While examinating a photo or a profile to choose an example to reproduce, one must observe a list of details that can be different from aircraft to aircraft.

• The most obvious characteristic is the version: short-nosed or long-nosed; they can be distinguished easily from first exhaust pipe and gun covers over the nose.
• The radio set, in the form reported on the kit and on the drawings, is rare; between the photos in my possession, only few show its presence while most photos show no boxes protruding under the canopy. The absence of the radio is usual in the first production batches, and is usually accompanied by the absence of radio wires and even radio mast; but the radio boxes look absent even in many examples with radio mast and wires, so we can hypothesize that the radio set was often discarded later on, because it was heavy and not well functioning.
• Many aircraft were flown without the sliding part of the canopy, or with this part opened, because of radiator heat and gas from the engine, and the fear to be imprisoned if the aircraft should be shot down.
• The rockets, set on triple launchers enclosed in many model kits, were used for ground attack; later, this type of aircraft was no longer used for this role, because its performance at low height was disappointing.
• The underwing gun pods were rare in service; I have found only a photo and a profile with this installation.
• The tail wheel retraction mechanism was subject to malfunctions, so it was often locked in the open position, and its doors could be either removed, or modified to be closed with the gear down, or replaced by a canvas cover.
• The slats were absent on the earlier examples, and then were introduced on the short-nosed variant. Slats were used on all new-production long-nosed variants. Any long-nosed MiG (ex. Red 02) without slats may be a hybrid made with pieces of two different aircraft.
• A small metal stripe on the nose, covering upward the space between nose and spinner, is present on long-nosed examples (with some exception, red 02 looks to be without it).