My Review and Build of Trumpeter's 1/72 scale Kit #01664,
PLAN, JH-7A Flying Leopardk
Introduction and What's in the Box - December 9, 2014,
Introduction - The Chinese JH-7A Strike Aircaft:
The Xian Aircraft Industry Corporation JH-7A is a 4+ generation Chinese tandem two-seat, twin-engine fighter-bomber in service with the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). The JH-7A is the new build, improved variant of the original JH-7 which entered service in the 1990s. The JH-7A, was developed specifically to give the PLAN and PLAAF precision strike capability and to do so carrying a significantly larger load than the original JH-7. This is because the JH-7A has an all new, stronger, lighter airframe which allows the aircraft to carry a maximum ordnance load of 9000 kg, which can include up to four YJ-82 anti-ship missiles.
Other innovations for the JH-7A include a domestic Chinese helmet mounted sight (HMS) which is compatible with Chinese air-to-air and air-to-surface ordinance, and with airborne sensors such as radars and electro-optics which are slaved to HMS. The JH-7A has newer, more modern electronics including the BM/KJ-8605 jammer, a Type 271 radar altimeter, fully digitized fly-by-wire flight control system, and a JL-10A pulse Doppler radar. This enables the JH-7A to employ precision guided munitions.
The JH-7A has six, underwing hard points for munitions, and another station under the fuselage. It also has two forward stations under the fuselage for various jammers, sights, and other electronics, making for a total of nine stations.
These aircraft have a minimum speed of Mach 1.75, an 1,100 mile combat radius and a service altitude in excess of 50,000 feet. They are mainstay strike aircraft for the PRC's modern aircraft.
JH-7A Flying Shark Specifications:
Crew: 2
Length: 22.32 m (73 ft 2 in)
Wingspan: 12.8 m (41 ft 7 in)
Height: 6.22 m (20 ft 4 in)
Empty weight: 14,500 kg[22] (31,900 lb)
Max Take-off Weight: 28,475 kg[23] (62,720 lb)
Enginese: 2 × Xian WS-9 afterburning turbofans
Dry Thrust: 2 x 54.29 kN (12,250 lbf)
Thrust w/afterburner: 2 x 91.26 kN (20,515 lbf)
Max Speed: Mach 1.75 Mach
Combat Radius: 1,759 km (890 nm, 1,093 mi)
Service Ceiling: 16,000 m (51,180 ft)
Armament:
- 1× GSh-23L 23mm twin-barrel autocannon,
- 4 x AAW Missiles (PL-12, R-77), and
- 4 x Anti-surface/ship missiles, or
- 4 x Anti-radiation (radar) missiles, or
- Combination of missiles, bombs, rockets, etc.
Hardpoints: 9 external hardpoints, 3 under each wing, 2 wing-tip, 1 under-fuselage) capacity of 9,000 kg (20,000 lb) external fuel and ordnance
The JH-7A a modern, supersonic, strike aircraft for the Chinese Navy (ground based) and Air Force that has precision strike capabilities. It has been produced in numbers and represents a powerful force that the Chinese leadership has at its disposal for pursuing its national intetrests.
The Kit:
This is a new trumpeter model that represents the latest model JH-7A Flying Leopard and is a significant advancement for Trumpeter over their older JH-7 variant model.
This is the only JH-7A Flying Leopard kit available to my knowledge in any scale, and is modeled in 1/72 scale. it comes with eight sprues molded in gray, one sprue molded in clear plastic (the canopy) and one Photo Etch sprue for various cockpit details (like the seat belts). There are a total of 212 part.
The fuselage is in four pieces with two halves for the major portion of the fuselage and a nose cone and taip-pipe/jet exhaust piece for the two engines. The cockpit has decent detailing with decent ejection seat detai, controls and raised surfaces for the various instrumentation. it comes with good decals for the instrumentation, but I will probably hand paint the details because the raised instrumentation will lend itself to doing that very nicely.
As with all modern Trumpter kits, it has been well modled and has very little to no flash or leftovers from the injection molding process.
The landing gear bays are well detailed and the gear can be built either in the raised or lowered position.
There are some very decent modern, indegenous Chinese armaments included with the model including the following:
4 x KD-88 Anti-radiation missiles that can be built as either the "L" or "R" variants.
4 x YJ-83 Anti-shipping missiles.
2 x PL-5 Short Range Anti-aircraft missiles.
2 x PL-12 Medium Range Anti-aircraft missiles.
1 x Electronic Counter Maasure Pod.
1 x Precision Guiadance Pod.
1 x Center line Fuel Tank.
I will build it with a full weapons load of all of four AAW missiles, 4 ASM missiles (2 x anti-radiation and 2 x anti-ship) and the centerline fuel tank, as well as the two pods.
The decal sheet is nice with a great depiction of the Flyring Leopard withg authentic Chinese markings for the aircraft and weapons. Numerous panel markings are cinluded for a total of o2120 decals.
The instructions are well done, as it typical for Trumpeter, with intuitive diagrams, and a very nice, full color painting scheme for the aircraft (on one side) and the weapons (on the other side)
I have some other 1/72 scale Chinese aircraft to build to represent the most modern Chinese aircraft in addition to the JH-7A.
- J-11B Flanker Air Superiority Fighter by Trumpeter.
- H-6F Badger Bomber by Trumpeter, I intend to modify oit to the latest "K" version.
- Z-10 Fierce Thunderbolt Attack helicopter by Hobby Boss.
These will go along with the foloowing that I have already built in 1/72 scale:
- J-15 Flying Shark by Trumpeter, which is the Chinese aircraft carrier strike fighter.
- J-10S Vigorous Dragon by Trumpeter.
- J-20 Mighty dragon 5th generation stealth Fighter by Trumpeter.
Here are pictures of the JH-7A kit before starting the build:
The Build - Cockpit, Gear Bays, Fuselage - December 9, 2014
I began by gathering all of the pieces necessary to build the cockpit and painting them. it is a tandem, two place cockpit and so there are two of everyhting. The instrumentation is raised in the model so rather than grinding that down and using the decals, I decdied to hand paint the instrumentation. I then assembled the cockpit.
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