Hobby Boss 1/72 MiG-15 UTI Midget
|
 |
History
Hobby Boss continues to churn out kits at prices not seen in decades!
I bought one of the earlier offerings and was disappointed in the thinness
of the horizontal stabilizer...something that distracts from the image
of the completed model.
One of our club members bought the MiG 15 single seat kit and what an
improvement! We were all impressed. I bought the two seater, for less
than $10, what a kit!
The box is a top opening affair, sturdy for its purpose. Inside is a
vacuum formed tray holding the essential parts, wing, fuselage halves,
canopy and cockpit tub. Under the tray is a sprue with the rest, landing
gear, two drop tanks, seats, dash etc. There are decals for two planes,
Russian and Iraq, both in camouflage. The instruction sheet is simple
but very clear. A color profile for both planes is coded to several brands
of paint but only the Mr. Color brand matches all colors.
Now for a little critique: The main gear has separate struts, wheels
and gear doors while the nose wheel has the strut and wheel molded as
one piece. The detailing on all these pieces is very nice, accurate and
petite!
The one piece canopy is one of the clearest and thinnest I’ve
ever seen in a 1/72 or any kit! Some cutting would allow the back to slide
aft and the front to open to the side.
The fuselage is split horizontally not vertically which allows the
vertical stab to be molded as part of the fuselage. The wing is one piece
with nice deep wheel wells. There is an injection molding circle in each
wheel well...hey; I had to find something wrong! The wing is “trapped”
in the fuselage when the halves are glued together. These joints will
require some filler, probably a little CNA floated into the joint. The
nose intake ring and splitter are a really nice piece of molding.
The cockpit tub and the two instrument panels are rudimentary but accurate,
unfortunately without any detail or decal. Those control columns are just
that...columns...and need to be replaced with something more realistic...if
you want to! The seats are nice with rolled pleat cushions but no seat
belts. The kit does not provided the clear piece that separates the front
and back cockpit.
The scribing is crisp but on the heavy side. All the panels seem to
match those on the real plane. We have a MiG 15 in our local museum and
the gaps between panels and access doors are wide!
The dive brakes and their fuselage opening are very nicely molded. Ugh,
the fuselage joint seam goes right through the dive brake well, BUT, when
the halves are dry fitted...there is NO SEAM inside the well!!!!
Finally...the horizontal and vertical stabilizers are appropriately
“thick”.
As to accuracy...well, it sure looks like a MiG 15!
This is a real improvement from their early offerings and I would recommend
it to any modeler. This is a great kit for a beginner or someone who just
wants a MiG in their collection. With some TLC, it could be a winner for
those who compete.
This was bought with my own nickel but thanks to Hobby Boss for so much
model for that nickel!
|
|
