1/48 Trumpeter JF-17 Thunder

Gallery Article by Burt Gustafson on Oct 18 2012

 

 

For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of my 1/48 scale Pakistani JF-17 Thunder. The Pakistani JF-17 is a light-weight, single-engine, multi-role combat aircraft developed jointly by the Pakistan Air Force, the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and the Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation (CAC) of China. Its designation "JF-17 Thunder" by Pakistan is short for “Joint Fighter-17”. Top speed of the JF-17 is Mach 1.6, and it can carry a variety of missiles and bombs. It is also equipped with a 23/30 mm GSh-23-2 twin-barrel auto cannon. Currently, the JF-17 is slated to become the backbone of Pakistan Air Force (PAF). 

Construction
Construction began with the cockpit. The single ejection seat went together nicely, which included PE seat belts. The instrument panels came with raised detail, but I sanded the detail off and used the nice decals the kit provided for the instrument panels. These decals really dressed the cockpit up. For the heads-up display, Trumpeter provided PE parts and plastic parts. Since I am PE challenged, I built the heads-up display with plastic parts. The finished cockpit module mounted easily into the right fuselage half.

Note that the clear front wind shield and canopy have a thin parting line down the middle of each piece. I tried quite hard to sand out the parting line on the canopy, but to no avail. I did not attempt sanding the parting line on the wind shield. With a coat of Future on the inside and outside of each piece, you hardly see the parting lines. For under wing things, the kit provides a multitude of missiles and fuel tanks. I equipped my JF-17 with two PL-5 heat seeking missiles, two PL-12 radar guided missiles and two fuel tanks. The parts fit for this kit is superb, making for a trouble free build.

 

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Painting
For painting, Trumpeter provided color Painting and Marking Guides for three aircraft: Chinese FC-1 Fierce Dragon, Pakistani JF-17 Thunder (Demonstration paint scheme), and the standard Pakistani JF-17 Thunder paint scheme. I went with the standard Pakistani JF-17 paint scheme, but deviated from the painting scheme. The standard JF-17 paint scheme calls for Light Ghost Gray as the overall color and Dark Ghost Gray for the camouflage color. Here is where I deviated, because Light and Dark Ghost Gray are almost the same color, I used Medium Gray for the camouflage color. Additionally, the paint scheme calls for the camouflage pattern to be on the top and underside of the aircraft. I chose to only paint the top side of the model with the camouflage pattern.

Landing gears, wheel wells, and the inside of wheel well doors were airbrushed with MM Intermediate Blue. Engine areas were painted with MM Burnt Metal and Burnt Iron. The Radome was airbrushed with MM Gunship Gray. All the missiles were airbrushed with Floquil Reefer White.

Decals
The decals for this kit were a little disappointing. They were on the thin side and were prone to silvering. I used Solvaset to make sure each decal snuggled down to the model surface. The decal sheet provided has a myriad of microscopic stencils that practically disappeared when placed on the model. I chose not to use those tiny stencils and used only the ones you could see. The stencils for the missiles went on nicely and made the missiles look more realistic.

Comments
This is a first rate kit with excellent detail, parts fit, and instructions.

Burt Gustafson

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Photos and text © by Burt Gustafson