The MiG-21 was a continuation of jet fighters designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Opytnoe Konstructorskoe Byuro (OKB) [Experimental Design Bureau], starting with the MiG-15. In 1954, after gathering combat data and pilot feedback during the Korean War, the Mikoyan OKB designed a new Mach 2-capable fighter prototype designated Ye-1. When the design proved underpowered, it was reworked and redesignated Ye-2. These early designs featured swept back wings but from Ye-4, a tailed delta design was used. The Ye-4 made its first flight on 16 June 1955 and made its first public appearance during the Soviet Aviation Day in July 1956. The tailed delta design, coupled with a lack of available information, led the 1960-61 edition of Jane's All The World's Aircraft to list the aircraft as a Sukhoi design and used an illustration of the Su-9 'Fishpot'.
Given the designation MiG-21 (and NATO ASCC codename 'Fishbed'), the Soviet fighter was powered by a single Tumanskii R-11 turbojet, aspired through the nose intake, like the earlier MiG designs. Airflow to the engine is regulated by a shock cone mounted on the intake. This shock cone also acted as housing for a radar. Up to PFM variant, the canopy opens forward whilst later variants are sideways-hinged. Armament originally consisted of just two 30mm NR-30 cannons, but following an incident over the Taiwan Straits in which a Chinese MiG-17 came back from combat with Taiwanese Sabres in 1958 with an unexploded AIM-9 Sidewinder in its tail, the gun armament was reduced to a single gun in order to accommodate two K-13 (the Soviet copy of the Sidewinder) IR-guided missiles and also to preserve somehow its already short range (The MiG-21 was designed as an interceptor, hence it has a short endurance). Subsequent variants have more fuel but at the expense of other performance figures. The
bis is the final version of the Fishbed, entering service in 1972. It has a larger spine (but not as large as the SMT variant), a Tumanskii R25-300 turbojet producing 15,400lb of thrust with afterburner, a GSh-23-2 23mm gun pack under the belly and four underwing hardpoints.
As of today, the MiG-21 is the most produced supersonic aircraft in the world with a production run lasting from 1959 to 1985. 10,645 units were built in the USSR, 194 in Czechoslovakia and 657 in India (and counting unlicensed J-7 copies built by China). The Fishbed's simple design and low maintenance costs enhanced its marketability among the Third World countries which have limited defence budget, training programs and/or skilled pilot pool. It was also one of the Soviet designs which saw combat around the world, notably in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Vietnam. Despite being of an earlier design, many Fishbeds remain in service around the world allowing companies from Russia and Israel to offer upgrade packages to Fishbed users. The MiG-21 is nicknamed
balalaika due to the similarity of the shape of its wings with the Russian stringed instrument.
The Kit
Until Zvezda released their MiG-21 family some time ago, Fujimi's Fishbeds were arguably the best in 1/72 scale. The kit features good moulding and nice surface details. Fujimi moulded the parts as modules to save costs - the sprue which contains the spine and tail were labeled 'MF/bis' - accurate for this kit but not for those who buy the MF version! While browsing the internet, I found that reviewers critisize that the fuselage is too long, the shape of the nose is not accurate, the tail is larger whilst the stabilisers too small! To my untrained eyes, when dry-fitting the major parts, it does look like a MiG-21bis to me. The kit provides decals for two marking schemes - a camouflaged Finnish machine and a silver/natural metal Soviet aircraft.
Construction
Fujimi provided a simple cokpit - just the tub, instrument panel and seat (plus a pilot figure, which I did not use). Instrument panel faces and side consoles are in the shape of decals. Fujimi has you paint the cockpit interior Gunze H22 Grey but looking at internet sources, it was actually a bluish green colour. I also can't nail down this colour exactly in my
MiG-29 and
MiG-31 kits so I end up painting the cockpit using Gunze Light Green and add a blue filter. It actually looks nothing like the real deal but that's the best I can do. Kit seat is OK but I used a resin KM-1 seat from Neomega. The seat was painted according to references found at www.ejectseatcolor.com site. I then assembled and painted the exhaust before trapping the cockpit, exhaust, nose landing gear bay and the radome between the fuselage halves. But before that I drilled the locating holes for the drop tank and the cannon.
I then added the fuselage spine and the tailfin. A bit of putty was used to close some small gaps. The location holes for wing pylons were drilled and the wing halves were mated. Even though the instructions show that only holes for one pylon per each wing need to be drilled, I found that there were extra hole locations for the second set of pylons. They were thus drilled too. The flaps were separate, allowing one to pose them in the 'down' position but I glued them in the 'up' position. Then I added the horizontal stabilisers - purists might want to replace these with aftermarket parts as the shape does not really conform to the real ones. The various air scoops were also added at this stage. As usual, the landing gears and the small parts (including the pitot boom) were left off until after painting.
Painting and decaling
I have another quirk to tell here: if the military machine is widely exported, as far as possible, I will depict it in its parent country's service, even though the export items have more attractive colour scheme and markings. As in this case, the Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force) option is actually more attractive with its camouflage scheme and the Black Lynx markings but I chose the more plain V-VS scheme. I painted the radome and other dielectric panels Tamiya XF-67 NATO Green and then masked them off. Fujimi's instruction called for the entire aircraft to be painted Gunze 8 Silver. However, after looking at photos, it looked like the MiGs were in natural metal. Therefore, I painted the model using Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver. Decaling is fairly straightforward. For both options, Fujimi provides numbers 0 to 9 and its entirely up to you to choose. For this model I chose '59' with the second digit chosen by my wife. There is not much to do as there were only a few stenciling plus the six Red Stars. However, the decals provided has yellowed somewhat. The panel lines were then enhanced with 2B pencil.
Finishing
The rest of the parts can now be glued. What made me worried is that many of the small parts such as the air data probe, gun gas deflector and small antennas are just surface jointed with no locating stub whatsoever (indeed some were frequently knocked off later when I clean the model from dust). For weapons, I replaced the kit's AA-2 Atoll with AIM-9B Sidewinders from Hasegawa Weapons Set (they ARE similar in appearance) and the outer pylons were loaded with AA-2-2 Advanced Atoll (a SARH-guided version of the Atoll) from Dragon Soviet Weapons set. A final spray of Tamiya Semi-Gloss Clear sealed the decals and I finally place the canopy in the open position.
Although it has some shortcomings, Fujimi's can still compete with the best (which in this case means Zvezda) with its simple build process and good detail overall. Like I said, purists might want to replace the horizontal stabilisers and cut down the fuselage (or buy a Zvezda kit) but to me, it still looks like a MiG-21bis.
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