The MiG-17PF serial 2803 flown by Mustafa Hafez during the Six Day War, a rather generic profile with several misrakes/inconsistencies.
NOTE: the front windshield from this profile is obviously wrong for a PF, it actually belongs to an F. Also, the IFF transponder is missing fron the spine.
The Airfix kit is apparently the best MiG-17 kit overall, but so far offers only the F version.
For the PF version, a different windshield and a different nose are required. These parts can be eventually borrowed from different donor kits. Both parts are particularly problematic, as I will show during this project.
The MiG-17PF of AZ-Model in 1:72 would have been a good candidate. It offers a relatively good looking air intake for the PF, whereas the rest of the kit is not as good as the Airfix one. The front part of the canopy (the windshield) can be borrowed as well, unless it's blurry like some people complained. But the main issue is to even find the kit, since it's nowhere to find.
The donor kit for the nose was this one instead, basically the Mistercraft kit boxed as Plastyk. The same monstruos parts of the same bad kit, but I only payed 3€ for it.
The canopy from this kit is very blury and almost unusuable. The nose part will be shown later in the album.
SIDE NOTE: the aircraft on the cover is pure fiction. Syria never operated the MiG-17PF (see main text above) and no Syrian MiG-17 ever had brown on the camouflage, not to mention that all Syrian combat aircraft of Soviet origin received camouflage paint only after June 1967, therefore already had the new insignia with the red contour instead of green and green stars instead of red.
The fundamental difference between the MiG-17F and MiG-17PF (apart from several smaller parts and the front wind shield) is the air intake.
Unlike the F version, the PF is an all-weather interceptor equipped with a radar. This new equipment was mounted in two radomes, a middle one shaped like a sphere and an upper one in the upper lip of the air intake.
And here you have the Mistercraft/Plastyk air intake.
In my opinion, the shape of this nose from the Mistercraft kit is just wrong and has little to do with the real aircraft. Since it's so much bigger than the fuselage from the Airfix kit, it would require much more work to integrate, requiring larger chunks of the Mistercraft fuselage as well.
(see this link to understand why: MiG-17 PF 'Radar Fresco' - Airfix / MisterCraft kitbash | Album by Mimoid (1:72)).
I decided to try scratchbuilding something directly on the Airfix kit using small parts from this nose.
The upper lip/radome is too thin, too flat and not pointy enough, while the middle radome ("the sphere") was exactly in the middle for me instead of far down like in the real aircraft.
For the second iteration later, I cut the middle radome, removed it again and repositioned it. The upper lip needed more thickening.
The third iteration looked far better and I could say it's almost there.
I added a thin pointy styrene triangle at the upper lip, which acted as foundation. I later added liquid sprue around this "foundation" until sufficient thickness had build up.
The subsequent sanding gave the final shape.
The side curvatures of the air intakes are not smooth enough.
I made the pointy upper lip wider and improved the side transitions downwards.
I also made the middle radome smaller, cutting more from the upper area.
With the black colour it's difficult to really distinguish the shape now.
LATER EDIT: this was of course still far from a correct shape, since I didn't study the aircraft enough. I decided later to look for the very rare AZ Models kit of the MiG-17PF.
And the saga continues. I gave up on my improvised conversion from the Airfix kit since I was totally unhappy with the result and shape.
Instead, I managed to find the kit from AZ Model, where the overall fuselage shape in the nose area is much better represented. Thank you very much to our scalemate "TV_scalemodels" for willing to sell it to me.
Note the dramatic box art, depicting an episode of air combat during the Six Day War. The painting scheme on the MiG is of course pure fantasy for that period, as I mentioned in the main text.
The kit is a short run and therefore has plenty of issues. While details appear to be fine and better done than the Airfix kit, they are full o imperfections and defects, while the wings are in a pretty bad state with an ugly part break-down.
I decided to use the wings (shown here), some interior parts and the horizontal stabilizer from the Airfix kit.
The Airfix wings here are also receiving the PE-s for the open flaps configuration.
The wing roots of the AZ Model were almost twice at thick as the Airfix wings, so extensive sanding was required.
A gap had to be closed for the landing gear bays.
I managed to accidentally crack the windshield, luckily the crack went more through the frames themselves and I could hide them.
While not all Arab MiG-17 had the black anti-slip walkways, the photographs of the ruined MiG-17PF of Mustafa Hafez suggests that his aircraft might have had them.
The unit's insignia of the No.31 Squadron: a bat-crow standing on a globe. Initially, this was a night fighting unit, but the Egyptian MiG-17PFs were later replaced in this role by the MiG-21s. By June 1967, the MiG-17PFs were no longer undertaking any night missions.
The color of the radome was either yellow or grey for the Egyptian MiG-17PFs, but it's not clear which one exaclty. The few black and white photographs of these aircraft are certainly excluding green.
The landing gear doors from the Airfix kit are three or four times thicker than these nice PE-plates from Eduard.
There was also a large IFF transponder on the upper surface of the fuselage of both Syrian and Egyptian MiG-17s.
Israel managed to capture not only wrecks of MiG-17s destroyed on ground in Sinai, but also some machines in a better shape. Some of these subsequently landed in the possesion of the US Air Force, where (among other aspects) the studying of the Soviet IFF transponder system was essential to the development of the top-secret "Combat Tree" used by the F-4 Phantoms in the Vietnam War against the VPAF MiGs. Check this article for more details: F-4D - USAF - 1972 | Album by Redicus (1:72)
While many panel lines were rescribed, some were left as they were. You can clearly see not all are perfectly straight or with constant thickness, since this kit from AZ Models is only a short-run, full of the expected issues and defects.
The nose section is a resin part, which has a smaller diameter than the fuselage, therefore a lot of sanding was necessary.
After the dissolution of the UAR (United Arab Republic) in 1961, Egypt maintained the insignia with two green stars and the black identification stripes from the times of the UARAF.
The resin wheels where close to perfect in terms of details. And they are looking even better with the PE doors.
Again, the landing gear doors from the Airfix kit are at least three times thicker, almost coliding with the external fuel tank.
These machines were not particularly old by June 1967, while the historical photographs of the time are revealing a rather shinny metallic surface.
The MiG-17s have regularly had blue stencils and I am not sure if they ever had black ones, as offered by the decal sheet from the Airfix kit. I nevertheless, used some stencils from an older trashed MiG-21 kit (Eduard).
The wings are originating from the Airfix kit, to which the PE-flaps set fits well enough. What didn't fit, was the wing to the fuselage, since the wing root from the fuselage side (AZ Models) was almost twice as thick as the Airfix wings.
The wind shield from AZ Models is indeed too thick, but the vacuformed canopy set from Pavla was overall even worse with a mediocre fit to the fuselage.
The movable canopy originates from the Airfix kit.
I used the instrument panel from the MiG-17F version, since differences are small to the PF. I actually had in mind to add those few additional cockpit parts for the PF version, but seeing the quality of the windshield, I though I just better finish this project sooner than later.
The gun camera from the AZ Models kit was enormous in size, so some sanding and size reduction was a must.
The dynamic pressure probe (for g-forces), which is located between the wind shield and the gun camera, was missing from the kit, so I added it from an old and trashed MiG-21PFM kit (Eduard). This part is also visible in the photographs of the wrecked aircraft of Mustafa Hafez after June 5th 1967.
Together with a Syrian MiG-17F also from June 1967. Note the minor difference in the insignia of that time.
Check article for the Syrian MiG-17Fs: MiG-17F - Syria - 1967 | Album by Redicus (1:72)
And with a supersonic bigger brother, an Egyptian MiG-19 also from June 1967. The Egyptian (and indireclty also Iraqi) MiG-19s were the only Soviet-made aircraft in any Middle-Eastern Arab country, which have not had a natural metallic finish by June 1967. With othe words, the only aircraft of Soviet origin to be even painted at that moment in time.
Cuajete Wow... I agree with mates. Super great job with the nose 👌
I don't understand what Airfix is waiting for to release this version with its new tool.
Following!
16 January 2023, 19:21
Jan Peters Indeed, an excellent nose job👍🏻
Following 👀
Nils G Great work on that nose, certainly a really interesting project 🙂
21 January 2023, 16:45
Łukasz Gliński Brave you Marius! I see Thomas' build was very inspiring 😄 Following
21 January 2023, 17:35
Marius Thank you all for the interest and appreciation!
I assume Airfix is smart enough to make this small upgrade to their MiG-17 kit at some point in the future.
@Lukasz: indeed it was Thomas' model that inspired me from the very beginning. Although I placed the link to his project in my album above, it's not directly accesabile unless you copy and paste it in the browser. I will place it here again so it becomed a hyperlink: MiG-17 PF 'Radar Fresco' - Airfix / MisterCraft kitbash | Album by Mimoid (1:72)
Pierre Pierre hi Marius, what mettalic paint did you use ?
8 August 2023, 01:39
Marius Thank you mates! Yes, any frustrating failure can also mean a better restart.
@Pierre: I used the Xtreme Metal Aluminium. I am very pleased with it. You don't need any black gloss primer before. As you can see, I had only a satin layer of grey primer from Mr. Surfacer 1500. Slightly polished in some areas with a polishing sponge, but only where the primer was too matt.
9 August 2023, 08:48
Pierre Pierre thank you Marius, is the paint solid enough to accept masking tape ?
9 August 2023, 10:47
Marius Yes, it's very resistant to masking and reacts well even to further sanding, so it doesn't become gummy like some Alclad metallic paints when sanded. Also, if you add further layers of this paint, the shininess does not change, it stays as from the very beginning.
BUT the Xtrem Metal Aluminium does not react well to direct finger contact. The smallest contact witthout gloves will garantee you a nasty finger print mark. So sealing is anyway compulsory.
9 August 2023, 12:16
Pierre Pierre thanks a lot Marius, what varnish do you use ?
9 August 2023, 12:35
Marius I am still using Future/Pledge, but I accidentally spilled most of the bottle and there is very little left. The product is no longer to be found, so my alternative is the "Mr.Hobby GX-100 Mr.Color Super Clear III Gloss" but I am currently unsure how to use it properly.
Łukasz Gliński Using that GX for some time now, my recommendation would be to thin it as much as you can with the yellow Gunze thinner, so it levels itself.
The MiG-17PF serial 2803 was flown by Mustafa Hafez during one of the numerous Israeli attacks on the Kabrit AB during the Six Day War (1967).
While Egypt was already operating the MiG-17Fs during the Suez War (1956), it was only in 1958 the first radar-equipped interceptors became available in the form of a batch of MiG-17PFs. A completely new unit was established, the No.31 Squadron based in Egypt, which was later reinforced by MiG-17PFs bought by Syria in the context of the newly formed union-state between Egypt and Syria, the United Arab Republic (UAR) established in 1958. During the short lived UAR (1958-1961), the MiG-17PF unit was commanded by an officer of Syrian origin. The unit retained its aircraft in Egypt and insignia even after Syria left the Union in 1961, leaving Syria without any MiG-17PFs. This chain of events lead to the wrong claims that Syria operated the MiG-17PFs, which is rather not true. The only combat aircraft remaining in Syria after the dissolution of the UAR in 1961 were approximately 40 MiG-17Fs.
The insignia of the No.31 Squadron was a bat-crow sitting on a globe and applied on the noses ahead of the serial number. Like all other aircraft of Soviet design operated by Syria and Egypt until July 1967, the MiG-17PFs had as well NO camouflage painting. The upper lip of the air intake was painted in the typical green or blue-green while the radom itself was either white, grey or yellow.
On the 5th of June 1967 during the first attack wave of the Six Day War, the No.31 Squadron was found at the Kabrit AB at the Suez Canal, where dramatic scenes unfolded during the first attack wave.
A very detailed account of the attacks on the Kabrit AB is found here, written by the known book author Tom Cooper: theaviationgeekclub...t-eaf-airfields/amp/
The article is an exact copy of what is found also in the "Arab MiGs, Volume 1". Further below, there is only a brief summary with some interesting facts, some which are not found in the article above.
A first wave of Israeli SMB.2s of the 105th Squadron destroyed at about 8:30 hrs in the morning the main landing strip with more colateral damage as well. Military pilot Mustafa Hafez was still on ground rushing to find any functioning aircraft to take off with during the first attack wave. He instead helped two other pilots to strap in and take off with their MiG-17s for interception while the Israeli SMB.2s were busy firing at two incoming Egyptian IL-14s.
Interestingly, the two IL-14s were carrying the infamous Egyptian Vice-president Abdel Hakim Amer and his antourage together with the Iraqi Defence Minister. Israel, having tapped and intercepted several relevant telephone lines, knew the exact time Amer's flight was taking off and how long he was going to be in the air. According to some theories, Israel chose this to be the exact time of attack, crippling any decission making, since the Supreme Commander of the Egyptian Army Amer was in the air cut off from his headquarters. Subsequenlty, the two IL-14s were heavily damaged and claimed by the IDF as shot down. Nevertheless, both damaged aircraft managed to land with the unharmed passengers at different airports, whereas the burning IL-14 carrying the Iraqi delegation exploded seconds after the passengers hastly got off the aircraft. Through his incompetence and later catastrophic decisions, Abdel Amer is widely regarded in the Arab world as the architect of the Egyptian defeat and humiliation during the Six Day War. One can only ask himself, what would have happened if his IL-14 would have been shot down in the early hours, eventually disabling him in a way or another from the chain of command. Would the Six Day War have had a different outcome for the Arabs or Egypt at least?
Back at Kibrit Air Base, Mustafa Hafez used the short pause after the first attack wave to find a servicable aircraft. He took off immediately in a MiG-17F as the second attack wave was commencing at 08:55. A failed interception attempt of a much faster Israeli Mirage (heading to Cairo) caused only frustration. The third and fourth attack waves occured at 09:10 and 09:25 respectively. Mustafa Hafez had landed in the mean time and changed aircraft to the MiG-17PF number 2803. As he was in the cockpit still in the hangar, the fourth attack wave was just starting. By the time he was airborne, the enemy aircraft were already gone, therefore he established a CAP with a collegue. Some time later, being the last one in the air, critically low on fuel and on the final landing approach at an altitude of only 15-20 meters, he suddenly found himself 100m behind the incoming fifth Israeli attack wave. Aborting landing and engaging the main attacking group, he did not see another Israeli fighter firing behind him. He almost completely lost one aileron while a hit in the rear fuselage created a very large hole and punctured the fuel tank. In flames and with most of the vertical stabilizer gone, he managed through some miracle to safely land. The attacking force was in the mean time gone.
The Israelis subsequently claimed a kill, although none of the Israeli pilots saw Hafez actually hitting the ground (more interesting details in the link above). Overall, Egypt lost no MiG-17s in air combat on the 5th of June 1967. The "Arab Migs", Volume 1 (T. Cooper, D. Nicolle) includes at page 172 many photographs of the MiG-17PF 2803 a few days after the events described above. Looking at the extensive damage suffered by the aircraft of M.Hafez makes one no longer wonder why the Israelis claimed a kill. Not to mention that landing such a derelict aircraft requires a certain skill.
This aircraft was susequently dissasembled and either repaired or cannibalized for spare parts after the Six Day War.
Mustafa Hafez survived the Six Day War and converted to Su-7s by the time the October War (1973) had started. He was multiple times the leader of large groups of Su-7BMKs engaging Israeli ground targets in Sinai in October 1973.
References:
T. Copper, D. Nicolle, et al., "Arab MiGs Volume 1", Harpia Publishing
T. Copper, D. Nicolle, et al., "Arab MiGs Volume 2", Harpia Publishing
T. Copper, D. Nicolle, et al., "Arab MiGs Volume 3", Harpia Publishing
T. Copper, D. Nicolle, et al., "Arab MiGs Volume 5", Harpia Publishing
T. Copper, D. Nicolle, et al., "Arab MiGs Volume 6", Harpia Publishing
T. Copper, D. Nicolle, "MiGs in the Middle East, Volume 2", Helion and Company
Bill Norton, "75 Years of the Israeli Air Force, Volume 1", Helion and Company
Robert Podkoński
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