Mig Project Part II

This is really the part I was wanting to get to. Where the Mig is pretty simple, not many details or decals, this part is going to be a lot of detail fun.

I've been eying this model for a long time. I considered it a little pricey for a 1/72 model but I finally said screw it I'm getting it.
Then it shows up like this!!!!

WTH?!!! Let's see if I've wasted money on this.....

Nope. All pieces still in tact. That's a good thing. Saves me a call to FedEx that I really didn't want to make.

So let's lay it all out and see what we got.

Actually the model is not all I got. I also got Mig Killer decals (you guess where I'm going with this project?) and of course, NO PILOTS!!!! So I went back on the hunt for 1/72 pilots. Luckily modern pilots are slightly easier to find than WW I pilots. Found some from JP Productions that I was able to get online from a shop in Australia. I seem to find good stuff from Australian shops. What's the deal with that?

So let's start with the pilots and cockpit....

Test fit...

All looks good. Time to start painting.

The observer had his visor up so I needed to add a little green stuff and a little sculpting to get his visor down. This is going to be a Sundowner and to make it look cool I'm going to theme the helmets.

Turned out pretty good.









Next to finish out the cockpit detail.

and to put them in their seats.

I'm a little behind on posting; missed the month of May. So my next post should be coming up fairly quickly.

Next time we'll be working on the plane build and see what they look like ready for flight.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mig 17 part B

All painted up and now ready for decals:

I added a bit of weathering - chipped paint. Up close I think I may have over done it a bit but you can't really tell at a distance.

So with the weighted nose and building it wheels up, I now need a counterweight in the tail.

Enter left over metal sprue from MicroArmor.

 

Finally here's the completed model. Well almost complete, still need to attach the canopy. And, of course, you can't see the control panel or cockpit details.

 



 

Wheels Up! Let's let it fly.....

Well, that's it. Part one of the project is complete.

Time to start working on part two and try out the new airbrush.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Building the Mig 17

So I said I'm building this wheels up let's see how that is going.

 

 
 
 
 

Left wing looks pretty good but the right one is going to need a bit of green stuff.

And need to fill those holes - no drop tanks or rockets on this one.

The cockpit is nice and simple. That's just fine. You'll see why in a bit.

 

Then I got picky about this.....

No. I'm going to cut a piece of styrene card and make my own control panel.

I got a picture of where it's going to go, but never did get one with it in place. I really gotta get back in the habit of documenting these again.

Still don't have a good digital camera for these but the iPhone camera seems to be working just fine.

 

Got everything filled, sanded, cockpit masked,

 

Let's paint.

 

 

Mixed up my own base color...

Flash forward...it's getting camouflaged with dark grey.

 Still brush painting at this time.

 

Foreshadowing: I got an airbrush for Christmas so I'll be practicing with that soon!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Well it's time to start up posting again.
New Year. New Job. New Goals!

I've been away but still working on projects. I completed a few which I'll eventually get to posting. In the meantime...….here's the current project.

Part 1

This is a project I've been wanting to do for a long, long time. Part 1 begins with a Mig 17. I searched and searched and found all kinds of 15s, 21s, 24s. Finally found a 17 and what do you know?....it even has the North Vietnam markings I was looking for!

But wait...there's more!!!!

 

IT HAS A PILOT!!!!!

 

 

I can't tell you how difficult it is to find 1/72 pilots. I searched and searched a while back for WWI pilots. Found like one set and only about 6 were suitable for cockpits. So not having to search for a pilot on this one! YAY!!!

 

Let's check out te rest of the model:

 

It's a Hasagawa kit. They have always been pretty good models for me.

 

Another cool thing about this model is it has a weighted nose. Super awesome for this plane if you are building it wheels down. I remember having a 15 many moons ago that wouldn't balance right so I had to remove (rip off) the nose and glue pennies in the front to keep all the wheels on the ground.

 



But, of course I plan on building it wheels up.

 

 

Let's make a drink & start building.

 

 

ll







WOW!!! Has it really been almost a year since I posted?

Why yes it has.

Just because I haven't posted doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Aside from the usual real life getting in the way I had several distractions from my planned projects the past few months (read...."year").

I would post pictures of these distractions but the "upgrade" to windows 10 doesn't have a driver for the Sony Handicam which all my digital pictures are taken with. So I have several picture series of projects and distractions on a camera that I can't get anything off of. "Upgrade" indeed.

So until we figure that one out it's up to the iPhone to be the camera and an AAR.

WargamesVault had for sale:

So this go round mini-me and I are going to be following someone else's rules. These are good simple rules. They make for a pretty quick game and not too complicated. It has stats for some of the more common WWII tanks, based mainly on the North Africa campaigns. It also has a few scenarios and for our initial game we (I) chose Hellcats at the Bulge.

I don't have any Hellcats so we substituted 3 M10 Wolverines and an M4 Sherman. The opposing side was to be three trucks, three Pz IV and a Tiger I. Since I don't have any Tigers we substituted a Panther and instead of Pz IV I used Pz IIIs just because.

Terrain - snow Dec 1944:

Victory conditions:
German: advance three vehicles across the table from NE to SW.
American: destroy at least four German vehicles.

Initial deployment:
Germans in the NE:




















Americans in the SE:

Americans go first and split their force. Two Wolverines head straight to the convoy while the other two units head for town to cut off the route.

The Germans put the pedal to the medal and speed up the road.

They can only go as fast as the Pz. IIIs which just happen to be the slowest vehicles in the group.

Turn 2 much of the same. Everyone still out of range.

Now the two Wolverines have pulled within range, the Panther takes off the road to meet them.
The first American shot goes wide, the second aims for the convoy and hits a truck.

But the Panther scored a hit. Note the damage bead next to the M10 on the left.

Turn 4 the first Wolverine hit beats a hasty retreat while the other aims for the damaged truck in the convoy. He scores another hit, destroying the truck, but also takes a hit, the Panther still unscathed.

Meanwhile the convoy is still speeding up the road and the other American units have taken up position in the town.
The Wolverine taking cover behind a boulder scores a hit on the lead Pz III.

The trailing Pz. IIIs fire on the Sherman but both miss.

After knocking out one truck the M10 gets cocky and goes straight for the Panther and scores a hit!

The Panther returns fire does more damage. ( each tank can take 3 hits before being knocked out and there is no provision for ramming damage)

Back in the town things are getting hot at close range.

One Pz. III has pulled off to try and flank the Americans and another of the trucks has been damaged, but they're so close to making an escape.

Turn 6?:

The Wolverine evens the score on the panther and makes for cover behind the building but when the Panther comes around...............

KABLAM!!!!!

That's two vehicles destroyed by the Americans!

Back in the town, one of the trucks has sped off to safety and the German tanks close in to do as much damage as they can. The M10 gets caught in a cross fire but the Sherman is able to get the kill on the panzer coming around the corner. That's three!

At this point I have to go for the win. I run the truck (second vehicle) and one of the tanks (third vehicle) off the end of the table before the shooting phase to achieve the scenario goal. But we still fight past the end. Because it's FUN!

I move the last panzer in and take out the Sherman. Mini-me determined that it was an ammo rack hit - note the turret on the roof. The Wolverine that took the first hit of the game has made it back in support, fires a shot but misses.

I back up behind the wreckage for cover hoping to outlast the M10 before his buddy the Panther killer arrives.

And even though ones always miss......

A six always hits!

So that was lotso fun.

I'm going to try really hard to update the blog more often. If I can figure out how to get the pictures off the Sony I'll have a lot of stuff ready go.

Until then I'll have to start over with the photo documentation.