Art Model 1/72 MiG-9 (I-210)

A re-engined MiG-3, with a Shvetsov ASh-82 14 cylinder radial engine, a small series of five Mig-9s were built. The first flew on 23 July 1941. Production was disrupted by the evacuation of the factory in Moscow, and performance was disappointing. On June 1942, 3 Mig-9s were sent to the 34^th IAP,6^th PVO Fighter corps on the Kalinin front for operational trials, returning to the OKB in October 1942. The design lead to the much improved I-211.

There are 32 parts moulded in a dark grey, soft plastic. The plastic has a slightly rough surface appearance, some flash, and a few lumps and bumps, but the pieces seem to be well shaped and finely detailed with recessed lines. There is a fabric effect on the ailerons and tailplane, and some detail in the cockpit and wheel wells. There are small sink marks on several parts. There is a small mould joint line on most parts. There are two pairs of tailplanes supplied, apparently identical in shape, size and moulded detail. The kit is small, spanning 142 mm or about 5½ inches.

 The engine is supplied as a resin casting, in a rather attractive blue. It is nicely detailed, but will be invisible in the tight cowling, behind a large spinner and cooling fan. There are two clear parts, a canopy and a landing light lens. The decal sheet has six plain red stars in two sizes, and three instrument panel decals.

 The instruction sheet is a single page, clearly printed on glossy paper, with nine photographic construction steps, a parts layout, a colour profile, and a short history in English and Russian. The paint colours are specified as Humbrol numbers only, there is no information about detail painting. The profile does not match the box art, which shows an all-over light grey aircraft.

Building commenced with the cockpit, the seat, side walls and a control column were added to the floor. The instrument panel, seat back and panel with some unidentified boxes were then fitted to the tub. The location of most of the parts was not clear, and not obvious from the instructions. Much of the detail is visible through the large cockpit opening.

 The cockpit was painted light blue-grey to match the instrument decals background, then given a dark wash to pick out the frame detail. I painted the control column black, added the decals then some spare photo-etched belts, and picked out details in silver.

 The next sub-assembly was the propeller, comprising the blades, a spinner, hub and cooling fan. A dry fit at this point confirmed the engine would be invisible, I added a piece of card to accept the prop shaft. The engine would be better off in my spares box till I find a project where it can be seen.

 Then closed up the fuselage halves, I had to trim the cockpit floor to make it fit. The  fuselage halves had a step moulded into the joining faces, I didn't sand it off as that would have made the fuselage far too narrow, instead I had to deal with a long, ugly and very visible seam line. Needed a lot of filling and sanding to fix, losing all the fine moulded detail in the process.

 Then added the one piece wing, again a fair bit of trimming and sanding the fuselage wing roots for a good fit. Needed a lot of filler around the trailing edge of the wing roots.

 The tailplane halves had a moulded tab, but there was no corresponding slots in the fuselage. I cut the tabs off and butt joined the tailplanes.

 Then I added two long fairings to the top of the cowling, they didn't fit well and needed a bead of filler to fair them in. Then added what appears to be a radiator (on an air-cooled engine?) under the cowling. Again it needed filler to close up the joints.

 Gave the very clear cockpit canopy a dip in floor wax, then added it to the fuselage. I needed to trim the opening a little to help the fit. The framing lines were clear and sharp, and moulded on the inside as well as the outside of the canopy. The inside and outside frame didn't match up very well.

 After masking the cockpit, priming and glitch repair, I painted the model overall medium sea grey using a Tamiya rattle can AS-11.

 The red star decals worked with no problem on the semi-gloss surface. I used a little setting liquid to make sure they stayed put. Once dry they were sealed with floor polish.

The last bits were to add the undercarriage legs, wheels and doors. Then the propeller assembly and finally a pitot. A little bit of touch up and detail painting, then an overall coat of floor polish and it was made.

 It turned out a nice little model, and a good exercise of basic modelling skills. Recommended for all except beginners. Needed a large amount of joint filling and sanding, more than usual for a short run kit. The kit required plenty of dry-fitting and trimming to get it all together.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_I-210 (redirects to MiG-3)

 Yefim Gordon & Keith Dexter, Mikoyan's Piston Engined Fighters, Red Star Vol 13, Midland, Hinckley, 2003.

 William Green, Fighters Vol 3, Warplanes of the Second World War, Macdonald, London 1961 (Listed as MiG-5)

Kit Instructions.

Peter Burstow

February 2014

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