For my next Indonesian Air Force build, I’m tackling the MiG-21F-13 that served the AURI in the early 1960s. Revell kits can be quite hit or miss, how will this one fare?
A quick dryfit shows decent fit. The details are very finely done but the leading edge of the wing root gap is quite glaring. The silver molding is also odd to me. It’s like a throwback to old Airfix kits.
As usual, it’s the cockpit first. The restraints are molded on the seat and the instrument panel is made of a clear part which I’m not sure why that is so.
There are no decals provided for the cockpit so everything was painted with the details picked out with washes and drybrushing. The colors used was referenced from both the instructions and research online.
Now we come to the biggest issue with this kit: the nose profile is very slightly ‘wrong’. You don’t really see it until comparing it to line art. It’s subtle but it’s enough to be unable to ‘unsee’ it. I’ll address this later.
I prepped the gearbays first. I’m not sure what color the AURI Mig’s gearbay is so I went with the standard color.
I added a noseweight just in case but not too much though as the nose gear is pretty thin.
After all the inserts have been installed I used clamps to help fit everything into place.
The wings fit very well without wobble but I’m still not sure how I’d deal with the gaps on the forward wingroot.
Revell designs the ‘lumps and bumps’ as inserts and while they fit fine, they result in unnatrually thick seamlines.
Look how many inserts there are on the kit.
More inserts on the upper side.
Build Log
Pt.1 – Construction | Pt.2 – Construction
Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing | Pt.4 – Painting & Finishing
