1:48 MiG-21F - Wheel Bays (3D-Printed) for Eduard

You can see into the innards of the MiG-21

The wheel bays are among the places where it quickly shows how much work a model took. On the first production MiG-21s these are spaces divided up by spars, hydraulic lines and wiring, which stand open after landing and are clearly visible in photographs. The Soviet design school did not cover this space over, so there is nowhere to hide a simplification.

In the kit, meanwhile, the bays are typically boxes with smooth walls. Injection molding has its rules: a pipe lying against a wall would form an undercut, the mold could not release it, and so the wall is left smooth. The builder then sees three clean surfaces with a few engraved lines inside the model. If the model is viewed from below or stands in a display case on a mirror, the emptiness gives it away at once.

The printed replacement part brings a complete interior: divided walls, lines, stiffeners and the transitions into the wing. It is fitted before the fuselage halves are glued together, because after that you cannot get inside. Experience advises this: dry-fit the part first, check that it does not obstruct the joint, thin the mating edge if need be, and paint it separately while it is accessible from every side.

The wheel bay has one more property that is easily forgotten: its color differs markedly from the rest of the aircraft. On machines of Eastern manufacture these spaces tended to be light, often toward blue-green, and seen from below they create a contrast with the gray or metallic surface. The new part is therefore worth painting carefully; the reward shows every time someone picks the model up. The landing gear legs and doors are fitted at the very end, so that the build does not rest on fragile parts.