It was the best tactical attack aircraft to emerge out of the Soviet Union and one of the most reliable and competent machines of its era.
BHPian V.Narayan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
MiG-27M Tactical Attack Aircraft: Indian Air Force
1:72 Artmodel kit, plastic, assembled & hand-painted
Length, 9 inches; Wingspan spread, 8 inches; excellent degree of detailing in the kit down to rivets and airframe covers.
Another masterpiece in IAF colours made by member @Basu Roy
The MiG-27M of the IAF needs no introduction to the members of this forum. The best tactical attack aircraft to emerge out of the Soviet Union and one of the most reliable and competent machines of its era. It represented the age of the variable geometry fighter to marry great lifting capacity and rough field performance with high-speed lo-lo attack profiles. It’s pity swing wings got overtaken by wing technology. They are quite a marvel of mechanical & structural engineering.
Our license assembly to production with the MiG-27M came too late in 1986 and simply could not continue after the demise of the USSR. But for that upgraded variants could have been in production today. The only shortfall IMHO was the oversized gun with its damaging recoil. It had been fitted with strafing in mind, IL-2 Shturmovik style. But still, overall an excellent machine.
The IAF had 165 enter service and these served us from 1985 to 2019.
- Length: 56 ft 0 in
- Wingspan: 45 ft 10 in wings spread; 26 ft wings swept Wing area: 402.0 sq ft wings spread368 sq ft wings swept
- Empty weight: 11,908 kg Max takeoff weight: 20,670 kg (45,570 lb)
- Powerplant: 1 × Tumansky R-29-B-300 afterburning turbojet, 8000 kgf thrust dry, 11,500 kgf reheat
- Maximum speed: 1,885 km/h (1,018 knots) / Mach 1.7 at 26,000 feet
- 1,350 km/h (730 knots) / Mach 1.09 at sea level
- Practical combat radius with reserves: 200 to 350 km varying with payload & drop tank mix.
- Rate of climb: 200 m/s (39,000 ft/min)
Armament
1 × 30 mm GSh-6-30 rotary cannon with 300 rounds, or, can be modified in a workshop to:
Hardpoints: 1 × centreline, 4 × fuselage and 2 × wing glove pylons with a capacity of 4,000 kg, with provisions to carry combinations of – air to ground rockets, iron bombs upto 500 kgs, Kh-29, Kh-25, Kh-23 air to surface guided missiles and anti-radar missiles. Self-defense mainly in the form of R-60M heat-seeking missiles.
My collection focus continues to be these customized models in Indian colours. I’ve finally reached the stage in life where I can pursue this with impunity and fulfil long-held boyhood ambitions!
Presenting the IAF’s MiG-27M
The degree of detailing is mind-boggling, rivets, hatches, every airframe line…
Wings fully forward for landing & takeoff to enable the carriage of heavy loads at lower take-off speeds and shorter runways. Note the fine artwork of the ‘swing’ marks on the inner aft wing paint.
Intricate detail of the underbelly, landing gear and the 4 FAB500 bombs, 2 80mm rocket pods, and 800 litre {I think} drop tank.
Smoke marks on the fin and rear fuselage. Basu’s painting skills are 1000X mine!
Here’s what BHPian Foxbat had to say about the matter:
They just keep getting better! I think that model has more detail than the actual aircraft!
Tough question: which is the best-assembled model you have?
P.S. Are the wings glued in place? I remember I made a Mig-23 variant of this kit and for some reason, it did not come with the internal gear mechanism for the wings.
It’s extremely gratifying to see these Indian model subjects which are not made by built model manufacturers.
Here’s what BHPian skanchan95 had to say about the matter:
Congratulations on another wonderful addition to your collection. It is truly a masterpiece by Master Basu.
Fascinating level of detailing. Loved the weathering & wear & tear effects too. It is difficult to get such effects on diecast models. Only recently have some brands started giving weathering and wear & tear effects on their models. But none of them come close to what Basu does on his models.
One thing that always fascinated me about the MiG-27 (and MiG-23BN) was the fitment and positioning of bombs on the rear fuselage weapon stations – something very unique.
Keyword: IAF's MiG-27M Aircraft: Hand-painted scale model with intricate details