Tamiya 1/72 MiG-29 Fulcrum

The Mikoyan MiG-29 first flew in 1977.  Intended as an air superiority fighter to challenge the American F-15 Eagle, the MiG-29 (NATO codename “Fulcrum”) has evolved into more of a multi-role fighter-bomber.  Over 1600 MiG-29’s have been produced and are flown in the air forces of numerous countries.

This is the Tamiya 1/72 kit, which I believe is a re-packaging of an Italeri model.  

Fairly straighforward kit.  One thing I wanted to do was build it as a Ukrainian aircraft, the legendary “Ghost of Kyiv”.  To that end, I made my own decals for the Ukrainian roundels and tail insignia.  I used the provided decals for the rest of it.

Here is the cockpit.  Be sure to put some weight in the nose so it doesn’t become a tail-dragger.  I put 3-4 little metal pellets in the nose for this one.

Fit was pretty good.  Some filling and sanding required.

Initially, I tried a digital camo scheme, so I painted the aircraft light grey, then added some camo patterns printed on laser mailing labels and cut out.

Did this for two more shades of grey, but unfortunately, the stickers had a very good adhesive and took the underlying paint with them when removed.

So, Plan B!  I repainted with an airbrush camo scheme which I had also seen ascribed to the “Ghost”.

Here are the armaments — I used thin strips of painted masking tape for the fine markings.

Landing gear wasn’t too bad.  Some of the gear doors were a little tricky.

Added the missile loadouts.

Tamiya Acrylic Paints

X-10  - Gun Metal
XF-54 - Dark Sea Grey
X-5   - Green
XF-71 - Cockpit Green
XF-18 - Medium Blue
XF-2  - Flat White
XF-16 - Flat Aluminium
XF-24 - Dark Grey
XF-19 - Sky Grey
XF-1  - Flat Black
XF-66 - Light Grey