Matchbox – PK-41 (40041) – Mikoyan MiG-21 MF

Description:

Mikoyan MiG-21 MF

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 fighter and interceptor aircraft, introduced in mid 50s and one of the most successful ever Soviet aircraft designs. As per 2022 they remain operative in several countries.

MF variant is a third generation variant, produced in 1970 and it’s the export variant of the Soviet MiG-21SM.

In 1983 Matchbox upgraded their MiG-21 kit, Matchbox – PK-19 – Mikoyan MiG-21, with new parts and new decal sheet and kit changed to code PK-41 and 40041 in the 90s re-release. The new decal sheet included one Egyptian Air Force marking and one Finnish Air Force marking.

Later, this kit with new decals, was released as Matchbox – 40054 – MiG 21 bis. “Fishbed”.

The update of the parts, was not an addition of the new parts, but a correction on several parts, that approximated the model more to an MF variant rather than the initial tool (kit PK-19) which was more a PFM or PFS variant but with lot of inaccuracies. The new tool shortened the main fuselage and also corrected the stabilators chords on wings and the cone nose, while still had some inaccuracies, in general terms it’s a better kit than PK-19 code.

A good review emphasizing differences between both kits can be seen here.