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Trumpeter 1/32nd MiG-3

By Peter Vill

Well it's big and it's well priced, when you consider that you can pay more for a 1/48 scale kit than this one will set you back, I picked mine up from Antics in Bristol England this morning.

Initial thoughts on opening the box, Trumpeter are well known for deep holes replicating rivets and this kit is not the one to break the rule, but altering this should not give a modeller with a little experience any cause for concern. The engraved lines are finely done, in fact depending upon your painting and weathering technique you might even wish to deepen a few, the front section of the canopy is made so that a section of fuselage is attached (Just like the ICM MIG-3 model in 1/48) which should make blending in a far simpler task, the canopy sections are clear and well moulded. The cockpit is nicely done but to be honest it is screaming out for super detailing or for resin / etched after market sets, not because Trumpeter have done a bad job but because it is so big and if you are going to do a big MIG why not go over the top.

I will say that I have only carried out a quick visual check with a few measurements taken to confirm or otherwise what my eyes were telling me. Every thing so far seems in order. I was a little concerned about the length of the fuselage aft of the cockpit, it seemed too short to my eye, so out came Erik Pilawskii`s book and measurements were taken from the 1/72 scale plans contained within this work of art, scaled up to 1/32 and I was surprised to see that every measurement appeared to agree, I even went so far as to compare the model against the drawings contained within the excellent article on the length of the MIG-3 by Alexey Matvienko and all seems to be within a millimetre, overall length (excluding Spinner) is good as well.

Decal options are limited to 2, one option is taken from the well known photograph of a line up of MIG-3`s outside the factory in their winter scheme of white over underside blue, the decals are for the aircraft bearing the slogan "ZA Rodinu", the other option is white 5 which if memory serves me correctly is now believed to be in fact Yellow 5 flown by A. Pokryshkin HSU X 3. Alternative schemes should not be hard to come by, thanks to the VVS web site.

So all in all it is looking good for the big MIG, all we need now is some one to build it and let us know how it goes together, I will either be taking the time to "go over the top" on the cockpit or purchasing some after market sets as and when they are produced, hint, hint.and I can only hope that they sell well and encourage the release of other Soviet WWII aircraft models.