Revell | MiG-29A Fulcrum

Reviewed by Menelaos Skourtopoulos

It was 1991 and the two Germanys were unified and Revell-Germany was very courageous to bring out this kit. At this time they didn't have obviously a detailed view of the drawings of the MiG-29 and that kit came out with some inaccuracies and problems. The UB version that Revell also produced has some of these problems solved…but now we have the Fulcrum A version (model 9-12) in the market and I'm happy that Revell reactivate that kit once again. I hope that the UB will come out soon too…

The Box

You have a typical big Revell carton box with a nice art work of a "29" in anniversary colours of the JG 73 "Steinhoff".

I found 7 trees with a total of 164 plastic styrene parts inside the box,. 8 of them are in clear plastic for the 2 part canopy, landing lights, gun sight and IR sensor. The instruction guide is of the newer type with a b & w picture of the model in the front page and 16 pages full building and painting instructions. Again there are no guides for FS colours. At the bottom of the box you will find the big plus of that kit: a huge decal sheet full of myriads of stencils in best quality…

The Parts

Well this is the old one (1991) with all the problems, and one reason is that Revell didn't have 100% instruction guides at this time of production.

The general view of the parts is very good. The mouldings are in light Grey plastic with no flash, the canopies are crystal clear. Surface detail is almost excellent with panel lines all engraved and some of the smaller parts are really highly detailed (landing gear, wheels, pylons etc…). Two detailed engines come along with that kit and it's better to let them out and build them as extra models…

General fix is also good, but some of the parts in my kit were a little bended, but this is not a serious problem.

Cockpit

The cockpit is one of the less detailed corners of the kit. The instrument panels are somehow 3D but they don't have the quality of the today standards and here is a point that an aftermarket kit could really make things much, much better. The ejection seat is I think in a better condition and with some work here and there makes an acceptable result.

The movable part of the canopy is also somehow wrong. You have to cut a portion of the fuselage behind the canopy and glue that part on the canopy! There's no boarding ladder in the kit.

Fuselage

One more problem appears at once if you have read something more about the "29". The big air intakes behind the cockpit are only open, when the engines running, so the most modellers would like to build a "29" in a parked condition, and well if is it so you have to close those intakes (called: "oleks"). The smaller intakes behind them are not accurate and you have to cut them out and use some plastic styrene to change them.

The chaff dispenser on the end of the fins are wrong. They are too thick and you have two choices: make the new from scratch, or live with them!

Landing Gear

The front landing gear is OK. You have to put some hydraulic lines here and there, but otherwise, you can live with it. The gear wells are not detailed, and if you want a prefect result, you have to put the myriads of hydraulic lines in them.

Decals

As I wrote above there is a huge decal sheet in the box. You can build one of three aircraft; one of the JG73 in anniversary colours, one again of the JG73 in the new Norm 90 scheme and a Russian MiG29. Paint instructions are good but again no FS codes…

Conclusion

This kit of the MiG-29 is the only alternative that we have at the moment. It's not bad and I think with some work, you can make a superb model out of it.

I'm currently working on that kit and I'll write a detailed article about the problems and the solutions I have to make a nice model out of it!