1/72 Saab A 36, Broplan - vacuform!

[Bjorn]

I started this build almost five years ago thinking "how hard can it be". It could. But now I have promised myself to finish it. For those of you that haven't heard of this odd Saab, the A 36 was a project for a heavy attack aircraft that should carry the Swedish nuclear bomb. The planned engine was the Bristol (Rolls-Royce) Olympus. The bomb project was cancelled in the late 50s and a few years later the A 36 was cancelled too before. No aircraft was built. Instead, Saab switched focus to the Saab 37 Viggen project.

 

The A 36, or project 1300-76, looked like this:

 

A few years ago, Polish company Broplan released a vacuform kit of this odd subject, calling it "Vargen" (The Wolf), a name that never was used. Some parts are injection moulded.

 

 

A large spares box is necessary... The cockpit is actually from a 1/48 Draken! Not much will be seen through the windows,

 

 

The air brakes are also from a 1/48 Draken, from Eduard's PE set.

 

 

An almos perfect exhaust was found in the spares box. 

 

 

Cockpit is a mix of the Draken cockpit, scratch-building and a Viggen seat.

 

 

The air intake was the worst part. But after lots of puttying and sanding it looked pretty OK.

 

 

Wings and fin... I cut out the elevons that is drooping on all other Saab aircraft, so they probably would do it on this one too.

 

 

Wings and fin attached:

 

 

Lots of scratch-building was necessary on the underside:

 

 

After these steps, most of the building was finished. I thought. But extremely much sanding and puttying would follow... And after that, I got tired of it and turned my attention to other projects. But a last week I decided to finish it. More sanding followed, and after a number of layers of primer, it was finally ready for painting.

 

The camouflage pattern is taken from an alternative Draken-style pattern that was one alternative for Viggen until the famous splinter-camouflage was created. My aim is to make an aircraft how it would have looked in about 1970.

 

 

The tanks are taken from a F-16. Like Lansen, Draken, Viggen and Gripen, A 36 would probably have flown with them almost all the time. Next step is decals.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Bjorn

[Crossofiron1971]

Great work sir!

Always lose my bottle with Vac Form!

[Stu_davros]

It's great to see this kit being built, I've been wondering what the Broplan kits were like, they do a few interesting aircraft that no one else produces.

 

Cheers,

Stuart

[Jessica]

Now that's interesting! Do you have an F-107 to sit beside it?

[Bandsaw Steve]

Awesome! I have a bit of a 'thing' for Swedish jets but have never even heard of this one. This is going to look very cool!👍👍👍

[Jackman]

That looks great!  Just a question:  What did you use to glue the vacuform fuselage halves together?  Normal modeling cement ( eg Tamiya Cement, etc)?

Thanks in advance.

 

 

[Christer A]

I still think you should've painted it in Splinter kammo, but I guess it's more logical with "Hav" for  a 1970 aircraft...

Great job!

[Bjorn]

Thanks!

Stuart: They are very basic. The injection-moulded details are pretty simple, but the overall fit is rather OK.

 

Jessica: No, but that would have been great! In fact, one of the projected 1300-versions had the air intake on the back, just like the F-107!

 

Jackman: I used ordinary ethyl acetate, just like other models. The plastic is normal styrene, so the only difference is that most parts are thinner, so body halves had to be strengthened before I glued them together.

 

Christer: Well... Splinter is nice, but to me it looked too modern for this one. So the choice of scheme was not only due to me being a little lazy.

[Martian]

Nice! I love a good vacform project.

 

Martian

[Christer A]

1 hour ago, Bjorn said:

Christer: Well... Splinter is nice, but to me it looked too modern for this one. So the choice of scheme was not only due to me being a little lazy.

For 1970 you're completely right!

I'm very curious about what you'll do with the landing gear, since the plastic parts provided looks awful in my kit. Planning on raiding a Draken or a Viggen kit for that stuff?

[Bjorn]

Finished! RFI thread.

 

 

 

 

[cngaero]

I do like a good vacform and this certainly hits the spot. 

It's a lovely looking aeroplane and you've done a fantastic job with this one Bjorn.

There's something very appealing about Swedish aircraft and this is no exception.

Thank you for sharing it.

[Convair]

Nicely built, I liked the camouflage painting. An interesting subject, resembles the F-102. Congratulations!