the Kitty Hawk kit from the net.
I build my planes gear up; fortunately the fit of the landing gear doors is pretty perfect. I just needed to add two covers for the small recesses in the fuselage, cut from plastic sheet.



The kit received a quick & dirty pre-shading in black, which got completely lost later in the process, and the underside was covered with light sea grey (all colors are Tamiya acrylics).



I then applied a negative post-shading inside the panels with a mix of 2 parts light blue and 1 part gloss white.



The gloss white adds nice specular variations to the pattern.



The underside was "masked" with worms of blu tac, and work on the camo scheme began. Sand & green #1:



Green #2:



And chocolate brown:



I mix the base colors a tad darker and dirtier than I want the final appearance to be, and then apply a mix of (flat) base color and gloss white in a 2:1 ratio, thinned 1:1 for easier application in thin layers for tonal & specular variation.

Current state of affairs:


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

As long as no harm by a dremel occured in the making of this thread....


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

The last weeks were swamped with work, so I did not do much modeling. Today I picked up the Fitter again and worked on the natural metal section on the aft of the fuselage. Base paint is Vallejo Dull Aluminium, aka the fastest way to clog your airbrush. Selected panels were masked and buffed up with metalizer powder for a shinier finish, then stains were added with Tamiya's weathering pigments.



After chasing around the web for a set of stencils for this kit, I got hold of an Authentic Decals set, only to discover that the majority of them is ridiculously oversized...


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

I'm slowly approaching the end of the decal phase. After finding the Authentic Decals' instruction to be a mess & a good portion of the decals unusable because of the wrong size, I must have collected about any Su-22 photo available on the net to see what I could do with the rest, only then to find out that Eduard provides the full instructions of their old Su-22 kit to download on their webpage, including a comprehensive overview of the stencil placement. I was still stuck with the inaccurate AD decals, but at least I could do a better approximation of the real thing now. Also, while the aircraft is in service, the stencils seem to disappear pretty quickly, and there are too many of them anyway...



I don't want to let it unmentioned that technically, the AD decal are a dream, with clear printing and good coverage, and a super thin carrier film.

I also decided to pull some artistic license and put these Multiple Bomb Racks on my bird. Hardcore builders will grab some resin aftermarket parts, but I found the kit's parts absolutely pleasing. Each rack is 35 small parts and took me an evening to clean up & put together.



The kit comes with a wide range of nicely molded weapons, including a recce pod that originally belongs on the unit I build.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

Decals received a flat coat and a slight overspray of the respective base color to tie them in.



Still lots of detail work ahead.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

With all touch-ups on the fuselage done, it was time to install the droptanks, B-8M rocket pods and scratchbuilt barrels of the NR-30 cannons.



I also received an Aerobonus soviet pilot figure, but it seemed to have been sculpted after a lanky 10 year old boy and looked very lost in the spacious cockpit, so I'm looking for a different solution.


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

Russian planes rock! Fantastic work with the airbrush.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

I ran into another obstacle after finding out that using the multi bomb rack would have required cutting the pylons from the outer wing fences. I'm considering open heart surgery on the kit or installing two more drop tanks on the stations.

But I'm still satisfied with the overall look.



The kit's cockpit is quite good, especially for a closed canopy build. I just added a canvas cover made from Tamiya tape and made the target projector thingy from leftover parts.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

While the Su-17 is waiting for a pilot, I started on another iconic soviet design.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

The top primed with Tamiya light grey and weathering pass applied with a thinned 1:1 light grey and gloss white mix.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

Camo #2


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

Camo #3





The huge advantage of the MiG-21 is that there are a million camo schemes to choose from.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

Canopy painted


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

Small update with the anti-glare area in front of the canopy and the engine section painted.



Vallejo Dull Aluminium was used as a base color for the exhaust, with a light overspray of a mix of Tamiya flat black and brown. I also applied the stencils from the hungarian decal set and I'm waiting now for croatian roundels.

I use thinned black Schmincke gouache for the panel lines, since it is odorless and can be easily corrected. I'm aiming for a "barely there", irregular look that I prefer over the stark "blueprint" appearance of an enamel wash. The great quality of the engravings on the Eduard kit makes this step very rewarding.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

I finally mustered the courage to assemble the sensor probes for the Fitter & MiG.



The Trumpeter kit had photoetch parts; for the MiG I had to cut the fins from 0.25 mm Styrene strips, since I chose the cheaper Weekend edition that comes without the extra detail parts.

Getting everything more or less lined up was a bit nerve-wrecking in both cases.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

After failing to source convincing aftermarket pilots, I decided to fire up my clone factory again. Did some gene splicing first by removing the voluptuos vest from a Hasegawa F-14 pilot and building up the iconic soviet harness pattern with adhesive foil strips and leftover etch parts. The first cast was painted for the croatian MiG.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

I received a set of Begemot decals containing the Croatian roundels. They are for the two-seater version, so the number is inaccurate and the decals appear to be a tad on the large side, but it's not like anybody can find this out over the internet, right?



I airbrushed some Tamiya gloss on the spots where the decals were to go, and with the help of Mr. Mark Softer, they laid down with no problems. A light overspray with Tamiya flat and thinned base colors to bring down the saturation blended them into the paint scheme.

The Eduard Weekend Edition contains the extra parts for the cockpit of the Croatian bis-D version, even if they're not mentioned in the instructions. I added some cables to live up this very visible area and made HUD glass holders from styrene strips.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

What happens in Croatian, never happened.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

Almost there...



With all the antennae and stuff added, you have to handle the kit like a live grenade.


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

And the first kit of 2021 is officially completed.



Now back to the Fitter...


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

Got some better shots done today:









more on Flickr

I admit that I was pretty indifferent to the MiG-21 until I discovered this specific scheme in a shot of famous aviation photographer Katsuhiko Tokunaga. For anybody getting the Fishbed Fever, the Eduard kit is a dream to build.


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## Phillip1 (Jul 24, 2009)

electric indigo,

You have some "mad" model building skills...seriously.

Phillip1


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

I tried to recreate the shot that inspired me to build the MiG - Katsuhiko Tokunaga's photo for his "Silver Wings" book about the Croatian Air Force.


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## Bob Jeaggenhauzer (6 mo ago)

looks good!


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