The kit was in near perfect shape considering that it is over 40 years old. However, the old kit was not without its quirks as building progressed... There was lots of flash to sand off (more so than modern kits seem to have) and part fit was not the greatest, which required a bit of puttying over gaps, sanding, then repeating. The kit came with both the early and later tail configurations for the Mig-21PF so it could accurately replicate the North Vietnamese (early) or Russian (later) aircraft. Action features include the opening canopy and separating tail section to reveal a detailed Tumansky R-25 jet engine.
I used Tamiya Gloss Aluminum spray (TS-17) for the overall silver coat with various Tamiya grays for the cockpit interior, Testors Interior Green for the wheel wells, and Tamiya Dark green for the nose cone and tail sections. My initial plan was to not glue the landing gear and doors so I could theoretically display the plane in both the gear-up and gear-down configurations. The main gear wound up being too wobbly and the tab on one snapped, so I glued them in place.
In the end, this was my final result. I decided to go with the Russian version of the Mig-21PF, basically because they were the primary user of the type. I may build a 2nd plane in the North Vietnamese configuration for a gear-up option if I can get another kit cheap. It's not perfect, but looks the part and now my BBI F-4s have something to shoot at
