1/72 Hasegawa MiG-29A

by Paul A. Birkenfeld

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The initial thought was to model an aerial combat scene and use the MiG as the casualty of an F/A-18 in some fictional battle.  I was planning on recreating some missile damage, but as I opened the box of the Hasegawa kit, I realized I couldn't bring myself to wrecking the kit.  Never a huge fan of soviet aircraft, the 29 just had a beautiful simple shape that I couldn't resist admiring.

The kit is great out of the box.  The cockpit could use some additional detail, but I usually close up the canopy, so not much can be seen.  The pilot figure does come with the sunshield up on his helmet, and his O2 mask off.  I used  epoxy putty to alter this.  I had heard that Hasegawa panel lines sometimes aren't deep enough, and though they looked fine, I did some light re-scribing.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

I had already purchased Cuban markings off of e-bay, so I went ahead and used these.  I don't remember the manufacturer.  There weren't many pictures of the Cuban variant out there, but the few that I found seem to show it with the standard soviet camo.  Testors bottles the colors "fulcrum gray" and "fulcrum gray green".  So I airbrushed out of the bottle.  The gray looked good, but the gray green was too light and too green.  So mixed in a couple of drops of gunship, until I had a  color that looked right.

I like to display my kits in their natural habitat, so on an acrylic stick it went.

I bow down to most ARCers and their modeling skills.  I'm completely amatuer, and model to relax and clear my mind.  I humbly submit my MiG for their approval.

Paul 

Photos and text © by Paul A. Birkenfeld