AA models 1/48 Chengdu J-7 E

[yak face]

Anyone fancy a chinese? Me too , so I got this out of the stash- its a kit I picked up for about £7 on e-bay a while back. Its by AA models , a chinese company not very often seen over here. The subject is the Chengdu F(J)-7 E fighter in 1/48 scale.This aircraft is very loosely based on the F-7 II (licence produced Mig 21 f -13) , being developed and modified into a far different ,more capable ,aircraft , the main differences being the totally new wing and avionics .Like a lot of the lesser known far eastern kits its not badly detailed but a bit hit and miss in the accuracy department , needing some major fixing on the nose intake . heres the box art

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[papa 695]

I will watch this one Tony

[yambam26]

Looking forward to this Tony

[Guest]

Very interesting Tony, this one will be fun to watch!

[PaulTRose]

i look forward to seeing this go together, im always intrigued by unknown brands

[flyjoe180]

Something different, look forward to it.

[Dave W]

Not heard of this manufacturer.Im interested to see how good this kit is.

[Guest]

Yeah I am up for this.

[yak face]

Thanks guys , you probably know by now I like things that are a bit different! Heres where I am at the moment , Ive done the cockpit and ejector seat also the rear jet pipe section. I'm not going to town on the cockpit as I intend to have the canopy closed . The seat was quite nicely detailed ,with moulded on seat straps so it just got a paint job and I think it looks ok. The rest of the cockpit has just had a painting and some generic panel decals added from the spares box . The rear jet pipe was made of several pieces and includes the rear compressor face and flame trap , quite impressive. Ok before you get too excited it starts to go a bit pear shaped from here on - the nose inlet is a right pigs ear . It looks like the nose of a MiG 21 MF with the larger diameter inlet and more prominent shock cone - totally wrong for an F-7E. It should be a smaller inlet with the shock cone a lot further back . I suspect that its a result of the makers trying to use common parts to market several different versions . So it was into the spares box again and I found an old jet exhaust from something or other that will fit near enough , with filler making good the slight difference in diameter. I can relocate the shock cone further back in the nose to get the right look. So what else has come to light? well, the instructions would have you use the wrong tail fin (luckily the right one is in the box too) ,theres no drag chute housing at the base of the tail ,the cannon is not there on the starboard side and the fin under the tail is too small and thick. And I thought this was going to be a fairly quick build !! heres some pics , cheers tony

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[yak face]

Been on holiday this week so had plenty of time to get in the shed, as a result this is flying along. The nose has been filled and sanded, the tail fin put on and the seams sorted. The F-7 (and the mig 21 f13 ) had a pair of bulges on the lower front fuselage , on the earlier marks these were both just bulges over the front airbrake hinges but on the F-7E the starboard one had a 30mm cannon in it. The kit just supplies 2 plain poor fitting bulges , so the starboard one was drilled and chopped about to make the cannon housing , the blast shield in front of this also needing to be added. I made a drag chute housing from a Mk 82 GP bomb in the spares box and fitted this to the tail , and the fin under the tail was cut off and a larger replacement made. Last off today I got both wings on , the pic illustrates the difference between this aircraft and the MiG 21 .heres the pics , cheers tony

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[papa 695]

Great work Tony you never did like things easy anyway

[flyjoe180]

Looks great Tony. Good thing you checked your parts and references, sounds like the instructions and parts have been a little vague.

[Guest]

I agree with Ian! If you did a ' shake & bake ', you'd feel cheated! :P

I'm amazed by your skills & resourcefulness Tony - brilliant stuff!

[yak face]

Cheers guys , yes one of these days I'm going to make a kit straight out of the box ,itll be like respite! cheers tony

[yak face]

Bit more progress yesterday. Ive got the elevators fixed and have been tidying up the gaps around the bulge/ cannon on the lower front fuselage .The bulge in front of the front wheel well is wrong too , this is only found on the later versions so its been sanded off and filled . Ive also been making some air scoops from sprue and plastic rod. The MiG 21 and logically the f-7 have several such scoops around the tail end and they are quite prominent . The kit has nothing in this area so I made 4 of them by drilling the ends of some pieces of 1.5mm rod and sanding the other end , the other 2 larger flatter scoops being made from sprue , cut and sanded to shape and a hollow formed in the end. There are a couple more bits to make for the airframe (AOA vane and housing , antenna panel on tail) then its ready for the canopy to go on and primer.

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