Kit, Pictures & Text by Peter Mojzisek
Mikojan-Gurewitsch MiG-21MF "Fishbed-J"

MiG-21MF_Cuba_001.JPG (31 kB)
DAAFAR Defensa Anti-Aérea y Fuerza Aérea Revolucinaria de Cuba (Cuban Air Force)
Brigada de Guardia "Playa Giron"
21° Regimento de Interceptión
Air Base San Antonio de los Baños / Cuba (seen in June 1993)
This model is in 1/48 scale (OEZ No. 1; ca. 1988). 

To get a acceptable replica of an MiG-21, I made some scratch building and added the Eduard photoetched set (48-002).

 MiG-21MF_Cuba_002.JPG (26 kB)
MiG-21MF_Cuba_003.JPG (38 kB) The paints are from ModelMaster and Revell, while the exhaust and engine section is airbrushed with Alclad2.

The panel lines received a dark gray wash, and were then shadowed with Rotring's dark inks.

The decals came from Aztec's "Latin Eagle 1", while the stencils were found on the AeroMaster's sheet.

How I did the finish:
0) The blue/green cockpit was painted with ModelMasters "USSR interior" and XtraColors X629. However, both paints are almost the same - no visible difference. 
1) I airbrushed the kit in the basic color (green, blue, light gray underside), with regular ModelMaster enamel paints. The green and blue has been mixed according Aztecs instructions (on the decal sheet). As a second reference I used the pictures in "World Air Power Journal - No.32" and tried to match these colors.
2) Some panels were lightened with a mix of the basic color and white - but just a little, only a hint of a shadow.
3) The whole aircraft has been sealed with Future clear. Decals on it, then sealed again.
4) A wash of oil (dark gray) and turpentine, smeared all over (and in) the panels. But don't let it dry completely ...
5) The still wet wash was removed with a damp cotton rag, only the paint in the panel lines, rivets an the like was left. At some places I removed to much, so I applied some wash again and started all over.
6) All panel lines were airbrushed with dark ink (IMHO, I have overdone this a little - next time I will do a little less).
Included with the kit has been an Eduard PE-set (very small!). In addition to this, I found the other Eduard PE-set (48-002) very useful.  

The whole kit (and the clear parts, too) is in a *very* thick plastic, the thickest I've ever seen! To make parts fit, I had to thin them very extensively ...

 MiG-21MF_Cuba_004.JPG (26 kB)

MiG-21MF_Cuba_007.JPG (52 kB)

The cockpit section has been also built from scratch, since the original kit parts were of no use. I added a KM-1 ejection seat from Kendall (No. 5046) and used various cockpit panels from Reheat Models.

I tried the sets from Aires and BlackBox, but they didn't fit in any way with this kit. They are only meant to be used for the Academy kits.

MiG-21MF_Cuba_009.JPG (27 kB)

For further projects, I just did two more for spare ...

To give some more details to the underside, I added rips and pluming to the wheel wells. A little wash and drybrushing did the rest. MiG-21MF_Cuba_006.JPG (42 kB)
MiG-21MF_Cuba_008.JPG (58 kB) In 1999, Cuba established the death penalty for drug-related crimes. This has been directed to the drug traffickers, using Cuban sea and air space.

Rumors! The Cuban Air Force is possibly the one with the highest air-to-air kills in *peacetime*, since their pilots are instructed to shoot down all non-cooperating or non-responding aircrafts. Due to lacking of funds, this engagements have to be done by guns and no missiles should be used ...

Okay, these are only rumors.

MiG-21MF_Cuba_005.JPG (42 kB)

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