With the fall of the Assad regime the Syrian Arab Air Force is on the verge of extinction. My interest in SyAAF MiGs was piqued back in 2017 when the 'Russia Today' news channel filed a report from Hama air base. Now that interest has resulted in my tracking down a copy of the first 'Paulus Victor' decal sheet in 1:72nd, issued back in 2017 as it happens, and now largely sold out. Time to dig out the Zvezda MiG 21bis kit for my first project of 2025.
The Syrian civil war seemed to have virtually ended between then and late November 2024, but outside of the large towns there were always areas of the country held by 'rebels' and effectively outside of Assad's control. But now, no doubt taking advantage of Russia's weakness and events elsewhere, Islamist insurgents - what the Russians used to refer to as 'terrorists' and now call the 'armed opposition' - advanced on Homs taking Hama air base to threaten Damascus in a rapid two-week offensive. Assad was forced to flee the country and claim asylum in Moscow. Russian influence in the region has suffered a huge setback - having invested huge resources in building up bases, especially the air force base at Latakia. Some recent photos of Hama air base have appeared on various on-line news feeds - along with several pictures of bombed-up MiG 21s that look like they may have been taken back in 2015-2017. Most of the wrecked MiGs that feature in recent pictures look very much as though they were 'hangar 'queens' - sometimes propped up on piles of old tyres and missing key parts. The MiGs were delivered to Syria during the early 1980s - their airframes well past their useful lives were refurbished locally. This decal sheet is actually sold out and OOP in 1:72nd scale although the 48th scale sheet is still available. I managed to source a sheet from PV's preferred seller in Kiev, Ukraine and it arrived today, Christmas Eve.
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