Mig 15 Bis

[Mike]

Mig 15 Bis

1:72 Airfix

The Russian Mig 15 was one of the first swept wing jets, and saw wide use amongst the Soviet Block members, and outside in several communist countries, mainly China. Because of this wide service, it finished production after over 12,000 airframes, and remains the most produced jet aircraft ever made.

The Airfix kit has already been the subject of much speculation on the forums, including Britmodeller, where its dimensional accuracy has been called into question as being both too long and too short, too fat, the wings too long, etc., but it is difficult to draw a conclusion as to who (if anyone) is right without having the built kit in my hands, so I will leave that aspect of the kit to one side for the moment.

I plan on handing the kit over to a youngster that I'm coaching at the moment for him to build, as he won't care about accuracy issues or otherwise, and will try to remember to return to this review with some comments on accuracy once it is built.

The red Airfix box shows a pair of bare metal Migs in Russian markings flying over a landscape at a jaunty angle - just the sort of exciting imagery to attract the younger modeller to the kit. Inside the box are three sprues of Airfix's mid-grey styrene, plus a small, separately bagged spruelet containing the one-piece canopy. The instruction booklet, separate color painting guide and decal sheet complete the package, which fills the box nicely.

The style of the parts is very familiar, with deep crisp panel lines, and a semi-matt finish that has been characteristic of recent releases. The exterior parts are clean, free of flash and ejector pin marks, so building of the airframe should proceed well. In the cockpit however, there are a number of ejector pin marks, which could dissuade those with a "thing" about them, although I'm sure there are valid engineering reasons for them all. The most noticeable are on the rear deck of the cockpit, and the seat back, although the latter will be easy to fix, as the seat back is flat.

The cockpit tub includes side consoles that have decals applied to them, as does the large instrument panel part. The cockpit is finished off by installing the pilot's seat, joystick, and if you feel like it, the pilot figure. The coaming over the instrument panel is added later in the build, and you are advised to install at least three grams of weight in the nose to prevent the model from tail sitting. The weight will be hidden by the intake splitter, which ends in a blanking plate, preventing the see-thru look. Similarly, a stub exhaust fills the rear, although it only projects a few mm into the fuselage.

The wings each build up from top and bottom parts, and wing fences are built into the top surface, although it appears that they do not carry on far enough to the leading edge of the wing. The main gear bays are provided with rib detail with large sockets for the landing gear parts, although there is a raised ejector pin mark in each well. The vertical tail is built into the fuselage halves, and a pair of horizontal parts slide into slots, interlocking their attachment tabs to provide extra strength. A choice of tiny slipper tanks or larger underslung drop tanks are included, from which the modeller should choose one type.

The main landing gear parts have separate tyres, and are nicely detailed, while the nose gear is a single piece unit, with a slightly smaller balloon-like tyre moulded in between the attachment yolk. Additional bay doors are provided for those that wish to model their Mig with wheels retracted, which is a nice addition.

To the rear of the fuselage are a pair of airbrake wells with engraved rib detail, and matching airbrakes with etched circles portraying the lightening holes on the inside skin of the brakes. A retraction jack is also provided to hold the brakes in the correct position, although from the references I have seen, the actual position of the airbrakes could be too high on the fuselage. A fix to that would involve major surgery however, so it would be best ignored, or model them closed and re-scribe the brake panel lines where you think they should be. What can most definitely be fixed are the shallow sink marks in the fuselage where the location tabs meet the fuselage skin. A smear of filler should see them off, but they're easily missed on first inspection.

The final few parts include gun barrels in their fairings under the nose, which happily have locating pins on the underside, so no misalignment should arise there.

The decals are very nicely printed, look to be in perfect register, and color density of good, without the reds being too vibrant. The choice of markings is also good, and from the box you can model one of the following:

• Russian Air force 1950s (a bit vague!), all over natural metal with a red lightning bolt up the tail.
  
• 351 IAP North Korean Air force, 1952, sand with army green tiger stripes over a black underside.
  
• Hungarian Air Force, 101 Reconnaissance Wing Szolnok, Hungary 1971, sand, brown & army green over light blue.
  

It's good to see markings and camouflage from such disparate forces, giving the builder the opportunity of doing something a little different out of the box, and the addition of plenty of stencils should help with the realism.

Conclusion

It's a new tool Mig 15 bis, and as it's such a popular aircraft, you're never going to satisfy everyone. The kit should satisfy a lot of modellers however, as it's a nice looking kit, is a modern tooling, and will look good on the shelves in any of the provided schemes. If you're a purist, you could go quite mad trying to ascertain where any errors lie, as there seem to be a lot of plans out there with differences, and the differences in opinion seem quite large.

The simplicity and the detail should appeal and it should sell very well, although a few ejector pin marks are in unfortunate places, but a little care should see it build into a handsome replica of this famous aircraft. Even a novice modeller should have no problem with the build, and in due course, we'll post up some pictures of the build as it progresses.

Review sample courtesy of

[Col.]

Thanks for the review Mike, nice to get a look at the kit parts seperate from all the shape discussions, been tempted to get this one just to see if I can hack it into a more accurate shape so will keep an eye out for your build thread.

[richellis]

I know about all the discussion about this kit, but I still want one to build. Cant wait to get my hands on one of these!

[Paul A H]

I built one (here) and found it to be a really easy kit to put together - perfect for breaking modeller's block. Back then the discussion was about the panel lines, rather than accuracy...

[Mike]

I built one (here) and found it to be a really easy kit to put together - perfect for breaking modeller's block. Back then the discussion was about the panel lines, rather than accuracy...

Judging by the speed you put that 110 together, I think it worked

[jamboseven]

Morning Mike,

nice to read a review on this kit which hits the nail on the head...

"I plan on handing the kit over to a youngster that I'm coaching at the moment for him to build, as he won't care about accuracy issues or otherwise.."

For me as a kid it was all about building and painting it....

"The red Airfix box shows a pair of bare metal Migs in Russian markings flying over a landscape at a jaunty angle - just the sort of exciting imagery to attract the younger modeller to the kit...."

Who didn't buy/want model kits as a youngster because of the box art.

Airfix Lancaster coming home with the engine on fire

Matchbox B-25

The first Tamiya kit you got...(they where the mega expensive kits in my youth)

Think I'll be buying one of these Mig's though, then keep an eye on here to see who has the best way of painting it bare metal...

Jambo

Enjoy a new airfix kit

[dhtmo]

Mike,

I think you've done an exceptional job on this one. I did the same kit with my lad a while ago.

Didn't come out as nice as yours, and we took a few liberties with colour and decals, but we love it.

Dave

[Richard M]

Interesting to note that the decal sheet now has 8 green circles for the Hungarian stars, the initial issue only had 6. Goes to show Airfix do pay attention and correct errors.

[max stafford]

I've got one set aside with Eduard etches and a Pawla bang seat. I think this thread might bring the job forward. I'll probably do the Soviet version - wasn't this the scheme that Stalin's 'volunteer' pilots used in Korea?

Dave.

[dahut]

Looks alright from my chair. Im not into 1/72 models these days but that one looks the trick.

Probably best to shun all the detractors and just build it.

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

...with a red lightning bolt up the tail.

Sounds painful!

[godders]

Thank God Airfix finally resigned the old kit to the bin!! I saw the box art and thought they'd re released that dinosaur of a kit, so thanks to you I've learnt it's a new tooling ...and as a returning modelmaker after many years, I'm going to have a go at this one. I'm glad a lot of kids getting into modelmaking won't be put of by examples of the old kit, and will be encouraged by this one, certainly at this price!

[Mike]

Thank God Airfix finally resigned the old kit to the bin!! I saw the box art and thought they'd re released that dinosaur of a kit, so thanks to you I've learnt it's a new tooling ...and as a returning modelmaker after many years, I'm going to have a go at this one. I'm glad a lot of kids getting into modelmaking won't be put of by examples of the old kit, and will be encouraged by this one, certainly at this price!

Glad to hear we've been of some help

Mike,

I think you've done an exceptional job on this one. I did the same kit with my lad a while ago.

Didn't come out as nice as yours, and we took a few liberties with colour and decals, but we love it.

Dave

That was built actually by Paul A H - one of our reviewing staff. Credit where credit is due