Scale aviation modeller international

The intake

ducting is next up. I

pre-painted this in

aluminium on the

inner faces and on

the compressor front

face. This forked assembly is added

into the fuselage from below and

needed some manipulation to get

it to fit within the intake area – I

ended up clipping off the prominent

lugs to give more wriggle room.

Once the intake inner surfaces

are in place, the outer surfaces can

be added. There’s a crucial joint

between these and the fuselage

body, so I added some plastic strip

tabs to the latter to give some

extra support to the edges.

The fit around the cockpit side

isn’t immediately intuitive since

the boundary layer bleed ducts run

right alongside the canopy and look

as if they should be closed off. If

the Swiss DS version with canards

is being modelled, the locating

holes need to be opened up in

the outer part of the intakes

before attaching them in place.

I removed the prominent

shock breaker ribs from the

gun housings since the guns

themselves would not normally

have been fitted to the two-seaters.

The wing is straightforward,

helped by the simple delta plan,

with a one-piece lower and two

upper panels. The air brake flaps

can be fitted open or closed, and

I chose the latter since that is the

usual configuration on the ground.

The fit of the wing to the

fuselage is very good, with only

the slightest smear of filler.

According to the instructions, the

undercarriage should be fitted at

this point, but it makes sense to

leave it off, simply cleaning it up for

painting, and moving on to fitting

the fin fillet, the nose cone and the

flaps. The flaps/elevons are in three

parts per side, and can be fitted in a

neutral or drooped angle. I went for

drooped to add some interest, using

the appropriate drive track parts.

It is at this point I confirmed my

choice of underwing stores, settling

on the standard 500 litre supersonic

tank on the starboard wing,

matched by the JL100R opposite,

and the two LRF-2 packs on their

own pylons outboard. These latter

needed the front section of the kit’s

combined pylon/flap drive (Part C2)

removed, and the resin pylons in

the PJ Productions set substituted.

I had vacillated about whether

to have the canopy open or closed,

thinking that it would be a shame

to hide the work on the seats and

instruments, but in fact, the canopy

is sufficiently clear that visibility

is pretty good, so I decided to fix it

closed. I think this helps to show off

the sleek, aggressive look it gives to

the whole front end of the aircraft.

After careful painting of the seats

in shades of tan, khaki, green, and

blue, I masked the windscreen

and canopy and fixed them in

place with Pacer 560 acrylic glue.

PAINT AND DECALS

The canopy area was masked and

then sprayed with Halfords Matt

Black to represent the interior

colour, then the whole airframe

was coated with Halfords Grey

Primer. Invariably this showed up

a few flaws and gaps, and these

were dealt with using super glue

or Deluxe Products Perfect Plastic

Putty before the airframe was

polished with 3000 grit abrasive.

I quite like using pre-shading for

pale undersides, but for generally

darker upper surfaces I tend

towards post-shading these days.

Accordingly, I used a thin mix

of Mr. Hobby H416 Dark Grey

for the under surface panel

lines and several thin

coats of Mr. Hobby H

Light Aircraft Grey to

represent the “‘cold

The major components of the fuselage show

the relatively simple assembly.

The fit around the intake is quite complex.

I added tabs to support the joint.

Fit of the wing to fuselage is neat

and requires only a smear of filler.

18 • MARCH 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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