Hasegawa 1/72 MiG-21 Fishbed

HASEGAWA 1:72 MIKOYAN MIG-21 FISHBED
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Myself (rec.models.scale)

Kit Details: Hasegawa C002:450 1/72 MiG-21 Fishbed

Aircraft History: The MiG-21 also known by it’s NATO name of “Fishbed” was developed from experience with the MiG-15 in the Korean War and first flew in 1956 along with a swept wing version known as “Faceplate” as a back up. It has been said that the MiG-21 was so lacking in fuel capacity and war load that it went nowhere and did nothing but it was cheap, rugged and the most serviceable supersonic fighter of all thus making it very suitable for third world air forces. In all over 11,000 were made in about 75 versions! The easy way to spot a late from an early 21 is the size of the ’ole at the front, the canopy hinging at the front and later from the side and the pitot being moved from the bottom to the top of the nose. Basic armament was the twin barrelled 23mm GSm-23 cannon and K13-A Atoll air to air missiles along with a couple of UV-16-57 rocket pods. The wingspan was 7.15m and length (with pitot) 15.76m..

Kit Parts: Ah this kit takes me back a long way as it is from a bygone era, and I have found reasonably hard to get hold of. This kit was produced in the 70's and is now showing its age with chunky moldings in a khaki colour and raised panel lines but I used to remember these kits on the shelf at K-Mart and how I wish to go back to those days (with the money I earn now of course!) and nab a whole collection. There are not a lot of parts to the kit, just 32, and there are a few mold imperfections, including ejector pin stubs on inside of wings etc. Detail is not a strongpoint but is also fairly typical of the era of mold from Hasegawa. There is only one clear part in addition to the other parts, a canopy which opens forward.

Instructions: This returns to the old nostalgic days of instructions where you get a decent amount of information included and a running commentary! The instruction sheet folds out vertically (as opposed to current Hasegawa horziontal fold out strips) and is effectively a double sided sheet of information. A model photo followed by overview of the aircraft's history and data kicks it off. Underneath this are three-view marking and painting guide for the three examples the kit produces which also has paint information for the schemes in both numbers (presumably from Mr.Color) and the colour (eg: 33 - Matt Black) right down to describing tire, wheel and landing gear strut! At the bottom of the first sheet is tips and information about how to paint and decal the aircraft including the recommended steps and order for painting it silver! On the otherside of the sheet there are 5 assembly steps with text labels identifying the part, small reference diagrams for various assemblies and commentary about putting the model together, tips and steps. There is also a list of part numbers and their name. There's also some interesting translated English which is always amusing to read from these old instructions - eg: "cut the bag in pieces to prevent the infant from covering it's head".

Colour Options: This is what drew me to purchase this kit, a MiG-21 with three different air forces to choose from - and none of them USSR! How the wheels turn because when I was young I purposely overlooked this kit because it wasn't authentic in my eyes, ie: had no USSR options!! Nowadays maturity and variety have taken over and with Egypt, Israel or Uganda as possibilities, I am not looking forward to having to make the choice! Unfortunately there is not much information about the identity of each but they are:

Boxart version from Egyptian Air Force in upper Dark Earth and Middle Stone camouflage scheme over light blue undersides. I might check my references on the underside for this one as I am aware some Egyptian aircraft had natural metal or aluminium undersides.
U-201 from Uganda Air Force in upper Dark Earth and Dark Sea Grey camouflage scheme over a Duck Egg Green underside. Right now I am eyeing this one off as my build up choice!
007 (licenced to thrill?) aircraft from Israeli Air Force in an overall Natural Metal scheme but red and blue spine, red leading edge for the tailfin and red and white striped rudder. This scheme is shown on the side of the box as reference, and of course since Israel did not purchase MiG-21's the aircraft is one depicted that defected from Iraq.

Decals: Unfortunately these have yellowed a little with age so I hope that I will be able to recover them. They are thick and glossy and quite typical again of Hasegawa decals of the era. I suspect they will slide all over the model as they are as thick as stickers and will need some sealing in to get them to bed down properly based on my experience of these kits in the past. Only the roundels, unit numbers and a decal for the instrument panel is provided. There is no stencilling of any kind and the colours in the Israeli version will need to be painted on (whereas no doubt nowadays Hasegawa will probably supply these as decals).

Cockpit/Wheel Bay Detail: There is a small tub like thing which sits on pins inside the fuselage half and has a very poor excuse for a seat molded into it. A pilot figure is supplied and will be needed to give any hope to internal detail! An instrument panel decal is supplied but there is no instrument panel to put it on, so it will have to be carefully somehow attached to the "dashboard" that is molded into the fuselage halves. There is also no reference to this decal whatsoever in the instructions so will need to keep this in mind. There is no wheel well detail, simply being cut outs in their appropriate areas!

Optional components: Apart from wheels up and wheels down the main options include a positionable under belly air brake and option of whether or not to have underwing/fuselage stores.

On the Sprue Impressions: A bit of a Hasegawa dinosaur but I am looking forward to putting this kit together. A quick play with the parts suggest initially no real problems forecasted as far as fit is concerned although I know from experience that the air brake, nose cone and gear doors will provide a few challenges.

This is a pretty straight forward and basic mold with the fuselage split vertically and one half having the tail fin molded onto it. The wings are broken down into four pieces, with smaller underwing inserts into the main upper wing parts. As far as stores is concerned you are supplied with a pair of AAMs and an fuselage slung auxillary fuel tank.

Conclusion: There are plenty of better MiG-21's on the market nowadays than this old ancient Hasegawa kit but no doubt it will still build up fairly easily and the choice of subjects (albeit of course you can get aftermarket decals nowadays anyway) make this kit very attractive. I am looking forward to building this at a later date and it is probably a bit better than older Frog and Matchbox offerings. It was nice to buy this kit and have it take me back to my youngster days!

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