**** DONE: 1/48 MiG-3 "Black 12" - Allied Manufactured Aircraft

[Blacklist]

Wurger or John,

Provie here.

I had to reregister under another name because no matter what I tried, I couldn't log on?

I don't think I broke a rule yet.

About your "12." Many B&W photos were touched up before published. That 12 could have been touched up, just like anything else in B&W photos. Something to consider.

My cutter will cut letters as small as .25", so we are good to go on that. I can copy the decal you posted perfectly. I've been making model airplane graphics for over 20 years, I have a sign, art and graphics Co.

Wurger, if you are reading this, please allow me to help another modeler. Can't imagine, at this early stage, not being able to participate? Just talk to me.

Provie

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far!

 

[Wurger]

Hi Provie,

Nothing wrong has been done by you. Also I haven't changed anything of your account here. I'm very surprised you wasn't able to log in and had to register the another account. Have you used your correct password? Please send me a PM with info what's the problem with logging. I'll try to help.

Also I'm not going to stop you in the help. Why have you thought in the way? A discussion is the main purpose of the forum. I'm sure John appreciates all the support from everybody who wants to help.

 

[JKim]

First of all, thanks for the detailed picture and analysis of the aircraft's bottom colors, Wojtek! Hmmm... I'm going to have to think about this. Honestly, my mind was in auto-drive as far as the primary colors were concerned: silver for the front fuselage, white on the rest of the upper surfaces and light blue for the undersides. But looking at the color profile that I myself posted, light blue for the undersides doesn't seem to be appropriate here.

So what are my options (beyond the silver front fuselage)?

a. White overall including top and bottom?
b. White top and silver bottom?
c. White top and some strange combo of white/silver/blue on the bottom?

I'm leaning towards white overall at this point but I'm going to mull it over a bit before committing.

Secondly, thanks for getting back to me on the "12" mask, Provie. I will get a more accurate character height when I get home tonight. I do appreciate any and all help that I receive on this build. Like I said before, I am quite unfamiliar with Russian aircraft and I've learned quite a bit during this build. So thanks to all who have commented!

 

[Blacklist]

John,

Hey! Hey! It's Provie. AKA Blacklist.

Just call me Blacklist, because I can post with that name.

I thought I got the can because nothing I did with Provie got me logged on.

Figured my model didn't fit in, and I know it doesn't.

Anyway. Take your time but get the measurements on the "12". I can probably provide masks for the stars, you are airbrushing, correct? I never liked surprises. So I'll send this Mig-3 model when I send you your stuff.

I actually thought I could use this kit to detail my Mig-3. I didn't have the heart to open any of the bag wrappings. Plus it's to small to see detail. 1/48.

You can PM me or E-mail.

Hey! You've got quite a bit done. outstanding!

 

[Blacklist]

Crimea-River,

You asked about my cutter.

It's a 30" Allen. I have a sign, art and graphics business.

I'm a commercial artist.

Thanks for taking interest.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for the info Provie. So that would be for vinyl masks I assume. I have used vinyl masks before on a Spitfrie MkVIII build and was impressed with the result.

 

[Wurger]

So what are my options (beyond the silver front fuselage)?

a. White overall including top and bottom?
b. White top and silver bottom?
c. White top and some strange combo of white/silver/blue on the bottom?

I'm leaning towards white overall at this point but I'm going to mull it over a bit before committing.

I think thed B variant that is in accordance with the Massimo Tessitori's profile and idea is very likely. Of course we can't exclude that the bottom colour at the tail area was applied with a different layout. I mean just a thin strip going to the bottom edge of the fuselage and rudder but not overpainted the fusleage under the horizontal stabilizer. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the Mig-3 was of silver at all surfaces. The white overall is possible like you have mentioned in A as well. IMHO this is the scheme you may follow.

black 12: silver or snow?

 

[4bogreen]

I think thed B variant that is in accordance with the Massimo Tessitori's profile and idea is very likely. Of course we can't exclude that the bottom colour at the tail area was applied with a different layout. I mean just a thin strip going to the bottom edge of the fuselage and rudder but not overpainted the fusleage under the horizontal stabilizer. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the Mig-3 was of silver at all surfaces. The white overall is possible like you have mentioned in A as well. IMHO this is the scheme you may follow.

black 12: silver or snow?

I would go for the blue undersurface. Using silver only on the nose and undersurface is onlogical. Why didn't they just painted the whole aircraft in silver? Its more logical that they made a field repair and painted the nose silver with the paint they had.

 

[Wurger]

If there would be the blue ( A-28M ) FS 35250 there was its shade noticed at the fuselage undersides. Of course it could have been the FS 25550 that was much lighter than the FS 35250. But it would be seen in the pic as well. Additionally, it is possible the maintence crew could have repaired the plane and ( as Blacklist posted because of an attempt to gather as much planes as possible for the upcoming celebration ) refreshed/repainted it with white or silver paint they had because of the ceremony at the Vnukovo airport, near Moscow, on March 7, 1942, when 120 IAP of the Moscow Air Defence (PVO) was made a Guards unit as 12 GvIAP.

Here is a profile I found in the book "Авиаколлекция 1/2015" by Н.В Якубович about MiG-3. The profile suggests the MiG-3 being silver paited on tops with light blue undersides. I have converted it to the shot of the grey scale. The shade of the light blue can be noticed as a light grey colour but still darker than the silver one. If you have a look at the picture above you can notice that the white colour of the spinner of the Black 36 also contrasts with the silver prop blades in the same way the light blue in the profile below. Therefore I think there was one colour only applied overaly. Of course it is my humble opinion only as I may be wrong.

 

[Wayne Little]

Lots of great info thats for sure...

 

[JKim]

Thanks for all of the input regarding Black 12. The bottom color of this aircraft isn't clear and as I've said at the beginning, this is not intended to be a definitive build of the MiG-3. So without making any claims of accuracy or correctness, I am going with white above and below and see how that turns out.

First I have to finish the preshading and the front fuselage is masked off. Using the technique that I employed on my 109G-10 Erla build, I've added random preshading patterns over the entire aircraft to give the finish a bit of unevenness and depth. The effect is subjective to be sure and I view this in the same vein as some of the "oil filtering" techniques employed as postshading. To mix things up, I used green on the upper wings instead of black, mostly as a test bed.

Here is the starboard wing after multiple passes of highly thinned white. Although it is difficult to see, you can discern the effects of the preshading.

To illustrate how this effect is achieved, here is the port wing in different stages of painting. The white is heavily thinned (Tamiya X-2 White + 90% isopropyl alcohol in approximately 1:8 ratio) so it has to be built up slowly and carefully. Airbrush control is critical here because the thin watery paint has a tendency to pool and run if the brush lingers in one spot too long.

After the first 4-5 passes...

4-5 more passes...

A few more coats...

Port wing finished.

Thankfully this model is quite small so it doesn't take too long to finish the entire aircraft in white. Note the blue gloves... I've been in the practice of wearing latex gloves when doing the camo painting. It really helps to avoid those pesky fingerprints that can mar an otherwise good finish. You may also note the absence of masking on the wheel wells.

For some reason I neglected to take photos of this sequence but I did not like the look of the silver front fuselage. It was much too dark compared to the white finish. So I sprayed on a coat of Alclad White Aluminum over the existing Alclad Aircraft Aluminum... much better but I lost some contrast between panels.

I applied a bit of post shading to the panel lines and edges of the silver. Since the model wasn't given a primer coat, a few imperfections showed up around the canopy. Also some scratches resulted from me trying to remove dust caught under the paint. These imperfections were corrected and the areas repainted. Note that the repaired areas were given a spray of grey before the white, which helped blend the repaired areas into the existing white areas. Otherwise, just spraying white onto the repairs would've resulted in spots of pure white.

Almost ready for decaling!

 

[JKim]

Question: What is the disposition of red stars on the bottom wings of this aircraft? Under both wings?

 

[Wurger]

Unfortunately the pic doesn't confirm there were red stars. I have seen a couple of pics of MiG-3s with the winter camo but with no stars there. It is possible these weren't applied. But having no proof of that we can assume there were the Soviet national markings applied like on all standard painted MiG-3s for the period of time. However the Black 36 in the pic above (post #130) seems to be without them too.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far!

 

[chris brown]

Nice job on the painting. I think I'm going to try some of your pre-shading techniques on a future build.

 

[Totalize]

Impressive work John. Love they way you built up the winter camo on this one. Nice choice of white alum for the engine area.


Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[Blacklist]

John,

Outstanding!

First time I've seen this kind of detailing in progression photos.

A line from the movie Always, "This is the reason I'm here."

Your work has me thinking. A good thing.

It appears this paint sticks well! You have no fear of removing paint with the pull of the masking tape?

I'll be looking forward to seeing you're progress.

Oh! And I'll have a few more questions also.

Really nice work.

 

[Crimea_River]

Looks amazing John.

 

[JKim]

Thanks for the info Wojtek, especially the photo of Black 36. It looks like both aircraft in the photo lack the stars on the bottom of the wings. I will either put them on or I won't... we'll see!

Thanks for the comments about the pre-shading. I was inspired by Doog's method called black-basing but I've simplified it by not using a black primer. It's just a way of introducing some tonal variation into an otherwise uniform finish. Like normal pre-shading, it can be infinitely adjusted to suit one's taste. The paints I've used on the MiG-3 are either Tamiya acrylics or Alclad metalizers. Both are fairly durable and masking doesn't pose any problems if the paint is allowed to fully dry. I like to wait a day after painting to apply any tape masks. And I always use Tamiya tape. Regular masking tape can be a bit tackier so you have to be careful using it. The finish on this MiG is quite thin and susceptible to chipping from handling. I should get a clear coat on it soon for decals.