KP/Aeroteam 1/72 MiG-21MF Fishbed J

KP 1:72 MIG-21MF FISHBED J

Reviewer: Richard Stracey (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 28 February 2004
Addendum supplied by Gordon Zammit
Second addendum and conversion pics from Dragan Zdravkovic

Kit Details:

KP (Kozozavody Prostejov) 1/72 -- MIG 21 MF

Aircraft History:

The Mig21 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 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.

The Kit:

This 1984 kit from Czecholosovakia is a late model Mig 21MF or Fishbed J and consists of sixty one parts including drop tanks, missiles and rocket pods in white plastic. The box and instructions are fine but the decals, not the best (later releases may have better decals).

Construction:

First impressions are of a limited run kit due to quite a bit of flash and a rather “chunky” look to the parts. Things do start to look better after a bit of housework. Construction is quite conventional with decals for the instrument panels…and seatbelts. I removed the fuselage locating lugs as they were a bit “off”. The method of tackling the intake and nose ring is good, the ring needing just a little blending in to the fuselage contours. No nose weight is needed. The pitot is commendably fine and naturally I managed to snap it off so replaced it with wire. All mating surfaces need attention to obtain a good fit.

In actual fact I didn’t make the KP kit but the Aeroteam “Limited Series 1000” in Hungarian Air force markings. Actually it consists of the KP kit with Propagteam decals for one aircraft in a plastic bag with a header card and a modified KP instruction sheet! OK? The decal is for “red 1904” complete with sharkmouth and advertising Camel cigarettes! Aeroteam recommend Humbrol colours, the entire aircraft being Humbrol 169 Yellow Facings (Humbrol Authentic MC2 in the British Napoleonic’s range). The problem being that Humbrol have discontinued 169 and none of the local shops or my contacts had any for me to look at, borrow or take a sample of. I found a couple of photos on the Internet and discovered that it was a sort of mustard colour. I had quite a run around trying to find a match and in the end found an odd Testors Acryl range, 1306 Saffron being about the correct tone but too light. After a bit of experimental mixing I came up with a good match.

Decals:

The decals are naturally great, being from Propagteam but unfortunately due to the method of packing, lacking the protection of a box they were “bruised” and a couple started to break up. Not Propagteam’s fault. Today 1904 doesn’t advertise fags. I think, as it was a similar colour to Lotus F1 cars when they were sponsored by Camel it probably had something to do with advertising the Hungarian F1 GP. The decals don’t include the shark mouths on the drop tanks or the warning stencils including ejector seat warnings as seen today so those may have been added after it emigrated to UK.

Conclusion:

Just about everyone has produced a Mig 21 at sometime or other. Amongst these were Airfix #02024-2 (1967), Academy #1618 and Frog/ Hasagawa F263/ C002:450, all early marks. Fujimi have produced a number of marks based on a common sprue and are probably the best. Aeroteam made a Mig 21UM (two seat) back in ’96 and Aeroclub make a KM 1 seat (EJ013) and a canopy (CO28) that is suitable for early marks. I don’t think that the KP kit is a particularly good kit and if I ever wanted to make another 21 would probably go for a Fujimi. Plenty of pictures an information on the internet as well as Profile #238, Aeroplane Monthly of June ’75 and Scale Aircraft Modelling “Inside Story” of Oct ’02. They also reviewed the KP kit in May ’84.

RHS/94

Addendum supplied by Gordon Zammit: The KP kit is the only reasonable MF in 1/72 that I've found (I do not have a Bilek one if they did it). I have 10 or more Fujimi kits, but although much better as a kit, it does not make an MF (apparently neither does the Academy kit, or so I have been told - Ed) !! The spine included with all MF & bis Fujimi kits are all the bis version. Even on the sprue it says "MT, BIS", which cannot be true as this is the most apparent difference between the MF & bis. I have also built an MF from a Polish company named PLASTYK, which is not bad, has recessed panel lines (not as good as FUJIMI) and is VERY cheap. The parts breakdown is very close to KP and fit is quite OK.

Below are scans of the boxart, reconnaissance sprue and decals from the KP MiG-21R kit, which otherwise apart from that sprue is a kit that contains parts identical to the MF version.

Addendum supplied by Dragan Zdravkovic: The KP MiG-21 is better than Fujimi, because Fujimi's kit is much more difficult to correct due to the wrong fuselage cross section and dimension. Of course, it doesn't apply only to the MF, but to whole Fujimi series.

On the other hand, a too narrow spine, small tailplanes, too pointed nose cone and narrow main-wheel track are the most obvious drawbacks of the KP MiG-21. Some six or seven years ago I converted a couple of KP kits to the MiG-21Pfm and MiG-21Bis. While working I took some photos to show to a friend how I did it, and illustrations below are cropped from these.

Fuselage: First you need to remove the spine. Then, after inserting cockpit tub, you have to cement 1mm wide strip between fuselage halves in front of the cockpit, and spacer – plastic rod – behind the cockpit, in order to widen the fuselage. The Fishbed fuselage is 115cm (16mm in scale) wide on the frame just behind the cockpit. For the Pfm I had to cover a gap behind the cockpit with plastic card. For the Bis or MF versions it isn't necessary, as the spine overlaps the gap completely.

Spine: Take the spine halves from the kit, and cement plastic strip to widen the spine according to the subtype. That assembly needs some filling and filing to achieve a round section of the spine. Incidentally, I formed the Pfm spine using BIOLIN, sort of a plasticine that retains the form after a couple of minutes in a boiling water.

Wings: You need to remove the mounting tabs and cement 2mm wide plastic strips to the wing roots. With that, you get slightly thicker wing section, longer wing chord on the roots, and you increase main-wheel track and wing span.

Tailplanes: On the lower right side of the photo, you can see a small section removed from the tailplane along the panel line, and larger replacement part.

These are major modifications. You also need to make new nose cone, undercarriage legs, wheel hubs, engine nozzle, etc. I also rescribed the lines, using simple templates for the wings.

Finely, just to show off: Scale Aircraft Modelling published my Inside Story on MiG-21 in July 1999. They wrote my name as Dragdan, but still it was me.

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