ICM 1/72nd MiG-31 "Foxhound" By Matt Bittner

Background

Just a short history. The MiG-31 was designed as primarily an interceptor, dedicated to homeland defense. It was designed as a very fast aircraft, capable of quickly meeting any approaching aircraft with a maximum speed of close to Mach 3. However, the MiG-31BM - designed around 1999 - added the capability of destroying ground, as well as air, targets.

The Kit

The ICM MiG-31 consists of approximately 107 parts. I say "approximately" because the gear doors are molded as one piece - facilitating an easy build for those who enjoy building their models gear up. Those of us who model with the gear down will have to separate each single piece into multiple pieces. There is also a sprue of 7 clear parts, four for the canopy section and three for the nose gear-door lights. The clear is a little fuzzy, but hopefully with an application of Future will clear things up. Decals are are for two schemes: Red 08 of the 174 GIAP, Monchegorsk, 1985; and Blue 74 of the 786 GIAP, Pravdinsk, 1995. Decals are well done, nicely printed and in register.

Naturally construction starts with the cockpit. After assembling the seats, instrument panes and control columns to the "tub", the tub is then inserted into the bottom half of the fuselage. Cockpit detail is non-existant so those who require more detail will want to add a bit more. Part provides a photoetch set for the interior of the Zvezda kit, but I bet it will work just as well with the ICM kit. Once the cockpit is glued in then the wheel wells are inserted into the fuselage bottom half as well. Now the fuselage halves can be glued together.

From here the instructions move you to add the rest of the major pieces: nose cone, wings, intakes and vertical tails and rear fuselage pieces. However, the rest of the instructions are best modified, as ICM would have you add the clear pieces, all undercarriage as well as external stores. Personally, I will add the horizontal tailpieces, paint and then add the rest. That way there is less to knock off while painting.

Conclusion

The ICM MiG-31 kit (originally from Kondor/Condor) is very nicely done, with recessed panel lines and very nice external detail. If you wanted, you could also purchase the separate Part photoetch exterior set (again meant for the Zvezda kit but probably adoptable) to zing the kit up a bit. In addition, NeOmega made (I don't think it's still in production, unfortunately) a vacuform canopy as well as still make excellent K-36DM resin ejection seats. (Personally I will purchase these seats only, since I plan on leaving the canopy on my model down.) In addition, Begemot has a set of decals out for the MiG-31, not only containing more examples than what is found on the ICM decal sheet, but also includes stencil data as well as decals for the instrument and side panels in the cockpit. (Both the NeOmega and the Begemot decals are available from Linden Hill Imports in the USA.)

My thanks to ICM for the review sample.