Maybe it’s the wrong forum, but I have the Italeri Admiral Kuznetsov, and it comes with tiny Mig-29K’s and Su-33’s… About detailing the planes (at least replacing the tail fins), there is no doubt, the doubt painting them. The Italeri Admiral Kuznetsov comes with two markings: One is the “Tbilisi,” #111 and the other is the “Admiral Kuznetsov”, #113 ( I think circa 1990-1995)… I think these are early markings for this aircraft carrier, as the Trumpeter kits comes with markings only for “Admiral Kuznetsov”, but #063 (I think actually)… I’ll paint the Su-33’s with the usual three-tone Flanker camouflage, the problem is with the Mig-29K’s… I’ve seen two color schemes for these airplanes: the usual two-tone Fulcrum camouflage and another with dark blue over light gray or maybe light blue/gray in the undersides… If I’ll model a circa 1990 Admiral Kuznetsov… Which camouflage should i apply to my Mig-29K’s?.. In other words: Which of the two camouflages is the older one?.. Or maybe there is ANOTHER camouflage that I didn’t know… Any advice should be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Regards.
The Mig 29K was never adopted by the Russian Navy for deployment aboard their carrier. They deploy only with the SU-33 and helos. Including them on your carrier would be a “what if…” situation. There have been several proto-types in the past. There has been some resurgence in interest in the Mig 29K from India a while back. The schemes I’ve seen have been a dark gray (w/lighter gray under surface). I guess it’s up to your own creativity and preference.
I have an older issue of “Combat Aircraft” (Volume 4, Issue No. 2, see below) and there’s good article in it called “Flanker vs Fulcrum” about the Russian Navy’s evaluation of both fighters for carrier service; you’re right, there are two paint schemes for the -29K, the “standard” two-tone and an overall gloss dark sea blue scheme. I believe only one particular -29K received the overall dark blue, but I’ll check my sources. My guess is the overall dark blue scheme is the newer of the two (but, again, I’ll check my sources & get back to you), so I would say the two-tone scheme is probably the older of the two.
I have a book on the Su-27 and it shows carrier trials of the Su-27K, Su-25T and MiG-29K. They may not have been used operationally, but at one point the MiG-29K was used for sea trials on the Kuznetsov. If you want to use the 29’s in the kit you may want to research when the trials for the 29K were done and perhaps you could model the Kuznetsov and the 29Ks as they were at that time.
I found a website on the 29K. Shows a model perhaps of what the 29 would have looked like if it went operational. In my Su-27 book it shows a naval Flanker in the same deep blue scheme. In the picture of the deck of the Kuznetsov during sea trials, you can see the nose of the Fulcrum from the canopy forward and it looked like a light gray scheme paintjob. So if you model the 29K as it was in sea trials it may not look like the Fulcrum in the model at this website.
I scanned the pictures of the MiG-29K I had at home, put 'em on a CD-RW, and then promptly forgot to bring it with me to work so I could post them here!
Anyway, I’ll post them next week (sorry!); however, I was wrong on a couple of things, you were right: Bort 212 (the “first” MiG-29K) was flat dark sea blue on top (not gloss), and it looks like Light Ghost gray on the bottom. Bort 211 (the “second” MiG-29K) had the light gray/sea green camo scheme.
Like I said, I’ll post the photos here next week, and you can make your own decision.
