1/48 HobbyBoss Mig-17F

I needed an adversary for all these F-86 American jets. The
best I can do is my 1/48 Hobby Boss Mig-17F in N. Vietnamese
markings. I have some of the cockpit painted but not assembled
and about 3/4 of the engine done. The engine consists of about
39 or so parts, a model in itself. It's a shame after it's installed
it will never again be seen.---John

Great looking engine John.

I love the early MIG jets. Got a Trumpeter MIG 15 to do sometime.

I am liking that engine also. Wondering if it will fit in a car and be in scale. LOL

Here's the scheme I am doing. It was NMF then over sprayed dark green. The way it
was done it looks like a green plane with silver splotches. The scheme carries over to
the underside of the fuselage but the bottom of the wings and horizontal stabs are left
in NMF. It's from the Vietnam conflict, May 1967. If you look closely you will see that it is
the same plane as on the box cover, I am not sure which picture came first. The instructions
call for it to be overall NMF, no green camouflage.---John

I've got a couple of Mig 17s in my stash so I am interested to see what you do with this one. Can you please show the steps you use in masking this, I'm a relative newby with doing aircraft 'the proper' way.

The camouflage will be new to me too. I have never done it like this
so I will surely posts it step by step, any thoughts will be more than
welcome. I have the engine done, now on to the cockpit.---John

that engine is looking great

Skid wrote:Great looking engine John.

I love the early MIG jets. Got a Trumpeter MIG 15 to do sometime.

me too......at that show im on the look out for a MiG 19 or 21

This is the final picture of the engine. I closed it up and now all you will ever see
is the end of the burner can.---John

It's a shame to have something that nice hidden. Oh well that's modeling I guess. Nice work.

I agree too. Pity they didn't include a clear rear half for the fuselage.

Looks good though.

If they had panels to do maintenance, a builder could leave on open.  As to paint scheme, it's sort of giraffe-like.  Aside from a military modeling forum, irregular blobs of tape carefully laid  down could work, or a brush on  liquid mask (frisket), and peeled off after.  I've had no experience with liquid frisket and don't know if it works better with acrylics or enamels.  Model mags must have something on it.  Maybe the Scale Auto Enthusiast or military modeler sites have something.

Thanks for the ideas, I like the idea of tape blobs, not burnished
down I may get a soft edge? Not sure, maybe I want a hard edge. ---John

I have some more work done. The fit on this is less than stellar. I have found a lot
of "short shots" and mis-alignments. I remember people complaining about the old
Monogram 1/48 F-100D. Well so far this new and improved 21st century uber kit ain't
no friggin better. The cockpit locks into the fuselage halves but it is too far forward
so when you go to put the intake ring on the nose it won't go all the way on. I found
the splitter inside the intake protrudes out too far pushing the ring out, so I filed
the top and bottom of the splitter where it won't be seen too bad. I have a picture
showing how the cockpit locks into the fuselage with "fingers" and if you look below the
fingers you can see 2 cross pieces that lock the the cockpit"back and forth" which pushes
the splitter too far out into the intake ring, just PPP on the designers of the kit. Here are
some photos to show my ramblings.---John---BTW PPP is piss poor planning in layman's terms.
Block this out if this is a "family oriented" site. :)

I have some sanding and blending of the intake ring, starting to look decent.
I added more weight, to the cavity just behind the nose gear well. I also have
weight behind the instrument panel and under the radio compartment just above
the intake splitter. I am guesstamating about 7g so far, want to at least double that.
I will have more room once I put the bottom gun bay access plate on, it fits awful
as you can see from the 3rd photo. I have been fighting this from go but refuse to
give up and let it beat me! That's happened too often, not this time.---John

I am at it again. I glued down the right side with the complex shape and 37mm gun
and taped it and let it dry overnight. The next morning I pried the left side up and
put super glue under it, then pressed the offending side in until it snapped in place,
held it a bit then taped it to hold it until the super glue gel totally sets. What I plan
is to wait until it is set then fill the offending gap on the less complex side with more
super glue used as a "filler" and sand with grits from 220 to 1000. I need fine grits so
the NMF doesn't show scratches, I hope.---John

Last picture of just forward fuselage, will be adding rear fuselage tonight.
This is about as good as it gets, for now.I filled the gaps with super glue
then filled the porosity holes in the glue with putty. I sanded from 220 grit
to 1000 grit. ---John

Starting to look like a plane, almost.The forward to rear fuselage join was
really good compared to most of the fit ups.I have a very small gap to fill
top and bottom but it is minimal compared to the joints on the forward fuselage.
I stuffed more lead weight in, so now from the rear of the pilot's seat to the
compartment just above the splitter in the nose I have 29g of weight. It FEELS
very nose heavy, we'll see.---John

Why do you add weight to the model? Looking good.

These models are VERY tail heavy. Most of the plastic in this kit is
behind the center of gravity. If I didn't add weight, lead, clay, steel,
pennies it would tail sit, the nose wheel would be off the ground and in
the air. Some of the older jet kits gave you a clear strut to place or glue
under the rear fuselage so the nose wheel would remain on the ground.---John

Even my tiny 1/72 WWII planes with a front wheel needed weight or they sat on their tails. I learned that the hard way.  Still seems a shame to hide the jet engine.  It would've made a great display to maybe detail the engine a bit more and show it on a stand outside the plane.  Some builders have done that with plane models.

I thought about displaying the engine separate, but then I would need a
burner can, tube for the exhaust pipe and turbine at the end of the tube,
also known as a "flame holder". I already had all that detail, the engine!---John

I started the wings and found whats going wrong with this kit. It is the
way they attach the parts to the sprues. Their attachment points encroach
on the surfaces that mate. What you have to do is sand every surface that
has sprue attachment areas, see the second picture below. I also cut the hinges
for the flaps off and am gluing the flaps in the neutral position. The hinges don't
work, they won't let the flaps close flush, I have no idea why, more ppp. It is
actually a nice kit but someone didn't take the time to place the parts sprue
attachments in the right plane. Instead of cutting following the leading edge
of the wing you have to cut on the mating edge where you will glue, see bottom
picture below. So much for my ranting, buyer beware.---John

We've all had sprue issues!  I see from the bottom foto how (I guess) the flap halves attach, weird.  Good luck, but am still holding out for the engine somehow visible in part.