Hey all,
I wanted a MIG-21 to practice with Alclad II, but having not done enough research I ended up with the wrong variant for the scheme I wanted. This is Trumpter’s MIG-21F-13 in 1/48. Had I done my research, I probably would have found a BIS or something. No problem though, I just set off to try and find an interesting scheme for an F-13.
That’s when I found this:
A derelict Czech bird. I knew I had to do it, and I figured it would be good practice for so many things, Alclad, salt chipping, heavy weathering, and so on. Let me just say here that my kit is inspired by this photo, not based on it. I actually stopped looking at the photo once the build started, and just ran with the essence of the image.
Next step, I found out what this bird looked like before it sat on a runway for decades:
Sweet. Inspiration and justification, all you need in this hobby. I wish I had some WIP pics, but I don’t. Anyway, here’s what I came up with:
That’s my glamour shot. I know some things are quite different from the inspiration. I know aluminum doesnt rust. But the job of the artist is to express an idea, and I think the message I was going for is clear.
Here’s the top down, showing the different alclad panels and the heavily distressed paint. The alclad is simply Chrome sprayed over gloss black in some areas and polished flat white in others.
Here’s the cannon area, painted with straight burnt umber oils. Those panels that come down make the whole thing kind of look like a fish to me.
A close up of the nose. The pitot tube (?) has some trimmed photo etch gates as fins, the kit stuff was too thick. I think it looks nice.
And here’s my final image, just a pose I think is cool. There are a couple more images in the photobucket album, but they seemed extraneous to post here.
Anyway, thanks for checking it out, hope you all at least found it interesting whether you liked it or not. I’m always open to opinions and suggestions. On the bench now is a 48th Tamiya F4u1a, just entering the painting stage. Stay tuned.