Zactomodels 1/32 MiG-29 Missile Pylons First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Zactomodels is a small aftermarket company that does some of the most incredible engineering and casting to correct selected beloved subjects. This time around, they've added another nice option for the 1/32 MiG-29 Fulcrum kits. This set is the first to provide accurate pylons for the Trumpeter or Revell kits.

The problem with the weapons pylons and missile rails in most modern aircraft kits is that they're a much-overlooked detail. While some kits do better than others, few actually model the rail details on the bottom of the rails. Most hobby companies assume you're going to mount weapons on the pylon and that extra detail is not required. Actually, if you do install a missile on a pylon with the proper missile rail detail, you'll have a much better time of mounting and aligning the missile with those rails in place (just like the real thing).

When Zactomodels released replacement missile rails a few months ago for the Trumpeter 1/32 Su-27 kits, they provided some really nice enhancements to the stock kits, plus corrected the rail angles so that the super-detailed Archer and Alamo missiles also produced by Zactomodels would look just right on the airframe. It was with great interest that they also announced similar rails forthcoming the the MiG-29 kits as well.

The wait is over and this set provides three types of corrected missile rails for the MiG-29, the APU-60, APU-470, and APU-73. One pair of each are included in this set. If you want to see how these compare to the stock Trumpeter parts, >look here.

The APU-470 rails are the standard installation for the inboard mounts while the APU-60 and APU-73 are interchangeable between the center and outboard hard points. Check your references, and if your aircraft have four APU-60s or four APU-73s installed, Zactomodels sell extras.

The detailing on these rails is just as nice as their previous releases and not only correct the shape of the rails, they also add those essential rail details to the rails as well. In addition to the six pylons/rails, this set also includes a pair of underwing fairings to help correct misplaced fairings in the stock kit and add optional mounting brackets for the inboards as well.

As usual, this is a nice bit of engineering from Zactomodels continue to enhance the Trumpeter or Revell kits and will look really good whether you opt to arm the model or leave the pylons/rails empty.

You can learn more about this and other project from the Zactomodels website at http://www.zactomodels.com.

My sincere thanks to Zactomodels for this review sample!