Firefox MIG-31 movie aircraft

Sweet! If you made a kit in 1/24, I could pose my 1/24 cars with it and be in proper scale :)
Because the Firefox pilot definitely would have driven a G60 Corrado, for pure funkiness.
 
Hi Martin, I thought you were looking at a 1/48th?

BTW there is a glitch/error in that patchwork scan will fix it and re-upload.
 
Sweet! If you made a kit in 1/24, I could pose my 1/24 cars with it and be in proper scale :)
Because the Firefox pilot definitely would have driven a G60 Corrado, for pure funkiness.

1/24 is pretty big around 32" long but it will look cool.

Saw one of those yesterday, still lovely looking cars. Had two original Sciroccos myself a GTI then a beautiful red Scala GTI that got written off by an idiot pulling out in front of me. Worked out ok in the end as I got a company car then bought a bike with the insurance payout.

I can't see Mr Gant as a VW man, Dodge Charger, Mustang, or possibly a Gran Torino.... ;)
 
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I can see Gant driving American muscle or a sweet Ferrari 250LM...

But I was talking about Lt Colonel Voskov. He'd definitely drive precision German engineering, but not a Porsche or BMW that would attract the attention of the KGB. Something loaded with technology, relatively fast and nimble. Hence VW Scirocco or Corrado.
 
you sir are my hero, would it be possible to slice the image width wise to create formers and print it out in sections to create a larger ie your original purposed 1/12th scale ? kinda like building a rc airplane, and use blue foam to fill in the gaps between the formers, carve the foam, bondo, sand etc and do it large rc plane style with a split mold for the fuselage, fiberglass covered foam wings.......ummmmmm boost it to 1/6th scale, I'd buy it slap a pair of rc turbine engines in it and fly the wings off of it lol

-Mike
 
Just a quick post as it's late here. After a lot of studying over the weekend I came to the conclusion the front was just not quite right. I could see by holding up the master I had printed visually overlaying screen shots and photos of the hero things just didn't line up right, or more to say a proportional difference of the fuselage sizing vs the front chisel section.
After about three different iterations which involved completely rebuilding the front in the end I am happy with it and can match up within a very small amount of error to the hero.
Before and after comparison new on left old on right. Looking at it now it doesn't look that different really, LOL, but the new one "looks" right.
Firefox 13-08-2015.jpg
Also realised the canard wings were a bit too wide, a bit too shallow and too far forward, changes only amount to a couple of mm's in 1/24 but visible if you look.
Wing tips were also 4 degree too downward tilted, had overdone it a bit trying to compensate for the slight wing droop the hero now seems to have after 20 odd years.

Changed the contouring of the fuselage section underside as I worked out it fattens at the wing roots then narrows forward following the curve arc of the underside shaping, will post pics of that later as I am still working on it and the lower intake/gun ports.
When rebuilding realised it would be sensible to section the body around the panel lines so half the work is done, just have to create recesses. Created an animation to show with/without for a bit of fun. Will section the canopy and do an animation of that next.
Firefox panel lines.gif
Worked on the cockpit some for a change of pace, found a donor mig-29 model online as a starting point, but still a way to go with that.
 
I have been driving myself nuts with the geometry of the front chisel section of the plane. I could get it to line up nearly but not quite, and couldn't work out why. I decided to give up as it was damn close, then taking a break then coming back to it I spotted something that really should have seen before.
You can clearly see on the full size buildup and the ice-floe landing model the front and side facets are totally flat, which was the assumption I was working from for my model, I now know why I couldn't make things line up.
The 1/12th hero has an error, possibly intentional, but probably not, where the slant angle of the window canopy facets are steeper than the nose sections as shown by overlaid lines in the pics below.
Firefox chisel front.jpg
I think maybe what happened was, they cut out the windows from the resin/fiberglass shell, including the top window which leaves not much material there. This might have fractured or they cut the whole part off thinking they were going to have an opening canopy, then fixing it back in place the angle of the top of the canopy section changed so the front is lower. It's hard to make out but the canopy roof level drops to below horizontal

However on the other models, including the large reverse blue painted one the top of the canopy is flat to slightly rising back to front, and the side windows are deeper. You can see it in these shots.

Firefox ice landing model.jpgFirefox bluescreen model.jpg

It might not look that significant, but altering the model to match, when I draw a horizontal line from the top edge of the front facet to where it should be if the facets were flat, real size it is about 120mm difference, or 5mm at 1/24th scale.

So, the question is, which is correct, it does appear the big hero is the odd one out.
 
Looks like a judgement call! As long as you document your process & are happy with the result, then Bob's your uncle... After all, you are working with conflicting primary source material (aka, different models...)
R/ Robert
 
Say, FireFox, have you seen the 1/48 scale Anigrand kit? If so, any opinions? Anigrand's history has been a bit, uh, variable with regards to kit engineering (which usually translates to a 'real man's kit', if you know what I mean...) but the images out there might give your calibrated eyeball a challenge. If I wasn't between jobs, I might give it a go just to evaluate its accuracy & execution.

Regards, Robert
 
It occurred to me that if printing to 1:48 scale would be an issue for panel lines, what about adding the lines by engraving old school after the print? Or just leaving them off altogether and leaving it up to the builder. At that scale, panel lines are sometimes best represented by penciling or paint demarcations anyway - especially on what should be a stealthy supersonic aircraft. Just a thought after re-reading the whole thread. What may be more convincing is to incorporate the subtle surface variations of a metal monocoque structure (aka 'skin waviness') as a way to provide the desired surface complexity that 'fools the eye'. Engraved panel lines are after all just a 'trick' to represent the slight discontinuities present in aircraft skin. But as is often the case with modeling 'filming miniatures' of fictional machines, do you treat it as a 'full size' object or as a model with a particular 'look'. Sometimes the trend is to attempt to make the model look like a 'real' vehicle even if the original 'screen' version didn't quite pull it off. Fortunately, with Firefox, the movie did a good job of making it 'look real'.

Patience, ye perch on mine shoulder... someday!
Regards, Robert
 
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Hi Robert,

The Anigrand 1/48 looks the same as the 1/72 which I have sitting in the cupboard, only bigger of course. It has the same issues, wingtips/wings proportionally too big, and the front is still wrong.

I actually had a similar discussion about panel lines, that on something stealthy they really shouldn't be visible especially at 1/48 scale. I actually think subtle wins with panel lines, there are some fantastic buildups on britmodeller.com where the depth of the panel lines spoil the scale illusion. I like the way they used pencil lines on the Thunderbirds/Gerry Anderson models, ok it made it easy and quick, but visually it worked.

I am still working on it btw, just had some personal stuff going on so I have not had so much time to spare, but will update over the weekend.

Jon
 
After re-assesing the front end I think it's now as close as I am going to get it.
Firefox Render 01.jpg
The above render was done with a great addon for Sketchup. Having the glossy highlights has helped me see the contour of the wing is still a a bit off, but I can now see where it needs fixing, already played with it a bit hence the error on the wing root.
 

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