This is my model of
the Brasilian Navy Mig 21BM. A lot of people know that the USSR was planning to
build a carrier called "Sovjetsky Sojus", and they tasked a couple of
companies with producing planes for this ship.
The only one that
materialized before the ship was cancelled was the Mig 21 BM. It has folding
wings and a tailhook as the most visible changes, but also it had much more
corrosion protection and navigation equipment. It's not as easy to follow the
Gulf Stream as it is to follow the Volga river after all.
The Soviet Navy
never really got the planes in use and they were stored for later. Then when the
Brasilian Navy bought the former French Carrier Foch, they needed some planes,
and the US and French government were rather slow to allow deals and there would
be a slow delivery, when the new Russian government offered a full Airwing of
flyable jet to the Brasilian Navy. The Mig 21 BM and the SU 25BM.
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images below to see larger images
I modelled the Mig
21 BM based on the old Revell kit, it recieved the folding wings and the
tailhook , but also a lot of new antennas for the new electronics which includes
GPS and naval communications systems. The markings is from FCM and Daco plus the
spares box.
The tailHook is
actually a Revell Zero landing gear leg modified into the hook, the blisters on
the tail is Revell Seafire Ib gun covers. This way a lot of the spares in the box
came into use to make the plane look just right, the new smaller but thicker
wheel is from a Hasegawa Me 163....
For Silly Week I
wanted to send one of my "Relaxing projects". I bought this old Revell
Mig 21 at a model meeting some time ago, as I don't really do jet normally, I
decided that I would turn it into one of my Funnies. I do a lot of conversion on
model and try to make them as real as possible, but sometimes I like to relax,
and then I do something like this Brasilian Navy Mig 21BM (Big Modification).
Claus Gustafsen
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