December 99 - In October I began building a MiG-21 made by BZ-Modellbau. The moderate price of DM 325 (without air channels, special offer until 12-31-99) and the interesting looks of the plane let me buy this kit. This airplane too is to be equipped with a 90 mm-ducted fan.
(click on the pics to see the high-quality version)
My setup will consist of the WeMoTec-DF
with the Ultra 930-6 from my Pampa, but upgraded to MidiFan and with 16 instead
of 14 RC2000.
The kit contains:
- a coarsely made fiberglass fuselage with a matte,
irregular surface without any details und with inaccurate
"fit-together" and openings
- Foam/balsa wing halfs, leading edge and ailerons to be fitted repectively cut
and framed.
- a big fiberglass part which connects the wings and covers the bottom of the
fuse
- the almost ready balsa-stabilizers, a sheeted rib contruction
- the fin from plain balsa
- a clear canopy
- some wooden parts, as the plywood bulkheads and some balsa for framing the
ailerons.
The air channels and the special nose cone (a must for a MiG 21) cost additional DM 65.
Soon after starting I recognized, that this kit can only be recommended for experienced builders, if it can be recommended anyhow. Some of the building steps are nonsense or impossible (e. g. glueing the wing halfs, the rounded bulkheads and the fiberglass-bottom in one step), other solutions are put completely onto the shoulders of the builder (for connecting the wings to the fuse there are neither parts nor is that step mentioned in the instructions). There are also some positive points to report: the wings have a fiberglass inlay (important for rigid ailerons - see Pampa-problems) and the air channels are lightweight and of sufficient sturdiness.
The rear fuselage from above. Note the poor made
slot for the fin. Here you can also see also the "stubs" for mounting
the stabilizers.
This is the above-mentioned wing-connection-problem and my solution:
Parts were expected to be glued this way in one
step, as afterwards the wing will no longer fit through the openings in the
fiberglass-part.
Finally I decided to put the fiberglass-part aside
to enable a defined glueing of the wings and bulkheads...
...cut the fiberglass-part on one rear edge...
...and glued it with the assembled wing and
afterwards fillered the whole unit (here you can also see already the
arrangement of controller and battery pack).
There were less problems with building the fuselage. The following picture shows arrangement of DF-unit and part of the intake channel. The latter must be separated in order to create enough space for the battery pack over the front wing.
The Fuselage from below with DF on the left and
front intake on the right.
Unfortunately the wing does not fit well to the fuselage...let pictures tell the story...
That's the way the plane looks now (Dec. 99). The
tail surfaces are not yet glued to the fuse.
October 00 - In May already I sold the MiG very cheap. This kit was no fun for me!
THE END
| Home |