MiG-23 UB 'Flogger' - ART Models
Box art - an impressive picture of the Flogger!
The cockpit floor / nose gear bay cemented into the fuselage. This kit has no locating pins or anything to assist you, so you need to dry fit everything a dozen times to understand where things should go and where they will not interfere with the fit later! BTW, notice that the nose cone is part of the fuselage and not a separate piece like the KP model.
Let's now focus on the cockpit! The kit provides resin parts for the two cockpits. Mine unfortunately came with slightly deformed headrests that I needed to try to repair. When separating the cockpits from their casting blocks, you need to be pretty precise, as there is no room for error when fitting them into the fuselage!
Internal parts painted with that hideous Soviet cockpit turquoise green.
Seats and cockpit painted, washed and drybrushed. I am not too happy with these "all-in-one" resin cockpits as they are very difficult to paint. I would have preferred separate parts for the seats, so I can add my own seatbelts and stuff.
Nose cavity filled with lead-free fishing weights. I added as much as I could, as this model is a strong tail sitter candidate, especially with the wings swept back.
The front part of the fuselage is cemented together. Just as I suspected, the fit is rubbish and I needed to fill all the join lines with copious amounts of my own filler, "Liquid Sprue": pieces of scrap plastic sprue dissolved in Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. Joysticks and the rear cockpit's dashboard will be added later as they are easily accessible from the outside. The front dashboard needed some surgery to fit.
Oops, the root of the outer wing is waaaay too thick to fit into the inner wing glove. If not fixed, this will result in a hideous 2 mm gap. What were the model designers thinking?
The "lip" that goes into the inner wing was sanded significantly thinner and then polished back. Some panel lines were then rescribed. As you can see, there is no "swing wing" mechanism in this kit, you need to cement the wings in your selected configuration.
Wings cemented in the 72 degree position. MiG-23's were 99% of the time parked with their wings fully swept back, like this. I added some reinforcement strips in the middle to make sure that the wings stay perfectly aligned. Note that the only attachment point to the fuselage is that tiny "ring". If you wish to display the wings in an extended position, you definitely need to reinforce them, or they will soon start to droop, making the Flogger look ridiculously lop-sided.
Back fuselage top piece cemented in place - the large join gaps on the sides are again filled with "Liquid Sprue" and set aside to cure for a few days. Heavily sanded in shape and panel lines restored.
The gap between the wing and the glove was too large for my comfort and was annoying me, so I decided that I would need to fix it. First I squeezed in a bit of Evergreen styrene strip in the gap and traced the outlines of the glove with a micro pen.
I then cut the styrene strip along the line.
I squeezed in the strip in the gap and carefully cemented it in place.
Not perfect, but that cavernous gap is eliminated! Of course I now also need to do the other side.
The two auxiliary intake ports (to prevent compressor stall) on sides of the intake that are rather prominent on the real aircraft are just represented with contours on the model. Strange, even the old Academy kit features these... Anyway, this should be an easy conversion, so let's do it! I started with thinning the plastic quite substantially, using my Dremel 4000 on lowest speed ...
... drilling a few holes in the middle of the soon-to-be-opened auxiliary intakes ...
... and finally carefully cutting open the intakes with a sharp blade from the inside.
Second aperture opened up.
Auxiliary intake flaps added on the inside from styrene sheet. Easy peasy and looks much better than the regular part (to the right).
Holy cow, the resin tailpipe does not even *remotely* fit into the rear opening! I needed to sand it to an inch of its life, while also thinning the receiving side quite substantially. BTW, always make sure to wet-sand resin parts with plenty of water, as airborn resin dust is pretty nasty stuff!
I finally managed to wrestle it in and superglued it in place. The cemented top and bottom fuselage parts cracked up a bit but this was easily fixed with some styrene cement. Phew, this was a close call! TBH, I am not sure why the tailpipe is provided as a resin piece - it is not super detailed and I think it should have been quite possible to mold it from two or three pieces of regular styrene.
Front and back fuselage halves assembled ...
... and the jet intakes and fin cemented in place! All the nasty gaps filled with liquid styrene to be sanded and polished into shape. It will be a lot of work, but it starts to look like a Flogger!
Welcome to my least favorite part, "The Ugly Phase", where the model looks like crap, with sanding dust, and filler marks everywhere. But every minute spent here will pay dividends later.
Missile pylons cemented on - no missiles will be added as trainers almost never flew with them.
Cementing the air brakes in open position - they were often left open or slightly drooping while parked. Actuators need to be fabricated from scratch, but it is super easy.
The characteristic, but missing intake separators added from styrene strips. Getting ready to close the canopy and start masking - well, as soon as the masks arrive from Ukraine!
Ventral fin and landing gears added
I will replace the one-piece canopy (the top one) with vacformed ones from Pavla. Since I want to pose the canopies open, I actually needed two sets to be able to cut apart the pieces.
I first roughly cut out the four segments from the two canopies using a razor saw blade ...
... and then I carefully shaped the parts with my Dremel tool on lowest speed. Not easy as the canopies have very vague frame lines, but by using the original kit part as reference, I think I managed.
There - canopy segments finished! I will not add these to the model now as they are really thin and flexible and I suspect they will just keep falling off during masking and painting. They will instead be painted separately and added as one of the very last building steps.
Cockpit masked off with Tamiya masking tape and Mr Hobby masking fluid to fill in the gaps.
The model then rubbed off with isopropyl alcohol to remove any remaining dust from the panel lines and fingerprints that might affect the paint's ability to adhere to the plastic
UMP Ultimate Primer sprayed on (H&S Evolution airbrush, 0.4 needle, 35 PSI). This is still the best primer available I think, but a bit thick, so you need a lot of air and a large spray to drive it smoothly onto the model. Also it shouldn't ever dry up inside the airbrush or you will have a hard time cleaning it out.
A gray Flogger waiting to dry. Starting to look nice, but damit, no matter how careful I was, I can already see a bunch of filling/sanding mistakes that will need to be rectified before applying the final paint layers.
I sprayed on the final layer of "teflon gray". My mix with various Tamiya acrylics, based on my own photos. I tried to vary the intensity of the paint to let the slightly darker primer underneath act as preshading - not sure I managed, I prefer to use post-shading instead.
Well, it's gray for sure. Next, a bunch of detail painting!
Exhaust, dielectric panels and panels around the intakes painted. Still waiting for the wheel bay doors and then it is time to apply the utility gloss for the decals and weathering. The myriad of microscopic PE antennas will be added later.
Putting on the masks for the clear parts and then time to prime and paint the frames ... green on the inside and grey on the outside. Easy peasy, right?
Wrong! The Mr Surfacer primer just doesn't stick! You probably cannot see it in the photo, but there are pockets of air between the paint and the plastic where the Surfacer has detached. Obviously it's no point continuing - back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong. And I definitely did wash the parts so they were not greasy or anything.
Horrible paint removed with a toothpick and some thinner, back to clean plastic again. Let's try making my own masks with some Tamiya masking tape and use UMP primer instead.
Since the pre-cut masks had all been used up in the failed attempt and none of the online shops had any available, I had no choice but to make my own by using the leftover backing sheet of the previous masks. Should not be too tricky...
Place a piece of masking tape on top of the sheet and mark the corners with a Micron pen ...
... and then just trace the dots with a brand new blade. Actually, pretty easy (except for that oval shaped part of the windshield, that took like a dozen attempts and I am still not perfectly happy).
Using UMP primer did the trick - no problems with the paint flaking off. I guess my jar of Mr Surfacer is defective or maybe contaminated somehow? Well, it's in the bin now.
Using my masks, all canopy parts are finally painted without any negative side effects. Not my all time high canopy painting, but I am just too damn pleased that I managed to salvage the stuff. In hindsight I would have kept the original one-piece canopy instead of going through this ordeal, partocilarly since the cockpit is not that super detailed anyway.
Windshields cemented to the model, the open canopies are just placed there for the photo - they will be added as one of the last build steps. The insides of the canopies have no detail whatsoever, only painted green. I guess I could scratch build things like the internal periscope assembly, but given the less than stellar quality of the cockpit details, I probably won't. Mea culpa.
Model sprayed with Alclad II Gloss varnish to seal the paint and to prepare the surfaces for decaling and weathering. EDIT: Oops, I missed that the metal part in front of the jet exhaust should actually go all the way to the air brakes. Got to try to fix that.
My favorite part underway: decaling. I won't be using the kit's decal sheet, but decals from HAD Models for the 'iron curtain' style star insignias and numerals and Hungarian service stencils, also from HAD Models.
I want to emphasize that lovely surface detail, so I soak the area I want to treat with Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color, and then let it sit on the surface for 30 minutes. A pure black wash would be too stark, gray nearly invisible, but a mix of gray and black seems more appropriate. Some people love, some hate dark panel lines, I am kind of inbetween.
After half an hour, I moist a cotton bud with turpenoid (AKI Odorless Turpentine) and gently remove the excess wash from the flat surfaces. Just careful, not too much turpenoid, or you will remove all. The good thing is that the paint will not be harmed by the turpenoid and the wash can be removed to any level I want. I want a fairly dirty Flogger, so I will leave a lot.
Stencils and washes being added - maybe slightly overdone, but I kind of like it. Yeah, and I managed to break off the antenna on the spine, clumsy me.
A copious amount of gaudy service stencils definitely breaks up the monochrome gray! I have a feeling that they are slightly oversized, but anyway, here they are.
The canopies are superglued in open position.
The twin barrels of that mighty 23 mm gun under the fuselage were cut from brass tubes as the plastic parts were just unusable lumps.
Some weathering on the exhaust petals using Tamiya weathering powders ... and we are pretty much done!
The finished model
The finished model
The finished model
The finished model
The finished model
The finished model
The finished model
Ready for a night mission
Comments
70 20 May 2020, 22:37
Łukasz GlińskiFollowing, got the KP copy waiting in my stash, wondering how bad the fit is 🙂
21 May 2020, 09:14
Thomas KolbYes, I got the KP version too, but they are not identical. Well, some sprues are, but many parts are new and are not interchangeable. The ART version for instance has its nose cone integrated with the front part of the fuselage, while the KP has a separate nose cone. Also the transparencies are different, the KP windscreen is too small for the ART model.
21 May 2020, 09:58
Martin von SchreckensteinI will follow this with interest. I always wanted to build a few Czech Floggers but i do not have patience for these kits so I will wait for a future tool of a 1/72 Flogger. I'm sure one will come up before I retire🙂
21 May 2020, 11:30
Alec KCool project, again. Following. I have the RV kit in my stash, along with their resin pieces.
21 May 2020, 11:41
Łukasz GlińskiOk, now I got it, sorry for long reaction time 🙂 It turns out I mixed RV with Art Model boxing 😄
21 May 2020, 11:51
Thomas KolbThe front part of the fuselage is assembled, and yes, just as I suspected, the fit is awful. The mating surfaces are uneven, which results in gaps and steps no matter how I tried. I filled the join lines with my own "Liquid Sprue" and will now let it cure for two days before sanding everything into shape.
In the meantime I started with the back part of the fuselage. The wings have no internal swing mechanism (for instance "cogs" like the old Academy kit), so if you want the wings to be positionable, you will need to design something from scratch. Personally I won't care and will cement the wings in the regular "parking" position, i.e. fully swept back.
21 May 2020, 18:42
CuajeteInteresting... I have this kit in my stash and it have many decal options. Following.
21 May 2020, 20:04
Andy BallThomas: you pick the toughest plastic to work with :-0 .... however you're a craftsman with whatever medium you use!!
22 May 2020, 09:01
Christian LehmannThis seems to be a reissue of the kit of the RV Mig23 kit family under the ART brand. If this is the case this build will be a real challenge . I will follow to see how it turns out.
22 May 2020, 11:07
Thomas Kolb@Christian, yes, it looks like a slightly dumbed down version of the RV kit - a one piece canopy, a slightly bubble-damaged resin cockpit and so on. But it is actually not that bad - the details are superb, even though the fit is surprisingly poor at some places.
23 May 2020, 09:34
Andy BallIs there consensus on the best MiG-23/27 in 72nd?....(I have the Hasegawa'27 from many years ago)
23 May 2020, 11:08
Łukasz GlińskiAFAIK Hasegawa and Academy Floggers are said to have many significant shape issues, the most famous being wings. Though it's hard to find reliable plans 🙂
PS. I plan to build one day reboxed Academy 23 & 27 anyway 🙂
23 May 2020, 11:28
Thomas KolbI would say the RV (ART) version, closely followed by the KoPro collection. The Academy kit is a remake of the old Hasegawa tooling, although with recessed panel lines. It is not very accurate and you'd better spend your time building the KP's instead.
23 May 2020, 15:12
CuajeteFantastic job so far...
I agree with Thomas... I would also say that the best is ART/RV for now, in shapes and details, despite the fit.
23 May 2020, 17:11
Thomas KolbI finally assembled the front and back parts of the fuselage. Having no alignment tabs meant that I needed to eyeball the join really carefully so that the fuselage stays straight and true and not shaped like a banana.
25 May 2020, 14:04
Andy Ball"If you're going through [sanding] Hell, don't stop".....(looks very Flogger-y now)
28 May 2020, 11:59
Thomas KolbThe Flogger is getting close to priming, but since the canopy masks (annoyingly enough) still haven't arrived from Ukraine, I might need to wait a bit longer... In the meantime I have been busy adding small details, such as pylons, air brakes, some cables for the landing gear bays and such. The landing gear assembly seems like quite a fragile construction, so I think I will add it as late as possible.
8 June 2020, 06:14
Thomas KolbStill waiting for the canopy masks that I ordered five weeks ago, before I can continue... Man, this Ukranian mail thing is taking like 4eva ... 🙁
19 June 2020, 08:57
Alexander GrivonevGotta love those builds where you actually need to get your hands dirty. Really nice work so far👍
Cockpit looks great btw!
19 June 2020, 09:23
Thomas KolbStill waiting for the masks to arrive... Three of my other orders from Ukraine are still missing, so I am starting to suspect that nothing from Ukraine will ever get delivered at all. Stolen or lost, I guess I will never know. Bummer...
9 July 2020, 18:46
Andy BallUkrapost certainly *suck*, my Reskit's took months- but be patient they will arrive.
9 July 2020, 19:43
Thomas KolbAt last! After several months in transit from Ukraine, the Pavla transparent vac-formed canopies appeared in the mail! So I can finally dust off the model and resume the build. Yay!
2 August 2020, 18:48
CuajeteGood news, Thomas! 🙂 👍
What tool type has you used in the Dremel? Fine grit sander roll?
2 August 2020, 19:59
Andy BallTerrific skill on those vacform canopies , I must ask you about the Dremel - thinking of getting one, looking forward to the build moving on....
2 August 2020, 20:47
Thomas KolbCuajete & Andy, I have the Dremel 4000. It can be set to run at a very low speed (5 KRPM), which is low enough not to melt the styrene (higher speeds will do that in an instant). For the canopies I used a very fine grinding stone. BTW, in case of a spouse approval factor, the Dremel is not just a modeling tool, but is also great for fixing stuff around the house, I recently used it to cut the metal fixtures for our new panel curtains.
2 August 2020, 21:57
Andy Ball@Thomas: thank you very much. Can I also practice dentistry with it too?????, but seriously- I too can think of alternatives, and my good lady never objects to those sorts of acquisitions (she's on about another dog!, and I'm sure will go ahead and get one!)
2 August 2020, 22:17
Alexander GrivonevFunny, because I obtained a new "Dremel" recently as well. In my case it was a Proxxon though, but "Dremel" seems to be the universal name for small hand rotary tools.
Anyway, it had the lowest RPM setting also at 5000rpm which to my taste is way, WAAAY to high for our purposes. Really curious that you label 5000 rpm as "very low", Thomas, but of course in the end all that matters is personal taste and what you do with it. Ended up sending the Proxxon back and buying a fairly cheap one from Amazon (20€) which has the lowest setting at around 1000-1500 I believe. Perfect for drilling holes is soft plastic with sub 1mm drills, but you can also crank it up to 10000 rpm+ to cut metal. Very multifunctional.
3 August 2020, 09:42
Thomas KolbAlexander - I guess "very low" is relative. My previous no-name grinding tool had the lowest setting of 12.000 RPM, needless to say, that was pretty unusable for plastic. The Dremel on the 5000 setting seems okay as long as you are careful. I have polished, drilled and grinded plastic without any issues.
3 August 2020, 12:20
Alexander GrivonevOk that makes sense now, all is relative and you compare it to what you are used to. My previuos trusty drill (which was a Christmas present from my parents back in 1999!) was rapidly demising after 20 years of usage and it was also a low rpm low torque tool.
3 August 2020, 14:06
Thomas KolbPrimer and grey coat added, I was almost starting to think that I would never get this far with this model! Now some details and then it is time for the gloss coat, decals and weathering!
22 August 2020, 21:19
Thomas KolbExcruciatingly slow progress, but alas, I have only like half an hour here and there to spend on model building for now and I am (perhaps foolishly) spending it on four or five simultaneous projects. Anyway, I am pondering how to best represent that very visible pink-brown sealant around the cockpit glass panes... I think it is too tight for painting. Decals maybe? Any ideas?
4 September 2020, 05:10
TreehuggerWhat kind of drill bit on a dremel do you recommend for sanding away plastic, either thick or thin?
4 September 2020, 08:16
Thomas Kolb@Treehugger, I am using various engraving cutter bits. It works quite well on plastic as long as you keep the speed low.
[img1]
4 September 2020, 18:06
Thomas Kolb@Łukasz, yes, you are right, I even asked you about it regarding your MiG-29 project, but it somehow slipped my mind. I actually have the Aizu Micron 0.4mm tape and will try to use it. Thanks for the tip!
4 September 2020, 18:07
Łukasz GlińskiToo bad, maybe you could use some matting sponge or prime it using some Alclad paint?
5 September 2020, 19:06
Christian LehmannI never had this issue with vacu canopies. I usually prime them with Mr. Surfacer by using the airbrush after they have been masked with Tamiya tape.
6 September 2020, 08:25
Thomas KolbGood news, using my UMP primer did the trick, I guess my jar of Mr Surfacer was contaminated or too old or something? Phew, that was a close call... Gordon & Łukasz & Christian, thanks mates for the tips!
6 September 2020, 15:23
Thomas KolbAndy & Cuajete, thank you guys. To be honest I have no idea what went wrong with the Mr Surfacer, it was the first time it failed on me. But I am pleased that I managed to salvage the project, I was really *this* close to tossing the whole model into the drawers of oblivion.
6 September 2020, 18:37
Łukasz GlińskiLooks like somebody in the East is reading your mind Thomas...
MiG pink supersonic sealant (Begemot 72-083, 1:72)
8 September 2020, 15:31
Thomas KolbŁukasz, wow, thanks! Sealant decals on order directly from Begemot, cool!
9 September 2020, 08:54
Thomas KolbDecals and stencils being added and I also started to do an application with a dark gray wash. Still quite a few details remain, like antennas, some tiny detail painting and so, but I am actually starting to see the finish line now! 🙂
20 September 2020, 19:52
Łukasz GlińskiLooks like I'm not the only one avoiding the pin wash, good😉
What's your excuse?😉
20 September 2020, 20:22
Thomas KolbŁukasz, this model is literally covered all over with panel lines and rivets, so pin washing would be nearly impossible, at least with my mediocre skill set. I think a full panel wash is a quick way to get a pretty nice result.
21 September 2020, 05:12
Slavo HazuchaJoining in very late - Flogger two seater definitely a rarity not to be missed 🙂
Looking all great, incl. the latest wash 👍
21 September 2020, 09:27
Andy BallI'm guessing those long-worded Hungarian warning stencils (I'm sure they wouldn't have been Russian?) make for a more visible presence on the airframe?....
21 September 2020, 09:37
Thomas Kolb@Slavo, thank you, you are welcome!
@Andy, yep, that's Hungarian. The red ones around the wings say "Caution, honeycomb, do no step here". I guess it is the internal structure they mean, but maybe Winnie The Pooh's lunch, who knows.
21 September 2020, 10:07
Łukasz GlińskiIn English it may sound short, but each word must have at least 100 chars, like in German 😛
21 September 2020, 10:44
Krzysztof SzymkiewiczYou put a lot of work into it, but I can see that the final effect will be great. I have it in stock, and I can see what awaits me ...😢
22 September 2020, 16:53
Thomas KolbKrzysztof, yes, it is actually a much more difficult kit than what I thought it would be and I am honestly not 100% happy about the result. But I have two more KP MiG-23's in the stash (a rebox of the ART kit), and I am sure I will be able to do a much better job now that I know about the pitfalls.
22 September 2020, 17:02
Andy Ball@Thomas: are you not curious about the Clear Prop offerings coming before commencing the KPs?
22 September 2020, 17:38
Thomas KolbAndy, I already have the KP's in the cupboard, but will probably get the CP ML version whenever that is available. As they say, "one does not simply... have enough Floggers".
22 September 2020, 17:49
Thomas KolbSergei, you are too kind. I am actually not 100% happy with how this model is turning out, there are just too many tiny misses everywhere that I could have avoided. I think I will build the KP version real soon and make that one better.
25 September 2020, 20:35
Andy BallThomas: you've done that plastic metallurgy again....base metal to gold. I know your inner demons - many of us feel in our work, and from what I've seen they should be duly dispatched by this particular work! Bravo on an atypical subject!
25 September 2020, 21:32
Christian BruerInteresting and informative to follow your WIP and a very nice and sharp work indeed 👍
26 September 2020, 08:33
Alec KLooking excellent Thomas. I am logging this build for reference before I start my RV MiG 👍
26 September 2020, 12:12
Thomas KolbAndy, Christian, Alec, thank you for the compliments! I still have a few more final steps to go before I can call the model finished, shouldn't be long now.
26 September 2020, 13:40
CuajeteThomas, your job looks great. It would be fantastic to see in your hands an Art Model's Mig-27😉
26 September 2020, 18:28
Thomas KolbI spent more than an hour yesterday adding the service stencils... there are still like 50 of them on the decal sheet, but frankly I don't think I will bother adding them all. Also, some of the tiny PE antennas are so tiny that they get lost in the "panel lines", which makes them quite pointless to add.
29 September 2020, 05:36
Andy BallGreat work!!, you got across the line at last. Unusual variant and an atypical user too. Good to see the investment in the canopy paid off....splendid!
29 September 2020, 16:33
CuajeteOutstanding, Thomas! And very nice hangar... that hangar that looks great with the lights and is now all the rage in SC😉
Congrats!
29 September 2020, 18:08
Łukasz GlińskiOh man, dat Floggerrrrrr... 👍 👍 👍
and dat hangarrrrrr.... 😮 😮 😮
PS. Nice colour setting for the inside pics, looks so coldwarish 👍
29 September 2020, 19:57
Erik De SmetI was waiting for these pictures of the Flogger and the hangar. Waw !!!!!!
29 September 2020, 20:05
Thomas KolbThank you guys, it was actually a surprising amount of a struggle to push the Flogger over the finishing line.
30 September 2020, 06:11
CuajeteWow... Night picture looks awesome real!
Even background lights look like the Taxiway track😉
3 October 2020, 17:37
Thomas KolbDaniel, Cuajete & Martin, thanks! He he, yes the "airport" lights in the background are actually my computer screen being reflected in the window.
3 October 2020, 18:50
Łukasz GlińskiNice tricks, first the street lamp fitting the hangar scale and now the taxi lights 👍
3 October 2020, 19:04
Slavo HazuchaVery cool looking & rarely seen Flogger version, and a perfect installation, especially the night pics! 👍
There are moments when I think about some form of "base & background" for my kits, this definitely is one of them! 🙂
4 October 2020, 13:07
Maxim MalparteThumb ups and handclaps, stunning work, especially the canopy cutting part. Those hand scribed panel lines scared me off from buying one though... (Still better than floggers from KP probably?)
20 November 2020, 13:03
Thomas KolbHammerMax, thank you! I am not sure about the RV kit, but the ART kit is more or less the same kit as the KP. Lots of rivets and panel lines, all a little bit wonky.
Oliver & Julian, thank you, my dear fellow modelers!
21 November 2020, 20:02
MariusThomas, I just discovered your build here. Great work on not such an easy to build kit! I am building the KP Model/MiG-23MF and of course there are generally the same issues. I was about to mount the air intakes and luckily I noticed just in time in your pictures how I should improve them. Thank you! I will keep using your gallery as inspiration.
21 February 2022, 07:00
