Eduard Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Build in 1/72 Scale Part III

Painting is one of my favorite parts of modeling, and there are so many schemes to choose from for the MiG-21 given the wide range of Air Forces and long duration of its service. This one will be a Syrian Air Force example, the Mr. Color paints are from call-outs in other Eduard MiG-21 boxings. Mr. color 66 was used for all the coverings which are EM transparent scattered around the airframe, and most of these are provided with Kabuki tape masks in the kit. Camo colors were masked with poster putty.

The second one will be in the Soviet “Asia” scheme, which consisted of five (sometimes four) upper service colors. The darkest brown color didn’t look red enough to me when compared to photographs so I mixed in some 327 Red. This is an attractive scheme which was used on several Soviet aircraft types.

There are well over a hundred stencils, maybe closer to two hundred when the missiles and pylons are included. Eduard provides both Blue and Black versions, and it looks like there are enough for four aircraft per sheet. I was able to do both aircraft from a single sheet with plenty left over. The national markings are from the spares stash, I think they were intended for an Eduard MiG-15.

Here are the stores for both aircraft. I painted the missiles early in the build with the intention of getting them finished first in order to break up the stencil marathon but the rest of the build progressed so rapidly that these were wrapped up at the end of construction with everything else.

Here are the undersides after a wash and a flat coat. I mix in a few drops of a Tan or Light Brown and thin the flat down so I can apply it in layers. This adds a little tone and weathering to the finish coat and helps unify the finish.

The cockpits look good with the pre-colored PE when everything is done. I generally don’t use a lot of the PE included in most kits but in this case I do like the effect. Recently Eduard has also come out with a set of 3-D printed decals for the MiG-21 cockpit so the days of the colored PE sets may be numbered.

Here are both together. This is a really well-detailed kit with some clever engineering. It does not require any nose weight to ensure it rests on the nose gear. Everything fits well with no drama, I was surprised at how quickly they went together. The one place where the construction slowed was the application of the multitude of tiny stenciling decals, there are just so many of them and it took several sessions to get them all on. If I build another I will seriously look for a field-applied scheme where they were all painted over.

The MiG-21 has great lines and the Eduard kit captures them well. It is surprising how small it is compared to other types, especially in span. Now I just need a couple of Phantoms to sit in the case next to them!

Finished pictures here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2023/03/07/eduard-soviet-mikoyan-gurevich-mig-21-in-1-72-scale/