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

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, GusMac said:

They look pretty good to me for their size Rob. Is it just me or does the one on the right look like Kirk Douglas??

Thanks Gus, he might look like a mutant made of Kirk Douglas and Gaz's Avatar 

1 hour ago, GazzaS said:

Look good to me.  Then again, I'm still trying to master larger scales.

Thanks Gaz, I hope they will look ok in the pit, but I know I can do better, sometimes it just doesn't work the way it should.
I have a lot of resin and white metal figures in different scales and I will train a lot in between other builds. The hardest thing in figure painting is to get the colours prepared to a grade, thin enough to flow and to work wet in wet specially on the skin tones without being to translucent. The worst possible effect is clogging, which I had to fight with these two guys and I have no idea why.

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

8 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Thanks Gus, he might look like a mutant made of Kirk Douglas and Gaz's Avatar 

Thanks Gaz, I hope they will look ok in the pit, but I know I can do better, sometimes it just doesn't work the way it should.
I have a lot of resin and white metal figures in different scales and I will train a lot in between other builds. The hardest thing in figure painting is to get the colours prepared to a grade, thin enough to flow and to work wet in wet specially on the skin tones without being to translucent. The worst possible effect is clogging, which I had to fight with these two guys and I have no idea why.

Cheers Rob

My last 1/72 scale figures only got a coat of flesh toned paint on hands and face.  Just seems too small to bother.  Whereas my 1/35 guys look a bit like Punch and Judy

 

[1to1scale]

8 hours ago, DocRob said:

The bad Mojo continues. Today I tried my patience while painting the pilots and had lots of trouble with the paints to adhere. The resin figures were properly primed before and I used colours which are frequently on my bench. 
After painting and repainting and reducing some gloss and mixing colours with different thinners, to enhance the adherance, while covering well enough, this is where I am. Don't judge too harsh, these guys are small in 1/48 scale. They look better in the cockpit, but I had better results with figure painting, even in this scale. 
I slowly run out of patience with all the amounting last minute problems with the build. Normally I would paint strip the pilots and try again, but I will leave them as they are and will always feel bad about it

Cheers Rob 

 

These look pretty good to me, I have used their pilot and seat combos a few times.

My pilot looked like Putin. 
 

[DocRob]

8 hours ago, 1to1scale said:

My pilot looked like Putin.

Putin would have been a good outcome for my Mig, but mine look like the ones you normally see in movies about undead .
Your Putin looks good by the way, I like the overall wrinkles.
To my excuse I have to say, that mine had some tiny cast issues in problematic areas around the faces, which I had to hide with a bit of paint.

Cheers Rob

[1to1scale]

I learned a quick way to improve a figures face is to use a thin brown wash, helps bring out the wrinkles, lines, and shadows. It’s my crutch when I make a good figure look bad. I suck at figure painting, so much so, I actually signed up for a figure painting class this fall from a master painter. 
 

I actually think your Mig turned out great, I would have given up on the canopy seals, but I admire that you went for it,

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, 1to1scale said:

I learned a quick way to improve a figures face is to use a thin brown wash, helps bring out the wrinkles, lines, and shadows. It’s my crutch when I make a good figure look bad. I suck at figure painting, so much so, I actually signed up for a figure painting class this fall from a master painter. 
 

I actually think your Mig turned out great, I would have given up on the canopy seals, but I admire that you went for it,

Figure painting needs a different skillset than armor or aircraft painting and I think it's a good idea to learn some of the technics from a master. It's always better to be able to ask questions and get the tips when needed.

BTW, I  might have chickened out with the canopy seal problems, but the good thing with the kit is you get a second chance with the untinted canopy, it's like a safety net.

Cheers Rob

[Martinnfb]

some motivators

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

some motivators

Thanks Martin, interesting to see the different paintjobs on the Vympel missiles.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today I masked the missiles and airbrushed them white. By this way, I'd like to show you a tool which became very much used by me lately and proved to be good. It's one of my Voyager mask template, this here for stripes. You put some Kabuki tape on, slice with a sharp scalpel and you are ready to go from 0,5 mm on.
It's good for masking laminated propellers and with different type of strips like on the missiles.
I have others with etched circles and curves, rectangles, squares and stars.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Who would have thought, that the final steps with the Mig take so long, and it's not, because I'm lazy. 
I airbrushed the missiles in white and masked a chrome band around their fuselage, this time I had no issues with paint peeling while removing masks. Xtreme Metal colours are so much better to work with, than Alclads.
I added spoilers and foldable wings to the missiles, tried different types of wash and decided against it. Soft washes gave not enough effect, the enamel ones blind the metallics. For the same reason, I didn't want to use a clear coat. 
There are lots of, guess what, stencils on the missiles, so I started with these.

This is how they look now with the jet exhaust still to be added, beside some stencils. To me the result rectifies the huge masking job.

 

In tests, I was not able to tint a clear part blue, with different types of colours, Tamiya, AK and Gunze. The results were either to light or they were not transparent enough. If you have good tips for airbrushing tinted parts, feel free to share them.
Furball produces some tinted plastic foil for the Mig-31, which is semi pre cut. After removing the foil from it's surroundings (not so easy), I glued it onto the canopiy with some Pledge under it.

 

Cheers Rob

 

[harv]

Nice !....harv

[DocRob]

Oh no, what happened to the Mig ?

That's my first try of Flory washes, let's see how this will look after drying and removal of the wash. I may sand the wash off with a very fine sanding sponge, to get a worn panel appearance, but have to try that first.
My expectations with this clay based wash are, that there is no aggressiveness and disturbance of my underlying layers of paint and clear coat, which I had, while using other washes.

For sure she will never look like this again .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today I removed the clay wash from the Mig. My first idea was to use a very fine sanding sponge on the panels to remove the access, but found that this method works not so good on a shiny surface. A matte coat as preparation would have been necessary, where the wash could bite better.
Anyway, it would have been to much, at least it's a Russian plane and not a Greek one .
Removing the access wash was done with water dampened paper towels and cotton swabs, cleaning in the direction of the airflow and light rubbing.
I have to say, that I really liked the way, these Flory washes behaved. They are not aggressive, and you are able to remove them completely on a shiny surface if you have unwanted side effects. Tomorrow, the Mig will receive a second inspection and fine tuning of the wash and than there will be flat coating.
With the easiness of use, I even dared to work the painted parts of the canopies with the clay wash, a task I didn't dare to do with another panel liner.
The kit is a little bit heavy with the panel lines, perfect for me, depicting a worn plane, but too much for a new Mig, when you use a wash.

Cheers Rob

 

[Bomber_County]

Stunning Rob, I know what you mean about mojo, mine is due to my company have no work and the redundancies are starting, I must admit if I survive it will be a miracle...........the beast looks amazing......

[DocRob]

28 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

Stunning Rob, I know what you mean about mojo, mine is due to my company have no work and the redundancies are starting, I must admit if I survive it will be a miracle...........the beast looks amazing......

Thank you Phil, I hope your situation will change for the better soon. Some years ago, I had a very difficult time for different reasons and modelling helped me a lot, to get my calm back and solve my problems. It is hard to sit on your bench and try to focus on something so unimportant as modelling in times, were the world goes upside down, but I had the sensation, that focusing on modelling in hard times clears the head, because after a while of unconcentrated building I focus more and more and that clears the brain for other important things.
To me, surfing is helping even more, because of the focus you have to maintain, it's like ctrl-alt-del for the brain.

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

Thanks Rob for your kind words and advise. Only time will tell if the axe is to fall, I intend to have a full day at the bench tomorrow, fingers crossed.......

[DocRob]

Almost done with the beast. I have to add the missiles, but first, I have to decide, if I stencil them and the pylons completely. There are some antennas to be mounted, but that's it.
I wait for better light outside, to make some pics under blue sky.

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

My last builds represented the ultimate interceptors of their time. Find the few differences between the birds 

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

8 hours ago, DocRob said:

My last builds represented the ultimate interceptors of their time. Find the few differences between the birds 

Cheers Rob

One has a red nose, and not the other...

I actually expected the size difference to be greater, especially as the MiG-31 is not an especially small aircraft ...

Hubert

[GazzaS]

Great job, Rob! 

[DocRob]

12 hours ago, HubertB said:

One has a red nose, and not the other...

I actually expected the size difference to be greater, especially as the MiG-31 is not an especially small aircraft ...

Hehe, you found one, I missed out...
I was planning to make that comparison pic since restarting the Mig after finishing the SSW's, but had the same sensation like you. The colour richness of the SSW seems to make her appear bigger. 60years of permanent development separate these two.

11 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Great job, Rob! 

Thanks a lot Gaz, the Mig-31 is even bigger than your Mig-25, by no means a small plane.

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

Stunning Rob, the u/c looks as if they raided the local farm for some wheels........

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Bomber_County said:

Stunning Rob, the u/c looks as if they raided the local farm for some wheels........

Muchas gracias Phil, just baaad Russian concrete on the airfield .

Cheers Rob

[1to1scale]

I loved this build Rob, you inspired me to branch out to a 1/48 Mig 25. 
 

A friends dad once told me, a good carpenter is measured by his ability to hide and fix his f***-ups, without anyone knowing after it’s done. You have become a stronger modeler by learning what you learned from the floor product incident. Good job! A fantastic Mig! 

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, 1to1scale said:

I loved this build Rob, you inspired me to branch out to a 1/48 Mig 25. 
 

A friends dad once told me, a good carpenter is measured by his ability to hide and fix his f***-ups, without anyone knowing after it’s done. You have become a stronger modeler by learning what you learned from the floor product incident. Good job! A fantastic Mig! 

Thanks for your kind words and there is a lot of truth in it. As modelers, we have to overcome obstacles, with nearly every build we start, be it new techniques or bad mishaps. The thousands of little steps until finishing a kit are never pure routine.
Not to underestimate is the help I got from you guys, it's a comforting thought, that every problem that arises or every failure I make was done before and solved as well, one way or another.

I'm looking forward to see your Mig-25, which too me has a similar badass attitude shown, than my two seater.

Cheers Rob