al-Fresco

1
April 11, 2023
"And now for something completely different….."
AK-X base black with the venerable Floquil 'neutral gr[a]y' for interior
Eduard’s a/market Zoom applied this time with PVA glue and then later a dribble of CA to lock-tight.
2
April 11, 2023
Cockpit enhanced with Eduard, a little wash and dry brush
3
April 11, 2023
20g of weight will be secured around this structure
4
April 11, 2023
So far a peach of a fit
5
April 11, 2023
I used roof flashing and salami-sliced them
Into the front tub
6
April 11, 2023
This pilot’s got the best armour possible! Rear/sides/front/underside- all rammed with it!!
7
April 12, 2023
Last night and this lunchtime’s progress
8
April 12, 2023
Eduard’s Zoom adds a little spice to the cockpit- I will pull back the canopy to expose.
9
April 12, 2023
Filler required on nose/gun pack- perhaps me, perhaps kit- perhaps both factors? Cannons will come from Master’s metal, drilled ready. Pitots similarly- I found out today that the port pitot is shorter and a placebo to balance the functioning starboard one. On the upper wings I took away the kit’s heavy “gear down indicators”- drilled a hole, and, you’ve guessed it…added a small insertion- a guitar string. There is another: off-set to port in front of the cockpit- to allow the pilot to know his front wheel is down too.
10
April 12, 2023
Reskit’s pipe. Was going to leave air brakes closed, but I like the effect from AK-X burnt metal & dark aluminium. It isn’t as fussy with piping as the Airfix part, but I’ll not add anything to it.
11
April 14, 2023
Dr. Evil’s MiG-17….ready for the Hollywood good guys to shoot down ?
12
April 14, 2023
Duraluminium for the tanks and the air brakes. AK X black base hasn’t shown up any imperfections
13
April 14, 2023
Will be overall AK X aluminium, with accents of dark aluminium for flash protector, ventral skid protector, and some other bits.
14
April 15, 2023
A definitive book on all things MiG.
15
April 17, 2023
AK Xtreme aluminium mainly on uppers and underside. A few imperfections on which I will evaluate Mr Surfacer 1000 to remedy
16
April 17, 2023
Soviet shiny pipe thingy
17
April 13, 2023
The "Dear Leader" inspects the tail pipes of his MiG-17s, which have been hurriedly polished.
18
April 17, 2023
Those stencils…..hundreds of them!, and very little evidence they’re there…the insignia and number took all of 5 minutes.
19
April 17, 2023
Deciding what to do with it….a light weathering will hide some of my bloopers….NMF is so unforgiving
20
April 17, 2023
Dr Evil’s ‘17 - the business end!!

Comments

44 9 April 2023, 19:07

Marius
Good luck Andy!
The Algerian is interesting, but in case you need more inspiration, there were a couple of metallic Egyptian ones with colorful tails and interesting unit markings.
This decal sheet here is particularly well documented:
MiG-17 Around The World - As.. I (ModelMaker D72155, 1:72)

And preview pictures of the instructions can be found here:
super-hobby.de/produ..27.html?partner_id=9

And btw, I am not sure if this is of interest to you, but the seat from the Airfix kit is wrong. It's a weird representation of a KK-1 seat which the MiG-17 never had in the series production. You would need a KK-2 seat, which is offered by Pavla or Amigo Models, but it's very very difficult to find anywhere.

11 April 2023, 09:17

Andy Ball
Thanks Marius, the decals aren't in the best of registers either.I wanted to do aluminium to again test my skills in this medium. I'd heard about the seat issues, and with the one supplied. Perhaps I'll check the differences to see if there's a wprk-around?, do you know of any?

11 April 2023, 10:16

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course! 😉 (in the near future I intend to mash up the Kovozavody and the Airfix kits in order to build the proper Polish "Last of the LiM's")

11 April 2023, 17:49

Cuajete
I can't miss this! 👍

11 April 2023, 19:56

Andy Ball
Robert, can't you do it through the Airfix with some aftermarkets? I've pretty much assembled it today/yesterday- the fit is pretty good. Not sure if it was me or the kit, but some attention to filling around the nose is all so far….

12 April 2023, 16:29

Andy Ball
Hey hey Cuajete amigo! Glad to have you along !!

12 April 2023, 16:30

Robert Podkoński
It is simply because I have had Kovozavody kit in my stash 😉 - the decals are better (the ones included in Airfix kit are not wholly adequate...), yet Airfix is much more modeller-friendly, as you've proven this above 🙂

12 April 2023, 17:08

Cuajete
Well done so far, Andy! 👍

12 April 2023, 18:39

Andy Ball
@Robert- good to know, and hope we'll see it soon.
@Cuajete- more done tonight on account of your encouragement!
Thanks Slavo!!
It could be a quick build?

12 April 2023, 22:15

Bernd Grün
Interesting topic, Andy. follow with interest. 👍

13 April 2023, 06:43

Andy Ball
Thank-you Bernd, still in a quandary over what to decal it.

13 April 2023, 10:24

Bernd Grün
In my opnion Cambodian would be the favorite. 😉

13 April 2023, 12:48

Cuajete
I agree with Bernd. I also prefer the Cambodian one for the red ray, although the Algerian would also look very good in Andy's master hands. That snake and the grey-upper over aluminium could be very nice 👍

Waiting for the next progress.

13 April 2023, 18:36

Bernhard Pethe
Ich schaue da mal mit zu.
Die R-3S an der MiG-17 finde ich interessant. Kannte ich bis jetzt nicht. Sicher eine koreanische "Erfindung" .

13 April 2023, 18:51

Andy Ball
Thanks Sukhoi242 and the others for having a look.
Gentlemen- I love the suggestions for decals, but on inspection the Cambodian ones are off register, the N Korean and Algerian are about the best to use on a '17F….watch this space!
Thanks @Cortex!

13 April 2023, 20:32

Andy Ball
I won't be making any Korean sidewinder "look-a-likes", Bernhard, the Dear Leader wouldn't assist with the blueprints

13 April 2023, 20:55

Andy Ball
Thanks Rui and Patryk S, hope to provide some entertainment!

14 April 2023, 06:47

Ekki
Watching too.

14 April 2023, 18:20

Andy Ball
Hey Ekki, cheers!!

14 April 2023, 22:11

Andy Ball
Mirko, thanks. I'll post some "short finals" soon.

17 April 2023, 19:08

Andy Ball
Thanks Helio and everyone else….I'm pretty much done with this. Overall a quick and relatively painless build.

17 April 2023, 21:23

Cuajete
Looks great, Andy! 👍

18 April 2023, 20:16

Andy Ball
Thank-you Cuajete, I'm saying 'done' and will reflect on whether to weather it!

18 April 2023, 20:17

Maciej Bellos
Should you weather it, "Dear Leader" will probably have some "words" with you...
Lovely result Andy!

18 April 2023, 23:26

Robert Podkoński
That NMF looks great, Andy! (but Soviet-build planes never looked shiny, as they were covered with some 'protective' transparent lacquer, to the best of my knowledge. Here you can see few museum examples: Polish Air Force Museum - Dęblin | Album by podkon - it's up to you, whether to tone down the shine or not. Personally, I would leave the NMF as it is now 😉 )

19 April 2023, 05:42

Bernd Grün
Nice finish of your 'Fresco'. I like it. Cheers, Andy! 👌

19 April 2023, 06:19

Andy Ball
Thanks Ogre-Trombone!
In glorious utopian make-kingdom of Socialist Republic I will leave as is for now. The dear leader may have expected the guns to have fired at the fascist whores south of his border, so perhaps a little gun smoke, Marciej?
@Robert: I love the fact the Polish would not polish their MiGs…get it?…@ Bernd, vielen danke mein Freund!

19 April 2023, 06:20

Robert Podkoński
LOL! 😄

19 April 2023, 07:06

Marius
Andy, that's actually a really good looking MiG-17! Congratulations on the very good looking model! I don't remember seeing a North Korean one too often.

For the sake of the discussiom, I'll also add a short comment regarding the shininess: Robert is right that they were covered from the factory (together with all MiG-15s, and early MiG-21s) with a varnish coat mixed with a metallic pouder (5%-10%). The result varied depending on the factory. Nevertheless, I am not convinced that the museum pieces from Robert's link are that representative though, since some are repainted in actual silver while those which weren't are of course afected by the age (Aluminium turns really matt after some decades).

Overall, if we're looking at photographs from the 50s-60s, there were several skin panels which were somewhat shiny, but many rather semi-matt.
One fast example:
[img1]

But if I were you, I wouldn't change anything anymore, you model looks very good the way it is and taking photographs of models in NMF is in itself a bit tricky sometimes due ot lightning, at least in my case.

19 April 2023, 11:46

Andy Ball
Thanks Cuajete!!, and Marius - do you think a coat of semi-gloss may help tone it down, or matt even?

19 April 2023, 20:58