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BACKGROUND
In January 1969, a USAF F-4E
Phantom crew who shall remain nameless misread their navigational instruments
during overcast, rainy conditions and landed their plane at the main North
Vietnamese air base near Hanoi. The
crew thought they were headed back to Tan Son Nhut Air Base after they
successfully bombed two trucks and a footbridge on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, but
they got a very rude surprise when they landed on the runway!!
While the pilots were being roughly treated in the “Hanoi Hilton”,
the North Vietnamese looked over their captured prize.
The Russians sent a delegation of their own experts to look the Phantom
over, and decided to take the Phantom back to Ramenskoye Air Base in Russia for
evaluation.
In 1969, the Soviet Union
needed a new long-range fighter with maneuverability as well as good speed to
take on Western long-range bombers, strike aircraft, and fighters.
However, a new generation of Soviet air marshals also wanted a multi-role
capability for the new fighter and they saw promise in the Phantom.
The Phantom was clearly superior to the SU-15 Flagon and MIG-21 Fishbed
for ground attack missions, and even in the early 1970’s the state of the
economy was creating pressure for spending controls in the military.
In August 1969 the captured F-4 began initial flight trials with Soviet
pilots, and in December the Soviet government gave the Sukhoi design bureau the
contract to build a copy of the Phantom, to be known as the Su-19.
| On January 11,
1972, after many fits and starts, the first pre-production Su-19 made its
initial test flight at Ramenskoye. The
prototype crashed three months later just after takeoff due to an
uncontained engine failure in the number one Tumansky R-40 afterburning
turbojet, and the crew was killed.
The
R-40 was a near copy of the GE J-79 engine, and was superior to all other
Soviet engines in terms of fuel burn and overall performance, especially
considering the engine’s size, as the Soviets were just learning how to
miniaturize electronics and other items.
However, the Tumansky bureau needed some time to improve its
metallurgy techniques, as this engine was more advanced than any others it
had done. The Su-19 returned
to flight in December 1972 after the R-40 was suitably modified and
tested. After a year of
continued flight testing, with no further crashes, initial production
began on the “Phantom-ski”. |
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The aircraft modeled here is an
early production variant of the Su-19, with four AA-2 Atoll missiles, drop
tanks, and the Soviet copy of the M61 Vulcan.
This aircraft was based at Vladivostok, in the Soviet Far East, and its
squadron was assigned to long range air defense patrol throughout the Sea of
Japan region. This aircraft, number
86, is also one of the best-known Su-19’s because it was photographed and
escorted by USMC Phantoms from VMFA-232, on deployment to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan. The Soviet Air Force had intended to equip the Su-19 with
AA-4 Anab beyond visual range missiles, but there was only space for one or two
Anab missiles under the fuselage at most. The
air force marshals were impressed by the Sparrow’s equivalent capability to
the Anab in a smaller size and asked the missile bureaus to copy the Sparrow;
however, the Soviets lagged behind the West in radar and electronic
miniaturization and it was only in December 1978 that the AA-5 Sparrow copy
began initial test firings. In the
meantime, one enterprising engineer came up with small gray-colored fuel tanks
based on the Sparrow’s body, to fit in the conformal missile stations in the
Su-19’s belly. The conformal
missile stations had been copied from the Phantom because they were intended to
carry the AA-5, but initially these stations carried the small fuel tanks, which
all told increased the Su-19’s range by 100 miles with no loss of speed or
maneuverability. This range
capability was useful in the Russian Far East, where most Su-19’s were
initially based. In the late
1970’s some Su-19’s ended up serving with squadrons in the Kola Peninsula
and Poland; in 1982 one squadron of Su-19’s was based in East Germany and was
tasked in the ground attack role to supplement the MIG-27 Flogger.
The Su-19 was not the huge
success that the air marshals had hoped. Only
350 of them were built for Air Force use, and they were not used operationally
on the “front lines” after 1986. The
Su-19 had many problems, not the least of which was the R-40.
Though modified after its initial problems, the R-40 was never reliable
enough to give the Su-19 good mission capable rates.
Also, the R-40 was incredibly smoky (so smoky and hot that the aft end of
the Su-19 was much darker than the Phantom) and the smoke trail could easily be
seen by enemy aircraft. When the
AA-5 Sparrow copy finally became operational in 1981, the Su-19 units in the
Russian Far East could finally perform their mission of long range air defense
with some effectiveness, at least on paper.
However, by then, new aircraft and missiles, such as the Su-27 Flanker
and AA-9 Alamo, were on the drawing boards, and the Su-19 was becoming obsolete
even faster than its cousin the Phantom.
In its later years, the Su-19
became the Soviet Air Force equivalent of the USAF F-5E Tiger “Aggressors”,
and a squadron of Su-19’s was set up to simulate advanced Western types,
tactics, and camouflage schemes. This
squadron was based near Moscow but often traveled to air bases throughout the
Warsaw Pact to train Soviet and allied pilots to fight Western aircraft. The Su-19 was very good for this role because it was a copy
of a Western aircraft, and especially was useful to those pilots who would be
fighting against NATO or Japanese Phantoms in a real war.
The Aggressor squadron had the most colorful planes in the entire Soviet
Air Force; their Su-19’s wore simulated SEA schemes, Euro 1 camouflage, gull
gray and white, similar to USN birds, or the two tone gray schemes that F-15’s
or F-16’s used. In 1987 one Su-19 was painted in the USN TPS scheme used for
Tomcats and Hornets and two years ago that particular Su-19 was sold to a
Colorado-based warbird collector for an undisclosed sum.
Speaking of colors, most Soviet Air Force Su-19’s served in natural
metal finish, but Su-19’s based in Poland and East Germany received a
camouflage finish similar to that found on MIG-23 and 27 Floggers photographed
during that period. The radome is
painted with the same material as used on most other Soviet aircraft types, and
the gun area is very dark due to the material used as well as the gun’s smoky
recoil. The aircraft I modeled had
fired its guns at least twice during gunnery range tests before it was
photographed by the Marine Phantom over the Sea of Japan, and the gun area is
finished accordingly.
While the Soviet Air Force was
struggling with the Su-19, the Soviet Navy laid down its first full-deck
aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, in 1979.
The Navy needed a much better jet fighter than the Yakovlev Yak-38 Forger
(the VTOL fighter similar in function to the Harrier) and there were no
indigenous Soviet types then in production that could easily be adapted. The MIG-29 and Su-27 were still not that close to actual
service, so the Soviet Navy turned to the Su-19.
The Phantom had of course served well in USN and USMC as well as Royal
Navy service and the naval aviation personnel reasoned that the Su-19 could
perform similarly in the Bear’s service.
In July 1980, the first Su-19N navalized variant was flown.
The Admiral Gorshkov was launched in May 1983, and it put out to sea with
a complement of fifty Su-19N fighters finished in the standard Soviet naval
scheme of dark blue topsides and apple green undersides (same as the Yak-38).
Again, the Su-19N was not a huge success.
Only 62 of the naval variant were ever built, and ten of them were lost
in accidents during the first two and a half years of operation. In 1986, the Soviet Navy abruptly retired the Su-19N and
placed the Admiral Gorshkov in drydock for a massive refit. The naval air marshals had hoped to equip the Gorshkov with
Su-27N’s or MIG-29N’s but a serious drydock accident, then the fall of the
Soviet Union scrapped those plans. The
remaining Su-19N’s as well as many early production Air Force Su-19’s
(including number 86) were refinished in an overall orange scheme and used as
missile and gunnery test drones. (Number
86’s end was especially inglorious. In 1988 a MIG-29 pilot fired an Alamo that ended up clipping
off number 86’s outer wing. However,
the drone was not fatally damaged, and flew for 250 miles without its outer left
wing, until it ran out of fuel. It
crashed into a field near a farmer’s barn, and the farmer’s family uses the
wreckage as an outhouse to this day!).
These days, some Su-19’s are
a big hit on the warbird circuit, and some are used by Hollywood or other movie
studios in the US and abroad to play the role of friendly or enemy fighters in
films. One Su-19 is displayed in
the Monino air force museum, but most are in a boneyard in Kazakhstan.
Two squadrons are serving with the Tajikistani Air Force, and the Tajiks
have been able to keep one squadron flying with Iranian help.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the only CIS air forces that wanted
Su-19’s were the Central Asian air forces, and only because the richer
republics had grabbed their share of Mig-29’s and Su-27’s.
The Kazakhs never took the Su-19, but the Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kyrghiz, and
Turkmens all had Su-19’s in their air forces for a few years after the Soviet
collapse. The Central Asian
Su-19’s reportedly saw combat in ground attack missions against Islamic rebels
as recently as 2000; the Chechens got hold of a few Su-19’s and reportedly
used them against the Russians until they ran out of parts.
The Chechens’ Su-19’s fates are unknown at the time of writing.
THE MODEL
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There’s not a lot to
say about it. I used the R-M snaptite kit because this was going to be a
quick and easy project and I didn’t want to spend tons of money or
effort. This project was a
much needed diversion from the Tomcat.
I didn’t fuss with too many things, but I did use a mix of Polly
Scale US Interior Green and Russian Underside Blue for the cockpit to
simulate the traditional Russian jet fighter cockpit colors, and the same
Interior Green went on the radome. I
sprayed the bird a Rust-Oleum Metallic color and
that is a surprisingly good metalizer. |
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| I found also that I was able to use my finger to rub the area
to give it a different sheen, and I experimented with that.
(I also learned a few things about metalizers during this project
– next time I will try to use gloves to handle the bird.
I also would appreciate any information on sealer coats for
metalizers that don’t ruin the finish.
Maybe I’ll spray a complete bird with Alclad and see what
happens. Maybe I should use
Alclad exclusively on my next BMF project; after all, the Alclad areas I
did on the Phantom were much more forgiving of handling with my big clumsy
hands than the Rust Oleum part..). I
experimented with Alclad aluminum for the aft section of the Phantom/SU-19
and brushed steel and gunmetal in that area as well. I drybrushed flat black and gunmetal in the nose area to
simulate gun stains. Finally,
I used Scalemaster red star decals and intake warning signs, and
numbers/warning triangles from a Microscale Mig-21 sheet for the markings. |
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This was a fun and neat
project. And the snap-tite kit is perfect for this because it isn’t
all that accurate for a Phantom – good basic shape but lots of little details
aren’t completely accurate, like the missiles and wheel wells.
Perfect for a Soviet copy of a Western aircraft!!!!
Happy modeling!
Justin
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