Soviet Air Force MiG-25 "Foxbat" 'Red 31'/Lt. Viktor Belenko, Hakodate Airport, Japan 1976 1/144 Revell

Right after Soviet Air Force Lt. Belenko defected to Japan in 1976 there were MiG-25 scale model kits available too, and I recall I built one in 1/72nd scale at the end of 1970's. Later I thought it might be fun to have a Revell Foxbat model again, so picked up this in 1/144 scale this time. The kit is quite simple but captures the brutal style of MiG-25 very well. The motion-blur runway background is an A3-sized color print I made after real Hakodate runway dimensions and it should be at least roughly in 1/144 scale too.

Real Asahi Shimbun pictures of Belenko's MiG-25 at Hakodate

BBC CCCP Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-15 /VVS MiG-15 (бис/bis?) 1/72 Airfix

Airfix new tooling MiG-15, very nice and easy to build. Parts fit is excellent and the assembly guide is very informative, highly recommended. Built out-of-the-box as Soviet Air Force 1950's plane, these flew in Finland (although perhaps not exactly in this guise) for a short time at the Porkkala Soviet military base after the war. The actual Finnish Air Force MiG-15's were twin-seater UTI trainer versions.

from Künnapuu, Ants: 100 Ōhusōidukit. Illusteerinud V.Tōnisson (Valgus, Tallinn, 1975)

from Künnapuu, Ants: 100 Ōhusōidukit. Illusteerinud V.Tōnisson (Valgus, Tallinn, 1975)

VVS Яковлев Як-9 (Jakolev Jak-9D/Yakolev Yak-9D) 1/72 Airfix

An old Airfix kit re-issued, built out-of-the-box as a generic Yak-9D model in a generic VVS camouflage (i.e. there probably wasn't ever a real plane looking just like this). At first the kit looked really, really awful but as I plodded along it started to look a little better. It certainly isn't the most detailled or best looking Yak kit available, but it does capture the look of a Yak-9. The kit suggested camouflage of black-green-blue for the "white 86" is most likely right, but I wanted to try the two-tone grey instead. 

From Künnapuu, Ants: 100 Ōhusōidukit. Illusteerinud V.Tōnisson (Valgus, Tallinn, 1975)

VVS La-5FN 1/72 Revell

VVS MiG-3 1/72 Zvezda