Kitty Hawk Saab JAS-39C Gripen (Griffon) OOB Build 1:48

[Mike]

I couldn't resist cutting some parts off the sprues after my review it naturally extended to a bit of a look-see at the cockpit, and after accidentally breaking open the glue, I decided that I'd build this as a fairly quick sanity build as much out of the box as I can manage. The cockpit goes together nicely, as does the ejection seat, although some clamping was needed to get the head-box halves to mate, but that's probably down to my usual ham-fisted nature, and occasional forgetting to test-fit parts before adding glue

I've just primed those two assemblies plus the cockpit coaming, and am auditioning some paints for the interior colour from my Lifecolor range. The FS36622 shade isn't in my collection, so I'll just wing it with a similar shade

The instructions tell you to paint the gear bays white and the gear legs a light grey. The pictures I've seen so far seem to indicate the opposite, with grey bays & white gear legs. Which is correct?

I'll post up some pics once I've got something painted. Black primer isn't very attractive or informative to the viewer, as it's both difficult to photograph, and hides the detail anyway

[Mozzy19]

I'll follow this. It'll be interesting to see how easy it is to build compared to the Italeri one.

Sean

[Mike]

Well - still no pictures, although progress has been made. I've built up the engine (sort of) with a view to painting it. I'm not bothering with the outer skin of it, as it's going to be buried, but I'm painting the exhaust (obviously!) and might squirt some metal on the front, even though I'm planning on making some FODs for it. Rolling the PE inner exhaust was a piece of cake with the components of this, as the 2nd largest roller is exactly the right size. I annealed it, then rolled it using the smaller rollers on four layers of kitchen roll (I forgot the spongy layer on the back of the roller! ), then finished the job with the correct sized roller. Once that was done, I put some Tamiya tape over the join & slipped it inside the tube of the engine. It fits perfectly with the tape on, so I'm going to leave it on once it's painted. it's got a coat of black primer on it, and will be streaked with some thin layers of Elfbein to give it that worn ceramic look later. I've sprayed the ends of the tube black in case there's anything showing later, and the soon-to-be-metal parts too. The exhaust petals have just had a coat of Alclad gloss black primer, and I'll mess them up later too while I have the Alclad metal colours in the brush.

I've also built up the main gear wells, and here the fit of the smaller parts is a bit iffy, mainly because most of the locating pegs are grooves with no holes, and the pegs themselves are a bit flashy. I've sorted it with a bit of test fitting & trimming, but it's something to watch out for. I've also filled the sink-mark in the nose gear well, and am finishing that off as I go.

Anyone got any info on the wheel bay colours?

[Mike]

I quite fancy doing the Czech Tiger Meet aircraft, as I like the tiger motif on the tail, so could anyone suggest a load-out for this? Would it be clean, or loaded up with extra fuel & some inert weapons?

Answered my own question about the landing gear by visiting our walkaround which has plenty of pics of the gear bays. All a glossy pale grey, which seems to match the gear legs themselves. Glad that's sorted, as I can carry on with the priming

[Stephen]

There's a pic here showing a centreline tank with inert AIM-9Ms

http://air-attack.com/images/single/1005/10000-flight-hours-with-Czech-Gripen.html

I'm following this as I'm planning to start mine fairly soon.

Stephen

[Mike]

Finally took a picture of progress now I've finished the cockpit & gear bays. I've also painted up the exhaust too, and using our walkaround, I attempted the latticework pattern that you can see feintly on the pic here:

I used some Jammy Dog 0.5mm masking tape laid down in similar pattern to the pic, sprayed a slightly darker colour and then over-sprayed with some of the base colour. The tips were darkened a little with some Alclad Jet Exhaust, and the inner was given some coats of orangy beige to finish off. The rear section at the back will be painted boxy colour later, but for now it's just overspray

The cockpit was nice & simple to do, and the decal settled down perfectly with some Gunze Mr Mark Softer. I suspect the pit is a mixture of old & new layout, but can't say for sure, and don't have the time to find out The gear bays are also pretty simple, but the small parts needed some adjustment before they'd fit. I drilled out the lightening holes in the little tirangular parts, but whether it was worth the effort, I don't know. There's a lot more tiny pipework you could put in there, but again, it's a simple build for a simple person

I've also painted up the exhaust tube & burner ring which I'm just about to put together, and the outer bays have been given a coat of grey, a wash, and are waiting for a coat of matt - I forgot when I was doing the rest

[Shar2]

Looking very nice Mike.

[Mike]

Thanks mate - there's a grave danger of me closing up the fuselage today

[Shar2]

The inside of the exhaust petals look like they could do with a bit of shading or a darker wash as it appears a bit clean at the moment.

[Mike]

I'm depicting it the week before

But seriously, I've put a wash of rust pigment in the middle of each petal and then removed it with a cotton bud, leaving a trace of a more orangey colour

[John Laidlaw]

Nice, neat work as usual, Mike - looking forward to this one coming together. Like the exhaust as well .

[Mike]

Thanks John

I've closed up the fuselage!!! I had to fettle the nose-wheel bay aperture a little, but that only took a couple of scrapes with a scalpel. I also put 11g in the nose cone, as I'm closing it up, but if you're leaving it open, there's loads of room for weight in the space behind the radar bulkhead and the cockpit. There's also a little twin exhaust vent behind the cockpit on the spine, which I think is the cockpit heat exchanger, which I painted Alclad pale burnt metal with the interior of the bay painted black to hide it.

Overall, quite a painless exercise

[James Quinton]

looking really good, cant wait to see more progress.

[Spikelhund]

Nicely painted bits and pieces, good stuff.

Cheers...

[snapper_city]

Looks like a nice kit. Lovely work so far Mike...

[Marcel]

Hi Mike, some CzAF Gripens here:

http://www.211squadron.cz/foto/airplanes/jas-39/index.html

[Mike]

Thanks guys & thanks to Marcel for those photos. I'll have a flick through when I have a minute

[woody37]

Great start Mike, good to see that workbench active

[Mike]

Thanks mate it's been a while since I've done anything aviation related, but it's nice to be back in the saddle

[flarpen]

^Hi

^{Nice looking start.}

^{I fear this may bee to late, but the colors in cockpit isn't quite right. The entire area behind the pilot should be black including aft wall and the area above the side consoles.}

^{http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HLQrbcGixkA/UYelcF1Su2I/AAAAAAAABWk/rQU9AH_kiGg/s1600/Gripen+C+cockpit.jpg}

Edited June 12, 2013 by flarpen

[Antoine]

Looking good so far.

Ah, sh.., well, no pics!!!

[Mike]

^Hi

^{Nice looking start.}

^{I fear this may bee to late, but the colors in cockpit isn't quite right. The entire area behind the pilot should be black including aft wall and the area above the side consoles.}

^{http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HLQrbcGixkA/UYelcF1Su2I/AAAAAAAABWk/rQU9AH_kiGg/s1600/Gripen+C+cockpit.jpg}

You may well have a point there! I might try & repaint the turtledeck behind the pilot, but I think the side walls might have to stay grey... the sills could be painted black though, so It'll sort of look right if I do

[flarpen]

You may well have a point there! I might try & repaint the turtledeck behind the pilot, but I think the side walls might have to stay grey... the sills could be painted black though, so It'll sort of look right if I do

The turtle deck is the most visable part, so it would probebly be enough to correct that.

Some more reference pics and A/C, B/D comparisons are available here from Emil Lindberg on the IPMS Stockholm site plus a few bonus material on other swedish related stuff

http://www.ipmsstockholm.se/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2385&p=19016

/Johan

[Mike]

Thanks for those

I've given the turtle-deck and sidewall tops a coat of Panzer Grey, and will re-coat them when the initial layer is dry. I've also glued the intakes and nose onto the fuselage, and the tops to the wings. They're just setting up now, and I'll post some pics when they're free of their clamps and clips

[Mike]

The nose/fuselage joint is good, as I suspected, but a little wide, so I've filled it with Vallejo putty with the excess removed by the swipe of my pudgy finger. There was a seamline running along the top shoulder of the intakes to about mid-way down the spine, at which point it did a 90^o and joined its partner on the other side, leaving a slight difference in the height of the surface panel. Easy to get rid of, but the clean up is going to need a little re-scribing. The intakes themselves were a bit of a PITA, because I wanted to obtain a finer panel line where they joined than would have resulted if I'd left them. I filled them and sanded back, but need to put a little bit of primer on them to make sure they're smooth before I repair the panel lines & rivets.

The fuselage/wing joint is a tricky one, but I approached it by gluing the trailing seam with CA, then doing the little wing root stub joints, again with CA, holding them as close to flush as I could get. Then I did the front joint, and finally the main root seam on the top surface. It's not perfect, but clean up shouldn't be too tricky - mostly CA at the front seam and Vallejo putty along the wing root. The inner flaps needed a little filling to remove a sink mark where the flap actuator fairing is on the other side, but that was easy to sort out. I'd recommend adding these parts after installing the wing though, as putting them on with the wing loose gives you plenty of leeway to get them offset a little by accident.

The nose cone was a bit large, having a flared lip where it meets the fuselage. This was actually quite handy, as it allowed me to sand it back for a nice join using a few new sanding sticks. As mentioned elsewhere I added 11-12g of weight from the base of an old angle-poise lamp, held in place with some CA, so it's definitely not going to be tail sitter

I'm going to allow the airframe to sit and set up before I attempt clean-up, and maybe start on the flappy bits such as the landing gear, weapons and gear bay doors. More as it happens