PeterB

Hi Guys, Perhaps, but I will see what I can do first. With luck the only obvious problem will be the nose bay, and that is not going to be that visible with the doors at the correct angle. and a bit of shading to suggest depth. Like my Frog Shackleton the odd challenge can be interesting. After all, 60 years modelling should mean I can do a little better than when I built the ruddy thing the first time. Christer, Thanks for the info on the yellow squares - I can see that they lingered long enough to impress Roy Cross, but I may leave them off. It does make me wonder it the large dayglo red markings on Heller's Viggen are also exercise ones rather than normal service ones? They claim it is a JA37 of 1 Jakflggdivisionen in 1992 and it has a large red 47 on the wings and a smaller one on the tail. It is in the grey camo scheme. Pete.

Hi Guys, I understand that the early model Draken had a cannon in each wing but ther F only had one. Am I right in saying the cannon was in the right wing and was the cannon port on the left wing still there or was it filled in. Can't be sure from the walk rounds I have looked at. Airfix have incorrectly moulded two ports, one in each wing. Cheers Pete

Hi Col, I am beginning to have my doubts about this - it is a lot cruder than I remembered it. I was expecting having to box in the wheel bays and probably blank off the air intakes, but I wonder just how accurate the front fuselage is? It is so shallow that the ejector seat will be virtually sitting on the fuselage bottom, though I can shorten it a bit and get in a thin floor. An IP and rear bulkhead plus side consoles should be possible though fiddly. I am glad I did not splash out on a resin tub as I suspect it would not fit! What I am not going to be able to fettle much is the nosewheel bay which would stick too far up into the pit. Airfix provide a rectangular hole with either a piece representing closed doors, or a part with a plate in the middle to fit in the hole, and 2 virtually horizontal open doors moulded on. I can fix the doors to hang about right and will just have to live with no actual bay. Oh well, as Enzo said elsewhere GB's should be challenging! Pete

I built mine in USAF markings - seem to remember it went together pretty well. Good luck Steve. Pete

Hi Christer, I am sure you know this already, but according to the Putnams book on Saab aircraft you are right about there only being about 50% commonality. They mention quite a few changes, including stiffening which might mean changes to the booms I guess, They mention changes to the tail including raising the elevator to avoid jet blast, increasing the inner wing chord and "sharpening" it whatever that means, moving the air brakes to the outer tailing edges, moving the wheels forward and higher, and steamlining the windscreen, I don't know how accurate this is but they say the wingspan of the J21RB was 11.37 metres compared with 11.60 metres for the A. I would imagine changing the wings and booms would not be easy so I would just go with it as Dave said. Cheers Pete

My Lansen having gone faster than expected, I am waiting for some paint to arrive so I thought I might make a start on this. I built it when it first came out in the early 1970's and remember it being a simple kit. The cockpit is non existent, being just a crude seat and pilot, so I will have a go at detailing it a bit, having bought a resin seat.The kit has markings for 2 machines, one from F 13 wing and another from F10 with lots of yellow squares. I have never been certain if they were normal markings - I have read somewhere that similar markings were used on Lansens but only during exercises so wonder if the same applies here? As usual with my builds I like to give a little background history as I know there are one or two out there who know as little about the Draken as I did - I suggest everybody else skips this bit. As ever all info from Putnam's Saab aircraft so anybody wanting to correct or add to it - please feel free. Saab's first purpose built jet, the J29 Tunnan was entirely conventional except for a rather fat fuselage, and the next warplane they built, the J32 Lansen was perfectly “normal” to look at, but the supersonic J35 Draken (Dragon) was totally unconventional for the time, being given a “double delta” wing like nothing before, and perhaps nothing after as well. The concept was tested on a purpose built machine known as the Saab 210, which had a similar wing to the Draken, but tested various nose and intake layouts – this is one version. At least one other had a longer nose I believe. In April 1952 the Swedish Air Force ordered 3 prototypes of the Saab 1250 project as the Type J35 Draken, and the first flew on October 25th 1955, powered by the same RM 5A licence built RR Avon as fitted to the J32A Lansen. Delivery of the initial production A model began in late 1959, fitted with the more powerful RM 6B variant of the engine. 90 were produced, but from the 66th onwards changes were made to the rear fuselage to incorporate a new afterburner and a retractable tailwheel to allow high drag "nose up" landings to assist in short field operations apparently. Top speed was Mach 1.5 Starting in 1962, 75 of a new version the J35B were delivered with improved armament and radar, followed by 120 improved J35D with more powerful engine and improvements in radar, fuel capacity and a new rocket ejector seat. The C version was a 2 seat trainer and the E was an unarmed recce version, and the ultimate version was the F of which 230 were built entering service in 1965. This was basically a D version with a completely new electronics fit to allow it to fire licence built versions of the Hughes Falcon missile instead of the Sidewinder of the early versions, of which more during the build. Top speed was in excess of Mach 2. A number of F models were later upgrade to the J with changes to electronics and weaponry. The Draken was primarily a fighter but had limited ground attack capability, particularly the ones exported to Denmark, or so I believe, and as such was a replacement for the J29 Tunnan rather more than the J32 Lansen, which was replaced by the Viggen multi role aircraft I think, but may be wrong? Early versions were NMF and very late ones Grey but I will be painting this in the "Blue/Green" camo. So I had better do a bit of research on cockpit colours before I go any further. Cheers Pete

Certainly am Col! Whilst there can be considerable satisfaction in building a "difficult" kit, or doing a major internal detailing exercise like on my old Frog Shackleton a few months back, they can at times be rather tiring, so a nice "easy" build can be a refreshing change. As I said previouly I have always liked the look of the Lansen, though I did not get round to buying this one until around 10 years ago. Now I have started it, helped enormously by the generous advice and information I have had from our "Nordic" modelling friends, it is proving a pleasure to build - at least so far. I will post some pictures shortly, but the fit is very good on this boxing - not sure what the newer re-releases will be like as the moulds will be getting a bit old by now! Later, The fit would put many modern kits to shame! I had to scrape the fuselage wing mountings just a little as the wings were slightly tight but otherwise it virtually "clicked" together. I will need a very small amount of filler on the lower wing to fuselage joint,, and have scraped the fuselage centreline joint gently with a knife but otherwise it is virtualy perfect. Next I have to fit 3 tiny intakes on the rear fuselage, which will be a pain. Then it will be a case of washing and priming. I got 10g of lead in the nose and it looks to be fairly nose heavy so I have risked gluing the lower nose insert in place - it will also need just a touch of filler but was far better that the similar insert on the Tunnan. If I need more weight I can put some in the belly tank I expect. At this rate I may end up having to wait for the Humbrol Acrylic 116 paint to arrive next week, so I will probably make a start on the Draken. Cheers Pete

Hi Wez, Put it this way - at the current rate, and assuming I buy no more kits, I will be in my mid Eighties before I clear the stash so I decided it was time I got a move on! I retired 4 years ago, but my plans for kit building took a back seat for a couple of years for a variety of reasons, and now I am attempting to make up the backlog, so the KUTA was a great help, and there are enough interesting GB scheduled to make a serious dent. Since I joined my first GB last June I have shifted 17 new kits and refurbished 3 so I am still only averaging 2 a month. - it would probably have been a bit more if I had not spent 3 months updating my Frog Shackleton. I am trying to strike a balance between a sort of production line "get them shifted" attitude, and actually enjoying the builds, with the emphasis on the latter. I have I suppose about a dozen or so "major" builds such as my Revell Ju290, and the rest are somewhat smaller so I will try and do a few "quick" ones for a while, before perhaps doing the Lincoln conversion for the Lancaster STGB. Thanks for your interest and good luck with your modelling. Pete

Thanks Serge, If I am reading it right we have something in common then - an Engineer who ended up in banking? How unlikely is that! Used to be considered an "Honorable Profession" over here, but after the banking crisis 10 or so years back the Bank Manager became rather less respected, and in some cases downright untrustworthy. Cheers Pete

Here we go again – I am looking forward to this build as I have always thought that the Lansen was a good looking plane, though I have to admit that in spite of over 60 years reading about aircraft (and building kits of them), I know very little about it. I suspect the same applies to quite a few of us involved in this GB, so with apologies to our “Nordic” modellers I thought a brief history was appropriate – most if not all of the following comes from my Putnam's book on Saab Aircraft and if anybody wants to correct me or add anything please feel free! Towards the end of 1948 studies began to replace the various aircraft Sweden used for attack, reconnaissance and night fighting. It was decided to proceed with the Saab Model 1150 design which was initially to be powered by a Swedish engine which was under development - the STAL Dovern II and the later afterburning Glan, but the Swedish Air Force decided later to use the existing RR Avon. The first Lansen (The Lance) flew in November 1952 and the following year it exceeded Mach 1 in a dive, There were 3 basic versions and the kit is of the J32A Attack version of which 287 were built, powered by a licence built Avon called the RM5A which delivered 7630 lb thrust dry and 10360 lb thrust with afterburner, giving a maximum speed of 699 mph. It was armed with 4 Swedish built 20mm Hispano cannon and could carry various loads of rockets, bombs etc, together with the Rb 04 anti ship missile. The next model produced was the J32C unarmed recce version of which 44 were apparently built, and the final main version was the J32B all weather interceptor. This had numerous changes including modified radar, 4 x 30mm Aden cannon, provision for Rb 24 (Sidewinder) missiles and a more powerful RM6A derivative of the Avon which produced 10560 lb dry and 14680lb with afterburner, which should perhaps have made it faster but Putnams say the speed was the same – this may be wrong as it was apparently considered somewhat more “sporty” than the A model. 120 were built I gather - maybe it just had better acceleration?. Towards the end of its service life some were converted to target tugs (model D) and some to ECM trainers (Model E). So on with the build. Having painted the inside of the fuselage, the tail pipe and the various cockpit bits I inserted the 2 small "trunks/splitters" into the intakes. Unfortunately they are open at the back so to avoid them being see-through I blanked them with card. I then assembled the cockpit and was pleasantly uprised at the level of detail - there are slightly raised panels on the side consoles which match up with the ones on the 1/48 Tarangus kit - I make no claim for accuracy but just copied the colours from the builds that have been kindly shared with me. I had to put a little filler on the join line between the 2 halves of the tailpipe - irritating but not unusual. At least that is blanked off. After touching up I will fit the IP and see how the fuselage goes together. Unfortunately although Heller say it needs weight in the nose they do not say how much but there is quite a bit of room. Like the J29 there is a seperate lower nose section which I can just tack on until I have the wheels in place. It could leave a difficult seam to fill/sand but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. If it goes together like the Tunnan the basic build should be fairly quick, but I have a lot of decals to then put on, and pylons to fabricate for the Rb 04, if I use them. More later. Pete

Hi Dave, There is a walkround on the IPMS site but I followed their links to this which has more info. http://www.plasticwarfare.se/2012/01/saab-a32a-walkaround/ That site also has a bit on the Viggen and Gripen. This is also rather interesting. https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/bevapningsalternativ-for-a32a-lansen/ Pete

Thanks Col, What I failed to mention in the rant was that to bridge the gap between the Vampire/Meteor and the Hunter the RAF was forced into aquiring Sabres for a few years - that at least gave then something about equivalent to the Tunnan - must have been a little embarrassing. Pete

Ok, it is in the Gallery so here is a last historical note I forgot to post earlier. As mentioned earlier I have ended up building my FB5 as an aircraft of 71 (Eagle) Squadron, based at Gutersloh in Germany in 1951 (or so Modeldecal say). The original 71 Squadron was an Australian manned unit in WWI, but was disbanded in January 1918. In September 1940 it was reformed to take advantage of the numerous American volunteers arriving in the UK, and was the first of the Eagle Squadrons. Initial equipment was to be the Brewster Buffalo, but common sense soon prevailed and in November it started flying Hurricanes. Later it switched to Spitfires but was again disbanded on September 29th 1942 when it was transferred to the USAAF. It reformed once more on September 16th 1950 with Vampires, and 3 years later switched to Sabres, and then in April 1956 to Hunters. It was finally disbanded a year later. On its tail the Vampire carries the Squadron crest of a Bald Headed Eagle with 3 x 9 pointed Stars – perhaps intended to represent the 3 Eagle Squadrons which served in the RAF during WWII? The Squadron motto was “First from the Eyrie”. I have enjoyed this build. Thanks for your interest. Pete

Here is my Xtrakit 1/72 Vampire FB Mk 5, made for Hannants by MPM in 2014. There was a bit of a fit problem with the wings but otherwise it went together pretty well. The kit offers decals for 2 machines - an all over silver painted one from 502 (Ulster) Squadron RAuxAF and a camo one from 605(County of Warwick) Squadron RAF, Having experienced a problem with the decs, I switched to using my old Modeldecal sheet and marked this one up as a machine from 71 (Eagle) Squadron in Gutersloh, Germany in 1951. I think it came out pretty well. Cheers Pete

Here is my Heller Saab J29 E Tunnan in 1/72. It is apparently in the markings of F4 wing and entered service in around 1954/5, Although it is about 40 years old it went together pretty well except for a slight fit problem around the nose and some rather reluctant decals. I am not too good at NMF and ended up using a brush - anybody with more skill with an airbrush could probably do somewhat better. As I mentioned in the build thread the metallic paint changes appearance noticeably as the lighting angle varies. It is a nice quick build and apparently quite accurate so I can recommend it if you want a cheap J29. The kit also offers markings for a late J29 C recce plane in UN service in the Congo complete with alternate camera nose. Cheers Pete,