Special Hobby Saab AJ-37 Viggen 1:48

[Mike]

Saab AJ-37 Viggen
1:48 Special Hobby

The Viggen was Sweden's Cold War fighter, which began service in the early 1970s with the AJ variant, which was primarily a ground attack aircraft that could also perform the fighter role if necessary. It was a tad shorter than the later JA, with a slightly different cockpit arrangement and a less powerful engine. Over a hundred were built, with roughly half of them converted to AJS standard at the end of the 90s with improved avionics and software. The last of these upgraded AJs were taken out of service in 2005.

The Kit
The initial Tarangus release of the JA-37 was a collaboration with MPM the parent company of Special Hobby, which has resulted in a split of the variants between MPM and Tarangus. I forget who is doing what at the moment, but can't wait for the two seaters! The initial release was well received for the most part, but like all model kits, some issues have been pointed out with varying degrees of hysteria, and as this is ostensibly the same moulding, many of those issues will apply to this kit. It is still a modern and mainly accurate tooling of an important and (IMHO) attractive aircraft, and should give any modeller plenty of enjoyment during the build, and it will of course look great in your cabinet.

Inside the box it is almost the same plastic as the Tarangus edition, with only the gun-pack sprue missing, which also included the extension tube for the JA and the cockpit for that version. There are six sprues of mid-grey styrene, plus one of clear parts, a small Photo-Etch (PE) fret that is also pre-painted, and a decal sheet. The A4 instruction booklet is printed on thin glossy paper in full colour, which is rather helpful during construction, and the large size of the construction steps is welcome to this modeller and his failing eyesight.

As construction is almost identical to that of the JA, which you can follow here I won't go over it all again, as aside from the lack of extension ring and the different cockpit tub and panel, it's near identical. I will however remind you that the detail in the main areas of interest is very good for injection moulded styrene, and the engine rear is superb. The cockpit is the recipient of the majority of the additional PE, which is decked out with a pre-painted instrument panel, side consoles and seatbelts, plus additional detail on the side of the seat, a pair of replacement rudder pedals and additional sidewall details. A trio of rear-view mirrors are also provided for the canopy when it is fitted later in the build. The gear bays are all well detailed, and as the inner main bay doors are usually closed when on the ground, no additional detail would be seen without the aid of a torch and the risk of a sore neck.

The only items available in the box that you can hang from any of the pylons are a choice of centreline tank with either three or four fins, which fit to a stubby pylon just aft of a centreline intake fairing. It would have been nice to have some additional weapons included, but as the Viggen was often seen with just tankage, it's not a major thing.

You might want to visit the inside rear of the instruction booklet before you go any further, as CMK (another MPM company) are bringing out a host of new updates to further improve on this already nicely appointed kit, as follows:

4310 M70 Rocket Pod x2
Q48219 Ejection Seat (Raketstol fpl37)
Q48222 Thrust reverser petals
Q48220 Air Brake Set
Q48221 Wheels

Maestro Models also do a substantial number of sets for the Viggen, but check that you're getting the ones tailored for the new kit before you pounce, or you might end up with parts for the old ESCI/Airfix kit.

Markings
The AJ was primarily seen wearing either bare metal finishes that was standard at the beginning of its career, or in the later disruptive splinter pattern we all know and love (and fear). There are some superb pictures of the variation in tone of the bare metal finish, and you'd go through extensive colours and masking tape doing it justice, but the finish would be well worth the effort. As to the splinter pattern, there are brave people that will tackle it themselves, and there has been a set of masks available for some years now from the US, but I'm sure some enterprising soul will produce a new set tailored to the new kit and more easily available in the near future.

From the box you can build one of the following:

• 37062 "Gustav 62", F7 Wing, Satyenas, 1990s. Splinter scheme with red 62 on the tail.
• 37022 "Gustav 22", F7 Wing, Satenas 1973 – bare metal with squadron on fuselage and tail for an airshow in Germany.
• 37051 F15 Wing, Soderhamn 1978 – Splinter scheme with unpainted starboard intake in bare metal.

The decals are well printed, with good register, colour density and sharpness, although there were a few tiny artefacts on my review copy, but these only really show up under magnification. There are extensive stencils on the sheet, all of which are legible, although I don't speak Swedish, so can't vouch for them being verbatim.

Conclusion
Another welcome kit of this superb Cold War Warrior, and with the addition of some PE to detail up the cockpit coupled with a reduction in price, it deserves to sell well. For the detail and accuracy minded, check the forums for information about the corrections needed to improve the kit further.

Very highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Stephen]

Maestro Models have a mask set for the JA-37 out already, http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/MMMK4876 I'm not sure if it would be applicable to this kit as the fin is different and the fuselage slightly shorter.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Stephen

[Julien]

Maestro Models have a mask set for the JA-37 out already, http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/MMMK4876 I'm not sure if it would be applicable to this kit as the fin is different and the fuselage slightly shorter.

It does say on the link "

Saab JA-37 Viggen 1-seater splinter camouflage paint mask (designed to be used with Special Hobby and Tarangus kits) "

So I would imagine so.

[Shaun]

Maestro Models have a mask set for the JA-37 out already, http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/MMMK4876 I'm not sure if it would be applicable to this kit as the fin is different and the fuselage slightly shorter.

We are taking a couple of mm, so should work. Not sure how tight the application of the camouflage was most on the real aircraft? but most air arms have a little variation in pattern location.

Did the AJ-37's have the large numbers applied on the tops of the wings?

[Shaun]

I've been looking at this kit this week and have noticed a few errors in the instructions, the instructions are carried over from the fighter version boxing and some details are not for both versions. The wrong tail is shown in the final stages, the extra under wing strakes on the flap line should not be added to the AJ-37.

The spine needs cutting at the rear end to fit the shorter AJ- fuselage(this is marked on the inside of the moulding) but the instructions don't show this!

Not a big problem but one to watch out for.

Shaun.

[Mike]

Useful info Shaun - thanks for sharing

[Shaun]

Useful info Shaun - thanks for sharing

The extension ring for the JA-37 is also shown on the instructions, although its not fitted when building the shorter attack version. The painting guide profile is correct though.

Shaun.

[Mike Esposito]

Does special hobby have the JA-37?

Edited April 18, 2016 by Mike Esposito

[Sebastien]

Does special hobby have the JA-37?

I'm afraid not.

The initial Tarangus release of the JA-37 was a collaboration with MPM the parent company of Special Hobby, which has resulted in a split of the variants between MPM and Tarangus.

[Housesparrow]

Wow, this kit is outrageously expensive on Ebay. I can only hope that the hobby stores have it cheaper (Edit: Nope!).

[Mike Esposito]

Too pricy

[Billydick]

The price of this seems, for some reason, to have gone through the roof .... Im sure when the Tarangus version came out I got it from HLJ for about £40 now its advertised at 70 euros !! much the same as the CMK version... Maybe because £ is weaker now.

BillyD

[tempestfan]

The SH AJ may be had for ca. 55 € plus s&h, which may of course be uneconomical to the UK. As that seller (whom I recommend, I've spent some 2.000 € or something with him over the past 8 months) often puts kits up for auction sales in parallel, you may be able to get a bargain. My AJ-37 cost slightly over 36 €, which is less than the Esci kit in its various boxing usually goes (or rather went, prices semm to have dropped) for. I bought a huge number of Airfix new tool Lancs, mostly in the Bomber Cd. gift set, none for more than 20 €, just to give an example.

[ICMF]

Wow, this kit is outrageously expensive

Nah. The kit is expensive, but not outrageous.

The myriad resin corrections that Maestro Models have released for it... THEY'RE outrageously expensive!

IIRC, last time I priced it all out, the corrections alone (RAT, canards, tail, pylons, missile rails) just about double the price of the kit. Not really any extra detail, just fixing stuff that's missing or wrong with the kit, via five small, Quickboost like sets.

If you start adding detail sets - wheel wells, flaps, vac canopy, cockpit and exhaust PE (which are both Eduard Zoom sets) the exterior PE (a single Eduard fret) and the mask set, you're now adding more that 2.5x the price of the base kit. Just in Maestro stuff, and without replacing the kit's mediocre wheels or bland ejection seat, and zero ordnance under the plane. Add Pilot Replicas' spendy replacements and the Master Models pitots, plus some Eduard Sidewinders, AMRAAMs and Mavericks, or some Maestro Rb.15s or Mjolnirs or a recce pod or two and the kit which *can* be found for about $65 US is now about a $300 investment.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.