And it finally arrived! The eagerly awaited AMK (AvantGarde Model Kits) 1:48 MiG-31BM/BSM ‘Foxhound’. The Macau based company really wet the appetites of the scale modelling crowds with CAD shots and later sprue parts of this iconic Soviet interceptor. By a stroke of luck and a good friendship, AMK provided me with the 3rd kit of the initial pre-release of this magnificent kit.
The big heavy box has finally arrived!
Serial number stamped on the inner side of the box lid.
The box is tightly packed with plastic, with little room to spare.
Example of great ingeneering – rows of neat rivet lines of different sizes and really sharp moulding.
While unfortunately included photo-etched fret does not include seat belts, the injection moulded seats should look the part when finished.
Tires, rims and exhaust detail pieces.
The huge upper part of the fuselage moulded in one piece.
Several under wing missile pylons.
The beautifully moulded cockpit tub – not much need for any aftermarket there.
Main wheel well details, intakes and cockpit tub.
While some may thing, full length engines are a bit of overkill, without the ability to show them off, they will be needed for structural integrity of the model.
Lovely details found in the front wheel well.
Other small parts…
Again, excellent instrument panel details.
Decal sheet offering 4 different markings options.
A full complement of stencil decals, including the weapons ones.
Front fuselage moulded in one piece!
Equally huge lower fuselage with front R-33 missile recesses.
One piece moulded missiles – R-33, R-77-1 and R-73, 4 of each. Level of details is just amazing.
Crystal clear canopies, well protected with raised sprue edges and option of either open canopies or single piece closed one.
And last but not least – how big this model is. A week or so ago, a photo was posted of a hand, holding the test-built model. Some comments arose that the size is probably not as big, as Asian hands are smaller than European/American and we have some sort of optical illusion. Well here is my standard Euro hand, holding just the lower piece of the fuselage – please be my guest and judge the size by yourself 😀
More photos at AMK Facebook page (you don’t need FB account to see them): https://www.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/?fref=ts
I would like to send my sincere thanks to AMK for providing me with this review sample, as well as Anton for playing the middle man.
Keep watching this space for the full review build of this kit coming very very soon. If you don’t wanna miss any update, please subscribe to my blog in the menu on the right of this text.
VVS modelling 
So so good…!
Indeed!
Guess I can bury my Collect-Air 31 now!
Guess so 😀
Saw the plastic at SMW Telford last November and was amazed at the detail. The fuselage looked so sturdy with all the stiffness inside. Having now arrived in the UK I am waiting for the postman to deliver mine. A truly top class designed and presented model kit. Really looking forward to getting stuck into building it! Great review,thanks.
Thank you! It is indeed one of the best engineered kits that I came to my bench… Especially as I build quite a lot of Russian short-run models in 1:72.