Condor 1/72nd MiG-25P "Foxbat" By Matt Bittner

Background

Another short history. The Foxbat was initially developed to counter the threat of the high altitude XB-70 Valkyrie. While the Valkyrie never saw production, the Foxbat did. I can still remember the day when a defector flew a MiG-25 out of then-Soviet Russia and into Japan. It caused quite the stir in the military circles, and opened up the "West's" eyes in terms of what the Foxbat was capable of. Prior to this Condor kit the only known 1/72nd kit was the Hasegawa example. History also says whomever designed the Hasegawa kit used the defector machine as a guideline, but it appears it was just that - a guideline only. The Hasegawa kit had its purpose "in the day", but with the release of the Condor kit, thankfully we can now ignore the Hasegawa kit.

The Kit

The Condor MiG-25P consists of approximately 69 injected molded parts, along with four injected clear. I say "approximately" because the gear doors are molded as one piece, and the modeler is to break them apart if displaying the model landing gear down. It appears my instructions are incomplete, though. The instructions I have show only one scheme, but the decals cater for two - one Russian and one Ukraine. In addition, while there are also stencils catered for on the decal sheet, my instructions do not show the placement of those stencils. I guess I need to ask around for the other pages of the instructions I'm missing. Thankfully it appears those are the only instruction pages I'm missing.

Decals are beautiful and in register, thanks to being printed by Begemot.

Construction first starts with assemblying the exhaust nozzles together. This is followed by the assemblying the cockpit and adding it to the two pieces of the forward fuselage. Then the forward fuselage is attached to the main body, once those two pieces are glued together. Hopefully there won't be many gaps.

Now the rear fuselage/rudder pieces are attached to the main fuselage along with other pieces. The construction is unique in that rudders are attached in-situ with portions of the rear fuselage. Maybe this is for obtaining the correct angle of the rudders, or maybe this is so other versions of the MiG-25 can be kitted. I'm not too sure.

Construction moves to adding the wings, horizontal tail surfaces, nose, intakes, and more fuselage "bumps". I'm sure you'll want to add weight to the nose cone so the model sits correctly on the landing gear. The instructions would move you now to install all landing gear pieces and doors, followed by all the missiles. I would wait for those until the very end, although adding the missile pylons to the wings could be beneficial but still waiting on the missiles themselves.

Conclusion

The Condor MiG-25P is a much needed, and very welcome addition to the 1/72nd Russian jet world. With the way the parts are laid out, other versions of the MiG-25 are definitely possible. There is a rumor that Prop & Jet is working on a cockpit for this model, and I definitely hope so. Prop & Jet resin pieces are some of the best in the world and their attention to detail is immaculate. In fact, I will wait for quite awhile before starting this model, to see if Prop & Jet do indeed come out with a cockpit. While the Condor cockpit is adequate with a closed canopy, if wanting to open said canopy you definitely want more detail.

Since ICM has released the Condor MiG-31 under their own label, I bet they do the same with the MiG-25. However, if you don't want to wait, then head to Linden Hill Imports - which I did - to purchase the Condor kit. This model is highly recommended to those who enjoy Soviet and Russian jets, or jets in general.