MiG-21 F-13 "red 809" Polish Air Force - Revell 1/72

And off we go - starting with the ejection seat. The kit's rendition isn't so bad, but as the eduard PE-set offers some improvements I didn't pass the opportunity. 

Therefore the kit's seat needs to be cut in several pieces. Only the head rest, the seat pan and some of the back structure will be saved. 

Like this the MiG build is already starting on the fiddly side of things. But I think the result is worth the effort. However, I won't keep the colour of the precoloured PE parts as my references suggest that most seats appeared in the same, darker grey-blueish colour as seen on early MiG-cockpits. Therefore it will be repainted.
Still, there are photos showing the seat in this lighter grey, for example on ejectionsite.com/sk1seat.htm 

In order to find the correct aforementioned grey-blueish colour I tested several hues from my stash on some plastic sprue. During my research "A-14 steel grey" was mentioned to be the correct colour for early MiG cockpits. However, the corresponding Model Air shade didn't seem to be blueish enough. In the end I chose Model Air Ocean Grey as seen on the right side. 

"Challenge accepted" - eduard offers a way to build up a more detailed jet pipe than the kit's plastic part. Creating a round tube from 2D photo echt parts is always a bit tricky. The white paper cutting has the lenght of the PE part that needed bending and helped to find a suitable bending tool. Most of the time you'll find one item in the household that does the job. In this instance a screwdriver.