Here
is my Indian Air Force MiG-25RB "KP 354". This aircraft was
provided in the original order from Russia in 1981 and was still in
operation until retirement of the type from the IAF in 2006. The kit is
from Revell (original boxing using the IAF decals, which needed to be
corrected, from the newest boxing) which was quite a handful. From
start to finish, it took 2428 days. Granted, in the time it took, I
completed a 6 month deployment and 3 1/2 year sea tour, had three
kids, finished my Master's degree, ran lots of miles and just lived my
life. So, of course, it was an on-again, off-again build.
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The kit
required significant cutting and chopping and sanding etc. to get something
close to correct. My original plan to simply correct a couple major items and
move forward was hampered at every turn by a desire to "improve it just a
little". Before I knew it I was scratchbuilding parts and making molds
for resin replacement parts for all the landing gear bays, their associated
doors, the cockpit, the exhausts and afterburner trunking, the aft end of the
fuselage, parachute housing, main wheel hubs and engine faces (and probably
others I am forgetting). There were numerous other corrections that were made of
plastic sheet or shaped putty or sweat and sanding sticks. The biggest challenge
was to collect some references to construct the camera pallet so that I could
display it in the lowered position. The only aftermarket part was the KM-1
ejection seat.
Although
it took forever, I did really enjoy the build because it challenged me in
so many different ways. I appreciate all the support and comments and
suggestions that I got from the forums as people followed the build. Of
course, Kittyhawk announced their new 1/48 Foxbat kit as I was coming to a
close. I guess I will buy a couple of them but I have 8 or so more Revell
kits to do first. So maybe I should get cracking on a RU, RBSh, BM or
a P. Hopefully it won't be 6 more years before I am done.
Cheers,
Dave
"parche" Grogan
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