The MiG-29 has been in
service with the Hungarian Air Force since
1993. Hungary received 22 MiG-29B Type
9.12 single seater and 6 MiG-29UB trainers. They replaced the MiG-21 in Kecskemét
by the 59th Szentgyörgyi Dezső Tactical Fighter Wing. In 2003. The
aircraft where painted to the "NATO-standard" colours. Since I
planned
to build it with Hungarian markings. Last year I found this old Hasegawa
kit (E11, MiG-29 Fulcrum Farnborough with weapons) in a shop. I think that the
kit was made soon after the first public appearance of the jet. Maybe this is
the reason why some parts and details are not correct (the cockpit is very poor,
the centerline fuel tank is totally different, and so on). To tell the truth, the
kits scale is not an exactly 1/72.
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I
started with the cockpit. I wanted to build it with an open canopy but
because of the
poor shape of the inside I used accessories from Aries. It contains foto etched
and resin parts, the full cockpit with the K-36 seat, and also the two
electronic bays on the side (it is beautiful!). The only problem was that it was
made for the Italeri kit, so I had to carve a lot on the fuselage. I opened the
brakes and added different antennas. The fuel tank also needed a lot of work.
For the
painting I used a lot of pictures from the original planes. The decals are from
HAD. It contains a lot of small stencils and detailed instructions. The overall
quality of the decals is very good, but I think that the black used by the
numbers is a little bit to dark.
The
armament in the kit contains 4xR60, 2xR-27 (1 radar and 1 infra guided, but this
assimetrical using is not typical), and the centerline fuel tank. On the
pictures I have seen the Hungarian Fulcrums are flying with R-27 or with R-73
missiles. The R-60 was used only by live firing exercises (in Poland), but on
some pictures the missile rails for the R-60 is also mounted (mostly on the UBs).
To the fully armed plane I used the R-73s and their rail from a Su-27 kit, the
rest of the missiles are out of the box.
Tamás
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