Tarangus JA37 Viggen (37412) 1/48

[Paramedic]

Hi!

 

I am not sure but I do not think I have ever posted a WIP-thread here. I am mostly reading reviews, resources, commenting others´ WIPs- and finished aircraft. But thought, "-What the Hell, why not?" Might as well make your stuff look even better.

 

This is my second Tarangus JA 37. First one was finished of in the splinter camouflage but I was not too happy with it, too many mistakes so I gave it away to a non-modeller that would still be happy with it. But since I am a massive Viggen (and Draken!) fan I have quite a few more in the stash, with waay too much AM for various reasons...

 

This build is for a friend that is also an aviation enthusiast but is not modelling himself. During our schooltime he managed to get one week at F10 Ängelholm during our "deployment" to workplaces to see what work is all about (drinking coffee and chatting?) during secondary school. He was at First Division at F10 Ängelholm which then flew AJS/AJSH/AJSF Viggens while Second Division flew J35J Drakens. And those were the aircraft we usually saw as kids when growing up some 100 miles north along the coast, or so.

I gave him a grey 1/48 Hasegawa J35J a couple of years back and now he has been bugging me to do a Viggen too, sto keep the Draken company.

 

I am not the best modeller nor painter in the world, far from it, and the in too many ways failed first Viggen made me feel I had to get better in quite a few areas before going for another one full of very expensive AM so I took this opportunity to practice. It is not as bad as it sounds but I figured I could build a more *budget version* (it is still very pricey) and try some new (for me) techniques.

 

The choice fell on a JA 37 however, a variant not flown at F10. Instead I chose an example from F13 Bråvalla. One of four Viggens that visited RAF Coningsby in 1989 and is on Two Bobs decal sheet. It was painted in the Jakt-Viggens air superiority greys and id not look too weathered at the time. It was later modified to D and Di-standard and is now preserved at Optand, in the middle of Sweden (close to another defunct Swedish Airforce Wing - F4 Frösön which also flew Jakt-Viggens/JA 37s)

 

Here it is at RAF Coningsby in 1989:

 

 

Part of the reason I chose that one aircraft (37412) is the "Martin Blå" logo that was painted on the port side of three of the visiting Viggens and on both sides on the forth (37398). The logo adds a little bit extra interest I think. It is for the Second Division at F13 Bråvalla by the way and was retained for some time after the visit.

My buddy did not mind a grey fighter-Viggen over splinter recce-Viggen looking like the ones from his school-visit so all is well.

 

(More pics from the visit HERE!)

 

This is how she looked while based at F17 Kallinge later in her career:

 

 

And these days:

 

 

Now... I always do better when I feel for an aircraft and this one has that little extra. Growing up seeing them in the sky but half of my family hails from the area around F13 and I did see both recce- and fighter Viggens while visiting there a few times. One memory I have is one Viggen coming in to land over our heads as kids, when we were picking strawberries, just outside the runway at Bråvalla. Here that base can be seen in two quite nice vids from the early 90s just before the base was shut down.

 

 

 

 

Maybe I make less stupid mistakes and use more patience for the build with all those feelings? We´ll see, but it usually works.

 

Here is the decal-sheet from Two Bobs. Sadly a bit tricky to find these days but I am bugging Moose Republic Decals to make more Viggen-sheets and hopefully a few of the Viggens visitng RAF Coningsby might be included.

 

 

132nd Fighter Squadron/Martin Blå.

 

Now, the Tarangus Viggen does *need* some AM and I have an unhealthy ammount stored for my own, later ones. But the kit is expensive as is the AM and as the build is also a "practice build" and my friend can´t be asked to pay for a shedload of AM it won´t have that much (lol). I am also a slow builder, at times, so to get it done  soon-ish and keep it relatively cheap this is what I have chosen:

 

 

Canard-corrections from CMK to get the correct angle of the flaps and that extra vortex-generator. I used Maestro´s correction last time and they seem almost identical except the vortex generators on them are separate and you get a resin-tool to get the correct droop on the flap.

The wheels in the box are frankly terrible and in need of replacement while the pit needs to be a bit "pimped". Master pitot for that extra good look but no RAT?? Yeah, you have to draw the line at some point. I am not charging my friend anything, he will have to buy me a few beer and I did get some good merchandise in the form of coffe cups, water bottles from his job (the Anti Aircraft regiment of our defence so pretty cool! ) but the kits i a lot of money, as is the time spent so... Yeah, my next build will have  afew more extra AM piece thrown in. This one does not need to be too complicated or time consuming.

 

And yeah, no corrected Ja 37 fin. The one in the kit is not entirely correct but good enough for this project.

 

 

Sorry for  along starting-post by the way..

 

 

 

 

[Paramedic]

Work began by washing some parts along with the breakfast-wash!

 

 

The cockpit of my last build felt okay with just photo-etch but for the next ones I will show horn the Neomega cockpit for the ESCI/Airfix into the pit. It is good for the first generation attack and recce-Viggens but needs some modification for the fighter ones. The chair and consoles are pretty nice however and I really like the look of the more interesting IP-hood. But for now this will have to do.

 

 

WIP-look of some of it:

 

 

The Tarangus/Special Hobby Viggen can easily be a tail-sitter if not some weight is added so I pushed in some old lead air gun shots and glued them together with some white tac. The cone needed some filler and polishing (and still more polishing! )

 

 

 

The upper and lower fuselage left a very nasty seam. Lets leave that for someone else to judge if it is me or the kid, shall we?

 

[Paramedic]

In the meantime I dealt with the thrust reverser shutter-blade (is that the word?):

 

 

 

And then glued it into that big, juicy @ss-end.

 

 

I was quite happy with that, I really am no great modeller nor painter - so any tips and advice are always welcome by the way! And the colours beeing correct or not, I liked the look of it!

 

Next one, the drop tank got some filler and polishing, this time I did not glue it as nicely as it could have been done and had to fill and sand quite a bit. But it did turn out okay in the end. Atleast I have spares since you get both the fighter´s and recce/attacker´s drop tank in each box iirc..

 

 

A lot of filling, sanding and rescribing were done at various places. One tricky spot is the insert for the JA-variant, that is about 13cm longer than the other variants due to the uprated engine, sort of. I got a good fit at the belly but less so higher up. But the wings popped on much easier on this build than my last (I used AM resin flaperons on that one which might have made it more difficult, the wngs became a bit warped after my heavy handling?) The radar warning receivers needed the most filler at the wings.

 

 

The AM canard-wings did not line up properly. I suspect the resin has shrunk after moulding? Anyways, I sanded down the insides and quite a lot of the locating pins and used the plastic one from the kit (right) and used Tamiya-tape to mark the correct position).

 

The resin-canard-wings needed some sanding for the flaps too. Still need to make the left one fit better but I´ll get the "correct" droop sorted no problem.

 

Need to have them sorted, than the nose-cone and the pitot tube and it can almost be primed!

 

[matteo44]

Wow!

I have the Tarangus kit in my wish list by many time... I like the Viggen and the Draken.

I will follow your WIP 

Good work

[exdraken]

good start!

interesting read!

 

I will follow through!

 

happy modelling and fine that you manage to put up a WIP!

 

cheers!

Werner

Edited October 10, 2017 by exdraken

[SimonT]

Great job so far, cheers for the videos. Viggen really is a good looking aircraft and like you I like the crest on the side.

Edited October 10, 2017 by SimonT

[replicant]

Alter Schwede, Paramedic!!

Ok, Thors Hammer of you has no boobs, but it is totally sexy to me! I made Viggens and Drakens but they are all gone. But i have them already again in stash (also with swordfish!) and a volvo startbil to push them ...........

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Looking good to me ... im an american but always loved the Draken’s and Viggen’s so 👍 up from me.

[ForestFan]

Looking good, great narrative too!

[Paramedic]

23 hours ago, matteo44 said:

Wow!

I have the Tarangus kit in my wish list by many time... I like the Viggen and the Draken.

I will follow your WIP 

Good work

Thanks matteo. Yeah they are seriously good-looking aircraft! Unique in so many cool ways too. But then I am quite biased..

 

I hope you find the kit cheap soon!

21 hours ago, exdraken said:

good start!

interesting read!

 

I will follow through!

 

happy modelling and fine that you manage to put up a WIP!

 

cheers!

Werner

 

Thanks Werner!

I stood the other day and had my fingers on an Austrian Draken-box.. Love that camo. You are a good well of info on them?

I did not buy, felt I need to build a few of the ones in the stash first - but I will - soon enough! I even know whick aircraft to paint, that one that a SAAB pilot accidently flew in over the Baltic States as they tested them before delivery. Oops! Could have been messy.

I think that one is preserved too..

 

21 hours ago, SimonT said:

Great job so far, cheers for the videos. Viggen really is a good looking aircraft and like you I like the crest on the side.

Thanks Simon! Yeah, aren´t they! The crest definitely adds a little bit extra interest.

 

16 hours ago, replicant said:

Alter Schwede, Paramedic!!

Ok, Thors Hammer of you has no boobs, but it is totally sexy to me! I made Viggens and Drakens but they are all gone. But i have them already again in stash (also with swordfish!) and a volvo startbil to push them ...........

Thanks replicant! No it doesn,´t, sadly..!

I love that J35J with the big, yellow swordfishes too! Let me know when you build it so I can admire your work!

 

16 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Looking good to me ... im an american but always loved the Draken’s and Viggen’s so 👍 up from me.

Thanks Corsair!  And you guys still have some airworthy, different Drakens over there. I think one was for sale not too long ago, probably one of them that featured in the Nicholas Cage movie where he flew Apaches (terrible movie but cool scenes! )

14 hours ago, ForestFan said:

Looking good, great narrative too!

Thanks Forest! Yeah I got a bit carried away but those vids are pretty cool, always gets me into the mood for some Viggen modelling!

 

 

[Paramedic]

I am a bit bad at snapping photos at interesting stages but i will try to get better at that.

 

Glued on most stuff that should be there and masked off the butt (made a very crude radar warning receiver back there too, there is none in the ki for either model)

 

 

Polished it a bit. And then some more.. Fit is mostly good but there are some areas that needs attention. I did slightly better on this second build but I can probably do even better next time.

 

Not used Ultimate Modelling Primer/StylenRez or whatever it is called but Vallejos similar (?) before. And i usually left whatever I primed with vallejo´s for a week before sanding and never had any problems. But this UMP-stuff lets you sand and paint much quicker, right?

I still picked up a spare part, a Draken kit I canniibalized for a lost gear-set, extra fuel-tanks for an S35E, launchers for a J35J etc.. I know, it is cruel but still gives me a good, crisp surface to try it on as well as the mr Paint colours I have yet to properly test!

And that upper half of the Draken lets me mess up once when i cut up the plastic to fit an Aires cockpit into the next build...

 

 

The primer went on with no problems at all, will show that next time.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Please ... I implore you to Never mention the movie “Firebirds” again ! One of the worst clones of Top Gun ever attempted ! Im sure Nicholas Cage would also be very very grateful if every human being forgot that movie existed ... FOREVER !!! 😜

[Paramedic]

But.. But.. There are DRAKENS in it..!

 

Yeah, but you are spot on, it is not good.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

A whole air force of Drakens, Viggens, and Gripens could not save that movie ! 😆

[exdraken]

Nice progress!

For a Austrian early Draken, take care the RWR / chaff / flare fairings were not present., nor were the dayglow numbers  or Sidewinder capability!

[Paramedic]

1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

A whole air force of Drakens, Viggens, and Gripens could not save that movie ! 😆

LOL - true! A nicer chick could have though. Atleast partially.. -

4 minutes ago, exdraken said:

Nice progress!

For a Austrian early Draken, take care the RWR / chaff / flare fairings were not present., nor were the dayglow numbers  or Sidewinder capability!

Ah, I did not know about the RWR / Chaff fairings, good to know, thanks! Yeah you got them Sidewinders when Jugoslavian aircraft started to violate your airspace right?

 

I am tempted to pick that box up, it is the 1/48 Hasegawa "Austrian Special" with decals for both the special red and white and the normal ones, with day glo, iirc..

[exdraken]

1 hour ago, Paramedic said:

LOL - true! A nicer chick could have though. Atleast partially.. -

Ah, I did not know about the RWR / Chaff fairings, good to know, thanks! Yeah you got them Sidewinders when Jugoslavian aircraft started to violate your airspace right?

 

I am tempted to pick that box up, it is the 1/48 Hasegawa "Austrian Special" with decals for both the special red and white and the normal ones, with day glo, iirc..

That boxing , as both Austrian ones by Hasegawa only has parts for the Mk2 upgraded version.

The Efuard boxing also has the early parts included, as they are essentially Swedish Ds.

[Paramedic]

Oh yeah! I forgot about that one! Could be smart to pick up! Are the decals of better quality in that one? On the other hand, a decently cheap hasegawa boxing of the sprues plus an Aires cockpit might be cheaper and just enough...

 

I actually got a bit distracted thinking about Drakens, I have this one without its legs and most underside small parts. I Built and primed the gear so I can finally finish it off. It has been like this for two years and while I was very happy with it back then, it could need some kind of wash in those delicate panel lines....

 

 

Right! The Viggen.. Is primed with two fairly thin coats of that UMP/StylnRez-thing. Great stuff! The Vallejo kept feeling wet for some time for me and it needed atleast a few days before I could sand it. I gave it a week to feel safe but after that it worked perfectly fine for me.

I might have to sand it at some places though. Keeping up my low standard and trash quality pics, here it is (it is the big, grey thing in the middle! ):

 

 

Made a sloppy pre-shading on the Draken-piece with Tamiya NATO Black. Would have preferred German Grey but I was out of it. Thankfully I have a few on the way to me in the mail already..

 

 

The I put on 1-2 thin layers of Mr. Paint´s very nice and authentic colours. (First pic with a lamp to the left.) From left to right:

 

Grey MRP-220

Dark Grey MRP-221

Panzer Grey MRP-222

Dove Grey MRP-223

 

The first two are for air superiority grey J35J Drakens and JA37 Viggens while the last two are for SWAFRAP AJSf37 Viggens and JAS 39 Gripens. I wanted to try them all out and see the difference.

No issue with the paints at all, they are supposedly best sprayed at low pressure, like 10 psi, maybe slightly higher (like Alclad!), or so I have been told. I am just a noob here.

 

I did use a 0,4mm needle against the advice to use 0,15-0,20mm mbecause I found my smaller ones were broken and I had no replacement. That meant I did "spluurt" two times, sending a big drip onto the surface.

So definitely need a new, smaller needle for the main event!

!

The shade looks really nice to my eyes however! I have used Mr. Colour/Gunze paints for earlier builds and while I love them, these will be my new favs for Swedish aircraft! I just need to be careful not to overdo or obliterate my preshadings!

 

 

 

[Paramedic]

Ok, since I am a collossal n00b - a post full of mistakes..!

 

Did some preshading and at one point managed to lose the grip so the model fell on its bottom and the canopies popped like champagne corks, lol. Easily fixed without any lasting damage however. But tje pre-shading for the front fuselage was too thinned so did not work well, and what was worth - I kept painting..! 

Lastly, for now (!), the front flaps had been glued with a little too much cyanoacrylate sp I had to pop them off and clean up a bit. So instead of quite clearly visible glue creeping between the flaps and wing I instead have quite big gaps..! We´ll see if I can clean that up atleast a bit...

 

 

And of course, not even five minutes after I was done, the mialman dropped a parcel with among some fun stuff, German Grey.. However, NATO Black probably worked better.

 

 

I quickly managed one more mess-up when I - un-thinned put that Mr. ColorSuper Clear into the air brush... Oops! Quickly cleaned up yet another mess adn thinned it with 2/3 of Mr. Color Levelling Thinner and then it went onto the Draken-carcass like a charm! I have yet to try that Tamiya Accent Colour but have high hopes for it!

 

Getting myself a replacement needle for the AB tomorrow so i can start laying down the grey air superiority camo..

[IPMS19]

- The Viggen was once my favourite machine ( and still is ) I built five of them using bunches of Maestro transkits....Yours look very good and I really appreciate the video- I like your Draken equally

[Snitok1983]

Looks like a build is full of soul! It will be much interesting to folow the tread!

Alway be interesting of the great a/c of the northen nabor (i am from the southern Baltic coast). In the mid 90-th there was a friend visit of the Viggens to the our local airbase Nivenskoe- beautiful monsters!

Good luck!

Edited October 13, 2017 by Snitok1983

[Paramedic]

22 hours ago, IPMS19 said:

- The Viggen was once my favourite machine ( and still is ) I built five of them using bunches of Maestro transkits....Yours look very good and I really appreciate the video- I like your Draken equally

Thanks IPMS19.

Yeah, there is something brutally cool about it! I of course feel a little extra for these SAABs since I grew up, seeing - and hearing them..! But I have other favourite aircraft too. The F4 Phantom IIs with their big, brutish look about them, that noise and the smoke is almost as cool.

 

17 hours ago, Snitok1983 said:

Looks like a build is full of soul! It will be much interesting to folow the tread!

Alway be interesting of the great a/c of the northen nabor (i am from the southern Baltic coast). In the mid 90-th there was a friend visit of the Viggens to the our local airbase Nivenskoe- beautiful monsters!

Good luck!

Thanks Snitok1983.

Yeah those builds tend to be more fun and sometimes even more successful. Or I just feel it is not good enough and hide it in a closet..!

I think I have seen pictures from that visit!

 

I really liked that Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color and it behaved very nicely on that fine, Hasegawa detailing.

 

 

(I´ll try to get a better camera soon tho!)

 

Got my replacement needle-set so immidiatley started to play with it! Chosing the Mr. Paint MRP-175 Blue-Grey for the drop tank. It is the underside colour of a splinter-painted Viggen and I have pictures of other JA37s using those so chose that to get some variation in the colours on the model. Not perfect preshade or covering but I wanted to play a bit (I have several spare DTs).

 

A bit tricky to show off the true colour with my trashy camera but it is really blue grey (doh!), in a nice shade. The second pic is more true to how I see it here.

I´ll weather it some more later on and there are a couple of stencils for it. And could possibly have chosen a better pre-shade colour..

 

 

The Viggen was actually supposed to be longer, if SAAB had had their way. But some decisions elsewhere made itthe way it is. Which meant that there were less internal space for fuel, hence the often seen drop tank (1400 or 1500 liters, cannot remember which it is). The shortening also moved the gear a bit and that in turn messed up the hard points. One reason the Viggen sometimes seems to carry quite a small payload. On the other hand, the main purpose for the attack varaiant was to carry anti-shipping missiles and it did so without problem so... It ended up well I guess?

 

Time for another vid eh?

 

 

 

[exdraken]

Interesting thoughts about the desgn, thanks!

Is there a good bppk on the Viggen I need to have?

[Paramedic]

Hi exdraken!

 

Yeah, the walk around by Squadron Signal is not bad nor is Jan Jörgensens SAAB 37 Viggen under the Nordic Airpower series (I just bought the SAAB 29 Tunnan today for my father and was just now looking at the Austrian Tunnans! ) It is excellent for pictures and a brief overview of the variants. Squadron Signal´s walkaround is most excellent for modellers of course, with great detail photos and good info on engines, weapons etc.

But there is one other gem, "Svenskt Flyg Under Kalla Kriget" (roughly "Swedish Airpower During the Cold War") I do not think it is translated (yet?) but it is a book made in collaboration by pilots and the Swedish Air Force Museum to name a few. It deals with the design, strategy, tactics and specific incidents. It mentioned some of those design-thingys. An absolute gem for people like me.

 

I know there is an older book about the Viggen by Sven Stridsberg but I do not have any of the editions nor have I read it..! I probably should...

 

I visited old F3 Malmslätt about two years back as part of a mentorship during my medical studies.. I think SAAB owns atleast parts of it and I got to see the pool where they tested bang chairs/parachutes in (I think!) and that bad bottom accelerator, or whatever it is called. Some poor Danish fighter pilots were tested in it. Looked quite painful..! Felt like I was walking on sacred ground, where old SAAB-stuff was tested, lol. But they also have their own airfield that is these days called Linköping City Airport not that far off.

You guys were the contry that was closest to actually getting the viggen and iirc a few Austrian pilots were actually trained in it! Some of the very few foreign pilots flying it.

 

Was about to do the grey top colour tonight but took the night off and drank some beer instead...

[Paramedic]

Right... Give her a few coats both on the upper and lower surface. Not too many hazzles but the pre-shading was not exactly great, especially on the front part. need to work on that on future builds!

 

Took double precautions with a double "rain coat", lol, when the RWRs and fin tip was painted...

 

 

I´will remove it in a few hours and have a look if.. Or where it needs to be touched up.

 

Got some nice stuff in the mail too: Really need to add some tools and even more importantly, skills to the modelling table..!

 

 

Soot for the engine and some oil and doo-doo for the drop tank, among other places. But I need to play around with it on that poor Draken skeleton forst..

 

..and speaking of Drakens! Finally realized I *need* that Eduard boxing and ordered one!

 

 

I (almost!) have enough Drakens for the Swedish ones i want to make so this one will most definetly be an Austrian one. That camo is just too nice looking!