# Eastwood/Dykstra's Firefox



## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Ever since the early Eighties, I've loved this vehicle. It's second only to the Classic Viper for me in design awesomeness. Over the years I've drawn it, made my own blueprints, gathered photos, even dashed out a quick kitbash based on a small stealth plane kit








but I've never made an accurate model.

I'm kinda wanting the Anigrand kit
http://www.anigrand.com/AA6014_Mig-31.htm
because no super-accurate styrene one is available. And yeah, I hear it needs work. 

So, if anyone here has a Firefox to show off, I'd be fascinated, and so would others, I'm sure. :thumbsup:


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## Scorpitat (Oct 7, 2004)

Cool build. I too, have always loved the stealthy design of the Mig from FireFox.

It was a great movie, and would be great remade with modern special effects. I'm not knocking the Eastwood version, but some of the effects could use brushing up. Maybe they can update it like they did to TOS trek.

Sincerely,
Scorp.


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Scorpitat said:


> Maybe they can update it like they did to TOS trek.


One thing I loved about it was the model work.
Remember the X-Men movies? Their jet looked a LOT like the Firefox, but in all-CGI it comes off a bit flat. Retool the FX in Firefox, and all feel for needing a physical model of it is lost IMO (Ever see "Stealth"?). Spaceships are another matter entirely. We have no personal visual reference for stuff in space at that scale.


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## Jim NCC1701A (Nov 6, 2000)

John P built a very nice-looking one of the Anigrand kit.

http://www.inpayne.com/models/firefox1.html


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## Scorpitat (Oct 7, 2004)

That there John P guy, he builds some good darned tootin models, I tells ya! :thumbsup::wave:


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## swhite228 (Dec 31, 2003)

Chrisisall said:


> I'm kinda wanting the Anigrand kit
> http://www.anigrand.com/AA6014_Mig-31.htm
> because no super-accurate styrene one is available. And yeah, I hear it needs work.
> 
> So, if anyone here has a Firefox to show off, I'd be fascinated, and so would others, I'm sure. :thumbsup:


If I rember right the Anagrand kit was based on Will Babingtons first Firefox kit so his mistakes are their mistakes.
Will has updated his original kit to make it more like the minature, so you might want to pm him if you have questions.
His board name is Wbnemo1.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

But I put the markings on wrong.  I followed the incorrect instructions instead of checking.


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

teaser


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Wbnemo1 said:


> teaser


That exterior view is awesome. The detail is flawless as far as I can tell!!:thumbsup:


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

You are welcome to critique it all ya want , i dont think you will be able to find anything inaccurate, I invite you to try though :woohoo: granted this is based off the 1/12 miniature, and interior of real plane cockpit instruments mockup by Bendix....10 years worth of research and collaboration made this possible, unfortunately Mr. Adam Leet won't get to see his help finally realized, a shame, as he was a great guy.


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Wbnemo1 said:


> 10 years worth of research and collaboration made this possible


It looks like it; amazing work there!!!


> unfortunately Mr. Adam Leet won't get to see his help finally realized, a shame, as he was a great guy.


I'm sorry for your loss... can you give details about the man? I never heard his name before. All my (limited) research on this design were strictly off images of the Firefox from published photos & (later) internet screen caps.


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

check pm please

even more unfortunate that Adam was still young i think in mid 20's


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Definition of "Bada*s"


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Looking back, It seems obvious that some one on the movie had some HaveBlue/F-117 info.


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

mach7 said:


> Looking back, It seems obvious that some one on the movie had some HaveBlue/F-117 info.


Military secrets are the most fleeting of all.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

When the film first came out, I refused to believe anything with such sharp angles could be stealthy. Showed how much I knew. :lol:


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

:lol::lol:


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## terryr (Feb 11, 2001)

Yeah, they had some knowledge of secret stuff. The Air Force must have crapped themselves.

The book described ' a bubble canopy, with two giant intakes right behind the pilot, and a reflective coating'. Basically a Super-Mig25.

That Durk Pearson had friends all over and hung out with Eastwood at the time. He might have been told stuff.









http://www.milto.net/egg-planes/firefox-mig-31.php


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

The silly indicator on my PC just burst into flame- thanks a lot.


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## btbrush (Sep 20, 2010)

That is classic. I love it. Firefox was just on Dish last night.


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## nautilusnut (Jul 9, 2008)

Greg Jein designed the Firefox based on Soviet technology taken to the next level. There is a photo in Cinefex showing about 10 different models of various styles from which Eastwood could select. The nose was patterned after a soldering iron after Eastwood asked for a distinctive nose and canopy.
The FIREFOX shares many design elements of such classic soviet aircraft as the MIG-25 FOXBAT.


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

Hello again,
just to get into a little more detail of what Leelan stated. The Firefox was initially designed by Greg Jein, correct, they actually had a design team that later disbanded when the actual final design rendition was to be built at Apogee. One thing that Eastwood was set on was Jeins' chisel nose shape as stated by Leelan. A wonderful note of interest since it's been brought up, a little insider info if you will which I get a kick out of. Some have made mention of the Stealth design technology perhaps being stolen/borrowed from Skunkworks. Well, my best friend Rich A was a journeyman machinist for SW Bomber division during the time the Firefox was brought into existence. The apogee design drawings were actually brought over to Skunk works where Ben Rich was shown the design and asked if they might be "stepping on any toes" with the stealthy design. Ben took a look at it and said, go for it, so the design stuck. While I did utilize the Apogee technical drawings to revise my cads, they were in fact several generations behind the final approved design so many elements of the drawings hadn't been finalized yet. I also received three video walkarounds of the 1/12 scale miniaturelater on for final revisions of the collaborated model I've shown. final note of interest. It was Grant McGune that made the final model used in the film and flying models made to actually fly by R/c expert by Sheppard. While I do have some amazing photos of all miniatures and prototypes , unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to shar4e by the original owner of them. I did however use them extensively in the final model cads. Adam Leet and I collaborated on the drawings to come up with what we felt was then end all be all final Firefox drawings then , I had Nik Piper 3d model everything I had detail wise. Everything is as close to 100% acutate as we could get them to the studio model with the exception of the cockpit, which we used the film to grab refereence then model. The MK7 ejection seat could actually be a model in itself aas it was modelled using my complete dimensioned photographs from a gentleman that had original he was restoring, so it's 100% accurate to the real one, pretty cool....
So there you have a little interesting tidbit about the plane as well as my project.

Cheers,
Will


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

OMG, Will, that's a fantastic story, and GREAT photos!!! You rock, man! Thanks SO much!!! I'm in MIG-31 heaven right now! 
I had no idea a model THAT large was used- I figured 3 feet tops, just photographed REALLY well.
So cool....:thumbsup:


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Wbnemo1 said:


> Adam Leet and I collaborated on the drawings to come up with what we felt was then end all be all final Firefox drawings then , I had Nik Piper 3d model everything I had detail wise. Everything is as close to 100% acutate as we could get them to the studio model


Hy, I just dug up my early 90's drawings- I was gonna make it from scratch back then based on photos I could get a hold of (pre-internet), but I wasn't happy with my lack of detail...

















As you can see, very inaccurate.


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

Chris, check your pm

Will


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

my first drawing and the 1/36 scale studio pull


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

As Ted would say, "Excellent!":thumbsup:


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

OOps. Sorry... My Son's Gunstar. Have no idea how it got on this Firefox thread...


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## nautilusnut (Jul 9, 2008)

> just to get into a little more detail of what Leelan stated.


Will, do you have me mixed up with this "Leeland" character?


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

sorry bout that, yup i got ya mixed up 

Will


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## terryr (Feb 11, 2001)

As for the movie, I liked the first half with the sneaky spy stuff better than the 'star wars-ish' air battle.
But I did play the arcade game A LOT.


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

the reason is was a starwarsish battle is becasue the some of the same guys that did starwars did this lol, phil tippet, john dykstra, pat mcclung to name a few, but it is the first time they filmed a black shiny object against a bluescreen iirc


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

terryr said:


> As for the movie, I liked the first half with the sneaky spy stuff better than the 'star wars-ish' air battle.
> But I did play the arcade game A LOT.


I like the last 40 minutes most of all!!:thumbsup:


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## Fly-n-hi (Jan 12, 2007)

Wbnemo1....any updates?


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## Captain April (May 1, 2004)

Waaaaaaaaaaay back in '83, when I was attending Colorado State University, the night after the student union showed Star Wars (I think it might've been the first time I saw the "EPISODE III: A New Hope" add-on), John Dykstra showed up for a presentation on special effects. For legal reasons, he couldn't show any stuff from Star Wars, but he did have a lot of stuff on Firefox, along with a lot of hilarious behind-the-scenes stories of mishaps with the full-scale mockup. Fun times.


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Captain April said:


> hilarious behind-the-scenes stories of mishaps with the full-scale mockup.


Care to share?

Man, one of the models was HUGE. Like six feet long, maybe.


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

the 1/12 model was 63 inches long...Dykstra probably talking about the mockup "ditching" as it was driven from within the fuselage and clint was just up there to "look good"...it was a chain driven VW powered for taxi up to 35 mph, but ya couldnt see where ya were goin....


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## Captain April (May 1, 2004)

The VW engine was driving a couple of bicycle chains, and, as luck would have it, one of the chains broke during one take, sending the MiG careening off the taxiway (they were filming at an Air National Guard base), winding up next to the perimeter fence, next to the local highway. As noted above, Clint Eastwood had no control over the mockup, he was just along for the ride. The driver was down in the fuselage, with his view of the outside probably courtesy of a video monitor. Again, as luck would have it, some motorists driving by happen to see this strange airplane with the Soviet markings over on the local Air Force base, making for a rather awkward moment for the film crew. Eastwood offers up the suggestion of throwing a tarp over the mockup (a reference to the famous defection of a MiG-25 pilot years earlier).


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## Carson Dyle (May 7, 2003)

The Firefox model was on display at the Warner Bros museum a while back. My buddy Pat McClung had told many times over the years how incredibly shiny the model's surface was (Eastwood insisted), and, man he wasn't kidding! The thing was buffed-out like a showroom Chevy. _Beautiful_ finish, but it had to have been a complete nightmare to composite.


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

it's the clearcoat that's all shiny with lots of various tints, there's lots of it. the main color is simply dupont laquer non sanding primer in a 1/4 can


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## Trek Ace (Jul 8, 2001)

Carson Dyle said:


> The Firefox model was on display at the Warner Bros museum a while back. My buddy Pat McClung had told many times over the years how incredibly shiny the model's surface was (Eastwood insisted), and, man he wasn't kidding! The thing was buffed-out like a showroom Chevy. _Beautiful_ finish, but it had to have been a complete nightmare to composite.


That clear finish gave Pat no end of headaches. The early UV clearcoats (for the reverse bluescreen pass) would turn brown after a time, necessitating stripping off and reapplying the finish. Later on, a different base for the UV coat was used, and that finally allowed the rest of the matte passes to be shot without incident.


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

looks like they got it right for the final miniatures...not all brown....my screen used wingtip is still true to film day


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## 67657 (Mar 4, 2010)

Chrisisall said:


> The silly indicator on my PC just burst into flame- thanks a lot.


:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:


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## Scorpitat (Oct 7, 2004)

Firefox!!!


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Best stealth design ever!


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Trekkriffic said:


> Best stealth design ever!


Why won't the Ruskies release the rights so we can have a good model of it?


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

IIRC the full scale Firefox had a spine formed from a radio station broadcast antenna section which had a triangular cross section.

That MIG is still one of my favorite aircraft designs after all these years.


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Richard Baker said:


> That MIG is still one of my favorite aircraft designs after all these years.


Hands down the most dynamic airplane design ever. The movie Stealth laughably tried to out-design the Mig-31, hahahahahahah!!!


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## seaQuest (Jan 12, 2003)

Those drone aircraft in Green Lantern looked like they took a page from the design book of Stealth.


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## Wbnemo1 (Aug 22, 1999)

maybe when i can afford to get it printed, we will finally have a near perfect replica of the Firefox PP1

http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s208/Wbnemo1/3D FIREFOX/?action=view&current=48-9Fox.jpg


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