1/72 Pioneer Sukhoi SU-21G "Flagon"

by Oliver Weston

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Whenever I submit an article to ARC, I always try and pick an aircraft that's a bit different, and this offering by Pioneer certainly fits that bill. Everybody's heard of the SU-15 but the upgraded SU-21 would have remained one of the USSR's lesser types had it not been for that fateful day on September the 1st 1983 when an SU-21F shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 for "straying" over a sensitive area around Murmansk. Apparently the Flagon pilot fired burst's of cannon fire close to the 747 and failed on several occasions to get a response, before pulling ahead and around to get on the airliners six. Then firing that fateful missile that bought the airliner down.
    In the late sixties early seventies Sukhoi planned an updated version of the currant SU-15D (soon to be known as the SU-21E), that would feature such improvements as an increased wingspan with compound sweep, uprated engines, larger internal fuel capacity and much improved avionics including a new twin scan radar. The 21E entered operational service in 1973 followed shortly by the 'F' and then the 'G', which both featured the Ogival radome as opposed to the earlier types conical unit. The subject of this build is the 'G' model which is the two seat conversion trainer for the type which feature's tandem cockpits with instructors periscope and upwardly hinged canopies as opposed to the others having the sliding type. The 'G' unusually for a trainer is thought to have full combat capability, hence the kit comes resplendent with four Anab AA-3 AAM's (two IR guided and two radar guided). Which I have fitted one of each, the reason for this I will explain bellow.

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Its always nice when you pick something up cheap but better when it ends up being free! I bought this kit on Ebay (because of its unusual subject matter) and it turns up minus the nose gear wheels, the nice chap selling it was unable to locate them so he refunded me and told me to use the kit for spares! It just so happened I had a pair of wheels of an Airfix Mig-23 that fit perfectly (although not entirely accurate I may add) and the rest is history. Now I've had these little Eastern Block/Turkish/Chinese kits before and some have been terrible (no doubt that will upset some people), but this offering from Pioneer was a peach! Almost everything fit together with minimal effort with just a bit of sanding on certain parts (air inlets being the exception) and the decals went on with little fuss too. The only major problem I encountered was (and someone at Pioneer wants a kicking for this!) the missiles provided don't actually fit on the wing pylons!!!! The pylons being far to short for the weapons fins to be accommodated, so I set about making some little extensions out of some scrap sprues and hey presto they fit. Only made ones for the inner pylons because the outer two were very thin and would have looked daft. The only other residual work I have done was to drill some very small holes in the tails of the two missiles for a bit of added realism. So there you go Sukhoi's SU-21G Trainer, something a bit different a think you will agree. I hope you have enjoyed reading this article half as much as I've enjoyed building the kit.

Regards

Oliver

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Photos and text © by Oliver Weston