This set is designed for Trumpeter’s new MiG-29 Model 9.51 Fulcrum B trainer and provides masks for the main canopy, the windscreen, and the wheels/hubs. I started with the wheels, and as I prefer to paint the hubs first and then the tires, I did the opposite of what is shown on the instructions. I painted the hubs using an old tin of Xtracolor Russian hub green, then I peeled off the center disks from the masking set and used them to cover the hubs while I sprayed NATO Black on the tires. Eduard instructs you to spray the tires first and then use the masks and masking fluid to cover the tires while you paint the hubs. I like to avoid masking fluid on acrylic paints, so I just reverse the order of painting.

If you look at photographs of MiG-29s there is a very visible seal around the edges of the canopy. To replicate this, the set includes two sets of masks for the main canopy. The instructions state to apply the first set, paint the canopy the interior color, then remove the

first mask set and apply the second mask (but don’t discard the first set of masks yet!). The second set is to be applied just a little bit inside of the painted area of the canopy to represent the seal. Interestingly the first masking set is broken into multiple pieces on each side of each section of the main canopy (front & back and two parts around the rear view mirror housing) like many of their other sets, which allows you to fiddle with the alignment and results in a little bit of overlap where they meet. The second set of masks is provided as a single lower piece for each canopy section, which surprisingly turned out to be too long! I doubled it up at the center of the side masks once I had fitted the ends. Next time I will just cut the side pieces in half and apply them like the first set.

Please note that the seal is only on the main canopy, it is not visible on the windscreen, so the windscreen does not get re-masked. Once you have applied the second set of masks the instructions state to paint the seal “rubber color”. Looking at the Trumpeter box and making an assumption, I painted my seals Tamiya tire rubber – a nice black color. After I had applied the paint, I looked online and discovered that there are lots of colors for rubber and in many photographs, the seals are more of a reddish color, so check your references first.

After the seals have been painted, the instructions state to remove the second masks and paint the camouflage colors – don’t!! First you need to reapply the first set of masks so that they cover not only the nice seal you just painted, as it is visible from the outside of the canopy (not just on the inside), but also the sections that are to remain clear. Once the first set of masks is back on you can attach the canopy and paint the model.

Once painting, decaling and flat coating are all done, you can remove both sets of masks and see how good your seal looks.

This set is very nicely designed and the fact that it allows replication of the canopy seal is a nice feature, but don’t strictly follow the sets directions to ensure you don’t overpaint the seal (and the clear sections).

Highly recommended. Thanks to Eduard for the review set and to IPMS-USA for letting me review it.