Mig-31 from AMK in 1/48 - The grey Beast

[DocRob]

Yesterday I ran into some trouble with the build. I tried to assemble the ejection seats where the plastic went together well, but somehow I totally failed with the PE. I was to lazy to check against reference and payed the prize.
The manual is confusing concerning the PE to say the least

 

Today I decided not to use the kit seats and sourced my stash. An Eduard boxing of a SU-27 UB has two resin seats with Colour PE of the same type (or very similar).
When I compared the seats I got this.

Right the seats look like they were made for different scales. The direct comparison looks even worse. I have no idea who is right here, but with the kit seats, I don't know if the Canopy will close fully without hacking. 
I may opt for variant No. 3 and order two pilots with ejection seats from Aires, which was my favorite from the beginning, but with the situation now, I have no idea, how to get them soon. We had no mail delivered since one and a half week.

 

Cheers Rob

[Martinnfb]

catching up with your build Rob.

 

also..... you know you want that

[GusMac]

Hi Rob

That's a ridiculous difference! It almost looks like a 48th & 32nd comparison. Looks like your option 3 may be the best if you can get delivery.

[GazzaS]

Rob,

     Really don't know what to say about the seats.  I've never heard of anyone having difficulty with the kit seats.   But the rest looks smashing!

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, GusMac said:

That's a ridiculous difference! It almost looks like a 48th & 32nd comparison. Looks like your option 3 may be the best if you can get delivery.

I will check the plastic seats for the Academy made SU-27 today, maybe the pit is not correct scale wise and Eduard had their Brassin seats scaled down a bit to fit.

 

18 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

Really don't know what to say about the seats.  I've never heard of anyone having difficulty with the kit seats.   But the rest looks smashing!

Don't get me wrong, the kit seats and the supplied PE will make a great looking seat, they seem to be a bit high, when fitted into the pit tub, but I haven't tried to fit the canopy. Where I got confused was the manual, generally well made, it fails to show the application of the PE parts well enough. I should have checked other references, anyway I will have the option with seated pilots from Aires, when I'm allowed to by the circumstances.

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

Looking good Rob, these ejection seats confuse the hell out of me, my F4J hasn’t got any harness's now looking at yours at the same scale, well I’m going to some........

[DocRob]

46 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

Looking good Rob, these ejection seats confuse the hell out of me, my F4J hasn’t got any harness's now looking at yours at the same scale, well I’m going to some........

Thanks again Phil, the small seat looks like build for the squadrons mascot , but I can't verify who is right. I ordered pilots with ejection seats from Aerobonus and hope they will arrive soon. I don't know the ZM seats, but if you like I could peep into my Eduard F4, which has Brassin seats and send you a picture.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Some other project got in the way of the Mig, but it's not forgotten. One of the reasons were the Aerobonus pilots, I was waiting for. Today I removed some resin and made the final comparison of the seats. Interesting to see, how different the interpretation of more or less the same thing is scalewise .

Left is Brassin from a SU-27 kit, middle is Aerobonus with the pilot molded in and the one for Giants and Cyclops is the kit supplied one.
I will use the Aerobonus ones, if I get the little fellows painted right.

 

They look good in the cockpit sizewise, but headless at the moment.

 

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

Good choice Rob. The Brassin one just looks a little wide to me.

[DocRob]

Indeed, but maybe it is a different seat, because it is from a SU-27. The odd thing is the general difference in size. Somebody missed out big time .

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

Yea!  Crew!

[DocRob]

After finishing the SSW twins, it's time to continue with the big Mig. 
Today I painted the wheels with my usual mix of blueish /brownish black tones and prepared lots of part for painting. I masked the canopy which was dipped in Future before to protect the transparencies. 
I purchased a set of HGW masks and they definitely are not worth their money. I don't like this kind of vinyl masks, because they don't adhere very good and these here didn't fit at all.  Of the nine masks needed, only three fitted without adding Kabuki and cutting carefully the narrowly engraved contures, a task, I'm not keen of.

Next step will be preparing the fuselage for painting and then it's off to new challenges and techniques to give the Mig a worn appearance.

Cheers Rob

Ill fitting masks on the right part on the left you can't see on the pic, but the side masks shape is off in the front part

 

[1to1scale]

22 hours ago, DocRob said:

After finishing the SSW twins, it's time to continue with the big Mig. 
Today I painted the wheels with my usual mix of blueish /brownish black tones and prepared lots of part for painting. I masked the canopy which was dipped in Future before to protect the transparencies. 
I purchased a set of HGW masks and they definitely are not worth their money. I don't like this kind of vinyl masks, because they don't adhere very good and these here didn't fit at all.  Of the nine masks needed, only three fitted without adding Kabuki and cutting carefully the narrowly engraved contures, a task, I'm not keen of.

Next step will be preparing the fuselage for painting and then it's off to new challenges and techniques to give the Mig a worn appearance.

Cheers Rob

Ill fitting masks on the right part on the left you can't see on the pic, but the side masks shape is off in the front part

 

I do like vinyl masks for General fuselage masking, but I agree they don’t like to stick to clear plastic. Another issue, and what I suspect here, they tend to shrink and expand with heat, cold, age.

[DocRob]

21 minutes ago, 1to1scale said:

I do like vinyl masks for General fuselage masking, but I agree they don’t like to stick to clear plastic. Another issue, and what I suspect here, they tend to shrink and expand with heat, cold, age.

I will never buy vinyl masks again, here it was an issue of availability. They might work on fuselages or wings, but for canopies it has to be kabuki, which dosen't shrink and is easier to get into hard to reach corners.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The grey beast got grey primer .  Initially I planed to use some black acrylic primer, but while thinking about my plans for painting and harsh weathering the thing, I changed my mind to the more durable Tamiya rattlecan primer. These plans are:
- spray a slightly lighter or darker (not yet decided) grey tone on the panel lines.
- apply some masking fluid into the panel lines with a little bit of irregularity.
- spray the final coat of grey colour slightly mottling (if I find a way splattering in irregular patterns or use the salt technique) panel wise
- rub the masking fluid off
- a light overall mist, to reduce contrasts
- Panelliner after decaling

If you have suggestions for my treatments, you are welcome to leave some comments here, because there are many firsts for me.
I haven't forgotten the workflow of the Clansmen A-7 here and am robbing the WIP 

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

Today I experimented a lot, to get the look of my worn Mig-31 right. I want to break up the all over light grey appearance. I tried on a dummy first and started a little test area on the lower wing.

I'd like to know what you think about the effects used (it's only painting, no washes or filters yet)

I applied masking fluid with a fine brush, irregular onto the panel borders and tried to avoid the rivets, because they are hard to clean from masking residue

 

Then I sprayed AK real colour MIG-31 grey through coarse steel wool to get irregular paint patterns.

 

After peeling the masking wit different shaped wooden toothpicks and tweezers it looks like this. Peeling everything cleanly is a time consuming job, but necessary for a later wash and it's easy to scratch the surface (I did), so the peeling process has to be done with a lot of concentration.

The same area with better lighting

 

The tip of the wing got treated for better estimate of the used effect

 

Cheers Rob

[Clunkmeister]

Rob, that paint modulation looks about perfect. Now with a light application of weathering grime, shell really pop

[DocRob]

Thanks Ernie, I like the look too, if it's to bad, there is always the possibility to mist everything over. To get rid of the mask residues is no walk in the park, so I wanted to be sure, if that's a proper way to do it.
A wash will make the weathering three dimensional, I hope.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Phew, four hours of dabbing masking fluid on every single panel line the big Mig looks like that. I hope, I get all the masking fluid removed after painting, not so easy with that blue stuff. It's thinner than Maskol and that is why I used it here, but it's a pain to get off.

Cheers Rob

[harv]

Looking good !....harv 

[DocRob]

Marathon session today, I applied the Mig-31 grey onto the beast, using stretched steel wool to get an irregular pattern. I sprayed every panel individually, holding the steel wool above, filling the panel gently, moved the wool a little, to alter the pattern and sprayed again. I have to say, I like the method, the steel wool is highly flexible and bends into every corner.
If the contrasts are too hard after peeling of the liquid mask, I can give the whole plane a misty coat of Mig-gray

Cheers Rob

 

[harv]

Paid off big time !....harv 

[GusMac]

Very nice Rob. It really breaks up the 'sameness' of the grey and looks very realistic.

When I did my Greek SLUF I used stuff called Incredible White Mask as the liquid frisket and it worked really well and came off easily. I can't remember who I saw recommended it but it's from the USA and works nicely but has a rather strong ammonia smell before it dries.

[GazzaS]

Rob,

    I like the look of it now, but I'm the wrong guy to ask about long term wear on jet models.  I haven;t given the area much study.  I have seen some guys do great things with weathered jets, tho.  I'll be interested in seeing where it goes from here.

 

Gaz

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, harv said:

Paid off big time !....harv 

Thanks Harv, I'm still in the experimental stage.

1 hour ago, GusMac said:

Very nice Rob. It really breaks up the 'sameness' of the grey and looks very realistic.

When I did my Greek SLUF I used stuff called Incredible White Mask as the liquid frisket and it worked really well and came off easily. I can't remember who I saw recommended it but it's from the USA and works nicely but has a rather strong ammonia smell before it dries.

Thanks Gus, love the word 'sameness' .
I will google your masking liquid. The one I used is Micro Mask from Microscale, which is a little thinner than other fluids. I just read , that they say 'cleans up with water', maybe I should have given the bottle a little bit more attention. I will try it tomorrow with toothpicks and with a dampened piece of cloth. 
 

44 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

  I like the look of it now, but I'm the wrong guy to ask about long term wear on jet models.  I haven;t given the area much study.  I have seen some guys do great things with weathered jets, tho.  I'll be interested in seeing where it goes from here.

Thanks Gaz, I let my imagination fly, while I developed this method. I never looked for pics of the real thing though. I'm at least as interested in my progress as you, and hope there will be a usable outcome .

Cheers Rob