Armory 1/72 MiG-25RB Conversion
By Matt Bittner
The MiG-25RB was a development of the reconnaissance MiG-25R by adding bombs and a bombing system to the standard recce bird. In essence, that's what Armory did to produce their MiG-25RB conversion. Their conversion will work with either the Zvezda or Condor (ICM) 1/72 MiG-25P/PD.
In the package there are 26 pieces of resin, nine photoetch frets and a decal sheet. The resin consists of a new nose (in which you'll need to cut the nose off from the kit's fuselage halves, whichever kit you start with), new wing tip "pods" (again, you'll need to cut the old "pods" off the kit's wing tips), new strakes for the front of the intakes, eight bombs, bomb racks, shackels for the bombs, new exhaust cans and the piece that sits between the exhausts. Since the fins and connecting piece are photoetch pieces, there are eight separate photoetch frets, one for each bomb. Plus, the ninth photoetch fret contains the blades, etc. for the exhausts.
There are decals for 7 aircraft:
- "Red 28", Soviet AF
- "Red 44", Soviet AF
- "Red 47", Soviet AF
- "Red 15", Russian Federation AF
- "Red 754", Bulgarian AF
- 63rd SAC, UAR, 1971-1972
- "Black 499", Libyan AF
The decals are matt and appear to be in register. Unfortunately all Armory provides for marking information is a small, port or starboard side drawing for each aircraft that contains the location of the decals, plus an upper and lower view showing the placement of the national markings. There is also a small drawing showing where some of the stencils go on the bombs. But that's it. There are color drawings of "a side" on the box top, but you will definitely need to track down more information to help finish your model.
If you want a 1/72 MiG-25RB in your collection then you'll want this conversion set. Even with the cutting that's involved it isn't a difficult conversion. In my opinion that most difficult part will be adding the photoetch.
Many thanks to Armory for the review sample.