The Aces - The 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War

Xu Ho Autore
Note for Mig-17:
The most challenging part of this build was the camouflage painting. To replicate the correct pattern, I went through a lot of reference photos. Unfortunately, historical images of the actual 3020 aircraft are extremely scarce, and the museum displays are mostly replicas, which made things even more difficult. In the end, I decided to base the design on the few available photos (which only show one side) and add my own interpretation to complete the rest.

For the painting technique, I used light misting to create soft, feathered edges, and carefully built up paint in certain areas to replicate the sharp edges seen in the original photo. Before starting the camouflage, I applied MIG's chipping fluid as a base, since I planned to use the hairspray chipping method later.

At one point, I considered tracing the camouflage pattern from the photo onto masking paper for a more accurate spray job. However, that method would only produce hard-edged camouflage, which couldn't capture the variation I wanted, so I ultimately abandoned that approach.

Mark K
Beautifully done. Thanks for explaining your technique - great result!

Rui
Ok. I'm in. Let's see the rest!