MiG-21MF - Syria - 1973
Syrian Air Force (SyAAF) - Ramadan War (1973)

The kit is the wonderful Eduard 1:72.
Out of the box build mostly, I only added cables for the landing gear. The numbers (decals) do not originate from the kit.
This model was a gift and the aparent glossy finish was further reduced (unfortunately) only after the pictures were taken.

The MiG-21MF #1549 of the Syrian Air Force belonged to the Syrian ace Majid (or Maghid) Al-Zoughby credited with 6 confirmed air victories and another 5 unconfirmed during the 1973 Ramadan/Yum Kippur war of October 1973.

Much later after finishing the model, while consulting the "Arab MiGs" of Tom Cooper &Co (highly recommended), I found out that many or most MiG-21MFs having the "sand and spinach" camouflage delivered to Egypt and Syria just before the 1973 war have had another section of the engine (further forward of the afterburner) painted in a metallic silver/Aluminium color. Having a much closer look at the only photograph of Majid's #1549 I had where the engine section is to some extent visible, I have indeed noticed this painting feature on his aircraft as well. So yes, there is this mistake in my model which I noticed too late.

The one historical black and white photograph from my gallery represents Magid (or Majid) Al-Zoughby himself with his favorite MiG-21MF #1549. A colorized version of this photograph is available in the Volume 5 of Arab MiGs from Tom Cooper. The Volume 6 includes several interviews and another picture of him (black and white).

As a side note, many (or all) the Syrian and Egyptian MFs delivered in 1973 or slightly earlier were barely distinguishable from each other since they had the same camouflage pattern and the exact same insignia. The differences lay only at the fuelsage roundels, which the Syrian MFs never ever had, while the Syrian MiG-21s have had the last 4 digits of the serial number painted also on the vertical tail (which I haven't really noticed on Egyptian MiGs)

This project is by no means politically motivated.