Kovozavody Prostejov - Chengdu F-7 (1/72) [ENGLISH]

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First impression / Pre-view

INTRODUCTION
The Chengdu F-7 was the export version of the Chinese J-7. The J-7 itself was the Chinese license-built Soviet Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-21 F13. It had the standard delta wing but was fitted with the Wopen WP-7 engine which was a licensed copy of the Soviet Tumansky R-11F-300. The Chengdu Jian J-7 Type 62 was built by Factory 132 near the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province. The role of this jet was as a high-speed "day fighter". The first flight of the J-7 was in January 1966. The J-7 "I" could fire PL-2 (R-3S copy) air-to-air missiles, retained the forward-hinged canopy and was given a parachute in a tail fairing to reduce landing runway length. The long pitot tube was moved to on top of the intake. The J-7 flown by the Chinese PLAAF Air Force had 1 cannon. The J-7 was further developed. The J-7 "II" was equipped with a different ejection seat, different cockpit canopy and improved WP-7B engine.
In 1987 it was decided to sell the J-7 "II" for export as F-7. The cockpit canopy was made somewhat more “bulged/ convex” and the rear windows were removed and closed. These F-7 export jets were also equipped with 2 cannons with thus an extra cannon on the port side/left side. A Chinese two-seat trainer JJ-7 was also developed which was built in Guizho and of which most had a single different 23 mm practice cannon.
(More J-7 versions were developed such as the J-7 "III" or J-7C "all weather" version and "IV" J-7D; these were based on the considerably different MiG-21 MF. Even a double delta wing was developed and applied to the F-7G, F-7BG, F-7MG. The latest version F-7M Air Guard has Western avionics. These versions are not discussed further in this article).

THE “new KP” BRAND AND THE KITS
The Kovozavody Prostejov brand has released quite some new kits the last few years. The brand name was taken over from the previous owners of Czechoslovakian KP but in fact it is a new current Czech scale model company. I call them “new KP” and the company cooperates with several other brands in Eastern Europe. The “new KP” regularly releases kits, especially in 1/72 and also of new modelling subjects.

In April/May 2025 they released a number of kits in the scale 1/72 of the MiG-21 F13 and Chinese F-7. The kits have the same parts but contain in the releases different decals:

-1- Kit KPM0502 MiG-21 F13 / S-106 as built under license bij local manufacturer with Czechoslovakian decals;
-2- Kit KPM0503 MiG-21 F13 “Warsaw Pact” with decals for the air forces of Bulgaria, German Democratic Repubic (DDR), Hungary “Magyar Legiero” and Poland during the Cold War;
-3- Kit KPM0504 MiG-21 F13 “Export” with decals for the air forces of Finland “Ilmavoimat”, North Korea, Syria and Yugoslavia of the Tito regime during the Cold War; these air forces probably obtained the MiG-21 F12 which is a MiG-21 F13 but without the Soviet IFF SRO-2 system that the Warsaw Pact used; the characteristic 3 “beeps” that you often see on Soviet aircraft are missing.
-4- Kit KMP0505 Chengdu F-7 “Asian users”: for the Chinese export F-7 with decals for the air forces of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar (Burma) and Sri Lanka (former British “Ceylon”). Please see later comments about this supposedly F-7 kit.

Erwin Stam of the well-known Aviation Megastore had obtained a few of these kits at the Moson model show in Hungary. I got the new Chengdu F-7 kit for a pre-view:  

THE MODEL
The Kovozavody Prostejov Chengdu F-7 kit with number KPM0505 in scale 1/72 comes in an envelope style box with the colour schemes shown on the back. The kit has about 70 parts in two medium grey sprues and one transparent sprue. There are no part numbers, you have to look at the instructions to find the right part. In 11 steps it is shown how to build the model. The instructions give colours in general terms for the details but the texts are printed a bit small. There are no suggestions for paint brands or standard paint numbers.

The larger parts have neat engraved panel lines and rivets. The cockpit has nice details and for the instrument panels decals are provided. The SK-1 ejection seat is small and acceptable. You can set the dive brake behind the main landing gear open. The exhaust pipe is deep and the air intake with radar bullet is acceptable. The wheel doors also have neat details inside. There are separate landing lights that are situated near main gear bays.

The kit has similar parts as the MiG-21 F13 and in fact the Chinese license built J-7 version. For the Chinese version a different vertical tail with parachute fairing is provided and without IFF on top and that is correct. The kit with number KMP0505 is intended though for the F-7 export version with appropriate decals. But that does mean that for the F-7 export a second 30 mm cannon with matching fairing on the left side should be there. The second cannon is unfortunately missing. Too bad, only 1 extra cannon part would have been needed. The modeller should replace part #25 with a scrap made “mirrored” canon part #24.

Supplied are 2 styles of cockpit canopies, part #C2 for the F-7 with windshield and part #11 without rear windows. The main canopy for the F-7 cockpit could have been a bit more "bulged" in my opinion. If you want to open the canopy you have to split the windshield and canopy with a fine razor saw. The ASP-5ND gun sight of the J-7 was replaced by a more modern Head-Up-Display in the later F-7s but this is easily made from scrap. A small angle-of-attack indicator is missing from the kit.

For the external armament, 2 R-3S “ATOLL” missiles are in the kit, which are called PL-2 in the Chinese version; but they are a bit too thick for my taste. The kit also includes the well-known 490 liter central external fuel tank. Nice are the two extra outer wing pylons for the F-7 export included as the F-7 could carry more armament. Therefore though, it is likely that the F-7 export has thicker main wheels. These are not supplied so the two main wheels from the kit could be replaced by thicker ones.

DECALS
The decals for the various export F-7 schemes for these 4 air forces:
-1- F-7 Bangladesh in a grey camouflage scheme of the “Thundercats” squadron; this seems to be a scheme for an early F-7 as delivered in the nineties; jet with code “1414” is now a F-7MB and seems to be a modernized version.
-2- F-7 Pakistan also in a grey camouflage scheme of “Dashings” squadron; jet with code “731” is now an F-7P and is equipped with a different ejection seat and has some external extra cooling system inlets; (would need small modifications such as Martin Baker seat?).
-3- F-7 Myanmar (Burma) in camouflage scheme with Russian blue, light brown and dark green; “1622” is an F-7 “IIK”;
-4- F-7 Sri Lanka (former British Ceylon) in an all-grey scheme; “CF707” is an early F-7BS.

The decals look neat and well printed. But there is almost no stencilling included though you do get decals for the instrument panels and seat belts.
 

CONSTRUCTION
Cut the parts from the sprues with a sharp cutter. It is soft plastic so make smooth with a knife and sandpaper. Also fill a few large shrinkage dents in the radar cone in the inlet. For the rest the kit looks neat. There are no locator pins on the parts so align well when assembling and then especially when assembling the wing halves. A dry fit indicates that a little sanding and filling is needed. Do modifications described earlier for a F-7 export model.

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COMPARISON WITH THE REVELL MiG-21 F13
Another great 1/72 kit of the MiG-21 F13  was the Revell release with kit number #04346. But the Kovozavody Prostejov (‘new KP’) releases have some extra parts for the Chinese version. The extra canon for the Chinese export F-7 is missing though as well as the probably thicker main wheels.

How do these 1/72 kits otherwise compare to each other?

-a- The wing parts are almost identical with the same dimensions, shapes and engravings; the wing flaps and ailerons are also identical so this looks OK;
-b- The transparant parts in the Revell MiG-21 F13 kit are almost identical but the “new KP” has an extra F-7 cockpit canopy though that could have been a bit more “bulged”;
-c- The landing gear struts, wheel doors and KT-27 main wheels are almost identical but the KT-38 nose wheel of the “new KP” kit seems a bit better. Probably export F-7 had different (thicker) main wheels, a pair of thicker main wheels need to be sourced elsewhere.
-d- the fuselage shape is almost identical but the “new KP” kit has a separate vertical tail. I don’t know if the Chinese WP-7 engine required a thicker fuselage rear section with a different exhaust as compared to the Soviet Tumansky engine; this is hardly visible in photos;
-e- the vertical tailplanes are identical in shape but there is an extra vertical tail part for the Chinese version with parachute fairing that is correct;
-e- the horizontal stabilizers are almost identical and seem correct;
-f- the long PVD nose pitot tube is identical but for the Chinese version indeed relocated to top of the intake and correctly indicated in the instructions;
-g- the main kit dimensions are identical and seem correct also for the Chinese version;
-h- the Revell MiG-21 F13 kit has a decal sheet with a lot of stencilling decals and these unfortunately are missing in the “new KP” edition; though for the lesser known air forces it is unclear what this stencilling entails and I think this is acceptable on this scale. 

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CONCLUSION
For a Chinese Chengdu J-7 version this “new KP” kit KPM0505 is a good kit to make a 1/72 model for the pure Chinese J-7. As the kit is envisaged for the F-7 export the second canon is missing. And probable thicker main wheels are needed. The F-7 export kit decals are nice for the lesser known air forces. (For a MiG-21 F13 the kit is very similar to that of Revell although the latter is just a bit finely moulded but nowadays the Revell kit is more difficult to acquire).

A big Thank You to Erwin Stam of the Aviation Megastore <external link> for this pre-view sample. 

REVIEWER: Meindert de Vreeze

REFERENCES Chengdu J-7/ F-7:
-(1)- Modern Chinese Warplanes, authors Andreas Rupprecht and Tom Cooper, Harpia publishing, 2012
-(2)- China Aviation Today, China Aviation Press Industry, (official Chinese "promotion" edition).

   DOWNLOAD KIT INSTRUCTIONS  kp-chengdu-f7-mig21f13-manual.pdf

This first impression / pre-view was published on May 21, 2025 on the IPMS.NL website  © Copyright IPMS Nederland.