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Platz is to release a 1/144th Saab J35F Draken kit - ref. FC-4 Source: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/blog/160513 V.P.

The Hasegawa Drakens are beautiful and easy to build kits. Despite that it has taken me about six years to finish the first one - this, the Austrian J35Ö Draken. Apart from a Quickboost resin ejection seat the kit is built OOB. As usual I used Xtracolor sprayed freehand for the main colour scheme. I just wish there were more Draken colour schemes to choose from. Jens

Hello!! Here's one of my models. it's hasegawas set in revalls box. It's easy in assembly. The only thing that surprised it back part. It is very, very poorly connected to the fuselage. It was necessary to undermine, customized, putty. In assembly I used Aireses cockpit set and photo etching set of Eduard. The model was painted Tamiyaand MR Hobby paints. Weathering- oil dots and washes.

Being a Draken addict, the old heavily weathered Danish Drakens have always been among my favourites. They are really hard to resist! More pictures: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/alfblume/tags/draken/ However, I have only built one, a RF-35 in 1/72, as a testbed. But this is a tiny one. Now it is time for a larger one! And this time it will be the fighter version F-35. The build is based in the Swedish edition of Hasegawa's terrific kit, but with the Danish/Austrian fin tip. Decals and pylons are from Maestro: I started with Aires' resin cockpit, and added scratch-built Danish instrument panel. Since this is my sixth 1/48 Draken, I am pretty familiar with this kit. So the main assembly went pretty fast. Normally Draken had closed airbrakes. However, I originally started this build in 2008, but never finished it due to a serious attack of AMS... Before that, I had spent lots of hours detailing the wheel bays with Eduards photo etch set which almost drove me mad. I also cut out the holes for the air brakes. So now i decided to finish them in a half-open position. One of the few problems with this kit (the gun cover parts and the air intakes being the others) is the fit of the nozzle. But following a tip from a fellow modeller, I first glued the nozzle on the upper body half, and then glued the body together- which gave a perfect fit! The small fins on the outer wings were the same length on Danish Drakens, while the Swedish ones had different length. Next step is sanding, mounting pylons and antennas, and soon it is time for primer.

This little experimental aircraft was built to test the idea of the double delta wing that was planned for Saab Draken. The wing was in 1/2 scale, which meant that this was a really small aircraft. The model is a resin kit from Czech company Planet models. Here are the parts: Few parts should mean an easy build. And it is. But fit of the nose and air intakes are poor, which meant lots of sanding and puttying. But still, there are few parts, so although fit is poor, the build is pretty quick. One hour later, most of the model was finished:

This one may look strange, but the camouflage and colours are actually correct! The first Drakens were delivered in bare aluminium, but in 1961, Swedish Air Force painted a number of Drakens, Lansens and Tunnans in different patterns of green and blue, to find a substitute for the traditional Swedish camouflage in green with blue-grey undersides. One was even painted blue with green stripes! Someone might remember this ones from the old Revell boxart: Since this was the first production version, J 35A, a few modifications had to be made. One of them was a slightly different seat (the "normal" seat to the right). J 35A-C had shorter air intakes, so the long Hasegawa ones were replaced with short ones from Maestro Models: The nose also had to be a bit sharpened due to that early Drakens lacked radar. Scratch-built FOD covers were added to add interest. Also note the different fin tip on the pictures above (from Maestro Models) and that the radome was grey, not black. The lack of radar also made the instrument panel quite different (this one also came from Maestro Models). The pattern was more simple than on later Drakens... ...and the underside was painted quite a different - and nice - way: A few additions were made to the landing gears. For instance, different wheel sides on the main wheels (also from Maestro Models). Thanks for looking!

Here is my small contribution to the group build. It's the new resin kit of the SAAB 210 in 1:72 from Planet Models. SAAB 210 was a test aircraft build by SAAB to test the unique shape of the coming Draken in the air. First flight was in 1952 and the results of the testflights were promising. It was modified a couple of times and flew with at least three different configurations of the air intakes. This kit represent the first version with the short nose and intakes all the way up to the nose. The SAAB 210 was called the Draken (KIte). Later, when the "fullsize" Drakens appeared the SAAB 210 was renamed Lilldraken. It's a small kit of a very small aircraft so it should suit me just fine as a quick and easy build. There are not many parts and they seem to be cleanly moulded. It really is a small version of the Draken. Here is it next to a 1:72 Hasegawa J 35F that I have in progress as well. The Planet kit is not the first kit of the Lilldraken. I also have the Dujin resin kit in my stash. The quality is nowhere near the Planet kit. I'm not surprised that I haven't built this one even though I have had it in my stash for many years. There is definatly something wrong with the resin in my kit... Note that this is of the later and final version of the intakes and nose. Back to the Planet Model kit. I'm going to start removing the parts from the blocks tonight. Hopefully the parts will fit as nice as they seem to do... Andreas / Rudolf_Filip

Finally, I have managed to finish this project that I started almost three years ago. For years I have wanted to build one of the last Drakens in Swedish service, especially those which were not painted grey but kept the old blue/olive drab camouflage even after the J modification - apart from the nose and exhaust cone that were re-painted. In fact, this individual, 10-52, was the last camouflaged Draken to fly. I have used Aires cockpit and wheel bay set, Aires exhaust and plenty of photo-etch from Eduard, including the ladder. Plus pitot tube from Master and some scratched details. WIP thread here. Weathering was made with lots of techniques; Salt, multiple layer painting in slightly different colours followed by sanding, pre- and post-shading, dry pastels and dry-brushing. The decals are a mix from Hasegawas, Flying Colors' roundels, RBD Decals, Eurodecals and my spares box. I have tons of Draken decals... You might think that it is over-weathered. It is not. These were really weathered and dirty, especially the underside. Thanks for watching!

I started this build a few years ago, and progress has been extremely slow. My ambition is to build Draken number F 10-52, the last blue/green Draken in Swedish AF. Most of the airframe is really weathered, apart from the nose section and the exhaust cone which were modified and re-painted when J 35F became J 35J. Most of the modified Drakens were painted grey, but a few remained blue Airliners.net image removed Solo's great work on this individual gave me inspiration to start again, I am using Aires resin cockpit, exhaust and wheel wells, and parts of Eduard's exterior photo etch (but not all, I started with the Big Ed PE set on another Draken, but almost went mad... But first, the cockpit. Seatbelts are still missing, but the rest is finished. ...and suddenly the whole model was finished and ready for painting! I started with the extremely dirty underside: And then the upper side. In the beginning, Drakens were olive drab and dark blue. However, after a while the blue turned lighter and also a bit green. After 10-20 years the green almost turned turquise. So after priming with Tamiya aluminum, I started with some pre-shading and then a thin layer of the blue: After that, I added spots of thinned light grey and black: And after that, some salt... Almost finished... After that, I painted the olive drab in almost the same way.

Pictures by Sven Harjaek taken at La Bourget museum Paris. J 35A 35069 of the Swedish Air Force.

This year I had to make a choice between Waddington or Fairford. My long journey from Cornwall to Lincolnshire was a last minute decision but worth it as I was also able to spend a few nights with my son in London:

more or less finished finally! some fast pics, more, in hopefully sunny Austrian Skys to follow soon build thread: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234943730-saab-105oe-sk60-trainer-172-decals/?hl=saab hope you like this small little bugger!

SAAB Draken TF-35XD http://www.airplane-...d-tf-35-draken/) The aircraft was built as a trainer for the Danish Airforce and assigned to squadron service, but in the photo, it's moved on to the National Test Pilots School in California ... i.e. a trainer in a training organisation. According to their web-site, the National Test Pilot School (NTPS) is a not-for-profit civilian educational institute which is the premier total flight test education and training organization in the world. (http://www.ntps.edu/) The kit, sprue shot - complete with camera shake ... The build will be OOB, with the gun ports being filled in - a conversion that I suspect reflects a similar change the the real airframe must have experienced. Decals I'll have to source, but they should be letters and numbers - no stars & bars

As you might guess from my profile picture, Saab Draken is my favourite subject. Here is my latest build of thus winderful aircraft. My intention was to build the individual that is shown on Roy Cross' magnificent Airfix boxart (a model which I built lots of when I was a child), but doing it in 1/48 and with correct markings. Though very beautiful, this image has a number of mistakes - also apart from the fact that green Swedish robots are blind... And here is the result. I wanted it to look like it did in the early 70s, when it was rather new - which meant not much weathering this time. I used the decals from Hasegawa's S 35E Draken and Tarangus' Lansen (the yellow squares), and a few from my decal archive. I uses an Aires resin seat - which was a bit troublesome since it didn't fit Hasegawa's cockpit. Strange, since it is sold separately, not only with Aires cockpit set. As you can see, the original had fewer squares than on Cross' boxart. I used Gunze colours. I also added some details on the landing gears. And a final, a bit too dark picture:

I have the quite nice Hasegawa 1/72 Saab Draken in my stash and have a quick question before I build it. The kit only has drop tanks but I know they carried AIM-4 missiles as well. Which AIM-4 missiles did they use and in what combination with the drop tanks? thanks Mike

I took my camera to The SwAF museum in Linköping and took some pictures of theur J 35 Draken display cockpit: http://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/saab-j35-draken-cockpit/ It might help those of you who wants to build a Draken /L

This my latest completed model: a Hasegawa's 1/48th Saab Draken. Built it almost oob, except for a Eduard's zoom set for instrument panel and seat belts. Painted with Gunze's acrylic colors (H51, H5, H55) hope you like it! ciao Ale

Saab RF-35 ‘Recon Draken’ 1:72 Hasegawa The need to replace the Sabb J29 Tunnan goes back as far as 1949 when the Swedish Air Force required a high performance all weather interceptor that could operate from public road ways. It was key that the aircraft had a good rate of climb to altitude due to the intercept capability. With the basic concept of fitting the biggest engine into the smallest airframe, the challenge with such designs is always how to cram all the equipment into such a small space. Lockheed achieved performance with their Starfighter by having an incredibly small wing to reduce drag, but that brought with it obvious operational handling challenges. Led by Erik Bratt, the design team at Saab were drawn towards the double delta shape which created a high internal airframe capacity but low thickness to chord ratio, critical for high performance. The less swept outer wing sections were much thinner but gave the necessary characteristics to enable good low speed handling without too much sacrifice in top end. After scale trials in an aircraft called LillDraken (Little Dragon), the first Draken took to the air in 1955 with the J-35A being ordered into production in 1956. Initial deliveries of the J-35 were received by the Swedish Air Force in 1960 using a license built RR Avon as the power plant. Evolution of the Draken introduced more powerful engines with better avionics and weapon capabilities. In all 640 J-35’s were produced between 1955 and 1974 with the last retiring from military service in 2005. It served operationally with 4 nations; Austria, Denmark, Finland and of course Sweden and the US also took delivery of 6 aircraft for use with the National Test Pilot School. A capability that I found really amazing was that the Draken was able to perform the Cobra manoeuvre, testament to its design. The RF-35 was a highly modified export aircraft produced for Denmark as part of the Saab 35XD programme. Key improvements were greater internal fuel load, cameras in the nose, new avionics & cockpit, arrestor hook, modified outer wings to carry weapons and stronger undercarriage. 20 of these aircraft were produced. The kit This is the kit that’s been around for many years but has some extra parts to convert it into the RF-35. Supplied in Hasegawa’s usual boxing format, you get a mere 65 pieces of light grey plastic on 4 standard sprues with an addition one containing the conversion parts. The quality in summary is very typical of Hasegawa approach. Beautifully detailed exterior surfaces but bland cockpit interior that leaves a great opportunity to improve. There is some small amounts of flash present in places and a few minor sink marks such as on the wing leading edge near the intakes but these will be quite easy to deal with. With 65 parts, assembly isn’t going to take too long. It starts with the cockpit. A basic seat and panel goes into the tub. There’s no switch detail in here, only the decals to add detail. The assembled tub fits to the lower fuselage with the upper half fitting over the top. There’s no intake trunking unfortunately, however the intakes are rather small so provided you paint the interior in a dark colour, it shouldn’t be too noticeable. As mentioned, the detail on the exterior is very nicely done. Fine recessed panel lines supplemented by an array of panel openings make for an interesting finish which after a wash should look rather splendid. With the basic fuselage now done, the outer wings, exhaust section and rear cockpit fairing are added as well as the intakes. The plastic thickness on the intake openings is very thin giving good scale accuracy. The instructions do included a reminder to fit a 5g nose weight before fitting the camera equipped nose cone. The wing tips of the RF-35 are different than the standard wings, so you need to carefully cut the existing wing tips off and replace them with the new ones supplied. The detail in the extra conversion parts is consistent with the kit parts Unfortunately, the only provisions included are two drop tanks; although there are four additional hard points that you can make use of if you have something suitable in the spares box. The canopy is provided as a separate part from the windscreen giving you the opportunity to have it open. The parts are quite thin with minimal distortion. The decals The aircraft modelled in this kit are AR-117 and AR-109 which served with the Danish Air Force. AR-117 now resides in the USA with a civilian registration whilst AR-109 has also survived the scrap heap being in storage. The AR-117 livery included in this kit has quite a funny story behind it. Call sign ‘Dynamite 6-1’ has an unofficial paint scheme that was painted by the pilots of 729 Sqn over night in a shelter in celebration of Denmark’s win over Uruguay in the 1986 football world cup. The second is AR-109 as it was in 1987 wearing a more typical overall green scheme but with a red ribbon across it. I haven’t been able to get any more information as to why this scheme was applied. Conclusion This is a pleasant little kit. The exterior is very nicely detailed and looks to be a straight forward build for any ability. It's generally believed to be quite an accurate kit in terms of shape. Having looked at the price on the kit, I suspect this will hurt sales somewhat, particularly as the detail in the cockpit is sparse and you may need to spend more money to bring this up to your standard. I believe that Revell did a release of the Hasegawa J-35E several years ago and Pavla do an RF-35 conversion including a resin cockpit, so if you can get hold of these along with some suitable decals, you may be able to save some money if you really need to have an RF-35 in your collection. Amerang Hasegawa Review sample courtesy of UK distributors for