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1/32 MiG21 MF Lancer conversion with Walk Around DVD

1/32 MiG21 MF Lancer conversion with Walk Around DVD
An LCAeroDesign product by Catalin Lates
Distributed by RB Productions RB-C32004&DVD
Price €24.50
www.radubstore.com

Newly released from the vaults of RB Productions is this neat set for converting the Trumpeter MiG21MF into its close cousin, the MiG21MF Lancer, used exclusively by the Romanian Air Force. This particular version of the famous ‘Fishbed’ was designed for a better Ground Attack role and capable of carrying more modern guided weapons. As you will imagine, the majority of the differences in the Lancer lie within the cockpit, in terms of uprated instrument consoles, and thus we are supplied with a new resin replacement version.

This conversion set consists of 12 creamy pale yellow resin parts; one etch fret and a sheet of transparencies and instruments. To build the specific machines for this conversion, two decal sheets are included with one of them being standard Romanian national markings, and the other being identity markings.

When you look at the cockpit parts, the first thing which struck me is how cramped it must have been. The ‘pit’ is fairly narrow, but quite deep. The main components in this area are the floor, side walls and instrument panel. No ejection seat or rear cockpit wall is included as the kit parts are perfectly ok to use. The side walls contain a plethora of detail in terms of countless switches and indicator lights, sprinkled with a few instrument dials on the port side wall. Anyone who has built a Russian aircraft will know of the strange turquoise coloured interior associated with them, but the Lancer calls for quite a pale grey finish. As far as the individual paint call-outs are concerned, we will come onto those later.

The cockpit floor ‘tub’ is beautifully detailed, with perhaps only the throttle quadrant on the side console being a little ‘soft’ in detail. A sharp knife should fix any issue though. More detail is lavished upon the instrument panel and its upper instrument ‘shroud’. These areas really are crammed full of dials and indicators. I think the master pattern maker, Catalin Lates from Romania, has done a splendid job in cramming in this level of detail. The majority of the detail is crisp and overall, when painted, the whole ensemble should look terrific.

If I stick with the instrument panel for a minute, the actual instrument faces for this area are supplied as an acetate sheet with these printed upon. This is a familiar route for modern aftermarket sets, but also, we have a little something extra. The instrument panel screens are supplied as extra acetate parts. These need to be fitted over the painted ‘hollows’ on the instrument panel, and I would imagine that painting these hollows in white, would be the way to go in order to bring out the definition of blacks and green in these screens. A very nice touch and should help to create a more realistic screen effect. Another transparent piece is supplied to cover the bank of switches to the right of the pilots arm.

Various other pieces of included resin form external lamps and also two of what I imagine to be ‘vents’. One last piece of resin forms another control quadrant within the cockpit.

A single etch fret containing 21 parts is included. Some parts for the HUD are included, but the majority of the parts here are associated with external fins and access panels. All etch parts are very well made and cleanly etched. A couple of the external fins though should really be profiled with a file and smoothed off instead of simply being attached as flat parts.

Two decal sheets are supplied here, and I feel that this is the only area where this set is a little lacking. The decals are printed on an ALPS printer, meaning that you need to cut the decal from the sheet as close to the decal as possible, but the actual printing is a little substandard. There are no hard and defined edges here, and the actual presentation is a little ‘soft’, which is disappointing. When the time comes for me to use this conversion, I do have an answer to this, and this is to purchase the Romanian national marking from RB Productions (RB-D32007) which are standard decals and nicely printed by Fantasy Printshop. Please remember that this conversion is simply being marketed and distributed by Radu, and is not an actual item produced by Radu himself. The aircraft identity numbering can easily be fixed by careful cutting around the edge of the decal to give a clean, sharp edge.

A single sheet of A4 colour instructions shows clearly how everything is assembled, and also showing cockpit painting, is included.

Now, I never actually mentioned this earlier, but this set comes in two versions. You can either purchase is as above, or you can purchase the set with the reference DVD. I am lucky to have been sent the DVD version, and I have to say that the disc is spectacular! The DVD contains over 1.1GB of data, consisting of almost 900, yes 900 photos! These are full colour and you will not have seen them anywhere else as they were taken by the creator of this conversion set, and they cover literally every area of the MiG21 Lancer, right down to ‘open panel’ shots. The pictures are large, high resolution and leave you in no doubt as to how to paint and build this machine. Catalin has thoughtfully categorised the photos into individual folders pertaining to different parts of the aircraft. Also included on the DVD are the instructions in PDF format, as well as a very high resolution, colour call-out for the entire cockpit, which is simply stunning! I really am very impressed with this.

The DVD also includes PDF files showing the cockpit console layouts for both the Lancer-A and Lancer-B types, as well as a neat colour profile of a rather war weary looking Lancer.

 

 

So what do we think?

Overall, resin is cleanly and crisply cast and the conversion looks a breeze to assemble. No problems at all should be encountered, even by someone who wants to undertake this as their first resin conversion. My only reservation are the decals, but that reservation is not enough to make me think twice about this excellent set. I sure hope we see more from Catalin Lates in future, and I applaud RB Productions for making this superb set available through its online store. The price of this set without the DVD is €19.50, but I simply can’t see why you wouldn’t want that excellent disc as it’s worth ten times the difference in asking price alone!! Highly recommended.

Overall: 9/10

 

 

Many thanks to Radu Brinzan of RB Productions for the review sample.