KG Wings - Dragon 1:72 scale MiG-15 "Fagot" Swept Wing Jet Fighter

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
Swept Wing Jet Fighter

Soviet Air Force Roundel

Soviet Air Force (VVS)
1951

Dragon DML Models

This model added to kgwings.com on December 30, 2010

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-15) was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters. The first production MiG-15 flew on 31 December 1948 and entered Soviet Air Force service in 1949.

The MiG-15 is believed to have been one of the most widely produced jet aircraft ever made, with over 12,000 built. Licensed foreign production perhaps raised the total to over 18,000.

In the skies over Korea the MiG-15 scored the first jet-vs-jet victory in history at the hands of First Lieutenant Semyon Fiodorovich Jominichthe.

Early in the Korean war, the swept-wing MiG-15 ruled the daytime skies against straight-wing USAF F-80s and RAAF Gloster Meteors, as well as piston-engined P-51 Mustangs and F4U Corsairs. Only the North American F-86 Sabre proved to be a match for the MiG.

I used sheet styrene to extend the intakes into the fuselage past the cockpit tub to avoid seeing all the way through the kit.

The MiG-15 was originally designed to intercept American B-29 bombers. To ensure the destruction of these large aircraft, the MiG-15 was armed with two 23 mm cannons and one 37 mm cannon located under the nose.

The recessed rivet detail on this kit is over scaled but looks quite nice after paint and weathering is applied.

I'm not entirely happy with the bare metal effect I achieved on this project. I was going for subtle variations and unfortunately they ended up a bit too subtle to pick up on camera. Next time I intend to vary the shades much more.

The MiG-15 is powered by the Klimov RD-45 engine which was reverse-engineered from the Rolls-Royce Nene engine. The Nene was provided to the Soviet Union by the British government under the intention of license manufacturing.

The wing shape appears a bit off to me but I decided not to research the issue for fear of the kit ending up back in the box in my closet.

Something seems a bit off at the nose also, possibly it tapers too quickly? Again, I purposely chose to ignore and keep building.

I worked in a photo of the MiG with my Zil-157 fuel bowser for a nice scale reference.

The undercarriage and gear bays are pretty descent so I built them as provided with no modification.

Kit: Dragon #2510

Scale: 1/72

Value:

This kit currently retails for around $12.00 (US) which is good in today's market.

Decals:

Markings and instructions are provided for Air Forces of Czechoslakia, USSR, East Germany, Romania, Poland and Hungary. My decals were in register and thin.

Assembly:

Included in the kit are 41 styrene parts molded in light gray. 2 clear. 1 decal sheet and an 8-page 2-color (black and blue) instruction sheet.
Very little flash was found on my kit. Surface detail is nicely done with recessed panel lines and rivets. The cockpit tub and instrument panel detail are slightly above average for a kit of this age. The seat is oversimplified but easy to improve with some homemade belts. The canopy is made to slide open and closed but the "slide" is unfortunately a bit toy-like so you may chose to keep it closed or fill in the track.
All control surfaces are molded into the wings (not positionable).
Weight must be added to the nose so it does not tail-sit.
The intake ring was not a good fit and required careful sanding and filler to blend into the nose. The wing to fuselage fit is also not especially good and requires filler.
The semi-conformal wing tanks provided in the kit don't seem correct to me so I left them off after not finding any good reference of them.

After Market Parts Used: None

Customizations:

I used strips of masking tape for seat harnesses and 3-minute epoxy for instrument glass.

Recommendation:

Although filling and sanding are required around the engine intake and wing roots, this will be a simple build for modelers of all skill levels. Detail is decent overall, there are some inaccuracies but not enough to ruin the build for me. I recommended for all modelers.

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