+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Slovenian contact with military aviation began during World War I, when the army and navy air services of Austria-Hungary conscripted large numbers of personnel from throughout the Empire. As the Empire began to collapse during 1918, Slovenian aircrew and ground crew switched their allegiance to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Aircraft found on Slovenian territory were taken over by the Slovenian authorities and formed into a fledgling air arm. The new air arm was soon involved in the conflict with Austria over the border provinces of Carinthia and south Styria. Later in 1919, the Slovenian air units were absorbed into the Royal Yugoslav Air Force.
In 1968 a reserve volunteer force, the Teritorialna Obramba (Territorial Defence of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia), was established to defend local key locations in time of crisis. The Slovenian Territorial Defence HQ had a small auxiliary aviation unit stationed at Ljubljana-Polje airfield by 1969, when Government Factories Type 522 advanced trainers were being operated. These aircraft were borrowed from the Yugoslav Air Force and not owned by Slovenia. Slovenian Territorial Defence ceased to be a part of the Yugoslavian auxiliary forces on 21 June 1991, (four days prior of the proclamation of independence), when the Yugoslav army seized 12 Soko J-20 Kraguj aircraft from them.
On 28 June 1991 a Yugoslav Air Force Gazelle defected to Slovenia, providing the first helicopter for the Territorial Defence Force. During the war, it also was equipped with three ex-Police Bell 412s and an Agusta A-109A. On 9 June 1992 the Air Force Unit of the Slovenian Army was renamed into 15 Brigada Vojaskega Letalstva. The 15 Brigada was divided into two squadrons, one fixed-wing and one helicopter squadron, flying from two bases, Brnik airport and Cerklje ob Krki.
Slovenia’s independence and the aftershock of the war in Yugoslavia soon led to a major expansion of the Slovenian Air Force’s capabilities through the acquisition of 18 former East German MiG 21M and MF fighters, which had recently been retired as a consequence of the re-unification of Germany and the dissolution of the NVA-LSK. As armament, Wympel R-60 (NATO reporting name AA-8 “Aphid") IR-guided short range AAMs were bought from German surplus stock, too.
The machines were disassembled and transported by train to Romania in 1995, where 12 of them were re-built and outfitted with modern avionics from Israel, bringing them more or less to the Romanian Air Force’s “Lancer C” standard and capable of carrying Western weapons like the AIM-9 Sidewinder or the Rafael Python (even though the Wympel R-60, also procured from ex-East German stocks, was the interceptor’s prime weapon. The rest of the airframes were kept as spares and for potential replacements.
In Slovenian service, the MiG-21 became, under the newly introduced military serial number system, designated “L21” (L for Letalska = Aircraft). The first machines were delivered in 1996 and exclusively operated as interceptors. In this role, they were allocated to the newly founded Slovenian Air Force’s interceptor squadron, which was at that time still part of the 15 Brigada. In 1997, this new unit made its first deployment outside of the country: two aircraft were sent to the Mildenhall Air Fete in the UK.
When Slovenia joined NATO in 2004, the country took over most of the responsibility for protecting Slovenian airspace from other NATO units, even though foreign forces’ deployments were still frequent. In order to prolong the L21’s service life and ensure interoperability with friendly, foreign forces, the Slovenian Fishbed fleet was overhauled and updated by Aerostar in Romania in 2003 with NATO-compatible avionics (primarily communication and IFF systems), similar to the Croatian Air Force’s MiG-21BisD/UMD standard.
On 8 November 2004 the 15 Brigada was officially disbanded, and four new units were formed in its place: the 15 Helicopter Battalion, the Air Force School, the Air Force Base and the Interceptor Squadron.
The 151st Rotary Wing Squadron is located at the Brnik air base and the unit is equipped with eight Bell 412 helicopters as well as four AS-532 Cougar helicopters. The unit’s duties are to organize training courses for pilots and technical staff, to organize search and rescue missions and operate within the System of Civil Protection, Help and Rescue, to secure cargo transportation to mountain areas, to extinguish fires, and to provide air support for SAF units.
The Air Force Military School is located at the Cerklje ob Krki air base. The school conducts the basic and advance training programs for future air force pilots in two Zlin 142L and eight Zlin 242L planes and four Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopters, organizes practices for air force pilots, provides fire support, and carries out various tasks for other branches of the armed forces by using the two PC-9 and nine PC-9M planes. A part of the Air Force Military School is also the parachute squad, located at the Brnik air base, which organizes basic and advanced parachute training for SAF members.
The Air Force Base, located at the Cerklje ob Krki air base and designated 152nd Fixed Wing Squadron, carries out logistic support, such as fuel supply. The unit is equipped with two PC-6 planes and one L-410 plane. The Air Force Base unites the air supply squad and the technical support unit whose main tasks are to plan and conduct the second stage of aircraft maintenance, carry out technical personnel training, update aircraft documentation, etc.
Finally, Cerklje ob Krki also became the home of the country’s sole jet fighter squadron, officially the 154th Fixed Wing Squadron, but semi-officially and more commonly dubbed “Letalska Lovec Eskadrila” (= Interceptor Squadron). From Cerklje ob Krki, the Slovenian Air Force conducts airspace patrols in close collaboration with and support from Italian and Hungarian air forces, since the Slovenian fleet of twelve L21s is not big enough to ensure an independent 24/7 fulfillment of this task.
In 2014 the Slovenian MiG-21s were refurbished again, after two of the original machines had been lost in accidents. They were replaced with material from the mothballed airframe stock and the L21 fleet will probably remain in active use until 2019/2020, when they will be replaced by a new 4th generation fighter – candidates are F-16C/Ds, bought from US surplus stocks, or leased Saab Gripen (JAS 39C), similar to the Czech and Hungarian Air Force.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 15.76 m (51 ft 7½ in) incl. pitot
Wingspan: 7.15 m (23 ft 6 in)
Height: 4.13 m (13 ft 6½ in)
Wing area: 23.0 m² (247.3 ft²)
Empty weight: 6,000 kg (13,215 lb)
Gross weight: 8,200 kg (18,060 lb)
Max. TOW: 9,400 kg (20,700 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Tumansky R-13-300 turbojet, rated at 40,30 kN (9,040 lbf) dry thrust
and 60,70 kN (13,650 lbf) with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: 2,230 km/h (1,385 mph/1,205 kts) at 11.000 m
1,300 km/h (807 mph/702 kts) at sea level
Cruising speed: 1,200 km/h (745 mph/650 kts)
Landing speed: 350 km/h (217 mph/190 kts)
Range: (internal fuel) 1,210 km (751 miles)
Combat radius with two AAMs and three drop tanks: 465 ml (750 km)
Service ceiling: 19,000 m (62,200 ft)
Rate of climb: 180 m/s (35,375 ft/min)
Thrust-to-weight ration: 1.03 maximum
Armament:
1x internal 23 mm GSh-23 cannon with 200 rounds
5x hardpoints for a wide range of ordnance of up to 3.310 lb (1.500 kg);
Typically, the Slowenian L21 carried a pair of Wympel R-60 IR-guided short range AAMs
and 1-3 supersonic PTB-490 drop tanks.
The kit and its assembly:
A relatively simple project, just a cosmetic whif. It is actually based on a CG skin, created by user “Thor77” and posted at digitalcombatsimulator.com, upon which I came across when I was browsing for the Slovenian Air Force’s current paint scheme and information concerning its colors. Among several whiffy creations (including an A-10 and a Mirage 2000) there was a MiG-21MF, and it caught my attention because it appeared very plausible. Since I was curious about the “new” Kopro MiG-21 with modernized molds from the company’s era under the KP label, I used this inspiration for a build.
The vintage KP MiG-21MF was/is actually a very good model of the aircraft, even though the production finish has never been very good and the original kit came with raised surface details, (lots of) flash and sinkholes here and there.
In order to see how the modernized Kopro kit compares, it was built mostly OOB with just minor changes or additions (air scoops, antennae, canopy cut into two pieces for display).
The “new” kit is really nice – its sprues and parts are virtually identical with the old KP molds, and you still get raised panel lines, what might let certain people wrinkle their noses. But these details are very fine and crisp, no more sinkholes - but there’s still a lot of flash that calls for careful and thorough cleaning. And even though the fuselage halves did not match properly (one half turned out to be 0.5mm wider than the other), the Kopro kit is a noticeable step forward and IMHO the best of the many incarnations of this MiG-21MF kit that I have come across so far. It reminds me very much of a classic Heller kit! Just with flash, though.
The ordnance consists of a PTB-490 drop tank (OOB) on the ventral hardpoint, and I gave the Slovenian MiG-21, inspired by Croatian machines, an armament consisting of R-60 AAMs carried on the inner underwing pylons. As a personal twist, however, I increase the missile number to four (all of them taken from an ESCI Ka-34 “Hokum” kit) on double pylons, inspired by real world NVA-LSK equipment. The new launch rails were scratched from styrene profile material.
Painting and markings:
Well, the original reason for this build was the pretty unique paint scheme of Slovenian military aircraft: a rather murky three-tone camouflage, consisting of a deep red brown, forest green and a dull olive green, paired with light grey undersides. This does not sound spectacular, but, like the Austrian two-tone green scheme, it is pretty characteristic.
My build was inspired by a concrete flight simulator skin, but I did not adopt this CG pattern because it looked too “simple” for my personal taste, with only a few bands of different colors that were also extended at right angles from the fuselage onto the wings. Instead, the applied scheme is a personal, more sophisticated guesstimate, based primarily on Slovenian PC-6 transport aircraft and on PC-9 trainers.
My choice for the basic colors fell on Humbrol 170 (Brown Bess), 195 (Satin Dark Green, actually RAL 6020; Chromoxidgrün) and Modelmaster 2015 (Faded Olive Drab), plus Humbrol 129 (FS 36440) for the undersides. The Faded Olive Drab tone turned out to be too light, but I stuck with it since I found the bigger contrast between the upper colors to be quite attractive.
A black anti glare panel was added in front of the cockpit and, instead of the classic bright green, the air intake shock cone became black, too – inspired by the CG benchmark. Other dielectric panels were painted very dark grey, or in the case of the fin, in a slightly different brown tone, matching the surrounding camouflage.
The cockpit interior was painted in an individually mixed greenish-blue tone (great contrast to the murky exterior!), with some dashboards in medium grey.
The landing gear wells were painted in zinc chromate yellow (Humbrol 81), while the legs became light grey (Humbrol 167, Barley Grey) and the wheel discs bright green (Humbrol 2).
The markings come mostly from a very nice Blue Rider Publications sheet for various aircraft in Slovenian and Macedonian service. The booklet that comes with it yields some valuable information about other markings – e.g. the fact, that most Slovenian military aircraft carry city names and their respective crests. While I had to rely on the sheet’s material for this detail, I adopted it for my L21, and my choice fell on the town of Celje, primarily because of its blue and yellow crest.
