The undoubtedly very talented reporter and sometimes
modeller Gary Wickham sends us a report from the front lines of the former
conflict zone in the Democratic Republic of Congo – What was the legacy of the "Carrot
War “as it was called ? – and what is left now..
The Aircraft
In late 1995, the Democratic Republic of Congo acquired
eight ex-Czech MiG-21MF aircraft. During the 1997 civil war (also known as the
War of June 5) the forces of the Congolese Labor Party led by President Col.
Denis Sassou Nguesso used these aircraft along with Chinese made F-7 Skybolt in
a series of brutal attacks raging across the country. Due to a lack of local
skilled pilots capable of flying these aircraft, foreign mercenaries were
regularly employed, most coming from the Ukraine and other former soviet bloc
states.
In addition to the major fighting between the Lissouba and
Sassou forces in the major capital city of Kinshasa, skirmishes would regularly
break out across the country with local warlords hiring (or capturing) any
nearby military assets. The extreme corruption of the air force meant that
aircraft were more often used for private 'business' of their fliers and their
superiors than operations against rebels.
One of the more unusual disputes centred around the
ownership of local carrot fields with neighbouring country Angola. This fight,
the so called "Carrot War" saw a short, but bloody, ground and air
war in and around the border town of Tshikapa. One of the more colourful
Ukrainian mercenary pilots (Igor Valenchenko) had one of the Congo MiG fighters
painted in an outlandish "Bunny" scheme. Valenchenko used this
unusually colorful MiG as bait to lure Angolan aircraft into a fight. This
proved to be a highly successful tactic which earned Valenchenko three kills,
in addition to a number of ground kills on Angolan light armour.
As with most Congolese military aircraft, the service life
of the MiG's was short. Like the other services, the Congolese Air Force was
not capable of carrying out its maintenance responsibilities. Even today few of
the Air Force's aircraft are currently flyable or capable of being restored to
service and it is unclear whether the Air Force is capable of maintaining even
unsophisticated aircraft.
Unfortunately, the fate of this distinctive MiG was the same
as most Congolese aircraft. It now sits derelict in an aircraft graveyard on
the outskirts of Kinshasa subject to the ravages of the harsh African climate
and looters.
The Kit
Eduard has released a special boxing of their MiG-21MF kit
in 1/48. This special kit not only gives you the MiG-21 kit with a stack of
Brassin resin details sets, by purchasing it you also get automatic membership
to the new Eduard Bunny Fighter Club. For more details on the BFC, please visit
the official Eduard page here
To be honest, when I was asked to do a build review of this
kit I did not plan to use the crazy Bunny scheme, however, after I got the kit
in my hands and looked it over, did some research on the historical significance
of the "Carrot War" scheme I changed my mind and decided to have some
fun (remember when your modelling was fun??). This meant saving the Brassin
resin parts and most of the PE for a future build (yes I have more of these
kits in my stash). You see, Eduard gives you everything you need to build the
kit with only plastic parts, they just happen to also include in the box the
Brassin goodies as well.
The Eduard MiG-21MF has been released previously in both a
Profi-Pack and Weekend Edition flavours. These have been reviewed extensively in
the past and I'm not going to bore you with yet another sprue by sprue analysis
of the kit. Suffice to say its the same kit only moulded in day-glow orange and
bright blue plastic (which does introduce some challenges during construction
but remember we're doing this for fun)
Kit Contents
• Crazy-colour
high-detail sprues of MiG-21MF in 1/48• Decal sheet with 3 famous Eduard tailarts
• Colour photo-etched details
• Painting mask
• Brassin goodies - cockpit interior, wheels and rocket launchers UB-16
• Founder Edition T-shirt of selected size
Marking Options
• MiG-21BFC,Flown by Lt. C. Bunnyfield,1st Squadron, Carrot Flight, Central Africa,July,
2011
• MiG-21MF,
c/n 96004127, 82nd Independent Fighter Squadron, Mosnov AB, June, 1991
• MiG-21MF,
2nd Squadron, 11th Fighter Regiment, Zatec Air Base, Czechoslovakia, 1991
The Build
As I prepared for the build I realised that as I was not
using the Brassin resin sets that came with the BFC edition the kit instruction
sheet would be of little use to me (its written as if you plan to use only the
resin parts and does not cater for using the provided plastic parts). Not too
worry because Eduard is one of those great modeling companies that provide high
resolution PDF versions of the instructions sheets for ALL their kits, and what
I needed was the instruction sheet for the MiG-21MF Weekend Edition (link)
In the weekend edition you use decals for the cockpit
instrument panel and sidewalls, which is actually not bad because the decals
supplied by Eduard are pretty darn good. One thing that did stump me for a
while (I checked the sprues 3 times) was the reference to a "plastic"
part in the assembly for the cockpit. It finally dawned on me that I had to
provide the plastic part myself (ie scratchbuild) which I still find a bit odd.
To enable me to accurately make the sidewall parts the
correct shape and size, I scanned and printed a copy of the decals that had to
go onto these parts. These copies were then used as a template for cutting out
the plastic card.
One technique that is useful to master for most modeling projects is realistic paint chipping. I have found that using the hairspray technique (or variations of it) produces the best results, at least on aircraft models in 1/48 or larger. On this project I used hairspray, True-Earth Run Off Effect and plain old Humbrol Maskol Liquid Mask to re-produce various forms of paint degradation.
Its worthwhile mentioning that I deviated from the Eduard recommended build sequence for the wings and fuselage join. Eduard suggests you join the lower wing to the fuselage first and then the two wing top parts second. I joined the wing tops and bottoms first, sanded the join and then assembled this whole lot to the fuselage. I think I would have ended up with less of a gap on the wing root if I had followed Eduards ordering however I feel it would have made the job of sanding the wing leading edge harder.
Milliput is an interesting product. As it is a two part epoxy putty it hardens based on a chemical reaction and does not need air. This means it can harden underwater for example (not sure that’s gonna be useful for out purposes but its an interesting tidbit I guess) which also means you can paint over it immediately (which is useful for us modellers). It also does not shrink as it dries (also nice)
You may not be able to see it clearly but in addition to the flaps being dropped the ailerons are also slightly ajar. I noticed while studying photos of abandoned aircraft that the control surfaces almost always end up in extreme positions because the normal safely locks are not in place.
If I could get model manufacturers to do just one thing it would be to only ever use neutral grey plastic for sprues. It may be boring but it just the best colour for us modellers to work with and always provides the best results.
I really can't recommend Alclad Metaliser paint highly enough. Its easy to use, dries quickly, looks amazingly real and is robust when compared to previous model metallic paints.
The Grass Mask I used here can be ordered from Eduard (or most other hobby shops). Here is the link to Eduard's information page
I found this trick with the Mr Color Leveling thinner coat quite by accident. Because the light blue coat was gloss I noticed that it was drying with a bit of orange peel roughness. To try and level this out I loaded up the brush with just straight Leveling Thinner and proceeded to spray a fairly heavy coat on the gloss blue (this was done within a few minutes of the blue being applied so it was still fairly wet). I had done this on the green underneath and it had done the job nicely. I however noticed that as I applied even a fairly light coat over the blue as it hit the model the blue paint started to "fade" as if the paint was being thinned (which I guess it was). I immediately stopped what I was doing fearing the worst. Instead the paint faded to a certain point and stopped. After a closer inspection I decided that I quite liked the effect and proceeded to carefully finish the job. Its a bit hard to see properly in these photos because of the lighting but in real life it looks very effective as if the paint has worn down thin.
Whilst I wanted to have fun with this paint scheme, I did want to apply some realistic limits as how someone would paint an operational combat aircraft. The idea of painting the dielectric panels on the tail and radome in bright orange just did seem credible (ok its funky, but not believable).
The interior of the airbrakes is not the same as the wheel wells, rather its clearly a lighter gray when you look at reference photos. Its the same colour as used on the landing gear struts
It's worth mentioning why I used the Hannants Flat Clear on this model, rather than my normal Polly S Flat Clear. I have found that Alclad Metalic colors react differently to different brands of flat clear. Hannants Xtracylix and the new Tamiya Flat Clear seem to co-habitate over Alclad quite well, wereas the Polly S flat clear (which gives a far more dead matt than the other two) turns the Alclad non-metalic.
The Eduard panel lines and rivet details on this model are incredibly fine and I was a bit concerned that under a couple of coats of paint that a panel wash would not hold. This did happen in a few areas underneath and I should have taken more time to pre-scribe them, but for the most part I'm satisfied with the result on the more visible upper surfaces.
After the dirt base was dry (the spakfilla and future coats I mean) it was painted with Tamiya Buff and when dry a light wash of raw under oil paint was applied. I like how its turned out as it looks realistically to scale next to the MiG.
The graveyard accessories all came from the spares box, the spare wheels are from the Tamiya F-3 Meteor kit, the boarding ladder from an F-4 Phantom. The 44 gal drums are from the very nice Tamiya Jerry Can set. Other spare panels are from Skyhawk and F-16 kits. Just use your imagination (and don't look too closely :)
One technique that is useful to master for most modeling projects is realistic paint chipping. I have found that using the hairspray technique (or variations of it) produces the best results, at least on aircraft models in 1/48 or larger. On this project I used hairspray, True-Earth Run Off Effect and plain old Humbrol Maskol Liquid Mask to re-produce various forms of paint degradation.
Its worthwhile mentioning that I deviated from the Eduard recommended build sequence for the wings and fuselage join. Eduard suggests you join the lower wing to the fuselage first and then the two wing top parts second. I joined the wing tops and bottoms first, sanded the join and then assembled this whole lot to the fuselage. I think I would have ended up with less of a gap on the wing root if I had followed Eduards ordering however I feel it would have made the job of sanding the wing leading edge harder.
Milliput is an interesting product. As it is a two part epoxy putty it hardens based on a chemical reaction and does not need air. This means it can harden underwater for example (not sure that’s gonna be useful for out purposes but its an interesting tidbit I guess) which also means you can paint over it immediately (which is useful for us modellers). It also does not shrink as it dries (also nice)
You may not be able to see it clearly but in addition to the flaps being dropped the ailerons are also slightly ajar. I noticed while studying photos of abandoned aircraft that the control surfaces almost always end up in extreme positions because the normal safely locks are not in place.If I could get model manufacturers to do just one thing it would be to only ever use neutral grey plastic for sprues. It may be boring but it just the best colour for us modellers to work with and always provides the best results.
I really can't recommend Alclad Metaliser paint highly enough. Its easy to use, dries quickly, looks amazingly real and is robust when compared to previous model metallic paints.
The Grass Mask I used here can be ordered from Eduard (or most other hobby shops). Here is the link to Eduard's information page
I found this trick with the Mr Color Leveling thinner coat quite by accident. Because the light blue coat was gloss I noticed that it was drying with a bit of orange peel roughness. To try and level this out I loaded up the brush with just straight Leveling Thinner and proceeded to spray a fairly heavy coat on the gloss blue (this was done within a few minutes of the blue being applied so it was still fairly wet). I had done this on the green underneath and it had done the job nicely. I however noticed that as I applied even a fairly light coat over the blue as it hit the model the blue paint started to "fade" as if the paint was being thinned (which I guess it was). I immediately stopped what I was doing fearing the worst. Instead the paint faded to a certain point and stopped. After a closer inspection I decided that I quite liked the effect and proceeded to carefully finish the job. Its a bit hard to see properly in these photos because of the lighting but in real life it looks very effective as if the paint has worn down thin.
Whilst I wanted to have fun with this paint scheme, I did want to apply some realistic limits as how someone would paint an operational combat aircraft. The idea of painting the dielectric panels on the tail and radome in bright orange just did seem credible (ok its funky, but not believable).
The interior of the airbrakes is not the same as the wheel wells, rather its clearly a lighter gray when you look at reference photos. Its the same colour as used on the landing gear struts
It's worth mentioning why I used the Hannants Flat Clear on this model, rather than my normal Polly S Flat Clear. I have found that Alclad Metalic colors react differently to different brands of flat clear. Hannants Xtracylix and the new Tamiya Flat Clear seem to co-habitate over Alclad quite well, wereas the Polly S flat clear (which gives a far more dead matt than the other two) turns the Alclad non-metalic.
The Eduard panel lines and rivet details on this model are incredibly fine and I was a bit concerned that under a couple of coats of paint that a panel wash would not hold. This did happen in a few areas underneath and I should have taken more time to pre-scribe them, but for the most part I'm satisfied with the result on the more visible upper surfaces.
After the dirt base was dry (the spakfilla and future coats I mean) it was painted with Tamiya Buff and when dry a light wash of raw under oil paint was applied. I like how its turned out as it looks realistically to scale next to the MiG.
The graveyard accessories all came from the spares box, the spare wheels are from the Tamiya F-3 Meteor kit, the boarding ladder from an F-4 Phantom. The 44 gal drums are from the very nice Tamiya Jerry Can set. Other spare panels are from Skyhawk and F-16 kits. Just use your imagination (and don't look too closely :)
Conclusion
Well the first thing I have to say having now built this kit is that whether you build this crazy Bunny Fighter or any of the other marking options Eduard has released over time, if you are a 1/48 jet guy get yourself one of these kits. The engineering and fit of this model is second to none. These models are every bit as good as Tamiya's latest offerings, no kidding.
I really have no negative comments about the build experience. Everything you need to build a fantastically accurate MiG-21 is right there in the box. If you choose you can enhance the model by using any of the resin goodies available both from Eduard themselves and other well know aftermarket manufacturers
What would I change? Well I'd ask Eduard to ditch the coloured sprues. I know it goes along with the crazy Bunny theme but no-one who buys this kit (with all the Brassin goodies) is gonna build it without painting it and boring old grey plastic is simply the best colour to work with !!
I applaud Eduard for trying something a bit "out there" and from reading their blog site it’s been quite a success with over 700 kits being sold in the first few weeks. Combine the value you get with this kit by itself (which includes Brassin, PE and masks) with the ongoing 15% discount from the automatic BFC membership and its quite the deal.
I look forward to Eduard's next 1/48 modern kit (the new Spitfire does not count) and hope I get the chance to review it.
Gary wickham
See more of Gary's models at his excellent website www.scalepot.com - untill then reguard the last remnant of the "Carrot War" that Gary has brought to life...
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Well the first thing I have to say having now built this kit is that whether you build this crazy Bunny Fighter or any of the other marking options Eduard has released over time, if you are a 1/48 jet guy get yourself one of these kits. The engineering and fit of this model is second to none. These models are every bit as good as Tamiya's latest offerings, no kidding.
I really have no negative comments about the build experience. Everything you need to build a fantastically accurate MiG-21 is right there in the box. If you choose you can enhance the model by using any of the resin goodies available both from Eduard themselves and other well know aftermarket manufacturers
What would I change? Well I'd ask Eduard to ditch the coloured sprues. I know it goes along with the crazy Bunny theme but no-one who buys this kit (with all the Brassin goodies) is gonna build it without painting it and boring old grey plastic is simply the best colour to work with !!
I applaud Eduard for trying something a bit "out there" and from reading their blog site it’s been quite a success with over 700 kits being sold in the first few weeks. Combine the value you get with this kit by itself (which includes Brassin, PE and masks) with the ongoing 15% discount from the automatic BFC membership and its quite the deal.
I look forward to Eduard's next 1/48 modern kit (the new Spitfire does not count) and hope I get the chance to review it.
Gary wickham
See more of Gary's models at his excellent website www.scalepot.com - untill then reguard the last remnant of the "Carrot War" that Gary has brought to life...
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