Bjorn Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 (edited) Many of us thougt that Hobbyboss would release a 1/48 Tunnan. So did I, and bought it on the C4 Open exhibition last weekend. Since I will never build this one after the Pilot Replicas release in a couple of weeks, I started it immediately. But to my surprise, we all still wait for a 1/48 Hobbyboss Tunnan. This one is actually in the, somewhat odd, scale of 1/54. (Edit. 1/52, see below). But anyway. Why not try this scale for once? Let us start; Sprue shots have been published already, but here they are again: Apart from the scale, there are - of course - plenty of errors. But to my surprise, there are also a number of good things. Unlike AZ so-called "Tunnan", the overall shape on this one is fairly correct, it looks like a Tunnan. Cockpit is a mix of out-of-the blue items and good details. The seat is pretty basic. At a first look it seems correct, but looking twice you will find a number of errors. The main problem is the air intake, it is too wide. Mail wheels looks good, but are to large. The plastic is a bit strange, very soft and a bit similar to children's toys. I recognize it from Trumpeter's MiG-23. It is harder to sand than normal styrene, but one advantage is that small pieces do not break that easy. The canopy is great, shape seems to be spot on and it is crystal clear. Swedish decals are a joke, austrian ones are better. The Swedish stencils seems to be written in a mix of hindi, arabic and hieroglyphics: Instructions are good, but the colour instructions for the cockpit are just a guess. It states grey cockpit with black seat and black instrument panel. Real Tunnans had green cockpit and instrument panel, and NMF seat with a dark grey-green top with a clear green headrest. Surface detailing looks good with crisp - and from what I can see, also correct - panel lines and not too many rivets. Price is about 2/3 of Pilot Replicas, but after comparing this one with a test shot of PC, I can say that quality of this one is about 1/5 of its forthcoming sister model. So if you want to build a perfect Tunnan, you'd better be more intelligent than me, and stay away from this one. Edited October 30, 2015 by Bjorn 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Thank you, Björn, for acting the 'kit taster' for the rest of us. Disregarding the mysterious scale anomaly, the fuselage sprue shot would've been enough to scare me off it. I do hope that PR have got that straight belly right. ;-) Continuous curve from air intake to exhaust – yeeech! :-D Kind regards, Joachim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Oh... BTW - how did you come by the scale? Plans, actual measurements or otherwise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 thanks Björn, for me I will summ that up as "interesting" .... surface looks lightyears aheaf of the Az kit though.... did you comapre it size wise to the AZ kit? thanks and have fun building it! surely will look good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Wow. Just wow! It will be "interesting" to see how Hobbyboss will treat the Lansen after this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom726 Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Thanks Bjørn, Your findings just saved me a few quids earmarked for the HB kit. Now I'll just sit back and wait for the PR to hit the streets. Bjarne 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted October 28, 2015 Author Share Posted October 28, 2015 (edited) Oh... BTW - how did you come by the scale? Plans, actual measurements or otherwise? Just mathematics (normally not my cup of tea ). A Tunnan is 10,23 m long. In 1/48 a Tunnan should be 21,3 cm, but the model is only about 19,1. I have not measured the model exactly (so the actual scale can be 1/53 or 1/55), but it is definitely not 21 cm. Edited October 28, 2015 by Bjorn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffreyK Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Just mathematics (normally not my cup of tea ). A Tunnan is 10,23 m long. In 1/48 a Tunnan should be 21,3 cm, but the model is only about 19,1. I have not measured the model exactly (so the actual scale can be 1/53 or 1/55), but it is definitely not 21 cm. Did you take into account that the elevator (separate part) is longer than the rudder (separate part)? Just wondering as more than 20mm would be quite a large error... I don't have the kit myself, I'll get the Pilot Replicas one anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted October 28, 2015 Author Share Posted October 28, 2015 (edited) Did you take into account that the elevator (separate part) is longer than the rudder (separate part)? Just wondering as more than 20mm would be quite a large error... I don't have the kit myself, I'll get the Pilot Replicas one anyway. You have a point there. That will probably make the difference in scale somewhat smaller (I will check it and re-calculate), since it will make the model about 19,6-19,7 cm (but I measured it with the nose ring, not just the body part). However, the model is still in wrong scale. Surprisingly, AZ Model's Tunnan - a kit that is horrible in many ways - has a more correct size. Edited October 28, 2015 by Bjorn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 It's not massively inspiring, is it? Still, we're beholden not to spread factoids where possible. If it's off, an accurate figure is more... well, accurate! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Smith Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 How about the wing span? Have you checked that? Are there any reputable plans of the Tunnan? It's not just a too short fuselage perhaps? Does look like the research department has had the tea boy on google duty again though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffreyK Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 How about the wing span? Have you checked that? Are there any reputable plans of the Tunnan? It's not just a too short fuselage perhaps? Does like like the research department has had the tea boy on google duty again though The Tea Boy runs the R/D department at Trumpeter/HB! I think he had a day off though when they designed the A-6 series. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted October 28, 2015 Author Share Posted October 28, 2015 Now I have measured it once again with the elevon. The model is 19,6 cm long, which means that it is in 1/52 scale. I also measured the wingspan, and it is (fortunately) also 1/52. So the proportions are at least correct. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 A fellow modeller (another Björn), is also building this one right now. He sent me these photos of Hobbyboss Tunnan compared to AZ's one. AZ might have wrong shapes, but it is at least in the right 1/48 scale. As you can see, the difference in size is quite striking: On the positive side, Hobbyboss have captured the shapes, far better, not only the body but also the wings. The only issue that I have discovered, apart from that HB's nose is a bit wrong, is that the rear part of the belly, just before the exhaust, is too shallow. It looks good from the side, but from below it is more similar to a J 29A/B/E. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kunac-Tabinor Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 I'm reminded of the famous Morecambe & Wise sketch featuring a certain Mr André Preview "Now listen sunshine ( waggles glasses) this kit has all the right shapes..... .....just not necessarily in the right scale" Jonners, not totally surprised, and long since given up at being disappointed with the insulting rubbish that comes out of the Hobbyboss/Trumpeter collective. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) So true. Fit is absolutely brilliant and so is moulding. Just a shallow sink-mark on the belly, easy to remove, and no visible ejector pin marks. Putty will probably not be necessary at all, and there will be just a minimum of sanding. Besides that, a closer look at the cockpit shows that it is almost spot on, just a bit simplified (a bit sad is that the worst part, the upper part of the seat, is the most visible part of the cockpit...).So the conclusion will probably be: A terrific kit for all the lovers of 1/52 scale. People that probably have been longing for this since the release of this one in 1959: (OK, it is in 1/51, but pretty close.) Edited October 30, 2015 by Bjorn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Hmm, I wonder if it would be morally acceptable to buy one anyway, since I was planning to do it as a Grumman F10F "redesign". It might be exactly the right scale for that, but I don't want to encourage HobbyBoss to keep up the good work... bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMA131Marine Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) 1/52 is 7.7% under-scale and the model only takes up 78% (=0.9233) of the volume it would have if it was actually 1/48. The stencil deals are just a joke and pure laziness on the part of Hobby Boss. Compare them to the Cartograph printed stencils on Airfix's new kits, which are actually readable though I need a magnifier to do so. Edited October 30, 2015 by VMA131Marine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homebee Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) Waiting the Pilot Replicas: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234972373-148-saab-j-29-by-pilot-replicas/?hl=tunnan#entry1820293 And what about the NeOmega resin kit? http://www.neomega-resin.com/saab-tunnan-553-p.asp V.P. Edited October 30, 2015 by Homebee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) And what about the NeOmega resin kit? http://www.neomega-resin.com/saab-tunnan-553-p.asp V.P. Most of it is pretty good (and the scale is correct), but the nose has slightly the same error as the AZ kit. This is a difficult part, i spoke to the Pilot Replicas designer about this, and he told me that they had re-designed it many times before they were satisfied. Here is an example built by excellent Swedish modeller Peter Halvar: Edited October 30, 2015 by Bjorn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReccePhreak Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) . Edited December 13, 2015 by ReccePhreak 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted November 1, 2015 Author Share Posted November 1, 2015 (edited) OK, enough said about the scale. Let's start building. First the cockpit with pretty good details, and the only useful part of the decal sheet: the instrument panel decal. There are also decals for the side panels, but i decided to paint them instead. The part above the exhaust is too long, but is easily fixed with some minor surgery: The rest of the build was extremely trouble-free. Fit is excellent, the only putty required was on the front part of the windscreen, to get a more smooth transition between the body and the windscreen. Flaps are separate parts, which is great, since they were hanging like this on many parked Tunnans. However, some trimming is needed to get them hanging. I also decided to mount the pitot tubes and antenna at this stage. It might be a wise decision. Or not. The only other modification was to drill the gun openings. Edited November 2, 2015 by Bjorn 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flarpen Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Nice work.It certainly looks like a "flying barrel", even if it is in an odd scale. /Johan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Well, it looks more like a Tunnan than the AZ abomination. Shame they couldn't get the scale right. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 I wonder what tripped them up on this one? The Hawk in 1:48 seems to have suffered because someone picked the wrong variant to take the wingspan from, then too that as the base figure to base every other size on. Perhaps something similar happened here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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