1:72 MiG-27 Flogger-D

A fighter rebuilt for attack on the ground

The design comes from a fighter type with a variable-sweep wing, yet for strikes on ground targets it turned out that neither a large search radar nor complicated air intakes were needed. The nose was therefore given a sloped shape known as the duck nose, with a better view downward, the air intakes were simplified to fixed ones, and the machine received stronger armor for the cockpit and a substantial six-barrel 30 mm cannon. What arose was a specialized attack aircraft that stayed in the Soviet Air Force from the mid-1970s for another two decades.

Recognition features

The most striking element is precisely the nose without a radar, along with the strengthened landing gear with larger tires, because of which characteristic fairings appeared on the upper surface of the fuselage. Sweeping the wing changes the silhouette from a slender arrow to a broad surface for taking off from short strips, which on a model is a rewarding feature.

The kit

Zvezda has offered this tooling for a long time and it is among the accessible routes to building a less usual Soviet type. The box is made up of injection-molded parts, a clear sprue for the glazing and decals, and the build proceeds with ordinary gluing and painting.

Recommendation

It is advisable to finish the cockpit before joining the fuselage and not to forget nose weight; on types with a long rear end there is a risk of the model sitting back on its tail. The camouflage of Soviet attack aircraft tends to be broken into several earthy shades, so it pays to mark the boundaries out beforehand with a thin pencil or to use masking putty.