The Little World

I title this build as such because I am starting to see the way the minds work in Shizuoka City and it is more devious than you’d think.

If you were going to bring out a 1:72 model of a MiG 21 – dear old Cold Warrior – what schemes and equipments would you put in the box? Certainly a set of Soviet VVS decals and a couple of Soviet missiles…right? And then if you were going to be generous and spread the model to more customers in Europe you might put some Czech roundels or Polish checkerboards in there as well.

But Hasegawa has a reputation for making models for its home market and ignoring the rest of the world, right? We foreigners build what we can get and are grateful for it. And there are more foreigners than you’d think…

The box art and decals for the MiG are Egyptian. The alternatives are either a plane stolen from the Iraqis or a Ugandan AF plane. And there you have the mixture turning very odd.

The 007 is a pretty good rep of the plane that the Iraqi defector delivered to the IDF. It’s had numerous paint schemes under test conditions and has ended up in Hatzerim looking somewhat like the box call-out. You could build it well from the kit.

But it’s the Ugandan ones that are most intriguing…you don’t think of a big market for Japanese plastic model airplanes in Uganda, do you? Well it turns out that the UAF MiG 21’s were some of the planes that were satchel-bombed by the commandos in the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue. So this kit could sell very well in Israel – build it however you wanted it would still have relevance.

I am pleased with the overall shape, dismayed by the raised panel lines, and leery of the decals – they have that time-expired look about them. But I shall persevere.

Note the typography of ” FISHBED ” on the box. A touch of the Chuck Jones about it, eh?