1:48 MiG-17 F (GDR - Lim 5) - PE Parts (for Kinetic Kits)

The Lim-5 in East German service and its metal parts

Lim-5 is the designation under which the Polish Mielec works built the Soviet fighter type under license. Machines from these series then spread across the whole of Eastern Europe, and the air force of the German Democratic Republic flew them for a number of years as its main day fighter. Although it is the same aircraft, the individual licensed series differed in small things: a different cockpit fit, different placards and lettering, different fittings on the airframe.

Why a separate fret: exactly because of those deviations. The set aims at the particular form of a machine from licensed production, so it should not be mixed up with the set for the basic Soviet version, even though both deal with the same type. What decides is which machine you want to build and which decals you have for it.

The contents in outline: layered elements of the pilot's compartment, panels around the seat, restraint belts and, with them, small metal parts for the surface of the airframe, where plastic cannot hold a realistic thickness.

Working with the material: leave the fret on its paper and cut off only the part you are bonding at that moment. Make the fold exactly along the etched groove. Apply the super glue with a point, because a surplus runs under the part and you will not get it out again.

Degrease the metal before painting and lay a primer under the paint. The package holds the photo-etched fret, with no kit and no paints.

A little more history: these fighters served over central Germany throughout the 1960s and a number of them have survived in museums, so references for the colors and the lettering are easier to come by than for many other machines of that time.