The MiG-29 is a Russian front-line fighter designed by the Design Bureau of Mikoyan and Gurevich. Having first taken to the air over 35 years ago, it remains one of the best in its class to this day. It is on the MiG-29 that the famous Swifts aerobatic team performs.

By the end of the 1960s Air Force The USSR needed a high-tech, well-balanced fighter with good agility. In 1969, the government announced a competition for the development of a promising front-line fighter (PFI). According to the requirements, the new aircraft had to have a long range, the ability to use short and poorly prepared runways, excellent agility, speeds above two thousand kilometers per hour and heavy weapons. The design bureaus of Sukhoi, Yakovlev and MiG took part in the competition. The design bureau of Mikoyan and Gurevich became the winner.

Work on the creation of the fighter began in 1974, by which time it became clear that PFI aircraft were too expensive to implement, so the project was divided into a promising heavy front-line fighter and a light front-line fighter. The development of the latter was taken up by the MiG. Almost 38 years have passed since the first flight of the LPFI, which received the designation product 9-12.

Multi-purpose front-line fighter MiG-29

The first flight of the MiG-29 took place on October 6, 1977, Alexander Fedotov was in the cockpit. The fighter was put into service in 1984, and mass production began two years earlier at the Moscow Plant No. 30 Znamya Truda. Since then, more than 1,500 MiG-29 aircraft of various modifications have been produced.

New aircraft were to be deployed near the front line and provide local air superiority to the advancing units. Soviet army. Also, the fighter was faced with the task of escorting attack aircraft, protecting vulnerable aircraft from NATO fighters.

The MiG-29 front-line fighter received RD-33 engines with a total thrust of more than 16,000 kilograms. The maximum speed of the aircraft is 2450 kilometers per hour, the flight duration is up to 2.5 hours. The fighter is equipped with protective air intake grilles and a durable landing gear, which allows the use of short and poorly prepared runways.

Integral articulation of the wing with the fuselage, high power-to-weight ratio, which allows performing vigorous vertical maneuvers, the widespread use of composite materials, ease of maintenance and an almost complete range of weapons necessary to solve front-line aviation tasks - all this is the MiG-29, which has become one of the best fighters of the late XX century. The MiG-29 is still in operation in many countries around the world.

And in 1988, it was this fighter that became the first Soviet combat aircraft, which was demonstrated at a foreign air show. It happened in the UK. Two fighters with bot numbers 10 and 53 were a complete surprise to the West. Some of the aerobatics demonstrated by the MiGs at the Farnborough air show are still "Russian exclusives".

Preparing for the international debut in Britain, the pilots came up with the original livery for the MiG-29 aircraft - white fuselages and bright blue fins, blue lightning passed along the sides, the emblems of the group appeared on the air intakes under the influx - black swifts on a red background. Later, it is this bird that will give the name to one of the best aerobatic teams in the world, and the six white-blue-red MiG-29s will not once make spectators all over the world look admiringly at the sky.

Aerobatic team "Swifts"

The aerobatics team of the Russian Air Force "Swifts" was formed on the basis of the 234th Guards Proskurov Aviation Regiment. It included the best pilots of the Kubinka airbase near Moscow. May 6, 1991 is considered the official birthday of the Swifts. On this day, the group made their debut in the air on planes with the original coloring and a new name.

The Swifts flew before the general public a year later, when the group was invited to take part in an air festival at the Reims airbase, which was held in honor of the 50th anniversary of the famous Normandie-Niemen regiment. For two years, the aerobatic team gave 50 performances at air festivals and official shows in Kubinka and various cities of Russia. In 1993, the Swifts took part in the MAKS-93 air show, after which the group visited Belgium, Thailand and the LIMA-93 air show held in Malaysia. This year the Swifts were awarded the title of "The Best Aerobatic Team in the World". In subsequent years, the group actively participated in air shows both in Russia and abroad.

The Swifts have a large repertoire of aerobatics performed by a group and a pair of fighters, as well as solo performances. They perform such aerobatics as "pyramid", "hammer", "star", "arrow", "cross" and "wing". In 2007, at the MAKS air show, a group of nine aircraft - four MiG-29 "Swifts" and five Su-27 "Russian Knights" in the aerobatic order "Big Diamond" performed a "barrel". This was not performed by any aerobatic team in the history of world aviation.

Elena Skutneva, Georgy Korovin, Andrey Skvortsov. website

TASS-DOSIER /Valery Korneev/. May 6 marks the 25th anniversary of the first performance of the Swifts aerobatics team of the Air Force (Air Force, since August 1, 2015 - as part of the Aerospace Forces, VKS) of Russia.

"Swifts"- Russian aviation aerobatics team, formed in the early 1990s. from the pilots of the 237th Guards Proskurov Mixed Aviation Regiment of the 16th Air Red Banner Army of the USSR Air Force (now - the 237th Guards Proskurov Red Banner Orders of Kutuzov and Alexander Nevsky, the I.N. Kozhedub Aircraft Demonstration Center, 237 Guards TsPAT, Kubinka airbase, Moscow region).

Since 1967, the 237th Aviation Regiment has specialized in aircraft demonstrations and aerobatics; in 1983, the regiment's pilots were the first in the USSR Air Force to start mastering the MiG-29 light front-line fighter. The name "Swifts" was proposed by the pilots of the group, later it was approved by the command.

AT different years the group included more than 25 military pilots. At present, the group (the 2nd aviation squadron of the 237th guards TsPAT) uses six MiG-29 and MiG-29UB fighters ("combat training", two-seat modification). Demonstration flight programs include group aerobatics in close formation with four or six aircraft, synchronized pair aerobatics, and single aerobatics.

Band performance history

The first demonstration flight of the Swifts took place on May 6, 1991, this date is considered the group's birthday. The first foreign performance took place in October of the same year during a friendly visit of a delegation of the Soviet Air Force to the location of the Upland Air Regiment of the Royal Swedish Air Force (Uppsala Air Base).

Since 1991, "Swifts" have been regularly participating in demonstrations of aviation skills at an air show in Russian cities and abroad - in France (1992, 2013), Malaysia (1993, 2015), Belgium (1993), Thailand (1993), China (1993, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014), Mongolia (1993), Hungary (1994), Germany (1994), Kazakhstan (1994, 2014), Sweden (1995), Finland (1997), USA (1997), Bulgaria (1997), Netherlands (1997), Czech Republic (2005), UAE (2005, 2006, 2007, 2013), India (2013), Serbia (2014), etc.

Flights of the group's fighters in formation in the shape of a rhombus, both separately and as part of the "Cuban Diamond" (nine aircraft together with the Su-27 of the Russian Knights aerobatic team, which is also based in Kubinka), are a traditional element of the program of the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS, Zhukovsky, Moscow region), the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow, the International Naval Show in St. Petersburg.

"Swifts" participated in the programs of celebrating the 850th anniversary of Moscow (1997), the 290th anniversary of Yekaterinburg (2013), in the "Gidroaviasalons" in Gelendzhik, etc.

Accidents and incidents

During the history of the Swifts, one aviation incident occurred with the aircraft of the group. On July 27, 2006, when taking off from Perm's Bolshoye Savino airport, the MiG-29UB (tail number "01 blue") immediately after takeoff could not gain altitude, fell and caught fire. The crew of Nikolai Dyatl and Igor Kurylenko successfully ejected, one of the pilots was injured in the lower leg. The accident occurred due to birds getting into both engines of the fighter.

Future aircraft change

It is planned that during 2016 the pilots of the Swifts will transfer from the MiG-29 to more modern aircraft. In January 2016, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev, told reporters that the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation would make a decision on which aircraft the Swifts would fly in 2017. Earlier, in 2013, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin stated that the aerobatic team would eventually master the MiG-35 aircraft.

The main composition of the air group

Sergey Osyaykin

Commander of the air group "Swifts", lieutenant colonel

Leader of the group (solo, oncoming aerobatics)

In 1994 he graduated from the Kachin Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots, in 1997 from the N.E. Zhukovsky. During his service he mastered the aircraft L-39, MiG-29, Yak-130. The total flight time is 1700 hours. He has been flying aerobatics since 2000. Military pilot 1st class.

Dmitry Zubkov

Left wingman, major

In 2003 he graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute. During his service, he mastered the aircraft L-39, MiG-29, MiG-29S, Yak-130. The total flight time on these types of aircraft is 1400 hours. Military pilot 1st class.

Dmitry Ryzhevolov

Right wingman, major

In 2003 he graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute. During his service, he mastered the L-39, MiG-29, Yak-130 aircraft. The total flight time on these types of aircraft is 1100 hours. Military pilot 1st class.

Denis Kuznetsov

Tail wingman, major

Graduate of the Ussuri SVU in 1997. In 2002 he graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute. During his service he mastered the aircraft L-39, MiG-29, MiG-29SMT, Yak-130. The total flight time is 1200 hours. He has been flying aerobatics since 2007. Military pilot 1st class.

Vasily Dudnikov

Left extreme wingman, major

In 2003 he graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute. During his service, he mastered the L-39, MiG-29, MiG-29SMT aircraft. The total flight time on these types of aircraft is 1000 hours. Military pilot 1st class.

Sergey Sinkevich

Right extreme wingman, major

In 2004 he graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute. During his service he mastered the aircraft L-39, Tu-134, MiG-29. The total flight time on these types of aircraft is 1350 hours. Military pilot 1st class.

"Video provided by the Voeninform Agency of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation"

"Swifts"- aviation aerobatics team of the Russian Air Force. It was formed on May 6, 1991 on the basis of the 234th Guards Proskurov Aviation Regiment from the best pilots of the Kubinka air base near Moscow. It is part of the Center for the Display of Aviation Equipment named after I. N. Kozhedub. Performs group and single aerobatics on multipurpose highly maneuverable MiG-29 fighters.

Swifts
MiG-29UB aerobatic team "Swifts"
basic information
Full title	Aerobatic team "Swifts" 237th Center for the Display of Aviation Equipment of the Russian Air Force named after V.I. I. N. Kozheduba
Years of existence	May 6, 1991 - present
Country	USSR →
Type of army	Russian Air Force
Location	Kubinka (air base) Moscow region
Colors	White blue red
Marks of Excellence
Emblem
Aircraft
Fighters	6 - MiG-29
Official site of AGVP "Swifts"
Media files at Wikimedia Commons

The Swifts are based at the Kubinka airfield located 60 kilometers from Moscow. Kubinka pilots were the first in the USSR to master single and group aerobatics on jet fighters: on May 1, 1946, they first flew over Moscow in the ranks of the front crew. Today Kubinka is known as the number 1 aerobatics school in Russia. In early May 2011, the Strizhi aerobatic team celebrated its 20th anniversary with a new flight program. Five years later, on May 21, 2016, the Swifts aerobatic team celebrated its quarter-century anniversary, which they celebrated together with the Russian Knights.

Group history

The Swifts aerobatic team is part of the 234th Guards Proskurov Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 16th Air Army. It has been leading its history since 1950, when the formation of the new 234th Fighter Aviation Regiment began. Pilots became the backbone of the flight crew. The main task of the regiment was to prepare and conduct traditional air parades over Moscow, the first of which took place on May 1, 1951.

In 1983, the 234th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment was the first in the Soviet Air Force to start mastering the MiG-29 fighter. In 1986, a group of six MiG-29s visited the Finnish Rissala air base, during which Soviet fourth-generation fighters were shown abroad for the first time. In 1990, the pilots of the squadron flying the MiG-29 were given the task of mastering aerobatics in close formation with six aircraft. The pilots flew with an interval and a distance of about 3 meters, performing a complex set of maneuvers.

Start of flights

In 1988, two MiG-29 aircraft visited the air show in Farnborough, a year later they were demonstrated at Le Bourget. Preparing for the international debut, the pilots thought about the image side of their activities. For the MiG-29 and MiG-29UB aircraft, they came up with an original coloring - white fuselages and bright blue fins, blue lightning passed along the sides, the emblems of the group appeared on the air intakes under the influx - black swifts on a red background. These nimble birds gave the name to the group - the group went down in history under the name "Swifts".

May 6, 1991 is considered the official birthday of the aerobatic aviation group. On that day, the Swifts made their debut in the air on planes with the original coloring and a new name. The first commander of the AGVP Swifts was Guards Major Dyatlov Alexander Mikhailovich.

1990s

In May 1991, the Swifts visited Sweden. Only colleagues and a few media representatives could observe the flights, since the broad masses of the Swedish people did not receive access to the Uppsala airbase. Swifts appeared to the general public in May 1992, when the group was invited to take part in a grandiose air festival at the Reims airbase, held in honor of the 50th anniversary of the illustrious Normandie-Niemen regiment. For two years, the group gave 50 performances at air festivals and official shows in Kubinka and various cities of Russia.

In 1993, the group took part in the MAKS-93 air show, and in the fall of that year they visited Belgium and Thailand. In December, the Swifts were invited to participate in the LIMA-93 air show. The aircraft were delivered to Malaysia disassembled by military transport aircraft. Then the aviation aerobatic team "Swifts" was awarded the title of "The best aerobatic team in the world."

In 1994, the Swifts took part in an air show at the Sprenger airfield in Germany. In May 1995, the squadron served as an escort for the Tu-160 leader aircraft over Poklonnaya Hill during a grandiose air parade in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic war. In August of the same year, they took part in the MAKS-95 air show.

In 1996, they took part in the Gelendzhik-95 hydroaviation show, and also traveled abroad, taking part in an air show at the Finnish base of Oulu. 1997 was marked by a rich program of performances at an air show in the Bulgarian city of Varna, a visit to Holland as part of a Russian military delegation, a performance at MAKS-97, as well as a performance over Tushino at an air festival in honor of the 850th anniversary of Moscow. On the international air show in Finland in 1997, the group commander Nikolai Dyatel took first place in solo aerobatics.

In 1998, the group performed at the Gelendzhik sea show, visited Orenburg and Yekaterinburg. She took part in the exercises "Combat Commonwealth-98" at the Ashuluk training ground near Astrakhan. In 1999 she performed at MAKS-99.

2000s

The year 2001, which opened the new millennium, became in some way a milestone for the Swifts. The ranks of the group were replenished with new pilots. Lieutenant Colonel Vadim Shmigelsky began to work out the solo aerobatics program, and in October 2001, at a holiday in Astrakhan, he performed his first show. Guards Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Loginov, Guards Majors Valery Morozov, Igor Sokolov, Sergei Osyaykin, Dmitry Koposov, Guards Captain Alexei Prokhorov began to master group aerobatics. Winter and spring passed in intense training, and in September 2002 the group performed brilliantly over the sea bay in Gelendzhik during the next sea show.

In subsequent years, the group actively participated in air shows in Russia and abroad. In 2007, seven MiG-29 aircraft, taking off from the runway of the Kubinka airbase, headed for Astrakhan - an intermediate route point - with the final goal of the El Ain airfield in the United Arab Emirates. "Swifts" took part in all the shows of the MAKS air show. On May 9, 2010, the group flew over Red Square together with the Russian Knights during the aerial part of the Victory Parade.

In early June 2011, information appeared that the aerobatic team would be disbanded.

At the beginning of May 2012, the group, together with the Russian Knights, was supposed to take part in the KADEX-2012 exhibition in Astana. The visit, however, was canceled for unknown reasons, despite existing international agreements and lengthy preparations. On the scheduled days, the pilots flew through Engels to Chelyabinsk, but they did not receive permission to cross the border and fly to Kazakhstan from the Russian government. On May 5, the group returned to Kubinka.

June 2, 2012 "Swifts" as part of a rhombus in difficult weather conditions held a show at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the 1st Leningrad Red Banner Air Force and Air Defense Command over the Pushkin airfield in the Leningrad Region.

The group is scheduled to participate in the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Air Force in August 2012.

The group took part in the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Serbian Air Force in September 2012.

In August 2018, as part of the Army-2018 military-technical forum, the Swifts demonstrated a new formation: the “star”.

On November 3, 2018, the Strizhi aerobatics team held demonstration performances in Krasnodar as part of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School

Joint flights with Russian Knights

In addition, the pilot from the AGVP "Swifts" Sergey Osyaykin and the pilot of the "Russian Knights" Alexander Bogdan, in addition to performances in their aerobatic teams, jointly perform pair aerobatics on the Su-57 (PAK FA).

Performance program

The group has a large repertoire of aerobatics performed by a group and a couple of aircraft, as well as solo performances. The complex of performances includes such aerobatics as "pyramid", "hammer", "star", "arrow", "cross" and "wing". At the MAKS-2007 air show, a group of 9 aircraft (4 MiG-29 "Swifts" and 5 Su-27 "Russian Knights") in the aerobatic order "Big Diamond" ("big rhombus", "mixed rhombus") performed a "barrel". This (in a mixed formation of different types aircraft) has never been successful for any aerobatic team in the history of world aviation. Not so long ago, the group had new element program, when the six "Swifts" perform a loop with the landing gear extended and the headlights on. The dynamic group and individual aerobatics of the pilots of the group was highly appreciated in many countries of the world.

One of the most famous aerobatic teams in our country is the Swifts. And many of us have seen their flights with our own eyes, because they very often conduct various demonstration flights. And today we will briefly tell you about them.

The history of the creation of the aerobatic team Swifts

The Swifts were born back in 1991 at the 237th base of the Russian Guards Aviation Regiment, named after Proskurovsky. This aerobatic team included the best and most courageous pilots of a little-known air base called Kubinka, located near Moscow. They operate not without well-known aircraft such as the MiG-29.

The main task of this aerobatic team was and remains the preparation and conduct of air parades. And, to be honest, they perform their task simply in the highest class. It was not in vain that some of the best pilots were recruited into this group. Which, by the way, remain one of the best pilots in the world today.

Almost at the beginning of the existence of the aerobatic team, it was assigned as an escort to the planes of famous politicians and serious foreign diplomats. In addition to them, the pilots were engaged in the escort of aircraft, which were the first Soviet cosmonauts. In general, the Swifts had a fairly large track record, which only expanded over the years. As a result, they are very popular today.

Today, the Strizhi aerobatic team is honorably part of one of the largest centers specializing in displaying various aviation equipment. Over the years they have honed their flying experience and today they can easily perform solo and even group aerobatics of any complexity. And this is not possible for all pilots.

It is worth noting that the pilots who served at base 237 were the first to master, at that time, the latest MiG-29 aircraft. It was in 1983. And already 7 years later, in 1990, they took up the implementation of the most complex aerobatic complexes. In particular, it was they who began to master all the features of aerobatics from 6 aircraft, being in close formation. The distance between them did not exceed three meters, while they performed simply unimaginable complexes of figures.

Start of flights of the Strizhi group

Since 1988, two MiG-29 aircraft have visited air shows various states while conducting their demonstrations. At the same time, when the question arose about the world fame of the pilots, they began to take care of creating a specific, bright and no less memorable image.

It was during that period that they came up with the color that we can see today. The pilots took white fuselages as a basis. Blue lightnings were placed along the sides of the aircraft, and black swifts appeared on a red background on the air intakes under the influx. It is on this basis that the aerobatic team got its name. The official birthday of the group is May 6, 1991, when the pilots performed in their full coloring, showing truly aerobatics.

Over the next two years of flying, the aerobatic team gave more than 50 different performances. They included, like ours Russian holidays and events, as well as foreign ones. A little later, the guys took part in the famous MAKS-93 air show. Then they went to Malaysia, where they were awarded an honorary award as the best aerobatic team in the world.

Joint flights of Swifts with Russian Knights

Quite an important stage in the career of the Swifts was and is their flights with a different aerobatic team - the Russian Knights. The first flights with a joint composition were made before the beginning of the twentieth century. However, since 2002, both aerobatic teams have gained a lot of experience in joint flights. And now they perform simply with first-class programs, striking absolutely everyone with their skill.

And today, they perform in large numbers with common programs, in which up to a dozen different aircraft take part at the same time. And if you have not seen their performances yet, then I definitely recommend visiting their joint flight. You will definitely get a lot of good impressions.

The program of performances of the Strizhi group

One of the main reasons why Swifts are so loved is that they rarely repeat their tricks. Their repertoire is very large, both in single flights and in group flights. Moreover, due to the different combination of flight procedures and great variety performance techniques they win the hearts of Russian inhabitants. And not only them. And they usually perform the following aerobatic orders:

• Pyramid.
• Hammer.
• Star.
• Arrow.
• Cross.
• Wing.

One of the most famous cases occurred at the MAKS-2007 air show, when the Swifts, together with the Russian Knights, a group of 9 different aircraft, performed such an element of the air program as a barrel, and they did it in aerobatics called a big diamond. In simple words This sight is simply indescribable.

It is worth noting that this could not be repeated by any other aerobatic team in the world. So we can safely be proud of our Russian pilots. After all, this is one of the few things that we have done first, and, so far, the only ones.

Aerobatic team Strizhi recent times pleases all its viewers with new elements of its program. In particular, a group of six aircraft performs a loop, and they do it for a reason, but with their landing gear extended and their headlights on. Everyone who has already seen such a spectacle praises our guys.

And it is worth saying that the skill of our pilots did not go unnoticed abroad. They receive high marks for aerobatics in many countries of the world. Which, of course, is well deserved.

Aerobatic team accidents

But, despite all the professionalism of these pilots, it was still not possible to completely avoid the accident. For all 24 years of existence of the aerobatic team, only two accidents were recorded. Fortunately, in both of them, not a single pilot from the squad was injured.

The first happened in 2006 - the plane of the Russian aerobatic team almost immediately after takeoff fell to the ground. The entire crew successfully ejected, which later saved their lives. According to reports, at the airport where the crash occurred, the plane was refueling. However, almost immediately after takeoff, birds accidentally flew into two engines, which caused a terrible accident.

The second incident occurred a little later - in 2009. During a joint flight with a well-known aerobatic team called Russian Knights, two SU-27 aircraft belonging to the friendly team crashed. However, neither the planes nor the pilots of the Strizhi aerobatic team were seen among the victims.
More, in the entire history of the existence of the aerobatic team, no serious incidents have occurred. Russian pilots definitely know their job and perform it to the highest standard. For which they receive constantly well-deserved awards.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

This article is unlikely to be of interest to hardened and experienced modellers. But beginners who are overwhelmed by the desire to assemble a masterpiece out of the box, but on this difficult path they meet much more questions than they can imagine, perhaps they will learn a little interesting and useful information. Think twice - do you need this model ?! Or rather, are you ready to give all your patience, skill, all your strength and nerves, so that after many years, looking at a shelf with an eye-catching motley model, say to yourself: “I did you, you bastard !!!” Yes, that's how I want to start this article. By the word model, I mean not just a plastic product assembled from an ICM box, but a product in the color of the Swifts aerobatic team. It is in these words that the deceit lies, which lay in wait for me already at the final stages of the construction of this whale.

As it was said once by one of the modellers on this site, inspiration should move to build a model. Of course, this did not pass me by. In my case, the inspiration and, as a result, the starting point was the reading of the article and a careful study of the process of building the MiG-29 model (M 1:48) by M. Gumenyuk.
Despite the overwhelming feelings of admiration for the above-mentioned model and the desire to assemble it, it may not be as accurate and beautiful, but at least neat, I set myself the task of building an ordinary “out-of-the-box” model, without fanaticism, catching millimeters, without using an aftermarket (morally I was not ready for it), but with the addition of little things that can be made from improvised means, as well as to apply standard finishing technologies for experienced modellers, which I have never used before.

I don't know about other modellers, but I always start building a model from the cockpit. In order not to change traditions, I started with him. The cockpit of the model is represented by four elements: the front instrument panel, the chair, the control knob (RUS) and, in fact, the bathroom itself. The front and side instrument panels are made in the standard Italian version, in fact, from where they migrated to this model: on a smooth surface there are many, many, as it were, convex handles, buttons and instruments. The elements are molded with high quality and with their accurate coloring and finishing look very good in aggregate. As for the chair, it is, of course, far from resembling the original. The control knob, despite its very small size, worked out surprisingly well. Masters of aerobatics, probably, will even be able to color the buttons on it. The detail is very small and it is necessary to work with it very carefully and carefully; it can simply “jump” during processing, which happened to me. I had to make my own.

The cockpit was painted with an airbrush according to the standard scheme: the inner surfaces of the fuselage, the bath, the front instrument panel and the RUS were painted with enamel No. 83069 (AKAN) (although, in my opinion, I was mistaken here; No. 82030 should have been used); handle, RUS base, seat and upper part of the front instrument panel - matte black No. 88003 (AKAN); instrument panels and fuse box - No. 88000, No. 88003 and No. 88008 (painted with toothpicks). After painting the dials, you need to slightly drop a glossy varnish to make the glasses look realistic. Coloring belts on a regular chair is a rather complicated job, and at the end the result did not satisfy me, since the thickness of the belts along the length after painting turned out to be uneven. In this regard, an alternative solution to this problem was found. Thin strips were cut from aluminum tape (according to the thickness of the belts), painted on the table, glued to the chair and cut in place. It turned out more or less realistic. Then, an imitation of ejection handles was made from copper wire, painted and glued to the chair.

Now it's time to put the cockpit together. The front instrument panel, RUS and a chair were glued to the bathtub. And here the first unforeseen turn of events took place: when trying to glue the assembled cockpit into place, nothing happened due to the fact that the chair interfered. I had to tear it off and paste it after installing the cockpit in place. Otherwise, everything fell into place without any problems. Even the joint between the front instrument panel and the fuselage, due to the black color, did not look as criminal as I expected at first. Although I would attribute this moment to the minus of this model - a complete inconvenience in processing. In conclusion, for the first time, I applied the dry brush technology. However, being afraid to spoil everything (it took me too long to draw these knobs and devices), I smeared a couple of times on the front instrument panel and decided to complete this procedure. Or because the hand is not yet full or this technology is not very applicable for such a dashboard, I did not like the effect obtained.

After that, I put aside the upper half of the fuselage and took up the bottom. Or rather, not even the lower half, but the assembly of air intakes and their gluing to the lower half. Previously, I did not use a similar assembly technique; I decided to try this model for the first time. The thing is that the surfaces of the fuselage and the air intake that are in contact with each other, as a rule, are not ideal and ensuring their high-quality adjoining to each other is accompanied by a number of problems, the main of which is the banal inconvenience in the location of auxiliary tightening devices (clothespins, clamps, etc. .). The air intakes in the model are represented by four elements: two halves of the channel itself, a protective shield and an element (I don’t even know what to call it) resembling a visor located in the upper, sharpest part of the channel. All elements fit together well with the exception, perhaps only, of the protective shield. But this was to be expected. In my memory, I have not come across a single model where the protective shield would fit into the air intake channel like a glove. This model is no exception. In addition, it is worth noting that the shields proposed in the model are very far from the real ones in shape. I twisted them this way and that to understand how they should be located in the channel. Instructions for this question answered, as always, with a primitive indication of the direction of the pasting with an arrow, and that was all.

There was clearly not enough information. I had to raise the literature and look for photographs of this site. After carefully reviewing a few photos, I finally reached a dead end. Having waved his hand at everything, he glued the shields approximately to the places where they are located on a real plane. The only drawback was their forms, which did not correspond at all to the real ones. As I later realized, the shields had to be made elementary - flat, without any bends, as they were presented in the kit. Anyway. After that, the joints between the shields and the walls of the air intake channels were puttied and cleaned. To prevent the shields from looking like a fixed element on the model, I went along the perimeter of the joint with a scriber, giving them a recess and thereby showing that the element is movable. In addition, on the shields, in their lower part, there is a perforation, which also had to be shown.

This perforation on a real aircraft consists of three groups of holes arranged in a "staggered" order, with a diameter of 5.2 mm. Scientifically, this is called perforation of the fourth panel of the air intake wedge and serves to suck air from the boundary layer. To show this to scale, of course, is not possible. But something had to be done, at least remotely resembling a perforation. The solution to the problem was the use of a mesh bag of Lipton tea. However, I did not immediately glue the perforation elements into place, leaving them for last. After that, the assembled air intake channels were glued into place. The joints turned out pretty neat, puttying had to be kept to a minimum. The only negative point that I want to note is that the channels are not symmetrical with respect to the niche of the front landing gear.

How to painlessly and quickly correct this moment? To be honest, it's hard to answer. If you start to move the channel remote from the niche, you will get very serious gaps and a crooked channel. Move away the channel close to the niche? It will not work either due to the design features of the lower half of the fuselage and, again, a crooked channel. In general, it was decided to leave everything as it is. What else would you like to say about the air intakes of this model - unfortunately, their design does not provide for the open position of the protective shields. To make the channels open, they need serious refinement, which involves building up internal surfaces, which is quite painstaking and inconvenient, and it would not hurt to install engine blades to make it realistic. But nothing is impossible. Those who wish can do so.

Now it's time to join the top and bottom halves of the fuselage together. There were no pitfalls in this process. The only thing I would like to draw attention to two points. The first is a joint in the form of a ledge in the area of ​​the nose cone. To be honest, I tried to see some hidden meaning of this technological solution, but to no avail. This place, in my opinion, needs to be glued in several stages. The thing is that, I don’t know how in the general mass, but my corners of this ledge were slightly deformed and it was not possible to glue this place neatly in one go. Otherwise, the amount of puttying work in this place would be simply enormous. And the second is the cap of the brake parachute primer. It is better to cut it before gluing the two halves, make it separately (it's not difficult at all) and glue it after assembling the fuselage. Unfortunately, I realized this too late. As a result, I got a very uncomfortable place for processing the joint and, as a result, a completely ugly cover. I would like to give one more advice, in my opinion, useful. Chassis niches are best painted and finished on this stage, or even before assembling the two halves of the fuselage, and then simply close them from dust and dirt, for example, with pieces of foam rubber and a color stop. This makes it more convenient and practical. I also discovered this for myself quite late. All. After drying, all joints were carefully processed and the joint was restored. It's time for the wings.

I will not dwell on a detailed consideration of the geometry of the wing, since this has already been popularly considered, researched and discussed in other articles specially devoted to this. I would like to pay attention to something else that really can and should be corrected with a little effort. The first point is the ailerons. As was accurately noted by M. Gumenyuk in his article: neither on any MiG-29 model, nor on any manufacturer, are the ailerons in the correct position. The MiG-29 from ICM was no exception. In the neutral position, the ailerons should be deflected up by 5 degrees. I started by fixing this error. With a sharp knife, I carefully cut out the ailerons along the contour, processed the edges and put it aside until better times. The second point is a pure design feature of the product "9-13". This feature lies in the fact that these machines have reinforcing linings of a peculiar shape on the flaps and fuselage. I will come back to the overlays on the fuselage a little later, but for now I will focus on overlays of a very bizarre shape on the flaps. I made them according to the technology described in the article by M. Gumenyuk, but with a few deviations. But in order to start making them, it was necessary to glue the wings to the fuselage. This was done for reasons of integrity and safety of these very linings when processing the joints between the fuselage and the outer surfaces of the keels.

The wings were glued according to the drawing, observing the angle of inclination of the wing plane with respect to the transverse axis of the fuselage. After that, the joints were puttied, carefully processed and the joint was restored.

It's time to deal with the vertical tail, or simply keels. To be honest, I didn't think there would be so much trouble with them. They fell into place very badly. The thing is that initially they were pretty deformed. Let's write it off as a poor-quality casting. However, somehow they still needed to be glued. I had to do it in two stages. First, the main part of the keel was glued up to the compartment with traps and chaff, and the angle of inclination was set relative to the vertical axis of the aircraft. The second stage, respectively, glued the part with the compartment of the traps. One point should be noted here. A feature of the location of the compartment with traps and chaff is its placement right at the junction of the wing and fuselage. I emphasize this because many modellers prefer to glue the keels first, and then work on the wings. In this case, you should first glue the main body of the keel, and either temporarily cut off and glue the compartment after installing the wings, or simply do not glue it, being careful to break it off. The camber angle of the keels was set according to the simplest template, made according to the drawing from a piece of cardboard. Keely did not install both at once, but alternately, it's easier that way.

Now it was possible to start manufacturing overlays for the flaps. Following the recommendations of M. Gumenyuk, I printed out a drawing on a printer on a scale and cut out this very overlay. Having attached the cut out element to the flap of the model, I saw that their contours, to put it mildly, did not match. There were two exits. Since on the model this overlay is represented by internal jointing, it was necessary to putty this place in order to eliminate the old jointing, carefully process accordingly and do everything on the processed smooth surface in the same way as described in the article by M. Gumenyuk. The second way out was a little easier - to close your eyes to the discrepancy between the contours of the overlay of the drawing and the model and make the overlay directly along the outlines of the jointing directly on the model. I liked this exit better, and, easily agreeing with my conscience, I began to act. True, the technology, in the production process, had to be slightly improved. First, I took a piece of thin tracing paper and, attaching it to the flap of the model, with a light touch of a pencil, shaded the entire area of ​​​​the flap, thereby marking the contours of the lining on it, and cut it out.

Then he took a piece of adhesive paper (such is used for office purposes for making, for example, stickers on folders) and the same piece of thin polystyrene (in this case, a regular typographical transparent cover was used). I glued the paper onto polystyrene, attached a finished piece of tracing paper with the outline of the lining, circled it and cut it out.

Then he took a piece of adhesive foil, glued it on the flap, attached the resulting stencil and cut it out along the contour with a sharp knife. The procedure is quite dreary, the first time it may not work. The foil is very thin and if you don’t cut at least a little along the contour, it will definitely tear when you separate the excess foil. In general, by hook or by crook, I won from some eleventh time.

Continuing the theme of all kinds of overlays, I would like to note that the design feature of product 9-13 is the presence of peculiar under-stampings on the upper part of the fuselage, shown on the model simply by double lines of jointing. It is these lines that need to be given a barely noticeable volume. You can do this in different ways. You can use thin polystyrene, or you can use self-adhesive foil. The main condition is that there are no gaps at the intersections of these strips, in other words, all these strips should look like a single whole. I chose the option of manufacturing from self-adhesive foil, and, most likely, I lost again. It seemed to me that the foil had an ideal thickness for making these overlays in 72nd scale - this was the main argument for choosing. However, I failed to achieve a very precise joint between the strips and, therefore, the main condition was not met. Foil is a very capricious, thin and torn material. Therefore, here you either just need to fill your hand and from some tenth time it will turn out perfectly, or still choose thin polystyrene as the material for manufacturing. But with him, I think, there will be no less trouble. Whatever it was, I left the lining as is - from foil.

In the end, on the upper part of the fuselage, behind the jalousie grills for feeding the engines, small sags were installed, made from pieces of thin polystyrene. On a real plane, there are waveguides to the antennas at the wingtips. They are overlays of a bizarre Ω-shape with a slight bulge in the middle part. A bulge in the middle part, as an option, can be made by gently pressing on an object of a suitable shape.

Now it's time to install the stabilizers in their place. This procedure did not cause any problems. The main thing is to carefully process the ends of the interface with the fuselage and they will fall into place without any gaps. Just as in the case of a vertical tail, the stabilizers have their own angle of inclination with respect only to the horizontal axis of the fuselage. With the vertical plumage installed with this angle, you can not break your head. Between the keels and stabilizers, it should be equal to 90o. Therefore, anything with a right angle can serve as a template for setting the stabilizers in the correct position.

In the end, this is the picture.

Now it's time to do the little things. I started with PVD. The part that comes with the kit is useless. After gluing it and posting photos on the forum, I was immediately bombarded with rotten tomatoes. I had to make my own. For this, ordinary needles from syringes were used. Naturally, being a complete layman in medicine, and, as a fact, having absolutely no idea what needle diameters syringes have, I went to the pharmacy on duty and bought everything that was available. To my surprise, out of the whole bunch of syringes I bought, there were only four sizes (or, more simply, diameters) of needles (but you can say three). Namely: 20 ml and 10 ml have a 21G needle (0.8 x 40 mm); 5 ml - 22G (0.7×40 mm); 3 ml and 2 ml - 23G (0.63×32 mm) and an insulin syringe - did not find the size, but a very thin needle. I was surprisingly lucky with the MiG-29 PVD: it consists, let's say, of three sections. For its construction, I used 21G, 23G and insulin needles, respectively. If it was not difficult to insert a needle from an insulin syringe in 23G into each other, then there were some problems with inserting 23G into 21G. They don't fit right into each other. The only thing that came to mind was to bore the 21G as far as possible and grind down the edge of the 23G a little. I had to bore with a 0.6 mm drill - the minimum that I had. The needle was very strong and did not lend itself to reaming at all. But perseverance still prevailed. Further, it was not difficult to assemble the structure together.

After assembly, a little bit of cyacrine was dropped onto the first (thinnest) section of the PVD, since there is a slight thickening in this place on the real PVD. Now you can install it in place. To do this, I slightly drilled a hole in the nose cone with a thin drill, inserted the manufactured LDPE and filled this place with cyacrine. After the glue had dried, the joint was carefully processed.

The next step in detailing the model was to make a kind of perforation on the air intake flaps. For this, as mentioned above, the mesh material of the bag (triangular) from Lipton tea was used. Six rectangles were carefully cut to size from the drawing and carefully glued into place with cyacrine. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the adhesive layer must be applied very, very thin, since the material is mesh, and if a lot of glue is applied, then when gluing it will simply “climb out of all the cracks” and the expected effect will not be achieved.

Then the rest of the “small things” were glued, such as the engine compartment airflow pipes, the cooling system air intake and the air pressure receiver. Only the velocity head sensor receiver, the ARK-19 radio compass antenna, and the KOLS, which will be installed in their places after painting, were not glued. At the end, a lantern was installed in its place. It should be noted that he stood in his place not quite well. In the back part, between the lantern cover and the fairing, a decent “step” was formed, which was smoothed out only by puttying and careful grinding. After that, the stitching was restored and the lantern was masked with Tamiya tape and color stops.

Also, for the production of painting works, chassis niches were disguised, previously painted in light gray color No. 82032 from AKAN.

It's time to start painting.
Painting work was carried out in the following order: first, the entire model was blown out with basic white color No. 88002 from AKAN.

After the paint had dried on the bottom surface of the model, a swift pattern was applied from thinly cut strips of Tamiya masking tape, according to the photographs and the available paint scheme. On the upper surface of the model, also with the help of a masking tape, a swift pattern was applied and all surfaces that were white according to the color scheme were masked.

Further, according to the coloring scheme, the inner surfaces of the swift contour both from below and from above were blown out in blue. Here I want to focus on the fact that the blue color of the "birds" must match the color of the stripes and inscriptions presented in the decals. However, the decal that comes with the model has a very dark color, you should not be guided by it. My first serious mistake in painting was made at this stage. For painting, I first chose the radical blue color No. 88009 from AKAN. As a result, the "birds" turned out to be very dark. By color, of course, they corresponded to the colors of the inscriptions in the decals, but they did not correspond to reality at all.

Having received an unsatisfactory result at this stage, it was decided to repaint. For the second time, the blue color was selected from the available photographs: blue color No. 88009 was mixed with white No. 88002 from AKAN.

After the paint was completely dry, all blue surfaces were masked.

The third stage of painting work was the application of red color No. 82000 from AKAN. Here I would like to draw attention to one unpleasant moment. Since the blue color was applied not strictly in the contours of the “birds”, and the paint partially fell on those surfaces that were to be blown out with red, then when it was applied, these places in combination with the blue color gave a dark dark brown tint. Therefore, in order to achieve uniformity of color over the entire surface, it is necessary to go through the white paint again before applying the red color. After that, the last one was applied - red.

The finishing touch was the coloring of heat-resistant petals. Brown-cherry metallic from the "burnt metal" series No. 86018 from AKAN was used for their coloring.

After drying, all the masks were removed except for the masks on the lantern.

In parallel with the painting, I was working on finalizing the landing gear and painting the engine nozzles. The chassis struts included in the kit were supplemented with hydraulic wiring made of copper wire, and expansion tanks on the main struts made from pieces of needles from syringes.

After that, the struts were painted in standard AKAN gray #82032, the damper rods in AKAN very bright polished steel #86033, and the whole thing was tinted with Tamiya's Smoke Enamel.
After completing the work with the racks, I set about the nozzles of the engines. Since it was originally planned to make the model out of the box, it was also decided to use the nozzles that came in the set. If the guys from ICM nevertheless approached the elements of the landing gear, so to speak, with a soul and tried to make them as close as possible to the original, then with the nozzles they decided not to strain at all. It's a pity. Although it was frank firewood, it was necessary to revive them and give them a little realism, at least in color. The nozzles were first painted with new bright gray steel #86034 from AKAN. After the paint had dried, they were rubbed with a cloth to a shine, and it was possible to start artistic painting. For this purpose, I used professional Rembrandt pastel crayons in color No. 347.5; No. 640.5; No. 411.8 and No. 700.5.

First, tarnish colors were applied to the silvery surface of the nozzle in a chaotic manner, and then blackout was made with the color of soot. I can’t say that the first time I did it was just stunning, but still not bad. Unfortunately, the photo does not convey the actual colors.

After the artistic painting was completed, the nozzles were covered with semi-gloss varnish No. 84003 from AKAN to fix the paints. It's time to start finishing the airframe itself.
First of all, the whole model was blown out with glossy varnish No. 84002 from AKAN. After the varnish had dried, decals were applied to the model. I would like to say a few words about them. I knew from the very beginning that the decal that comes with the model is very fragile. But that it is so fragile, I did not even imagine. Of course, before starting work, I covered the entire decal with not even one, but two layers of varnish, so to speak, for durability. But even this was not enough. Immersed in water, on a substrate, the decal held up perfectly, nothing foreshadowed trouble. But as soon as the first attempts were made to apply it to the model - guard!!! She crumbled into small pieces. If with the stripes limiting the contour of the bird on the upper surface of the model, such a terrible picture was not particularly observed, then something terrible happened with the MIG inscriptions on the keels. One of them broke into 17!!! pieces. If someday I have to deal with the Strizh, then there will be no talk of any decals. Everything is just paint - it's quite real. The stripes that bound the contour of the bird were first cut out from a thin strip of paper, precisely adjusted to the model, and then, as if according to a template, the decal was cut out and applied to the model.

After a long and hard work of applying decals, the whole model was covered with another coat of glossy varnish. Perhaps I messed up something in the consistency or I don’t have enough experience in painting work, but I categorically did not like the way the glossy varnish lay on the model. Somewhere the surface shone more, somewhere less, and this shine was completely unnatural, not natural. Therefore, later it was decided to apply a semi-matt varnish for subsequent layers. Now it's time to highlight the stitching, or, as we say scientifically, to make a wash. After reviewing many photographs, I found that almost all the aircraft from the Swifts aerobatic team are so clean and tidy that even the lines of skin joints are not really visible. Therefore, it was decided to highlight the linework only on the white surfaces of the model and designate the moving elements. The material chosen for the wash was Rembrandt light gray and black pastel chalk, diluted with water and fairies. And here, it would seem out of the blue, not without small problems. Unfortunately, the depth of the standard jointing does not allow the wash to be fixed and, together with the excess composition, is completely removed from the surface. As much as I didn't want to do this, I had to resort to using an automatic pencil. Since the main color of the stitching was supposed to be light light gray, those places where the pencil was used had to be muffled with finely crumbled white pastel chalk to even out the color. After applying the wash, the entire model was blown out with semi-matt varnish No. 84003 from AKAN. To create the most realistic picture on the bottom surface of the model, between the engine nacelles of the engines, smudges of the drainage system were applied with black pastel chalk.

Then another layer of semi-gloss varnish was applied. After it dried, the remaining masks were removed from the lantern. You can proceed to the final assembly.
At this stage, the most important thing is to do everything very carefully and not to rush. First of all, the engine nozzles were planted in their places. They install without any problems. Then the landing gear was installed with wheels pre-glued to them from the Elf set. Here you should pay attention to the fact that the landing holes at the wheels of the main struts fit especially without any adjustment, while the wheels of the nose strut do not fit into the guides of the standard strut at all - the holes in the wheels are very, very narrow. Therefore, I slightly undermined the guides on the rack, so that after installing the wheels, the mud shield could fall into place and glued a new axle made from a piece of needle from a syringe from below to the existing guides. After that, everything fell into place just perfect. Then the landing gear doors and pylons were installed in their places, pre-painted according to the available photographs and paint schemes.

Headlights of a suitable diameter from the Elf set were glued onto the front wings of the main landing gear. Here, too, I want to say a few words. Due to the fact that initially I used the seats for the headlights, what is called “out of the box”, I had to do a little magic with the headlights from the set. In order not to engage in alterations, I squeezed out the mirror elements from the headlight mounting sockets that came with the set, and then, in the already glued “out-of-the-box” seats, I made small indentations with a drill of a suitable diameter so that the extruded mirror elements fit there. Just like the glazing elements, the mirror elements were glued into place with a glossy varnish.

After that, I squeezed out the KOLS glazing from a piece of transparent plastic and adjusted it to size. The mirror element was machined from a piece of sprue and painted with “aluminum very bright” paint No. 86010 from AKAN. At the end, the velocity pressure sensor receiver, ARK-19 radio compass antenna and static electricity drains were installed in their places.
This is the model I got. I can’t say that all hopes were justified, and everything turned out as planned, but I know one thing for sure - nothing like this has happened to me before. This model has become for me a kind of breakthrough in modeling technologies and their knowledge. I know that many things are still not going well, but the most important thing is the desire to learn everything and friends and colleagues who are ready to lend a helping hand and give practical advice at any time.