Without going into any great detail, the Mig-21 is the mostsuccessful Soviet aircraft to have been built in the 70's and 80's, withthousands of them going to numerous countries throughout the world. They werebuilt under license in Czechoslovakia as well as in the Soviet Union itself. TheChinese are still marketing a version of the earlier Mig-21F called the ShenyangF-7. It has been updated with modern safety and avionics systems and has found anumber of buyers. Though no longer a state of the art aircraft, the Mig-21 isstill a potent and viable interceptor.

A few years ago, Aeromaster decided to give a tryat the kit market. Though not producing its own kits, it endeavored to gathertogether a kit and various resin and etched brass bits to go with an Aeromasterproduced decal sheet. The end result was a very high priced multi-media kit thatran in the $30-40 range. (I picked this one up at a swap meet for less thanthat so I don't know the retail price.) This particular kit is the old OEZkit that has since been boxed by KP and by SMER as well as Aeromaster. The kititself isn't that bad, but is also not an easy build. It has engraved detailthat would do a Matchbox kit proud but the size of the engravings. In otherwords, the engraving is large and detailing a bit soft. There are also a few fitproblems, specifically with the interior.

However, that may have been taken care of by the addition of the new parts. So,what extra goodies are in with the kit. First thing you notice is that this is avery heavy box. Part of that is the number of resin parts included with the kit.In addition to a resin cockpit, wheels, rudder nose gear well, speed brake andtwo bang seats, there is a huge resin recce pod. Also included are twovacuformed canopies in addition to the injected plastic ones that normally comewith the kit. 

 There is also a very nice etched brass set from Eduard to helpspruce things up a bit. On the brass fret are cockpit enhancements as well assome bits for the wheels and a burner can screen. There are parts for theejection seats and canopy frame as well.

As you might expect,there is a new set of instructions as well as a new decal sheet. Theinstructions are really quite well done and come in a neat little booklet. Theassembly sequences are well done and there are good detail shots to help you getall the etched brass and resin bits properly installed.  Along with thisare color profiles and overhead drawings for the three color schemes offeredwith the kit. 

The kit can be built as an MF, bis, SMT or R,though the decals are only for an MF or SMT. The Russian camouflaged version canbe done as an SMT. The other two are Mig-21MF's. The Czech MF is a special 40thanniversary scheme and is quite colorful. The Cuban Mig has a number of colorphotos included as taken when this aircraft was flown to Key West by a defectingCuban pilot.

Overall it looks as if the resulting kit would be very nice andone that should bring a lot of comments.

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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