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CD48124 - 1/48 F-7M "Next Gen Fishbeds"


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I'd sure like to think so, then the decals wouid be sure to follow. I have considered scratch building one, doable from what I've seen but it is not of any great urgency so I'll live in hope in the meantime. 🙂 

Steve.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Does anybody know if the "need a second cannon" thing applies to the Sri Lankan aircraft too?  While I've not been able to find clear info on this, I did find a pic of a Sri Lankan F-7SG with the usual "big V of possible payloads" arrayed in front of it, and there did appear to be two cannon there, suggesting it does.  I'm not really in a position to be able to spend even the $25 that the J-7B kit can be picked up for (clearance at HobbyEasy) just to use a single part.  This is the sort of thing I'd suggest to Quickboost normally, but since to date I've suggested a whole heap of parts to Quickboost, none of which have ever seen the light of day (and most of which I've long forgotten - I'd love to see them do a replacement fin, or even a new fin base for the HobbyBoss MiG-17F to allow a Lim-6 to be built, for example), so it looks as though I'm stuck with either just building the kit as PLAAF, or living with the single cannon.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorta replying to myself, since nobody else did 😞

 

This isn't really directed at the actual subjects of Kursad's forthcoming sheet, but looking at the possibility of making use of them to avoid wasting a full Trumpeter J-7B just to get a 2-cannon J-7G.  While I may end up going that route (I've looked into friends who've got the tech to make replacement resin parts, and the price isn't too different, largely because that cannon barrel is quite thin and fragile while the Trumpeter kit can be had pretty cheaply), I may end up actually getting two J-7Bs, one as a sacrificial victim for the cannon, and one to do as one of the export versions of the J-7B.  Does anybody know if any J-7Bs were shipped with a single cannon, first of all?  That'd eliminate the need for a sacrificial kit altogether.

 

If there aren't, it seems there's a big (complete?) overlap between the air forces that operated export F-7B derivatives and those that later operated the cranked-delta variants.  There were definitely F-7 versions operated by Pakistan, Bangladesh (multiple schemes) and Sri Lanka, so I may be able to get a couple of kits out of the sheet, assuming I can rustle up appropriate serial numbers where required.

 

One thing has me rather confused though - the Trumpeter J-7B has a MiG-21F-13 style pitot tube under the nose, a good excuse to buy one of the Mini World pitot, radome and ring sets.  However, the export F-7s I see have the pitot mounted on the top of the nose offset to starboard - the pitot looks as though a Master Detail MiG-21UM pitot might be appropriate, if I scratch a mount for it.  However *some* of the Sri Lankan aircraft, at least, have the earlier pitot style.

 

To put it in simple terms - does anybody have a clue just what the hell is going on with all of these various export versions?  Which have one cannon, which have two, which have a low-mounted pitot, which have the high-mounted pitot?  Oh, and I suppose the question "which have the HTY-4 ejection seat and which use Martin-Baker Mk 10L?" belongs here too.  It's all very confusing, and even my favorite MiG-21 reference source, the big Yefim Gordon Red Book, which has fairly comprehensive coverage of Chinese-built variants, doesn't really clarify anything.

 

Any ideas, folks?  I guess the short TL;DR version is - I'm going to buy Kursad's sheet, I'd like to try to get both a cranked-delta and a conventional delta out of it, is there a way to do it that doesn't require buying a their kit just for the extra cannon, and just what is the deal with the pitot tubes on export F-7s?

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  • 4 weeks later...

While finalizing the instructions for this sheet, I confirmed that the Sri Lankan aircraft (including the particular example depicted on this sheet) are equipped with only one cannon (on the starboard side). As such, it should be possible to use the J-7G kit out of the box to build the Sri Lankan option.

 

It looks like all the light gray-camouflaged Bangladeshi aircraft also have a single cannon, while Nigerian, dark-camouflaged Bangladeshi and all Pakistani jets are of the double-cannon configuration.

So the sheet has markings for two single-cannon (BAF 155 & SLAF "SFI15108") and five double-cannon (BAF 943,  NAF 806, 3 x PAF) options:

 

cd48124profiles.jpg

Edited by KursadA
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This is great - I can build my J-7G pretty much OOTB *and* if I can find some suitable digits in the decal stash for the serial, I can build the J-7B that I’d bought for the extra cannon as one of the earlier, non-cranked J-7s operated by Bangladesh or Pakistan.  Very nice - will get pre-order in today, I hope.

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So, does one need to buy another kit to get the second cannon for a Pakistani J-7PG? Which kit would be a good doner? I've always wanted to do one but the lack of decals made it difficult. Now I have no excuse, except the possible extra cost of adding the second cannon.

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Most people seem to favor the J-7B kit - assuming that's because it has two cannon and is the most similar of the kitted versions Trumpeter has done to the J-7G.  It can also be had pretty cheaply if you look around - I've seen the base kit price as low as $25 plus shipping on eBay and through vendors in Hong Kong.  Certainly when I looked into the cost of just using a donor kit vs getting somebody to make resin parts (or buying a cheap Micro-Mark resin casting set), there was no real difference, although I will admit I've suggested to Quickboost that doing a second cannon would be a good idea for a cheap set.  Of course, over the years I've suggested dozens of things to Quickboost, and none of them have ever appeared (I'd also love to see somebody do a parachute fairing for a MiG-17F to allow a Lim-6bis to be built).  Maybe if multiple people suggest it to Quickboost, they might actually do something.

I'd originally decided I'd get two J-7B kits, in addition to the J-7G, that way I could do any one of the aircraft on Kursad's sheet that I wanted, and then I'd be able to build a J-7B and have "spare parts" in case I messed up on either kit.  I think every country represented on the sheet has operated the conventional delta F-7 in the past, often in the same camouflage schemes, so as long as I can come up with the right numbers, I can perhaps do aircraft of more than one nationality.  For example, I've seen photos of Bangladeshi "plain delta" F-7s in both schemes covered by the sheet, Pakistan had them too (but sent them back) and Sri Lanka operated the conventional delta too.  Of course, with the J-7B, some changes may still be required - most of ones I've seen have the pitot mentioned offset on the top of the intake, like the cranked delta, except for the Sri Lankan ones, which seemed to have the J-7B style pitot under the intake.

By the way, does anybody know what the best option for the pitot on these aircraft is?  It looks shorter than that of later MiG-21 variants, so at the moment I'm planning to try to use a Master Detail MiG-21UM pitot, albeit offset.  The early Sri Lankan aircraft seem to have the longer MiG-21F-13 style pitot, which has more options (the Mini World sets that provide the pitot fully assembled, and a nice intake run with a razor sharp edge, or Master Detail) but in that case it really boils down to whether or not I want to build my J-7B as an actual F-7 variant, or just use it for parts.  I'm leaning towards ending up with two J-7Bs - one to use for cannon parts (and which would also give me quite a lot of spare parts in case of emergencies), one to build using leftover decals from the sheet, as long as I can come up with the right serial number.

The big thing against buying another J-7B is that I'm slowly becoming swamped with Trumpeter MIG-21 kits - I've got the MiG-21F-13 which I'm going to build as...just a MiG-21F-13, the J-7G which is going to become one of the aircraft on this sheet, a J-7B which will either be parts or an export F-7, possibly going to buy a second J-7B if I choose to build the first one as an F-7, and a MiG-21UM, and a JL-9, although that doesn't really count.  Oh, *and* an old Academy MiG-21MF that's got a heap of aftermarket thrown at it to let me build it as a late lo-viz cam Polish aircraft *and* an Eduard MiG-21MF (the Bunny Fighter Club edition) which is going to become one of the Czech aircraft (i.e. the ones without the carrot and rabbit motif) once I've been able to afford to buy all of the necessary aftermarket for it.

Note that I make life more difficult for myself by habitually AMS-ing up my kits.  Not by much in the case of the J-7G - just Eduard's undercarriage door PE set, a pitot and resin wheels, but the MiG-21F-13 and MiG-21UM have got Big Ed sets, and I've picked up Neomega Martin-Baker Mk 4 seats for any F-7s that may end up equipped with them (and if they're not used, they can go on my Pakistan and Bangladesh Air Force MiG-19s)

Ah, the pain I put myself through to get nice, interesting markings on my models...

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have the sheets shipped?  I know the site says they were meant to ship on the 29th August, I pre-ordered nine on the 22nd, just wanted to check.  If they were shipped in a stiff envelope, it’s possible they were dropped off at my apartment complex mailroom but the mailman didn’t leave a note indicating that I needed to go get it.

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On 8/24/2018 at 10:14 AM, awrc said:

Most people seem to favor the J-7B kit...

 

For some reason I managed to miss your reply. Thanks for the info. If I'm going to have to buy a donor kit, then this project will have to wait. Will get the decals when they come out as one never knows how long they will be around.

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2 hours ago, awrc said:

Have the sheets shipped?  I know the site says they were meant to ship on the 29th August, I pre-ordered nine on the 22nd, just wanted to check.  If they were shipped in a stiff envelope, it’s possible they were dropped off at my apartment complex mailroom but the mailman didn’t leave a note indicating that I needed to go get it.

 

I will have shipped everything in a few days - just the usual deluge of orders I receive immediately after a new batch.

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/9/2018 at 12:43 PM, Mstor said:

 

For some reason I managed to miss your reply. Thanks for the info. If I'm going to have to buy a donor kit, then this project will have to wait. Will get the decals when they come out as one never knows how long they will be around.

 

I'm resurrecting this thread to ask a quick question. The consensus seemed to be that the J-7B was the best donor kit. Is there any reason why the J-7A kit would be unsuitable? It does have two guns.

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The J-7A was molded on the Mig-21F-13, while the J-7B was a development done locally in in China with amongst other bigger fuselage. Haven't seen the kits themselves, but if this is correctly captured in the kits, the J-7A parts will not fit the J-7GB kit due to difference in fuselage. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chengdu_J-7_variants

 

Hopefully someone who has built this kit can confirm or deny? 

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21 minutes ago, Niels said:

The J-7A was molded on the Mig-21F-13, while the J-7B was a development done locally in in China with amongst other bigger fuselage. Haven't seen the kits themselves, but if this is correctly captured in the kits, the J-7A parts will not fit the J-7GB kit due to difference in fuselage. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chengdu_J-7_variants

 

Hopefully someone who has built this kit can confirm or deny? 

 

Thanks Niels, I was afraid of that. Have access to a real cheap J-7A. Oh well... :dontknow:

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I doubt the fuselage difference was reflected in the Trumpeter kits - the part layouts of the kit are very similar; and it is somewhat unlike Trumpeter to tool a completely different fuselage to reflect a small difference in dimension 🙂 

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Here's pics of the fuselage parts of both the A and B. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a pic of the A kit parts with a scaled background like on the B, so I can't tell if there are length differences. They do look pretty much identical when allowing for differences in lighting angle.

 

J-7A

J-7B 2

 

J-7B

Tru_J-7A_01

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The J-7B and J-7G kit fuselages are identical in length and general configuration.

 

Couldn't you just use a straight swap of the J-7B and J-7G fuselage halves - getting a 2-gun J-7G, leaving you with a 1-gun J-7B.

 

This of course begs the question - does a 1-gun J-7B even exist?

 

If not, you just build your semi castrated J-7B and put it in your display case right side showing.  😛

Edited by falcon04
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2 hours ago, falcon04 said:

The J-7B and J-7G kit fuselages are identical in length and general configuration.

 

Couldn't you just use a straight swap of the J-7B and J-7G fuselage halves - getting a 2-gun J-7G, leaving you with a 1-gun J-7B.

 

This of course begs the question - does a 1-gun J-7B even exist?

 

If not, you just build your semi castrated J-7B and put it in your display case right side showing.  😛

 

The only reason I was asking about the J-7A was because there was one on eBay going for real cheap. I missed it though. Was gone by the time I got all those pics posted. So at some point I will do exactly what you describe and get both kits to get one accurate (more or less) Pakistani J-7G.

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6 hours ago, falcon04 said:

The J-7B and J-7G kit fuselages are identical in length and general configuration.

 

Couldn't you just use a straight swap of the J-7B and J-7G fuselage halves - getting a 2-gun J-7G, leaving you with a 1-gun J-7B.

 

This of course begs the question - does a 1-gun J-7B even exist?

 

If not, you just build your semi castrated J-7B and put it in your display case right side showing.  😛

 

Just curious, why a swap of the J-7B & J-7G fuselage halves? I thought we only needed the J-7B's gun parts to make a 2-gun J-7G? Why the entire fuselage half?

 

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1 hour ago, JackMan said:

 

Just curious, why a swap of the J-7B & J-7G fuselage halves? I thought we only needed the J-7B's gun parts to make a 2-gun J-7G? Why the entire fuselage half?

 

The gun parts fit into recesses built into the fuselage halves. You can see them in the pics of the J-7B above. The starboard fuselage half of the J-7G doesn't have the recesses for the gun parts.

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6 minutes ago, Mstor said:

The gun parts fit into recesses built into the fuselage halves. You can see them in the pics of the J-7B above. The starboard fuselage half of the J-7G doesn't have the recesses for the gun parts.

 

Ah, I see. Thank you :thumbsup:

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1 hour ago, Niels said:

From this photo, it looks like a modification of part N9 will allow you to instantly have a 2-gun J/F-7GB without the additional kit - anybody tried this? 

[Close] J-7GB `August 1st` (Plastic model) Assembly guide6

 

That would work, depending on your definition of "instantly" - it's not that simple. You might want to compare the "N" sprue from the G with the "L" sprue from the B - there some subtle shape differences in the 3 port side "Gun / No Gun" panels between the kits. I just would rather pop for the G kit and save a quite a few hours time.

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