1/72 Condor MiG-21R

Converted to RF

by Hany M. Ibrahim

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This is  a Condor kit that I bought on ebay a few years back and finished a little over a year ago, this was definitely a challenging build as it’s KP heritage is evident in all parts except for the fuselage halves which look more like a MiG-21 in my opinion, albeit a BIS with the wider spine. I tried to reduce the spine’s width by sanding but it was soon obvious that I’ll run out of plastic before I reach the proper chord. The wheels are a little smaller in diameter than the real aircraft but I had no replacements, so I turned a blind eye and used them. The cockpit is quite sparse as expected, the details were scratch-built  (Seat belts, ejection handle, instrument panel etc.) and the seat modified to look like the original. The Pitot tube was changed with a much thinner stock. To convert to an RF version, I scratch-built the under cockpit camera pod using Milliput and clear plastic stock.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

 

The MiG-21RF was only operated by Egypt, as the original Recce pod was removed from the fuselage hard-point and replaced with an indigenously designed and built three camera pod that was installed in a fairing that replaced the gun under the cockpit, this helped counter the GGS (Gas Guzzling Syndrome) that MiG-21s suffered from, as instead of the original pod an additional fuel tank was added which when paired the wing tanks provided notable range enhancement.

This particular aircraft 8506 was one of three in its unit that were used throughout the period leading up to the 6th of October (Yom Kippur) war and also after the Suez Canal crossing for targets’ status verification.

Hany 

Photos and text © by Hany M. Ibrahim