# The Firefox Mig 31



## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

A couple of months ago I got Firefox on Blu Ray, and then I got the itch to finally purchase a kit. The 1/72 Anigrand resin model from a west coast store. I layed the parts out next to my admittedly badly eyeballed kitbash of a generic stealth plane model from many years ago, and it looks fairly accurate to me. I'll be taking my time with this very important model... it'll be in flight mode and I'll fabricate Gant from the landing gear parts I won't be using. In the mean time I invite comments and pictures from any of you who've done a Firefox.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

There is someone here who was actually connected with the effects filming who hopefully won't hit me for forgetting who it was. 

I seem to recall the effects miniature was a kind of brown, so once again there's the discussion on 'build it like the miniature' or 'build it like it was a real craft' that causes fun and ulcers. 

Good to see you again, Chris!


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## terryr (Feb 11, 2001)

I played the Firefox arcade game a lot. I think I got to the end several times and lost interest.

I kit-bashed the version described in the book. Bubble canopy, huge round intakes just behind the pilot, stubby wings, and silvery stealth coating. [not sure how silver is stealthy though.] Used 2 submarine models as the hull.

Wonder what happened to that model.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

terryr said:


> I played the Firefox arcade game a lot. I think I got to the end several times and lost interest.
> 
> I kit-bashed the version described in the book. Bubble canopy, huge round intakes just behind the pilot, stubby wings, and silvery stealth coating. [not sure how silver is stealthy though.] Used 2 submarine models as the hull.
> 
> Wonder what happened to that model.


I loved that game, mainly because Atari re-used the Star Wars game controller. I don't think I ever beat Firefox, but maybe I did, I spent a LOT of tokens on it at Aladdin's Castle 

Gaaaa I miss arcades. 

I'd forgotten that Firefox was a book. I can't recall, was it 'adapted from the movie' or was it a novel that became the movie? This was before the 'techno thriller' times of Tom Clancy but I could easily see this may have been a Martin Caidin project.

Oh, heck, I surrender. IMDB, talk to me. Aha, novel first.

"The film was made and released five years after its source novel of the same name by Craig Thomas had been first published in 1977. In that 1977 year, a similarly themed and similarly titled film called "Foxbat" [Foxbat (1977)] was released. Many of the characters from the "Firefox" novel and its sequel "Firefox Down" return in the novels "Winter Hawk" (1987) and "A Different War" (1997). "


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Steve H said:


> There is someone here who was actually connected with the effects filming who hopefully won't hit me for forgetting who it was.


Wbnemo1
http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/99-science-fiction-modeling/366533-eastwood-dykstras-firefox-4.html
He chimed in on my FF thread from 2012...


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## Captain Robert April (Jul 5, 2016)

Back in college, some time during the Dark Ages, I attended a lecture from John Dykstra, the night following a screening of Star Wars at the student union. For legal reasons, he couldn't show us anything from SW, but he had loads of stuff from Firefox, along with plenty of good stories.


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## The_Engineer (Dec 8, 2012)

I have both Firefox and Firefox Down books and read them around the late 80's. I didn't see Firefox at the theater and caught it on VHS. The book starts when Gant arrives at the Russian airport, whereas the movie added a large chunk before that and I liked this extra bit a lot. I always had hoped that they would film the sequel book Firefox Down which starts exactly where the first book Firefox ends. If they ever film it, they would have to recast all of the roles. I always loved the design of the Firefox and it's great to have someone do a model on it!


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## CessnaDriver (Apr 27, 2005)

Be sure to think in Russian when doing the build.


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Captain Robert April said:


> Back in college, some time during the Dark Ages, I attended a lecture from John Dykstra, the night following a screening of Star Wars at the student union. For legal reasons, he couldn't show us anything from SW, but he had loads of stuff from Firefox, along with *plenty of good stories*.


OOoooo, could you tell us one or two???:lurk5:


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

CessnaDriver said:


> Be sure to think in Russian when doing the build.


 Eh, I'll think in English- I'm sure it will transpose...



The_Engineer said:


> I have both Firefox and Firefox Down books and read them around the late 80's. I didn't see Firefox at the theater and caught it on VHS. The book starts when Gant arrives at the Russian airport, whereas the movie added a large chunk before that and I liked this extra bit a lot. I always had hoped that they would film the sequel book Firefox Down which starts exactly where the first book Firefox ends. If they ever film it, they would have to recast all of the roles. I always loved the design of the Firefox and it's great to have someone do a model on it!


I have Firefox Down, but strangely enough I haven't read it yet. But I will.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

I think the thing that blows my mind, in an odd meta way, is that Firefox was inspired by the defection of that MiG 25 pilot to Japan. What got me at the time was the news that Hasegawa had sent everyone they had on hand to measure the living daylights out of the plane so they could make a kit of it. And I recall that this fact was used hard in the press release about the final kit.

IIRC the MiG 25 was mainly built to shoot down the expected waves of B-70 bombers that would be attacking Russia if WW III hit flashpoint. I recall the big surprise of how 'primitive' the equipment in the MiG 25 was- not at all bleeding edge but very much low-tech enough to survive and function in the EMP burst nuclear battlefield. Kinda scary, that.


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## terryr (Feb 11, 2001)

Yeah, it was plate steel when the US was using titanium. The Radio had tubes.

The US was mystified how it could hit mach 3, which they had tracked it doing several times. Then they realized it could only do it once briefly, before burning out the engines. The Russian radio chatter made it seem like it was a common thing.


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## Captain Robert April (Jul 5, 2016)

Chrisisall said:


> OOoooo, could you tell us one or two???:lurk5:


Here's a little sumthin'. They filmed the scenes where Gant stole the MiG at a National Guard base. While filming the bits on the taxiway, things went a bit sideways. First off you need to understand that the fullsize mockup was mainly made out of plywood, powered by a VW Bug engine, with the steering mechanism operated via a couple of bicycle chains, and operated by a guy down inside the fuselage. Clint Eastwood up in the cockpit had absolutely no control.

Well, while filming the theft scene in the wee hours of the mornin', one of the chains broke, sending the MiG out of control, off the taxiway, into the grass, and next to a chain link fence, the other side of which had a public road, upon which tourists were starting to notice the large black airplane with the Soviet markings. To which Clint suggested throwing a tarp over the nose, invoking memories of when that pilot defected to Japan with his MiG-25 a few years earlier.


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

A pic I found online of big miniature...


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

And this...


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

Still a sharp looking airplane. I'm really shocked none of our hobby companies have picked up that license. I could see good sales for it in 1/72 and a 'near studio scale' kit in 1/32 to satisfy the 'need a big expensive kit' crowd.

(altho I suspect true studio scale was at least 1/24 or larger)


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Steve H said:


> Still a sharp looking airplane. I'm really shocked none of our hobby companies have picked up that license. I could see good sales for it in 1/72 and a 'near studio scale' kit in 1/32 to satisfy the 'need a big expensive kit' crowd.
> 
> (altho I suspect true studio scale was at least 1/24 or larger)


35 years later and still no styrene kit. That's why I purchased an Anigrand. I saw a picture where the miniature looked to be five feet long (or more).


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Awesome diorama with the 1/72 kit like the one I purchased. So nice...


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

beautiful dio, nice job on the sail altho I'm not sure if the dive planes are quite accurate. It may be the camera angle, it may be the studio 'fudged' on that detail. 

Still a sweet looking airplane.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Here's my 1/72 Anigrand build. Yeah, I know I put the stars in the wrong places.
http://www.inpayne.com/models/scifi/firefox1.html


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## Captain Robert April (Jul 5, 2016)

Chrisisall said:


> Awesome diorama with the 1/72 kit like the one I purchased. So nice...


That scene was filmed in one of the northern plains states (Montana or North Dakota, one of those two, probably Montana), in the winter, where they figured they'd have no problem having all the snow they needed. They arrive on location, and not one blessed snowflake on the ground. They actually had to truck in snow in dumptrucks from miles around, and keep stirring it up between takes to keep it from melting.

The plane, by this point, was looking pretty sad, btw.


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

John P said:


> Here's my 1/72 Anigrand build. Yeah, I know I put the stars in the wrong places.
> http://www.inpayne.com/models/scifi/firefox1.html


That's very impressive! Love the different shades on her, I was going to do that myself.



Captain Robert April said:


> That scene was filmed in one of the northern plains states (Montana or North Dakota, one of those two, probably Montana), in the winter, where they figured they'd have no problem having all the snow they needed. They arrive on location, and not one blessed snowflake on the ground. They actually had to truck in snow in dumptrucks from miles around, and keep stirring it up between takes to keep it from melting.
> 
> The plane, by this point, was looking pretty sad, btw.


That's hilarious. And here I thought they somehow filmed it in Alaska or something. And yeah, I did notice some canard play as it was taxy-ing...


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## terryr (Feb 11, 2001)

Chrisisall said:


> And this...


Appears to be a low radar composite of cellulose and lignin.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

Somewhere I am 100% sure there's been 'Airwolf x Firefox' fanfic, no doubt Gant got recruited into The Agency soon after the theft.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

John P said:


> Here's my 1/72 Anigrand build. Yeah, I know I put the stars in the wrong places.
> http://www.inpayne.com/models/scifi/firefox1.html


I REALLY like your panel shading on this! So very realistic, very SR-71ish. Looks more real than the filming miniature.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Steve H said:


> I REALLY like your panel shading on this! So very realistic, very SR-71ish. Looks more real than the filming miniature.


And unfortunately, you can't get Floquil Grimy Black any more, and I finally used mine up recently.


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## publiusr (Jul 27, 2006)

How it is these cool sculpts never get made--but we have those awful Funko pops by the dozen.


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## JGG1701 (Nov 9, 2004)

John P said:


> And unfortunately, you can't get Floquil Grimy Black any more, and I finally used mine up recently.


As Mr Spock said:
"There are always alternatives"
-Jim G.G.


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