photo coloured by Massimo Tessitori
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by Massimo Tessitori |
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photo coloured by Massimo Tessitori
"Under a skilful rider it rushed along like an arrow, but when you lost control you could end up beneath its hoofs"
The MiG-3 was the first successful project of the team led by chief designers Artyom Mikoyan and Gurevich; it was developed from the early MiG-1, first flown in 1940 and was able to reach a speed of 640 km/h at high altitude.
The MiG-3 was fast and maneuverable at high altitude, but the most of
war actions on the Eastern front were made at low and medium altitude,
where its performance was not brilliant; as well, its armament was rather
feeble, and attempts to improve it resulted in a deterioration in performance.
So the production was stopped in 1942 in favor of Il-2 Shturmovik, that
used a similar engine built in the same factory. 3322 aircrafts were
built between 1941 and 1942.
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A brief illustrated history on MiG-1, MiG-3, I-210, I-211, I-230, I-231
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updated on 12/12/02 |
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updated on 12/12/02 |
updated on 12/1/02 |
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updated on 9/27/02 |
photo coloured by Massimo Tessitori
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and late (long-nosed) MiG-3s |
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Updated on 4/15/2003 |
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Updated on 8/30/2002 |
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The first 1/72 model kit of MiG-3 was made by Cap Croix De Sud; this was then commercialized by Italeri, Zvezda and Encore (this last with resin details); despite a possible good first impression, the kit is inaccurate.
A better work was made by Frog technicians, that led to the fair kit commercialised by Red Star and Emhar; while being reasonably accurate, this kit has a level of detail adequate for the '70s.
The best kit available in 1/72 scale is commercialized from Polish firm RPM and from Russian Maquette and Alpha firms.
The situation in 1/48 scale is far better, with a good short-run kit
from Classic Airframes and Flashback,
and an excellent and highly detailed kit from ICM,
including engine and gun details; there exist an accurate resin kit from
Pomk
and a basic kit from AModel.
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There are some accessories currently available: a photoetched set by
Parts
(1/72), resin wheels by Equipage (1/72),
a vacuform canopy from Falcon.
There are decals for 1/48 kits from Aeromaster,
and a 1/72 decal sheet from the Russian firm Travers,
perhaps out of production.
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The best kit available in 1/72 scale is commercialized from Polish firm RPM and from Russian Maquette and Alpha firms; it is moulded in grey plastic, and gives contrasting impressions: if compared with the best drawings available, it is highly accurate and detailed, with engraved details. But, it has an 'artisanal' look, with wide sprues, mold flash and some too thick pieces, some with out-of-register moulding. The panels aren't sharp and they should be improved. The fitting of pieces is poor and requires work, particularly on the fuselage and behind the canopy.
The kit represents correctly the late version of the aircraft, characterised by the longer nose than the early variant. The reproduction of early short-nosed variant is possible with little modification.
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I have chosen to represent the example shown in the best-known photo
of MiG-3s; a good quality print allows one to correct some misinterpretations
given by many sources on this example. An experimental technique was used
to improve the panel lines.
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updated on 12/13/02 |
Thanks to the following persons that have contributed to this work:
Erik Pilawsky for his
consultancy about colors, camouflage schemes and some photos; a particular
thanks for having sent to me some reserved drawings and chips that will
be published on his next book;
Jouni Ronkko for having
sent to me his collection of digital images and links;
Robert Peczkowski,
editor of Barbarossa Victims, for having sent to me informations and images
from the book;
Giovanni Carlassare for
having sent to me many useful photostats of technical drawings;
Kovalsky Alexey of the
firm "Avion" for his excellent photos of the aircraft restored in Novosibirsk;
Audrius Nairanauskas for some
informations, traslations and images from Russian sources;
Matthias Erben for some informations,
traslations and images;
Ilya Grimberg
for some informations and images;
Gianpiero Manca for some
images;
Stephane Wrobel
for some images, magazines and informations;
Andi Szekeres for some images
of the Rumanian captured aircraft;
Lee Jong Tae for some images;
Hannu Valtonen,
Director of the Tikkakoski FinnAF Museum, for some informations;
Dmitriy Sribny of
www.airforce.ru
for the photos of the MiG-3 replica in Monino;
Thomas Siepert for
photos of the wreckages of Tikkanoski Museum;
Rostislav Bardokin
for the photos of the wreckages from the Black Sea;
Aleksej Ilic of Gremlinmodels
for some scans;
Jan Koennig of www.Jetmodell.de,
www.rote-sterne.de for some scans
from his original photos;
Kai Mecklin,
Director of the Central Finland Aviation
Museum, for a lot of images that I'll upload soon;
Liuzimin for some scans.
This work collects also a lot of photos and drawings from many sources,
not always identified and mentioned.
If someone has some rights on the images here reproduced, please email to me and I shall provide to remove or to credit them.
While the historical photos are of public domain, my color profiles and coloured photos are copyrighted. If someone is interested in any use of them, please email me; higher resolution version is available for printing purposes.
If someone has questions, critiques or corrections, or some further
images to show, please email to me.
Massimo Tessitori
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