Eduard 1/144 MiG-15 bis, previewed by Scott Van Aken

The MiG-15 was the result of combining German airframe theory with the best turbo jet engine of its day, the Rolls Royce Nene. For some unfathomable reason, the British gave the Soviets several of these engines, allowing the Soviets to reverse engineer them for use in their aircraft. A rather substantial number of Soviet aircraft ended up being powered by this engine, even though the Soviets had success with Jumo 004 and BMW 003 designs. It is just that the pilfered German engine designs were not as reliable as they would have hoped.

The airframe that Mikoyan and Gurevich designed turned out to be a world beater and a huge surprise to the West when it was met in the skies over North Korea. Here was a plane that was as fast as anything the West had, could reach a higher altitude, and was more heavily armed. It did have some shortcomings such as a tendency to snake at high speed and somewhat stiff control surfaces at speed since they were not powered. While the aircraft had good acceleration, it was not so great in dives, but then it was lighter in weight over its main adversary, the F-86 Sabre.

The MiG-15 was designed to be simple and easily maintained. This allowed for its export to a huge number of Soviet-friendly countries, many of which had air forces that contained less than highly qualified pilots and mechanics. Its ruggedness was proven time and again in its ability to bring home its pilot. Later it was adapted to ground attack after it was superseded by newer designs. Even today, you will find these basic jets in the hands of warbird owners.

THE KIT

Eduard followed up its very nice 1/72 MiG-15 kits with a pantographed down version for 1/144 fans. The box includes two kits along with a set of canopy and wheel masks. Unlike the Spitfires, the masks are shown in the instructions so no guessing as to where the bits fit.

The entire wing and upper fuselage is molded as a single piece. One then adds the lower fuselage. Unfortunately, this will result is a seam on the sides of the intake that will be nearly impossible to remove. A separate intake ring would have been a better option in my opinion. Unlike the Spitfires this one includes a cockpit with a separate instrument panel that fits onto the intake splitter. This splitter has the nose gear well in the bottom and perhaps enough room for weight in the upper portion. Weight will be needed else the model will be a tail sitter. All three guns are separate bits. There is a separate fin and two small horizontal stabs. A combination exhaust/tail cone fits in the rear of the fuselage.

The nose wheel is molded into the nose gear. Two different style main wheels are provided with no indication as to which fits which markings option. Gear doors are separate and small. Eduard provides a couple of drawings to help you get these positioned properly. A single piece canopy is provided. The kit also provides three styles of drop tanks and pylons, but again, no indication as to which marking option uses which. Since the holes for these are already drilled in the wings, you'll need to fill these if you want a clean airframe, such as the display plane included. There are also bomb racks and bombs, but these are not shown in the instructions.

Instructions are nicely done with detail images to assist. There are markings for six aircraft, all of them basically unpainted metal. There is a single North Korean plane with a red nose, a Chinese aircraft with the red and white rudder stripes, a Soviet version, a Polish aircraft and two Czech offerings, one being an air display plane with the upper surface painted red. The decal sheet is nicely printed and as mentioned earlier, Eduard includes a set of canopy and wheel masks.

In all, a nice offering and one that I hope continues as Eduard releases new types into its catalogue. So far, it looks as if this is the case. Those of us who build in 1/144 scale really should consider this one.

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KIT #:	4443
PRICE:	$22.95 SRP
DECALS:	Six options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	Two complete kits