1/72 Trumpeter CAIC WZ-10 PLAAF

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I hope all is well and the wars fought by your models don't last too long, plastic soldiers have families too haha. Anyways, things are going good for me. Last week I was very stressed about my mid-term exams this week but it is all good. Anyways, here is a model I particularly enjoyed.

1/72 Trumpeter CAIC WZ-10 PLAAF

I bought this guy on eBay and it showed up well before I expected. Anyways, this model was an easy build with multiple options for weapons. I chose to attach missile pods along with "stinger" missiles and anti tank missiles below those. I built it a different way than I usually do. I put the weapon racks on the stub wings while they were still on the sprue. I do not recommend this as it was hard to get the paint into those tiny places.

Although it turned out good, it is not my best helicopter. My best helicopter is a Sea Cobra (USMC) which I may post about later. Anyways, the cockpit and wheels are Flat Black while over all the aircraft is NATO Black as that is what it looks like in pictures. The rotor blades are Black while the hub is Flat Aluminum. Jet exhausts are Metallic Grey while the missiles are White.

So this is a brand new helicopter being utilized by the People's Liberation Army Air Force. It was a top secret project that only became public a few years ago.

It will probably be comparable to the US Apache Longbow or the Russian Hind attack helicopters. I am excited to see the capabilities of this aircraft, but I hope they won't be used against the west and her allies.

I first experienced this aircraft much the same way as the J10 in the previous post. In the only night ops mission in Operation Flashpoint: Red River, as you are retreating back to safety after accomplishing your mission. The helicopter attempts to take you out so you must duck into cover a lot while at the same time Chinese spec ops troops are being sent after you. It is intense and you never get to see the chopper, but I think you can destroy it.


General characteristics

• Crew: 2
• Length: 14.15 m (ft)
• Rotor diameter: 13.0 m (ft)
• Height: 3.85 m (ft)
• Empty weight: 5,540 kg (lb)
• Loaded weight: 7,000 kg (lb)
• Useful load: 1,500 kg (lb)
• Max. takeoff weight: 7,000+ kg (lb)
• Powerplant: 2 × WZ-9 turboshaft, 1000 kw (1350 shp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 300+ km/h
• Cruise speed: 270+ km/h
• Range: 800+ km
• Service ceiling: 6,400 m (ft)
• Rate of climb: over 12 m/s (ft/min)

Armament

• Guns: 23 mm or 30 mm autocannon mounted on chin turret (optional 30 mm or 40 mm automatic grenade launchers, or 14.5 mm Gatling gun)
• Hardpoints: 4
• Rockets: 57 mm, 90 mm multi-barrel unguided rocket pods
• Missiles:
  
  • Up to 16 HJ-10 air to surface / anti tank / anti helicopter missiles. ADK10 is reported to be the official name of HJ10 missile.
  • Up to 16 HJ-8, HJ-9 missiles
  • Up to 16 TY-90 air-to-air missiles
  • Up to 4 PL-5, PL-7, PL-9 air-to-air missiles

Avionics

• YH millimetre-wave fire-control radar
• Helmet mounted sight with night vision goggles
• BM/KG300G self protection jamming pod
• Blue Sky navigation pod
• KZ900 reconnaissance pod
• YH-96 electronic warfare suite

 (Info from Wikipedia and the model box)

1/72 Trumpeter Chengdu J10 "Vigorous Dragon" PLAAF

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, school is getting very busy and I have a job during the week as well and I haven't had too much time to actually build my models. Anyways, I am going to be starting a parallel blog where I show how I made surface assets exclusively in 1/35 scale.

1/72 Trumpeter Chengdu J10 "Vigorous Dragon" PLAAF

 This is the Chengdu J10, a new Chinese aircraft that was first developed in the mid 1990's and put into service in the med 2000's.

This plane was easy to assemble, but where the fins on the lower back portion of the aircraft would not conform to the rest of the aircraft. To supplement this I used modeling putty to fill in the cracks and used a queue tip to brush away the excess.

 The cockpit is Light Sky Blue with Olive seat cushions. Overall the aircraft is Neutral Grey with Dark Grey camo painted with an air brush. The nose is Flat Black. Missiles are gloss white with the jet exhaust being Metallic Grey.
The aircraft turned out great and is definitely comparable with the rest of my collection.

 I first heard of the J10 in a video game called 'Operation Flashpoint: Red River" where the player is a marine that does battle with the Taliban in a fictional conflict in Tajikistan. About half way through the game China gets involved and air support is cut off and the general of the Marines says it is because of J10 attack aircraft.

Although the player doesn't see the aircraft it can be heard on the first mission against China.

Anyways, the J10 is used exclusively by China and is exported to Pakistan. The aircraft was developed under the name 'Chinese New Fighter' to replace older Russian aircraft purchased in the 80's and 70's.




General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 15.49 m (50.82 ft)
• Wingspan: 9.75 m (31.99 ft)
• Height: 5.43 m (17.81 ft)
• Wing area: 33.1 m² (356.3 ft²)
• Empty weight: 9,750 kg (21,495 lb)
• Loaded weight: 12,400 kg (28,600 lb)
• Useful load: 6,000 kg (13,200lb)
• Max. takeoff weight: 19,277 kg (42,500 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Saturn-Lyulka AL-31FN or WS-10A Taihang turbofan
  • Dry thrust: 79.43 kN / 89.17 kN (17,860 lbf / 19,000 lbf)
  • Thrust with afterburner: 125 kN / 130 kN (27,999 lbf / 29,000 lbf)
  
  

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 2.2 at altitude, Mach 1.2 at sea level
• g-limits: +9/-3 g (+88/-29 m/s², +290/-97 ft/s)
• Combat radius: 1,600 km (with air to air refueling), 550 km (without air to air refueling)
• Ferry range: 1,850 km
• Service ceiling: 18,000 m (59,055 ft)
• Wing loading: 381 kg/m² (78 lb/ft²)
• Thrust/weight: 1.024 (with AL-31); 1.085 (with WS-10A)

Armament

• Guns: 1× 23mm twin-barrel cannon
• Hardpoints: 11 in total (6× under-wing, 5× under-fuselage) with a capacity of 6,000 kg (13,228 lb) external fuel and ordnance
• Rockets: 90 mm unguided rocket pods
• Missiles:
  
  • Air-to-air missiles: PL-8, PL-9, PL-11, PL-12
  • Air-to-surface missiles: PJ-9, YJ-9K
• Bombs: laser-guided bombs (LT-2), glide bombs (LS-6) and unguided bombs
• Others:
  
  • Up to 3 external fuel drop-tanks (1× under-fuselage, 2× under-wing) for extended range and loitering time

Avionics

• Unknown phased array radar
• NRIET KLJ-10 multi-mode fire-control radar
• Externally mounted avionics pods:
  • Type Hongguang-I infra-red search and track pod
  • BM/KG300G self-protection jamming pod
  • KZ900 electronic reconnaissance pod
  • Blue Sky navigation/attack pod
  • FILAT (Forward-looking Infra-red Laser Attack Targeting) pod
  (Information provided by Wikipedia)