Hobby Boss 1/72 MiG-3
Putting Old Life Into a New Kit
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Introduction
In this little article, I’ll talk about how to add a considerable
amount of detail into this very basic kit; I won’t go into the operational
history of the MiG-3 or anything like that. If you’re interested
specifically in this MiG-3 model and/or the MiG-3 history, I would refer
you to Jim
Shubert’s review of this kit in Internet Modeler; he has some
terrific references you can use. My approach will work with any of the
Hobby Boss kits that have very basic interiors.
 When
I saw the Hobby Boss easy build kit of the MiG-3, I figured there must
be a way of adding detail to make a more competent model from it. After
all, the kit itself is finely molded, and looks accurate (no I didn’t
actually check [it is the most accurate 1/72nd MiG-3 model - Ed.])
in profile etc. To make this a very quick building kit, Hobby Boss eliminated
two problem areas for modelers: the fuselage seam and the wing half seam.
They did it by using a one piece wing and a one piece fuselage that fit
together very tightly. I talked to several friends about the idea, and
one suggested trying to find the Encore kit (re-release of the Cap Croix
du Sud kit), since it came with excellent decals and a True Details resin
set. That includes: instrument panel, wheels, cockpit sidewalls, radio,
pilot’s seat, control column, gun pods, exhaust stacks and shroulds.
I wasn’t able to find the True Details resin by itself but a few
quick enquiries landed me an Encore kit!
 The
Hobby Boss kit and the related stuff I had acquired languished on the
shelf for some time, until we were coming up on the IPMS Seattle Spring
Show, and I realized that my year hadn’t been as productive as I’d
have hoped. So I pulled the kit down and figured I could put all this
together in about a week or so, and got busy with it.
First Step; the game plan
There really wasn’t much to this; I pulled out my Mushroom Models
book on the MiG-3 and started thinking about what color schemes were available
for the late version. Then I went through all the resin stuff that was
in the Encore kit, and pulled out what I could use. That amounted to the
interior and the wheels; I decided to not use the gun pods, exhaust stacks
and shroulds. It was very quick work cleaning up both the resin and the
injection parts, then I headed off into Dremel-land…
Dremel-land
 Looking
in the cockpit of the Hobby Boss kit, you’ll see that it’s
got a seat molded into the floor, and what would be the intrument panel
surface goes straight down to the floor. They also made a half-hearted
effort at molding a radio behind the pilot’s seat. I turned the
fuselage over, and started drilling holes with a pretty hefty bit on my
Dremel tool, intent on making a fuselage shell.
(NB, if you have a regular Dremel tool that you plug in, it will probably
spin too fast even at its slowest setting. The plastic will melt and you’ll
probably end up with a drill bit covered in plastic. Worst case scenario
could have you deforming the part you’re working on. As a solution,
I went to a sewing machine store (yes, they are still around, but you
have to look for them) and bought a foot pedal rheostat. To govern the
speed of my Dremel, I turn it on the lowest speed, then apply foot pressure;
the bit then rotates as slowly as I want. That was about a $30 investment,
and it was well worth it.)
 While
I was drilling holes, it didn’t occur to me that I had made a tactical
error; I should have covered the exterior of the fuselage
with masking tape, or even duct tape, to protect it. I ended
up nicking the fuselage in a couple of places that required filling that
would normally not have been necessary.
Anyway, as I drilled holes, I used the heavy drill bit (a #40 bit is
“heavy” in 1/72 scale; it’s about the diameter of a
human leg) like a router bit, and the hole started opening up. Once I
had an opening for the cockpit, I switched to a conical router bit so
that I’d have better control. It’s very helpful to have some
calipers nearby; I checked the wall thickness frequently as it got thinner
to make sure I wasn’t going to punch through. As it got quite thin,
I switched to a sanding burr to make it nice and smooth inside. Whether
it’s smooth or not doesn’t really matter; it’s just
easier to gauge thickness if it’s uniform.
 After
the fuselage walls had been refined, I rebuilt the structure that would
hold the radio equipment behind the pilot as well as the sharp lip on
the sides of the cockpit using sheet styrene. You can see pictures of
what that looked like, but I further refined that later in construction.
I also drilled a large hole in the slanted back behind the pilot’s
head from which various wires attached to the radio, per my references.
You can see that in the close-up pictures that I took. I slipped the resin
radio into position then was ready to move on to the cockpit proper.
The resin set for the interior is designed to be built up as a box,
then slid into the closed up fuselage of the Cap Croix du Sud kit. You
can try to replicate the dimensions of the that when hogging out the interior
of the Hobby Boss kit, but it’s the hard way to do it. Rather than
that, I decided to install mine in sections. First I removed the backing
behind the pilot’s seat in the resin set. I dry-fitted many times
to make sure that it would all fit, then installed in the following order
(after painting):
1) Instrument panel
2) Cockpit sidewalls
3) Bulkhead behind pilot’s seat
4) Floor
I added the seat and instrument column at the very end, and also scratchbuilt
a gunsight.
The Wing
I
had studied Jim Schubert’s review of this kit, and followed his
advice in scribing in the missing flap detail. Using Dymo (label-making)
tape as a guide, I was able to scribe the flaps pretty easily, then decided
to drop the slats. My logic was good, but the result was shoddy; they
just didn’t quite fit. I first used Tamiya masking tape and burnished
it down to the recessed lines for the kit slats. Then I used a very sharp
scalpel blade to cut at the recessed lines and removed the tape. I applied
that tape to sheet brass, and cut that along the tape; theoretically,
I would now have the correct shape and dimensions of the MiG-3 slats.
I just had to bend them around the leading edge of the wings to replicate
them. Having done that, I again used Dymo tape to isolate the slat area
from the rest of the wing, then scraped that with a sharp scalpel blade
to lower the surface. In the end, they didn’t fit very well, but
I think it’s a learning process; that will work better the next
time I try it. Hobby Boss styrene, by the way, is a joy to work with;
it’s hard enough to hold crisp detail, yet it’s soft enough
that scraping with a scalpel blade takes off a lot of material very quickly.
While doing that, I decided to drop the slats too, so I shaved that area
down as well.
 The
Hobby Boss MiG-3 used very crude looking raised lines to represent the
navigation lights. Rather than messing with that, I decided to use an
old method I had in my bag of tricks. I made deep cuts that would result
in a right angle at the wing tips, then glued in clear red plastic and
clear green plastic (from a set of picnic cutlery I bought many many years
ago!) which I then I filed, sanded and polished. To achieve the rounded
back look of the lights, I used liquid mask applied with a toothpick.
I left that mask on until the very end.
In order to make the wing fit the fuselage, it’s necessary to
remove any fitting pins as well as other molded in wing structure that
would interfere with the resin floor. This will take many dry fittings,
but it’s pretty easy.
Assembly
 The
rest of the build it pretty much per kit instructions; everything until
now had required some sort of modification. The wing slips in easily and
won’t require filler as long as you didn’t nick the fuselage
and so forth. All the kit parts fit with very little filling or sanding
needed at all, but I still recommend dry fitting and sanding to make sure.
I had to fill in some places that I expected the fit to be much better.
Good planning almost always means fewer issues later in the
process.
Decoration
 After
attaching the windscreen and the rear canopy area, I attached the canopy
hood in the closed position with double stick tape, then masked it all
with Tamiya tape. Then, I could just paint the hood in place, and slide
it back to and glue it in the open postion. I chose to build White 54,
which sported a very unusual color scheme. It’s a late type Mig-3
of the 7th IAP VVS ChF (Black Sea Fleet) through part of 1942 and 1943.
To do that, I first shot it over all with Soviet Sand, followed by Soviet
Dark Green, and then the stripes using Grimey Black. After masking it,
I then shot the underside, which is a generic light blue. I used a combination
of kit decals and some other Soviet insignia that I had in my stash, and
shot it all with Dull-cote to finish that off. I followed this up with
some light weathering, and the project was just about complete except
for some minor odds and ends.
Conclusion
 The
approach that I took in removing the kit's solid interior and replacing
it with an aftermarket set will work with any of the basic builder kits.
Using a rotary tool to remove the interior is messy work, but it’s
not that difficult to accomplish. I made a couple errors along the way,
but learned from them and will avoid similar ones in the future. In fact,
I’m keen on doing another MiG-3! Also of note, since this was a
fairly basic kit and I only made one major modification in installing
the interior, it was very fast to get to the painting stage. I managed
to build this kit to completion in 4 days, and came away with a third
place at IPMS Seattle.
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