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Trumpeter 1/48 Chengdu F-7MB Bangladesh 1989 Finished!


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Well I suppose I ought to show my intended build, seeing as the GB is my idea.

I've been through quite a few different choices in my head as to what subject to build and am still not 100% sure  which scheme to finish her in but I have at least decided which aircraft to build and have settled on Trumpeter's 1/48 Chengdu J-7B, what could be more appropriate than an Asian manufactured model of an Asian manufactured aircraft in Asian markings? The kit looks to be quite nice with good surface detailing and a fairly well equipped cockpit OOTB and comes with markings for 2 aircraft in PLAAF markings, the choice of colour scheme is like an T model Ford in reverse, any colour you want as long as it is white! Anyway onto the kit itself and starting with the ubiquitous box and contents shots.

The box;

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And the contents, still sealed in their plastic bags;

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Quite a few parts for what is a reasonably small aircraft. I must congratulate Trumpeter for the way they have protected the clear sprues, they are wrapped in a foam packing and then sealed in their own little plastic bags, this absolutely removes any chance of accidental damage and really is to be applauded. you can see one sprue unwrapped and one still wrapped in the picture below, along with the dreaded rubber tyres (why?);

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The kit decal sheet looks to be well printed and is in perfect register;

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And a look at one of the options from the sheet, the other is identical apart from the aircraft's number;

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I wasn't over keen on an all white aircraft to begin with so I bought some aftermarket decals by Aztec which cover first generation Mig-21's and J-7's (actually F-7's when expported) which has some nice options on it;

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Only  one of the options is appropriate for our GB, that being this one flown by the Bangladeshi Air Force from 1989 onwards;

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It was flown by 35 Squadron the "Thundercats", not sure which of the Thundercats flew it but my money is on either Lion-O or Tygra, Snarf couldn't reach the rudder pedals.

So at some point I will need to decide which scheme to finish it in but as the aircraft are essentially identical I don't need to decide until the painting stage, and a weathered all white aircraft is growing on me.

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

Edited by modelling minion
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Nice choice of kit and markings Craig.

 

Forgive my ignorance on these things but is this aircraft a Chinese built early Mig 21 or there about?

 

James

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15 minutes ago, franky boy said:

Nice choice of kit and markings Craig.

 

Forgive my ignorance on these things but is this aircraft a Chinese built early Mig 21 or there about?

 

James

Thanks James,

 

Yes you are right the J-7 series are all Chinese built derivatives of the Mig-21. The J-7A is basically a straight copy of the Mig-21F-13 and the J-7B is an updated version with a different canopy which is the most noticeable difference, export versions could be fitted with Western avionics and ejector seats.

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Nice choice. I started one of these a couple of years back in another GB and had the companion decal sheet to yours with a plan to do a Burmese F-7. Be good to one finished whichever scheme you go for.

 

Andy

Edited by Foxbat
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17 hours ago, Foxbat said:

Nice choice. I started one of these a couple of years back in another GB and had the companion decal sheet to yours with a plan to do a Burmese F-7. Be good to one finished whichever scheme you go for.

 

Andy

Cheers Andy,

 

I've got the other sheet too but unfortunately Burma didn't get any F-7's until the 1990's so I couldn't build it in that scheme, it would be good to see yours when you finish it.

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Nice choice!

Take carem the Trumpeter versions mostly only represent Chinese variants. Export ones often differ in detail... canons, etc....

Edited by exdraken
spelling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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On 01/07/2019 at 10:24, modelling minion said:

not sure which of the Thundercats flew it but my money is on either Lion-O or Tygra, Snarf couldn't reach the rudder

My guess woud be cheetara,saucy little minx, looks a nice camo too, although if you do choose a bmf  you've already proved it will be a top job with your p47, 

Thunder, thunder,thundercats ohhohh

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16 minutes ago, Hewy said:

My guess woud be cheetara,saucy little minx, looks a nice camo too, although if you do choose a bmf  you've already proved it will be a top job with your p47, 

Thunder, thunder,thundercats ohhohh

That's exactly the kind of response I expected from you!

Thanks Glynn.

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18 minutes ago, John D.C. Masters said:

The Bangladeshi Air Force livery will look mighty smart!

Thanks John, yes I do like the Bangladeshi scheme but I'm also fond of the Chinese white scheme.

I don't have to decide quite yet though as I believe they are virtually identical other than the colour scheme.

I made a bit of a start today, nothing photo worthy just a black primer for the interior parts and assembled the vertical tail and the ejector seat and they went together very nicely which bodes well for the rest of the build.

I've been trying to info on the interior colours as I don't trust Trumpeter's choice of "light blue" for everything from the cockpit of the undercarriage bays, from the very few useful pics I've found the cockpit seems to be a mid to dark grey and the wheel wells and airbrake housing are in the same dirty chromate yellow that they are on Russian built Mig-21's.

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Watching all the fantastic progress going on in other peoples builds I thought it was about time I pulled my finger out and got on with my build, what with running the GB and all.

Finding references for this build has been a bit like finding rocking horse poo, but then the Chinese have never been keen on sharing their secrets, they like other peoples but are just not willing to share, so my detail painting of the cockpit is pure speculation. Trumpeter gives what looks like a fairly comprehensive cockpit OOTB and all I have done is to paint it and give it a bit of weathering, here are some pics of the cockpit bits before assembly starting with the IP which has kit decals used for the instruments;

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Followed by the cockpit tub;

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The kits HUD, made up of around 5 parts;

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And the side panels;

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And the kit's seat, again made up of multiple parts. Not sure what kind of seat it is meant to be but it looks okay and I will need to sort out a harness of sorts for it;

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The wheel wells are again very well detailed and I have given them a coat of the sort of dirty zinc chromate that is used on Soviet aircraft and is used on the J-7, below are some pics of the parts still on the sprues after being painted and detailed and weathered;

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And what they look like built up;

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And the nose well installed;

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The wing wells were also painted;

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The vertical tail and centreline fuel tank which have been built up;spacer.png

 

And that is how things look at the minute, next job will be to assemble the cockpit parts and then to build up the engine and paint the shock cone for the nose. just to distract me a bit more (as if I need it!) this little beauty dropped through the letter box today courtesy of Amazon;

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Hadn't planned to build it for this GB but I know the Afghans used them and I think the Indians and Chinese still had them on strength at the time. 

 

Thats it for today, thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

 

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Top start on the j or f -7, nice bit of detail painting there, ooh an  mi4 hound, a very well reviewed and easy kit , nice, i look forward to seeing that built, is there a camo scheme for it? Or just green 

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On 7/14/2019 at 8:35 PM, modelling minion said:

And that is how things look at the minute, next job will be to assemble the cockpit parts and then to build up the engine and paint the shock cone for the nose. just to distract me a bit more (as if I need it!) this little beauty dropped through the letter box today courtesy of Amazon;

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Hadn't planned to build it for this GB but I know the Afghans used them and I think the Indians and Chinese still had them on strength at the time. 

 

Thats it for today, thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

 

Since I'm not going to manage the Afghan one I mentioned in Chat I think you're honour bound to do it now :D 

 

Andy

 

Edited by Foxbat
Brevity
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Just to prove that I haven't been spending all my time thinking of new things to build for this GB (and then buying them) its time for an overdue look at how your host is doing on his own build. It may be a bit photo heavy this one so bear with me.

We'll start with a couple of pics of the engine which has been built OOTB and really doesn't need any extra time and money spending on it if you are building your kit with the engine inside the fuselage, the engine builds up into something that looks very much like an engine though I'm not sure what Trumpeter based their design of the 1st stage of blades on as they look like the curved blades on a Trent 1000 or XWB turbofan but nothing like what the first stage on a 1950's technology turbojet, have a look for yourselves;

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And here's a look at it's bum;

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There really is no point in doing anything else to it as you can see in the picture below which shows it in the assembled fuselage;

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Assembled fuselage you say? Yes, assembled fuselage! Here is an overall shot of how she looks at the minute;

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There's a fair amount of work, and parts, that have gone in to getting her into the shape she is now in. The area of the cannons on either side is made up of 3 fuselage pieces and a representation of the cannon itself and can be made to have one of the panels open revealing the cannon inside but for the port side I have decided to close everything up as you can see better in the picture below;

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These parts actually fit rather well and with a little bit of sanding and tiny amount of filler a decent result can be had. I'm not sure what to do with the stbd side yet, I may have that one open, what do you think guys?

The exhaust cone and vertical tail fit almost perfectly with just a tiny bit of filler on the tail to fuselage join in a couple of places;

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The tip of the tail has a set of "Odd Rods" IFF antennae moulded onto it which are pretty good and as you can see below have survived the build process so far;

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Only problem is that they aren't fitted on Bangladeshi F-7 MB's, doh! So off they will come, and yes that means I've settled on building a Bangladeshi one, which means I will also need to change the air data boom at the front as their F-7's have them fitted on the top of the nose as opposed to the underneath for the Chinese ones and as the kit has them.

Here's a quick look at what is visible in the cockpit now that the fuselage halves are closed up;

 

Moving onto the wings next. Trumpeter have provided a couple of nice etched wing fences for the upper surfaces which just need a slot opening up for them which is marked by Trumpeter, here is one in place;

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Now the F-7 (and J-7) have 2 pylons under each wing but Trumpeter only have holes on the lower wing for one pylon and would have you fit the wrong one in place. Now they do actually provide the right number of pylons and the right ones too so it was just a matter of fitting the correct ones in place for the original holes and marking the pace for the holes for the other pylons, I did this by placing the wing for an Eduard Mig-21 in place on top and then drilling through, it worked out okay as you can see below;

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They still need a bit of tidying up at the join but they look alright and at least I have the right number now, now I just need to decide what to hang on them.

 

That's it for today and probably for a couple of days as I'm off to get wet (and hopefully see some great aircraft) at RIAT tomorrow and then have to take my son to Manchester on Sunday so he can spend all Summer in America whilst his dad goes to work, think I'm doing something wrong! 

 

Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

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