I’ve built several jet fighter kits in this scale in the past year. They don’t seem to get much love and turn up in model club swap nights, usually for free. Granted, the size of these models can challenge the eyesight of us mature folks. However, I’ve found that if you’re careful with assembly, these 1/44 kits can build up into nice mini representations of the real thing.

In this boxing, Academy brings us the Mig 21PF. The part quality is better than some in this scale, as the panel lines are not overdone. Three runners of parts provide the airframe and underwing stores consisting of drop tanks and two air-to-air missiles. The canopy is molded clear. High marks for the instruction sheet and decals. Unlike some kits in this scale, the instructions are printed in a readable size as are the decal profiles drawings. You get five marking options, including two North Vietnamese and three Russian. The Vietnamese versions include the aircraft of Col. Tomb, NVA's top ace. I chose the red and silver demonstration aircraft in Russian markings. Assembly is very basic. The cockpit has a seat and nothing else. I built a floor, sidewalls, a control stick, and an instrument panel just to fill it up. Fit of the airframe parts is good. The exhaust is blanked off so I drilled it out and used a section of brass tube for an exhaust. The canopy is very thick, and the framing detail on it is vague at best. I vacuformed a replacement using the kit part as a master. The only other part I replaced was the pitot probe on the nose. I removed a lot of oversized detail on the landing gear parts and thinned the doors to a more scale-like appearance. The speed brake on the underside was marked out with the correct pattern and drilled out like the real thing. The decals worked as they should. After all those modifications, there’s room for further detail improvements, as things like control actuator fairings and antennas are not in the kit.

This is not a new tooling, but it builds into a decent little model. If you’ve been wanting to try one of these small-scale jets, this is a good place to start. Thank you to Academy for the review sample and to IPMS for sending it to me.