This ProfiPACK edition of Eduard’s newest 1/48th scale MiG-21 contains decals and parts options for six aircraft: Finnish, North Vietnamese, Czech, United Arab Republic (Egyptian), Yugoslav, and East German. The 32-page, full-color instruction booklet distinguishes between the various options throughout the build process, depending on which nationality variant you choose to make. There is also an extensive, color PE sheet, and in some cases, there is the option between using PE parts or plastic with decals. Many of the PE parts are extremely small, and I chose not to use them all, even when there was no plastic replacement option (keep in mind that many of the plastic parts are extremely small, too). In addition, there’s a pre-cut masking sheet for the clear parts. Color callouts are for Gunze Aqueous and Mr. Color paints. I painted this example primarily with Tamiya lacquers, as well as some Model Master and Testors enamels.

The surface detail on the parts, particularly the exterior fuselage and wing parts, is extraordinary. The engraved panel lines are very fine, as is the rivet detail. Even the smallest parts are minutely detailed. There is no flash nor ejector marks anywhere to be found on the model. Even mold lines, when visible, are very thin. The flip side to the highly detailed small parts is the fact that there are a lot of them. For example, the ejection seat is as good as anything that I’ve seen in plastic, but its made up of 16 plastic and 12 PE parts - a small kit in itself. Because of all the options available, there will be plenty of leftover parts for the spares box. The model comes with extensive ordnance options, with two infra-red air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground bombs, missiles, and rocket pods. Unfortunately for the Finnish option, the only markings provided are for a Reconnaissance Squadron aircraft, but no camera pods are provided. I would have scratch built a couple, but currently I have no spares that even remotely resemble the shape and size of them, so they’ll have to wait until later.

Parts fit over all is good. I only encountered trouble in a couple of places. First, the two halves of the vertical stabilizer are, accurately enough, very thin. However, the plastic molding inside of the edge is a bit too thick, and needs to be sanded down considerably to enable a tight closure along the leading edge. Also, there is no attachment lip inside the fuselage bottom where the one-piece lower wing/fuselage section joins the back half of the fuselage. There’s a small gap there that needed to be shimmed and filled. I should have noticed that and planned ahead by adding an inside lip from a strip of sheet plastic, but I missed it and that left a slight step at the gap that was still noticeable when it was filled.

As I mentioned, the decal sheet is extensive and it's in perfect register. There’s a second sheet entirely of stencils. I used several dozen of them, but I could have used a hundred more. The carrier film is very thin (so thin that some of the stencils mangled irretrievably), and the decal edges practically disappear when placed on a smooth surface. They come off the paper backing very quickly when soaked, and give enough time for placement before drying hard and fast. Interestingly, as thin as they are, I found them to be pretty resistant to Solvaset.

The bottom line is that this is a really nice kit, highly detailed and with lots of options. Be prepared to deal with an abundance of small parts, but a little patience will be rewarded with a stunning representation of one of the most important fighters of the early Cold War. My thanks to Eduard and IPMS for providing this review sample.