Pilot's cockpit
The kit's version is very simple. Eduard's cockpit detail set is a substantial improvement over kit's version. Instruction manual for the "metalwork" is quite comprehensive; if you follow it carefully, the assembly is relatively straight forward. You need a lot of patience when attaching the seat belts, because some components are really tiny; you can easily lose them. The manual is very clear about the camouflage coloring details and the cockpit interior. You can also use numerous photographs from the 4+ series as a helpful reference. I painted the interior with synthetic Agama paints.

Fuselage:
Academy designed the model's fuselage as a ten piece puzzle. Your modeling skills will be severely tested, especially when fitting the front fuselage with the centerpiece. I wasn't quite successful; that's why I had to follow with lots of tedious filling, sanding, and panel lines rescribing. After the short delay, I glued the main landing gear components into the fuselage. I also enhanced the original landing gear bay with parts No. 8, 40, 43 from the Eduard detail set 48429. Then I prepared the engine's intake channels. I recommend leaving them shut, because the manufacturer neglected to design their interior detailing. I closed the intakes opening with piece No. 38 from the detail set. The transition between wing and fuselage needs filling and new panel lining. Before fitting the wing halves you need to drill holes for weapon pylons on their bottom surface [only if you want it to carry weapons, of course]. Glue these modified wings into the fuselage and cement both vertical stabilizers and infrared decoy flares for the heat-seeking missiles on the top of fuselage. I corrected small seam imperfections with a bit of filling and sanding. The detail set No. 48429 includes a variety of covers, screens and aerials. Too bad the details on the bottom of fuselage are completely hidden behind an external fuel tank. After appending the above mentioned details, I sprayed the entire fuselage with Surfacer.

Engines:
Eduard did a great job with their designing. PE exhausts look very realistic and they are easy to assemble. However, do not glue them onto the fuselage yet! You need to spray on the camouflage first.

Weapon pylons, flaps and landing gears:
I attached missile rails to the pylons; they were ready for painting. I could easily fit the PE parts on flaps, but I had some problems with landing gears. Particularly the front landing gear leg required a lot of patience. The bending of a PE fender was quite arduous, as well as the gluing of hydraulic systems onto the legs of the main landing gear. But the result was well worth it! The PE parts really jazzed up the landing gear.

External tank:
The external fuel tank was complemented with two parts from the 48429 set - an exhaust pipe from APU and a perforated rear cover. The usage of these accessories was trouble-free.

Canopy:
I used parts from the 48423 interior set, such as rear-view mirrors, rear partition and ventilation shafts. There were again no problems with fitting these components.


When you have finished the "construction work", you can carry on by applying camouflage. I began by spraying the panel lining on the engine cover. Here I used Humbrol - glossy steal. After polishing and masking, start painting the camouflage pattern. We have a choice between a Russian and West German [literally] versions. I opted for the German model. Its camouflage is more complex and colorful, but also more laborious. First I sprayed the bottom surface with light grey. When dry, I used dark grey on the radar covers and radios. I masked again and then proceeded with camouflage, which comprised of four color tones - brown, field green, olive and dark green. The kit manufacturer uses color classification in compliance with the FS sampler. I sprayed my model with Agama colors [R17P, R14M, A47M and R13M]. When spraying the canopy part, I used a very helpful set of masks Eduard XF 102, which even included a mask for wheel rims - again, a very practical tool.

To sum up, the construction of MiG-29 is enjoyable and trouble-free, and I highly recommend both the kit and the above mentioned PE detail sets.