A couple of years ago, I was working in Tanzania for Everett Aviation at Julius Nyerere international Airport in Dar es Salaam. The Tanzanian Air Defence Force had a number of their aircraft based there, among them the recently-delivered Chengdu J-7G variant of the
MiG-21. When they started flying a few of them around, I felt I needed to build a model of one to remember my time there (I'll build an Everett AS365N2 at some stage, too). The Trumpeter kit seems reasonably accurate to my untrained eye and I built it mostly OOB. I did add Eduard MiG-21F-13 wheels as the rubber kit tyres were rubbish and I also added their cockpit detail set for the MiG, too.
The kit goes together well but there are a couple of little traps. The landing gear wells have tabs to locate them as does the cockpit - ensure they're engaged or they'll end up incorrectly aligned - I missed a nose wheel well lug and couldn't correct it by the time I noticed it. I closed the rear speed brake as they're locked closed when a centre pylon is fitted and cracked the front brakes a little open to represent the pressure leaking after shutdown. A mate donated a spare external tank as I wanted to display it with three tanks, as seen by me at the airport.
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Assembly is straight forward, with few issues. The main landing gear actuators didn't quite sit correctly and a bit of the lower wing needed to be cut away to allow them sit properly. I removed some antennae which aren't used on the Tanzanian J-7G and added a couple which are. I should have used the Master pitot probe as I've managed to break the kit one at least five times so far! The canopy was masked in a tedious fashion with masking tape and the whole thing was primed with Mr Surfacer 1000 and recoated several times as I found issues after each coat. Humbrol 78 seemed like a good match for the green used on the radomes, wheels and exhaust, so I used their enamel for those areas. Model Master Light Ghost Grey was used for the overall colour and their Jet Exhaust was used for the exhaust.