attaching the canopy, the tiny instrument
panel must also be glued into place.
Finally, the paper-thin vertical fin
and rudder units are simply joined to the
ends of the horizontal empennage.PAINTING AND DECALS
Masking the canopy looks simple, but due to
its size it is not. I masked the engine intake,
exhaust, and undercarriage bays with masking
fluid and small pieces of wet paper tissue.
The most difficult part for me was finding
a way to secure the model for painting.
Eventually, I stuck a bamboo skewer into
the forward wheel bay and this worked
satisfactorily. I primed the model with Tamiya
primer/surfacer from the rattle can and took
a look at the proposed painting schemes.
At first, I thought about the most outlandish
scheme, i.e. the example used by the French.
However, I had no adequate blue paint at hand,
so eventually I chose the one tested by the
Soviets. To be honest, the RAF scheme looked
just too complicated for
me in this scale.
I have found that
covering aluminium
paint with matt
varnish gives an effect
of silver grey to Soviet jets, such as
MiG-15s and the like. Therefore, I
painted the whole model Tamiya
Aluminium. As it is a glossy paint,
once it was dry I started decalling.
The decals themselves are of
very good quality, thin and opaque,
but again because of their size, noteasy to place in their respective locations.
Once decaled, I left the model to dry overnight
before giving it a light coat of matt varnish.FINAL BITS
After unmasking the model, all that is left is the
undercarriage. The bay covers were painted and
installed with a bit of CA glue. Fortunately, I had
put enough weight inside to prevent tail sitting.
Instructions tell you to add as much as 2 grams,
but 1½ seems enough – remember that there
really is not much space inside the fuselage.
I brush-painted the engine exhaust
gunmetal and the intake rim red, and
considered my model finished.CONCLUSION
Brengun keeps convincing us that 1/144 scale
models do not need to be oversimplified compared
to bigger scales. In effect, a modeller with a steady
hand and a good magnifying glass can produce an
astonishing miniature of an interesting airplane.
That said, the kit reviewed here is definitely not
for a novice. Assembling such small-
scale models inevitably involves
some problems, like masking
or airbrushing tiny areas, so a
bit of experience is a must.
The author wishes to thank
the Editor and Brengun for giving
me the chance to build this model.Social iconRounded squareOnly use blue and/or white.For more details check out ourBrand Guidelines.KIT REVIEWS
062-67-Reviews-0418.indd 65 09/03/2018 16:09