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)