Clearwater Models: PLAAF MiG-17PF or J-5A (Hobbycraft)

This is the 1991 Hobbycraft 1:48 scale kit of the MiG-17PF (Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17).

The model is done as a Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) MiG-17PF or J-5A (歼-5A) interceptor from the period of the Great Cultural Revolution, circa 1966. The aircraft is representative of the MiG-17PF and J-5A types used by the 14th Air Division 41st Air Regiment at Wuyishan Air Base in the Nanjing Military Region tasked with air defence against attacks from the Taiwan direction.

China assembled their initial MiG-17F aircraft from kits imported from the USSR in 1956, then building their own under license in Shenyang from 1957 as the J-5 (Fighter-5). Shenyang also built the MiG-17PF as the Shenyang J-5A (歼-5A), making some 767 of these aircraft by 1969. Over 10600 airframes of all versions were built by MiG and license holders. The first combat of this type was in 1958 when China and Taiwan engaged over the Straits of Taiwan. The first recorded kill was that same year when a US spy plane was shot down inside the Armenian SSR. The type went on to shoot down many faster US military aircraft during the air defence war against US attacks in Viet Nam.

This piece is named after a bizarre air force cult-of-personality artwork entitled "Mao Zedong Thought gives us direction, we do not lose course in the vast sky" (毛泽东思想指方向万里长空不迷航). During the GCR China was so wracked with political upheaval that many things ground to a halt in order to worship Mao and read the little red book. The air force did little maintenance and flew few hours. China was very vulnerable to US attack for several years, and was essentially being protected by the USSR despite the Sino-Soviet Split.

This is another in my series of COVID-19 models, and was built OOB in 72 hours just for the fun of it. I bought it as a previously-owned kit from Hobby Centre in Ottawa. Thank you Bill. The tail is badly warped, and the ejection seat is too tall for the canopy. I could only fix one. The nose section I wanted to use did not fit at all (too small), but there was another. I attached the landing light in the open position. The wavy line between the blue underside and the top colours was done with sticky notes cut to shape and lightly tacked on. Topside black and tan are freehand airgun, with hand washed additional paints overcoating and correcting overspray. Paints are all Vallejo and Tamiya acrylics, coated with sepia and distressed. Decals are from the IPMS Ottawa decal bank.