Exotic MiGs: Ceylonse AF MiG-21MK

[Shasper]

Well fella's, took me awhile to finish this one but I'm pleased with the results:





In the early 80's the Ceylonese socialist republic (modern day Sri Lanka) air force was the fortunate recipient of military aid from the Warsaw Pact, most notably Poland which supplied the island nation with surplus MiG-21s & MiG-26s as they were re-equipping with newer types.







The Ceylonese were eager to receive the "new" aircraft as the bulk of the airforce was made up of '60s vintage Su-7s, early MiG-21Fs, Hawker Hunters and various Chinese MiG-17 & -19 copies, supplemented by a small batch of MiG-23s & MiG-26s, all of which have been heavily used over the 10yrs in various military actions. While the surplus MiG-26s were put into service immediately, it was decided the MiG-21Ms were to be upgraded as a replacement for the handful of Shenyang J-6IIs being used in the point-defense role.







Under project "Long Horn", Chengdu modified 49 MiG-21Ms to a similar standard as the export F-7M Airguard then in development, with the addition of the medium-range PL-4 missile. The Long Horn MiGs entered service in 1984 & remained the vanguard of the Ceylonese (and later the Sri Lanken) air defense grid until 1995 when, in a second line role, airframe fatigue forced their retirement.







You can find the build thread here: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,23693.0.html

Shas