Manufacturer Trumpeter
Model Number 01680
Date of release 2016
Part count 350+
Price payed 34 Eur
Decals in the box Mikoyan MiG31B Foxhound, Russian Air Force, 786 IAP, 74 Blue | Mikoyan MiG31BM Foxhound, Russian Air Force, 34 Red
Extras Reskit R33 Missiles, Begemot decals
Paints used AK primer, Alclad, MRP, LifeColor, Tamiya
Weathering products used Flory model: Grime; Oil colors: 502: Smoke (ABT005), Starship filth (ABT510), German Grey Highlight (ABT170); VanGogh: Burnt Umber (409); Winsor&Newton: Paynes gray
Airbrush used Badger 360
High points Good details. Full length intake and exhaust.
Low points Vertical tail not correct out of the box, flying surfaces not right out of the box, no APU602 racks even they are in box art (boring decal options, if that can be counted)



Timestamp:
0:00 Parts
0:55 Aftermarket parts

1:08 Build
1:48 Painting, decalling and weathering
2:29 Final reveal
3:48 Pictures
4:31 MiG31 with other models
5:16 Reference books







Instructions: https://www.scalemates.com/products/i...

MiG31 is interesting as aircraft, it has many firsts and capabilities are exceptional. There are several different variants from Trumpeter: MiG31, MiG31B/BM, MiG31 Therefore I wanted for my collection too although it is not the best looking aircraft in the world, it is brutal and looks like it. It is just grey, but weathering makes it more interesting. This time I wanted to make quite realistic weathering, not overboard as I tested with Su27.

I choose Trumpeter version, because MiG31 has big intakes and exhausts and Trumpeter provide both in full length. Details are quite good too, those are not constant though and I had to improve some rivet details and panel lines to make it universal.



Biggest let down is wrong kind of vertical tail ends. Luckily those are easy to correct. Another thing is flying surfaces which I noticed only when weathering the plane, so I had to be special careful when I carved those in right places.

When I bought the kit I had in mind that I wanted to have two R73 (AA11) missiles in one wing pylon and R33 under the fuselage. There are nice options with the missiles, so you can have what ever load out you want, but there is no dual missile rack on the box although it is on the box art. Therefore I had to build those from scratch. I also screwed up the kit R33 missiles, something happened to the paint and it didn't dried at all, I couldn't strip the paint either. The only option was to get aftermarket missiles. I would have been happy with the original missiles if I could have used those. Aftermarket missiles had some printer lines in them and some details were finer than those lines. Under the paint you cant' see either..

Kit decals were boring, so I bought Begemot decals which were very nice in my Su35S build. There are plenty of options and I ended up with red 07, because it had nice paintings in intakes and text in tails too. Begemot decals are very good, thin and in register, but assembly guide is not totally correct and every single stencil is one decal, so it takes time to apply them all. In my opinion it pays well and model looks apart with them.


All in all I'm happy that I have this in my collection, perhaps I won't build another but it is not because I wouldn't have like building it rather I feel that I have had everything out of this airplane, at lest for now.


Music by Lesfm from Pixabay