Scale Aviation Modeller International – September 2019

Airbrakes (#648146) and an
entrance ladder (#48704). The
big thing about the BigSin set is
the saving on the total price. If
that is too much for you there
is also a separate etched set,
but if you have the Brassin set
then you will not need this. I’ve
built the MiG-21PFM before,
so I had a heads up on what to
expect. I expected perfection
and I was not disappointed.
Since I was going to use a lot
of the Brassin stuf the very
irst thing I did was study the
instructions of both the kit
and the Brassin items, and I
made notes on what needed
to be added where and when.

COCKPIT

The Brassin cockpit was where

I decided to start as it is a self-

contained detail set. Building

the cockpit was easy, if you

follow the instructions. You

have three diferent versions

of the instrument panel, and

I decided to use the resin one

as I liked the vertical relief. I

thought I was supposed to use

the instrument panel decal

on the resin panel, but it was

designed for the etched panel.

That same vertical relief caused

some issues with silvering

over the instrument holes,

but after cutting them out the

rest of it settled down quite

well with Solvaset. The cockpit

builds extremely fast and its

perfectly in the fuselage halves.

Don’t forget to remove some of

the plastic from the sidewalls

as the instructions show. I

elected to leave the ejection

seat out until later in the build.

ENGINE

The engine was my next mini

project, as the Brassin one is

beautiful. The hardest part

was to cut out the onion lame

dampener, as this is very

fragile. I used my nippers to cut

the back side of the dampener

and then sawed of the centre

section. It is important to cut

on the backside of the ‘petals’

and then at the base where it

joins the casting block. This

will allow you to get to the

centre without breaking of

the fragile ‘petals’. It is the

hardest part of this set, but

in the end result is awesome.

With the cockpit and engine

put aside, it was time to prepare

the rest of the model to accept

the other sets, namely the

airbrakes. The airbrakes were

easily removed but remember

to leave the two indents for

the replacement brakes to it

into. While I was cutting things

This is about as good as a

model can get!

SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER 2019

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