MiG-28

"Oh S#%& there's two of 'em!"

Italeri, 1/72

The Mig-28 is based on the American F-5E/F, which was aquired from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975, and is the follow-on to the MiG-26. The prototype first flew in 1979, and serial production began in Kazakhstan in 1981. Among the firstst foreign users of the aircraft was the Socialist republic of Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka), which ordered 72 aircraft for the carrier Red Ceylon (ex Soviet Rodina). These were delievered in a overall flat black paint scheme in 1984 and began replacing the MiG-26K/KUBs one-for-one.

In 1986 there were brief skirmishes between the Ceylonese navy and the USS Enterprise, which led up to a confrintation in August of that year in which 6 MiGs were shot down by US F-14s while interfearing with a naval rescue operation. (this happend because of the incompetence of the Ceylonese pilots)

This 'MiG-28' pair was inspired by the opening scenes from Top*Gun where 'Maverick' and 'Cougar' run into a pair of hostile MiG's over the Indian Ocean ( I believe this was based on the 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident).

The single seat 'MiG-28' is the Testors 1/72 #272 F-5E Adversary kit, which included the markings used in the movie. I robbed a pair of Aim-9's from Italeri's 1/72 US/NATO weapons set, since the kit AAMs looked unrealistic. I decided to simulate the 'peeling paint' after finding a picture in Dave Parsons Bandits!.

Italeri's 1/72 F-5F kit was the basis for the 'MiG-28UB'. I had to correct the gun layout on the nose (the F model only has one 20mm cannon, something Italeri forgot about when they did the mould for the kit.), and add a pair of Sidewinders from Italeri's 1/72 weapons set. I ended up doing some improvements to the RIO's cockpit by adding a radar display, control stick and a 'Towel rack' hand hold above the dashboard. Another F-5E Adversary kit donated the markings.

Page created November 4, 2003