MiG-21F-13

Marius
BE WARNED! Most reviews are favourable because they just had a look in the box. This is very deceiving.

The general fit is so unbelievably horrible that I am not sure this kit is ever worth it in the year 2022....or neither would it be in 1990. There are gaps of several milimeters in some locations with other parts grossly unalligned through design. The underbelly (fuselage) which forms one piece together with the wings is 3-4mm wider than the other fuselage parts. Sanding and levelling everything down would just make plastic extremely thin or even completely dissapear in some parts, not to mention that large parts of the lower fuselage need extensive new rescribing due to sanding. If you want countless hours of sanding, puttying, rescribing, pain and frustration, all of this while achieving in the best case an average result....then this kit should be your next choice 🙂. All of this for ONLY 35€ in 1:72. I was almost buying two of these "limited edition" kits at some point, but luckily I decided to leave some for other people to enjoy it as well.

I am not that lazy, I did some kit bashing of more complex topics. This is the first kit in many years where I decided midway to stop building because it is THAT bad. I can maybe finish it, but my time is definitely not worth wasted on this. I no longer see a decent outcome out of this kit, even less in a natural metal finish (as initially planed). I trully believe that sadly Revell is still delivering the best MiG-21F-13 in the scale (with the required nose correction) as of 2022, even with the lacking details at the landing gear bay or bad ejection seat. I will use from the Modelsvit kit whatever parts can still be used (nose, canopy, seat) to improve the Revell kit. Maybe borrow parts of the landing gear. For the vast majority of modellers, details mean nothing if the kit is horrendous and a pain to build. This will only kill the mojo...

If you think this opinion is exaggerated, have a second look here as well and please read the comments:
themodellingnews.com..scale-build.html?m=1

The developers of this model probably had good intentions. There were some efforts to add detail the cockpit and landing gear bays, but none of it will bring you anything if the fuselage and wings look like contorted, wavy plastic due to excessive sanding with little detail left at the end. I am not sure Modelsvit actually tried to build this kit. If they did, then asking 30€ or more for this is a courageous, daring move!

My personal opinion is that in the era of computers, Internet and CAD such releases which look okish only in the box are unacceptable and should be discouraged, especially for such a high price. There are worst kits out there for sure, but very few had such a high price and so many positive in-box reviews.

You can feel free to buy the kit, (try to) build it and form your own opinion, but I know for sure I would never have bought it if I knew how it was.
Eduard might release a long run MiG-21F-13 after 2023, maybe 2024. I am willing to wait until then.