Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 Comparison Build in 1/72 Scale Part III

Priming revealed some seam work needed on all three kits. After sanding I added the landing gear to the kits as the wheel wells and gear legs will all be painted in the underside color. This allows for a strong glue joint and gives the model a place to rest during painting and decaling.

Basic VVS colors on the Armory MiG. The Mr. Color 34 was lightened about 50% with white.

This is one of the Hobby Boss kits in an intricate field-applied scheme. This patten was not confined to the MiG-3, other VVS types were photographed in similar camouflage. These are the colors I used and I’m pleased with how it turned out but I would not claim to be certain this is correct – field schemes are tricky.

This is the finished batch, a second Hobby Boss kit snuck into the production cue due to a delay in shipment from a vendor. Armory kit in the front left, a pair of Hobby Boss in the rear, RPM in the front right. All these kits have their quirks and some took more work to make than others, but they all look the part and I’m happy with the batch overall. So, how do the kits compare? The Zvezda kit is not in the photo, I didn’t see any way to get a decent MiG-3 out of this kit no matter what I did to it so it went back into the box and into the “for sale” pile. It would need everything done to the other kits and still the cowling would be undersized which ruins the lines of the MiG-3.

The RPM kit (Alfa tooling) was a little behind the times when it first came out in 1992, and putting a new box around it has not helped the sprues. My kit had some flash as well as alignment issues, and the kit suffers from poor fit in some areas. It needs some help in the cockpit and wheel wells, and I cut a clear landing light into the wing. It got all the little details such as radiator slats, gear down indicators and Nitenol antenna wire. You can get a decent-looking MiG-3 out of this kit but it will take some work and there are better kits available.

The Hobby Boss MiG lives up to its design as an easy assembly kit and was a pleasure to build. The kit looks good when built up, and it comes with six nicely-molded Ro-82 rockets and their launch racks if you want some dangly bits under the wings. The only real liability is the lack of detail in the cockpit. I dressed mine up with some Evergreen and went with the closed canopy option. I also added some extra detail inside the wheel wells, radiator slats, gear down indicators and antenna wire. This kit wins for ease of assembly and has captured the lines of the MiG-3 well, a good combination.

The Armory kit is one of the most detailed kits you will find on the market today, I would put it right up there with the other newer offerings from names like Eduard and Arma. The detail is sharp and the molding is great. The decal sheet is also a big plus with no less than fourteen schemes available. On the down side the kit has a high parts count and is over-engineered which results in a fiddly build. For example, the radiator is broken down into 10 pieces, and there are other examples like this noted elsewhere in these posts. If you don’t mind the tweezer work and are careful during assembly this kit will yield the best MiG-3 on the market but it is not the most fun to build.

Part I here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2026/01/23/mikoyan-gurevich-mig-3-comparison-build-in-1-72-scale-part-i/