Modern Era (1990-2010) Skin Pack for MIG-21bis - Vietnam People's Air Force 929th / 925th Fighter Squadrons
The MIG-21 and many of its variants have faithfully served the Vietnam People's Air Force for many decades. Between 2009 and 2014 most all MIG-21 variants were withdrawn from service - the last of which being the MIG-21UB (trainer variants). Among the many decorated and battle tested units of the VPAF, the 925th and 929th fighter-bomber squadrons (based out of Hanoi and Da Nang) were among the last operational units to fly the famed Fishbed. This skin pack aims to capture the look of the Fishbed's final paint schemes during there active service time within the VPAF. Understandable, this topic was incredible difficult to find information on and should be noted that there may be inconsistencies with the below text, but the best attempt that could be made was done.
Until it was re-armed with more modern SU-27SK's the 925th was the last unit operating Fishbeds for combat duty, which were with drawn from active duty in 2010. This squadron had painted it's aircraft in a very light/blue-grey over coat, which as first applied we think sometime in the 1980's - which it wore until its retirement. The 927th Fighter Squadron based out Kép Air Base also wore this same color scheme until the Fishbed's were replaced by SU-30MK2's. There is a tremendous lack of public information available regarding the final paint schemes for Fishbed's flown by the 945th, 931st, 933rd Fighter Squadrons, this is due to them starting there retirement of the Fishbed in the late 1990's and early 2000's, they also had older versions of the MIG-21 in service. It is unknown what there last liveries were, but they were most likely painted similar to the 925th's pattern as that seemed to be the most common post-war Fishbed paint scheme. It should be noted that near the end of the Vietnam War, the VNPA employed "grey" painted Fishbeds, these were a stock grey color scheme based off of Soviet Air Force schemes. The livery presented in this pack is a different color scheme which has a blue hue and undertone that was not present on the "grey" Fishbeds of the 1970s and is an entirely different livery.
The 929th had retired it's single seater and double seater Fishbeds shortly after 2014. Though the squadron retained single seater versions of the aircraft - they were used for training purposes only. These aircraft at some point in the 2000s received a light blue over coat, which was worn until retirement. This unit flew both types of MIG-21s as well as SU-22M4's, which were originally painted in the same color scheme (but late 2000's the SU-22MR's received a new, much darker blue paint scheme, which they ware to this day). It is very similar to the paint schemes worn by the 921st Fighter Squadron which also previously operated Fishbeds and later converted to SU-22M4/SU-22UM-3K (which acts as the primary training squadron for the Fitter's and has since received the same dark blue overcoat as Fitters with the 929th). Although retired earlier - we believe the Fishbed's of the 921st had the same light-blue paint scheme as the 929th.
This research was completed and these skins were made with best possible accuracy and with respect to the Không quân nhân dân Việt Nam. If anyone has additional or improved information, please feel free to comment below.
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