MiG-21MF LanceR C - Romania - 2012
Comments
Jan PetersVery cool subject Marius, I will follow this with interest.
Shame the resin parts dont really fit, I had the same problem with the brassin exhaust tube that came with the bunny fighter MF. Could not get it to fit,. You are taking the hard road, but in the end it will be worth it👍🏻
Pierre-Christian BaudruGreat project ! I'm doing the same and will follow your build.
Piotr Sarniński-GóreckiYour projects Marius are some kind of NG or Discovery documents - a really pleasure to watch 🙂
MariusSo I finally managed to find a proper color for the unusual blue applied on the underside. General painting should be ready. Decals next.
Michael Kohlinteresting project. Thanx for the detailled outline of the versions specifications. This might help some in the future.
MariusThank you all for the comments so far. The construction is very advanced, but I am waiting for some white stencils to arrive before posting new pictures. I am so far happy with the progress, but it's going slow since I am having other 5(!) MiG-21s in progress.
MariusThank you. As usual, I noticed some surface imperfections for the first time in the pictures thanks to the lightning and macro....I guess that should be the next step, fixing all of that.
Bernd GrünVery impressive LanceR, Marius. Outstanding build and paint job. Congratulation!
Jan PetersLooking good Marius 👍🏻
Minor imperfections are only seen in a macro picture, so why bother?
Piotr Sarniński-GóreckiAnother beautiful model from your workshop Marius - congrats !!! Pleasure to look 🙂
MariusThank you so much guys, really appreciate it! 🙂 I am aware it's not perfect, but I am comfortable with the result.
I decided to upload the finished model here as well, since I apparently created more confusion with two albums.
@Jan you were right at the beginning, the resin parts were worth it in the end.
It is a very heavy model in the end due to the resin parts and additional counterweights to compensate. The landing gear broke several times during handling due to the weight.
Simon NagorsnikGreat result mate!
Top paint job and i like the camo pattern that you have chosen👍
Album info
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, several Eastern European countries were facing difficulties being supplied with spare parts and engines for their Soviet made military aircraft fleet, in some cases even with significantly higher prices. One such case was Romania, which had a particularly cold/distant relationship with the USSR. This forced the Romanian Air Forces to retire prematurely the MiG-23s and MiG-29s not long after the year 2000. The MiG-29s were barely received in december 1989.
Instead, it was decided in 1993 to upgrade 110 MiG-21Ms and MFs to western standards. The program provided a total inventory of 73 MiG 21 LanceR A (single-seat ground attack variant), 23 LanceR C (single-seat air superiority jets) and 14 LanceR B (two-seat training and ground-attack version). The MiG-21 LanceR had now modern avionics, self defense systems and could arm both modern western weapons and soviet weapons, becoming a fourth generation jet.
As of end of 2021, between 25 ad 30 MiG-21 LanceR were probably still operational, with parts of the fleet being already replaced since 2016 with F-16 AMs. The MiG-21 LanceR will be completely retired in the coming few years, after which Romania won't be having any Soviet made military aircraft any more.
On the 3rd of March 2022 , one week after the Ukraine War had started, a further fatal MiG-21 Lancer C accident has lead to the indefinite grounding of the entire remaining LanceR fleet. The accident was officially caused by extreme weather, but since the event happened not very far from the border to Ukraine and the Black Sea, there was plenty of room for speculations.
My model is equipped with two R550 Magic II missiles ans two external fuel tanks, a typical configuration for air policing.
Group Build
15. March until 31. December 2021