Blue Cheese 7 (Area 88)

The finished model:

The scene:

Greg’s “origin story”!

Back before becoming a mercenary and joining Area 88, Greg and Bugsy – having both been dishonourably discharged from the Danish Air Force for a “misunderstanding” – are running a “Defector Taxi Service” to assist people seeking to escape from behind the Iron Curtain. Operating under the call sign “Blue Cheese 7”, Greg takes on a contract to smuggle the famed Soviet Violinist, Natasha Lavrovsky, and her six-year-old daughter Sonya to London to be reunited with her husband Alexi – a former Soviet symphony conductor who had defected just before Sonya’s birth.

The routine flight takes a nasty turn when the compass breaks down and Learjet 35 unknowingly drifts into East German airspace – attracting the ire of a trio of MiG-21s. Greg needs to do some fancy flying to avoid being shot down.

Check out the original manga scene from Chapters 61 & 62 “Memoirs of a Tiger” here:

The story:

This project was pretty much a no-brainer on several levels. First off, Greg – being my namesake – was always one of my favourite characters in Area 88. I think it might’ve been the first time I’d seen my name printed in a comic book, so it had a special resonance for me. So the fact that he has an “origin story” was really great. Much like Mickey’s chapter from early in the series, this background tale shows you the motivations Greg had for signing the recruitment papers and becoming a mercenary in the Asran Civil War.

Besides… with a name like “Blue Cheese 7” who could resist? It also doesn’t hurt that this project gives me a chance to bring together two subjects (MiG-21 and Learjet 35) that aren’t normally paired as part of my 1/144 Area 88 project .

The kit:

Gates Learjet 35 by Stransky
MiG-21/F-7II “PLAAF” by Trumpeter x3

The build:

This was really a build project in two parts… the MiG-21s and the Learjet. The Learjet kit was pretty easy to choose… the 1/144 scale Gates Learjet 35 by Stransky is the only show in town. However, choosing the MiG-21s was a bit more difficult. Luckily there are lots of kits to choose from, but ultimately I had to choose the Chinese F-7II “PLAAF” by Trumpeter because of the underbelly guns. Those guns are pretty prominent in the shot I was trying to replicate (see Manga Page 03 above), so in the end there wasn’t much choice either.

Besides adding my “signature” orange LED afterburner lights, the only real modifications I made to the kit were the nose cones. There seems to be some debate as to the authenticity, but for my builds, the manga is king, so I decide to elongate and sharpen the nose cones. I did it by basically drilling out the intake and then using the tips of the (unused) missiles that cam with the kit. I think it really gives the MiG-21s a much more menacing look. The main issue with the build was me trying to mask and paint the numbers. It really seems like it should work… they’re basically just blocks, but getting the numbers to look right at 1/144 scale seems to be beyond my current skill level (or maybe just patience). In the end I had to settle for some (admittedly very nice) decals from Mark I for the Soviet AF numerals as well as the East German Air Force Insignia.

The Learjet presented a bit of a different challenge. It’s not really a tricky kit, but because I wanted to add lights to the interior, the translucent white plastic was really against me. I tried painting the interior with a dark metallic (i.e. reflective) paint job, but it just didn’t quite block it enough. So I resorted to stuffing the interior with thin aluminium foil to get the job done. It worked, but it made getting rid of the seams a bit of more a chore than I think it should’ve been. I also had a bit of trouble with the windows. The holes aren’t pre-cut, so it’s quite tricky to get them shaped properly. Those side windows are tiny, and the tolerance to get them to fit is thin. As if that wasn’t enough, the cockpit window just didn’t want to sit nice and neat. There’s a lip that should hold it in the correct place, but it just ended up being more of a pain than a help.

All in all though, I pretty satisfied with the result, but feel free to tell me what you think.