This is Eduard’s third release of their 1/144 MiG-15. The first was the Czechoslovak MiGs, the second was the MiG-15 bis, which used a different engine, but is generally the same.

The MiG-15 has been used by 44 different countries, including the US Air Force (!) and such world powers as Albania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sri Lanka, and Yemen.

The aircraft on the decal sheet this time are from North Korea, China, USSR, Poland, and two Czechs.

I decided to do the Soviet MiG after checking out the histories of the aircraft. The pilot of this aircraft was Major Alexi Mikoyan. His uncle was Anastas Mikoyan, who was Khrushchev’s number 2 man for many years. His father was Artem Mikoyan, one of the founders of Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) design bureau. I think the pilot was pretty well connected.

Background

In the mid-fifties, Northrop Corporation started the development of a lower cost, light weight, high performance fighter airplane. The impetus for the program was potential sales to allies under the Military Assistance Program. Initial US interest was in the trainer version of the program. This resulted in the T-38 Talon supersonic trainer. This was a great looking, high performance airplane. I loved watching them fly out of Luke AFB. The initial fighter version, the F-5A followed in the early sixties and had significant commonality with the T-38. This aircraft was sold to various allies and in fact, was built in some of the countries – Canada, Spain and the Netherlands. In the early seventies, the upgraded F-5E was developed.

Eduard continues to expand its Brassin weapons range with this set of Mk. 84 2,000 lb. bomb set. The set includes two bomb bodies with standard low drag fins for normal drops, and three options for the nose – a fuse extender, a standard fuse or a nose cap, and a small photo-etch brass ring for the tail.

As with most US bombs, painting is easy – olive drab overall with a little silver or steel for the fuse. An option not noted in the instructions would be to paint the bomb blue to represent a cement filled training bomb. I left the fuses off until painting was complete so as not to knock them off. I sealed the paint with a nice coat of Future to prepare the bombs for decaling.

This set provides 2 wire baggage carts presumably for 1/72 airliners or cargo aircraft (there is no history included with the kit) in a single fret of photo etch. The wire baskets are very well engineered, and with car fold up nicely to form a basket about ½ inch tall that is open on one side and at the top. The basket is attached to a base once you have folded over the edges of the base. There are also 4 photo-etched casters for each cart that require you to make two folds in each to represent 2 wheels on each caster and circular base for each caster. The completed casters are then superglued to the bottom of the base of the cart. The final touch is to add to photo-etched handles to each cart. I painted my carts aluminum to give me the maximum flexibility of how to use them, and I think they would look cool next to a C-54, a C-47 or possibly an early airliner to show some scale.

Academy has a quality line of 1/72 scale aircraft, and they have recently begun to release several reboxings of these kits with special decals. Their latest special edition covers a USMC F/A-18A+ Hornet from VFMA-232, the Red Devils. The F/A-18A+ Hornet is an A-model that has had an avionics upgrade, primarily consisting of the addition of the AN/APG-73 radar. For the front-line Marine aircraft, so-called “bird slicer” IFF antennas are also found on nose of the A+, forward of the cockpit. Beyond the A+ parts, A-model Hornets also feature prominent reinforcement plates along the inside of each vertical stabilizer.