The Ghost of Kyiv - Questions about a few items.

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I just purchased the ICM 1/72 MIG-29 “Ghost of Kyiv” kit and, while I’m waiting for delivery, have been mulling over an idea for this project.

I was considering mounting the finished kit in-flight on a round base and possibly delving into some lighting. (launching a missle at full burners)

Here are my questions:

  1. Mounting the finished kit: What is the best way to mount this on the base? I hate to have the thing holding the plane be very noticable but it would probably be necessary to run some electrical to the base?

  2. How can I create the flame cone effect for the Afterburners?

This video is partially what inspired me for what I am trying to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX1zmCUxMv8

2

For something like this I would use clear acrylic rod to mount the plane in flight. Then you can paint the rod out the exhaust nozzles to mimic afterburners. As far as lighting, I have not gone down that road yet.

BK

3

Great idea! I imagine I could shape it with a heat gun and possibly texturize the “flame” with some silicone caulk or something?

4

Agree with Brandon. Acrylic rod works great - you can drill it easily and bend it in hot water. Just plan out the attachment points

5

I think I’ll heat it carefully with my heat gun so I Can bend as needed. I still need to figure out all the LED issues. Looking to use small sized diodes for missile lauch and th burners. I’ll need to hide all the bits. Lots to plan.

6

If you are talking about gluing the wheels to a base, one method is to sand bottom of wheels a bit flat and glue with the silicon caulk that tb mentions. Glue the nose wheels also, but do not flatten.

7

Ghost of KyivI totally forgot to post the final project. This has been completed for a bit. I had to scale it back a little bit to accomodate my skillset. [:$]

I hope you enjoy.

8

Unless you are going to mount a battery pack onboard the aircraft you will need to run wires to the off board power source to drive your LEDs. You may want to consider a stainless or brass tube as a conduit. Is your MiG29 one with a solid wing or are there upper/lower wing halves? You will also need to plan a wire path to the wing tip for the missile motor. Things to think about.

Google how the StarWars\StarTrek/SciFi folks do their lighting and their sources for electronics. Lots of good suggestions so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

9

I have completed the project at this point. I decided that the addition of electronics was beyond my abilities at this time and the kit itself didn’t end up being conducive to what I had planned (the wing is one solid piece). So, I just completed it without and mounted it on the base I created. It still looks mighty nice that way :smiley:

Thanks for the ideas though. I’ll check out what you suggested for possible future projects.

10

I think that it looks fantastic! The missile launching adds a "dynamic " look to the presentation along with the symbol that you used in the base. Excellent work all around.

tjs

11

Perfection! Do you have more pics from other angles?

12

Nice job. Your skillset looks pretty good to me.

13

I sure do…

FYI: The base graphic is the same as one of the decals on the side of the airframe and is basically the “Ghost of Kyiv” symbol. I found it online, printed it out and made a stencil. A few coats of spray paint and some weathering really make the base look pretty awesome (although, in retrospect, maybe a bit big for the model.) Thanks to some suggestions on this thread, I found some acrylic rod and bent it with my heat gun and gave a light painting near the nozzles to create a bit of afterburner.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone! This turned out pretty nicely.

14

When I bought my ICM Ghost of Kiev kit I also bought the associated ICM Ghost of Kiev paint set .

15

Super cool. You’re a hell of a good modeler.