Rudolf_Filip Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 A couple of days ago I got this kit at my local hobby shop. We have all been waiting a long time for this one to finally arrive. I hope that this kit will be worth the wait. I know one thing though... It wont be any worse than the other 1:48 Viggen on the market. The Esci kit is and have always been a very lousy kit... Since I'm from Sweden I've grown up with this mighty aircraft and have seen them (and heard them!) around at my local Swedish Air Force base and on more airshows than I can count. A couple of years ago it was retired and replaced by the beautiful JAS 39. I do like the nimble Gripen, but she lacks the brutality of the SAAB 37 Viggen. Fortunatly the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight have managed to get one of the old AJ 37s back in the air again. "Gustav 52" is a very welcome sight on airshows. I served as a firefighter in the air force back in the 90s. Being an aircraft enthusiast this was heaven... One can never get enough of Drakens and Viggens! Nowadays I'm on an museum at former air force base F 10 at Ängelholm. I get to "play" with our beautiful Draken, Viggen and Gripen as much as I want. :-) Let's get on with the kit... Nice full box packed with plastic. Stunning boxart made by artist Tor Karlsson. Very nice looking decals. Four options. Two grey, one camoflaged and one in bare metal. Stencils. The plastic parts. Some of the JA 37 specific parts. Here is the gun pack and the fuselage extension. The engine exhaust is a wonderful piece of plastic. The nosewheels not so much... :-) Two seats included! MPM is going to release the SK 37-version of this kit later on. Main gear bay details. Unfortunatly most of this will be hidden since the inner doors are closed on the ground. Finally correct intakes! This is the first time we see this in a Viggen kit. This is also a first in a Viggen kit. Intake channels. The layout of parts is a bit odd but the Viggen is an odd shape... :-) Note that there is an AJ 37 fin included. As a matter of fact all the parts needed for an AJ 37 is on the sprues. Hmmm... The landing gear looks complicated. There is a error in the instructions. The periscopes for the two seater is shown here. They should definatly not be used on a fighter version! Don't worry. One can't place them there anyway since they are not even included on the sprues... I have already started building and so far I'm very happy with the kit. I'm going to post more pics later when I have something to show. Andreas / Rudolf_Filip 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breaker Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Great first write up, I've been keeping an eye on this kit, very interested in picking it up one day once my Draken is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 I always liked the Viggen, it looked like a fighter that was capable of doing the job it was designed for. I'll follow your build with interest. Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudolf_Filip Posted November 1, 2014 Author Share Posted November 1, 2014 I have to share this pic of two Viggens taking off at dawn from a small airfield in 1997. Unfortunatly I only had a small compact camera in my uniform pocket. Andreas / Rudolf_Filip 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Ooh, I''ll be watching this one ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snitok1983 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Interesting thread! Vaitung for continue!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 (edited) finally! The Tarangus Viggen family it has turned into reality! concerning the nose wheel, I am sure resin replacements will turn up before short, or are there already! (Maestro models!?) as well as a detailed ejection seat and cockpit... http://www.rebell.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?q=viggen&scale=302 looking forward to your build! :) by the way, just got the Saab Safir from Tarangus, what a nice tiny little kit! one definitely as to support these small ventures! Edited November 1, 2014 by exdraken 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 I'll be watching this also, I've always liked the Viggen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesa Jussila Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 I will be following this with great interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Love the atmospheric photo! I didn't know this was actually out yet. bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudolf_Filip Posted November 1, 2014 Author Share Posted November 1, 2014 So far the two most disturbing omissions are the complete lack of detail on the nosewheels and the lack of RAT-turbine (the "mill"). This mill is always deployed when the aircraft is on the ground. The aftermarket company Maestro have both the mill and resin wheels in their range. These are for the Esci kit but I don't think it's impossible to use on the new kit. The "mill". RAT-turbine. Bad pic of the resin mill from Maestro for the Esci kit. I will try to make it fit on the Tarangus kit. The nosewheel. The Maestro resin wheels. I'm going to use the nose wheels. They are not very good but a lot better than the Tarangus version. Andreas / Rudolf_Filip 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Looks OK from these images.........looking at the sprue shots though I think I'll be using most if not all of my Maestro, Two Mikes and neomega detail stuff that I had reserved for the ESCI/Airfix kit on it .....the kit looks pretty basic...but hey it's a new 1/48th Viggen ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlamgat9 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Agree with Melchie that the kit looks a lot simpler and plainer than I had maybe been expecting. It appears quite a bit less detailed than the Hasegawa Draken. Lack of a deployed RAT is a bit disappointing to be honest given it is so ubiquitous and prominent on parked Viggens. Presumably it's to make a market for the aftermarket bits. I'll still be buying it however! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2wheels Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Something that's now gone on the shopping list. Thanks for posting the images Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Pulling up my chair...I don't normally build in this scale, but I love the Viggen! I built the ESCI kit about a hundred years ago. It was OOB, but I do remember spending quite some time masking the splinter camouflage. Will you be doing that or one of the other schemes? Cheers, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudolf_Filip Posted November 1, 2014 Author Share Posted November 1, 2014 The level of detail is actually not that bad that it may seem on my lousy pictures. Here are a few more pics. This instrument panel is for the AJ 37 since I forgot to take a photo of the right panel... It shows that the detail in the cockpit is similar to the Hasegawa Draken. There is a nice quality "feeling" to the plastic. The fit have been very good so far. I'm very impressed with the whole kit so far. The Viggen have a lot of curves and strange shapes. I think that Tarangus/MPM have made a good effort and it shows that they have spent a lot of thought in this model kit. Andreas / Rudolf_Filip 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Very very interesting! Will follow this thread closely, even though I've only been up close & personal with the AJS37 that F7 hade during my conscription in the 90-s... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Looking good !!! Must get a couple.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paramedic Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 I had a look at the kit this Friday, quick look, and I agree - it looks really nice! Will be very nice to follow this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 I am quite excited... Although it really looks as if Tarangus left some room for Maestro in purpose which is maybe not a very nice touch in this price level... Still it remains on my preorder list and I prepare for more expenses... Rene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LT Motta Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Looking forward to see this beauty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solo Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Please let us know something about part's fitting. The sprues looks really nice, also details, but this engine... everything as one piece, is this a good idea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudolf_Filip Posted November 8, 2014 Author Share Posted November 8, 2014 (edited) Small progress on my Viggen. I haven't been able to spend as much time as I wanted on this build. I'm in the middle of moving to a bigger place and with a very sick son (CHD) it's a bit tougher than usual. I have mixed feelings about this kit. I'm am extremely pleased to finally have a decent kit of one of my favourite aircrafts. Unfortunatly there are a few annoying mistakes, nothing serious but neverless mistakes. Here are some more pictures that show a little more details of the plastic. Viggen have a very complex rear end which I feel that Tarangus have made a good effort with. The fit is not perfect but it's not that bad either. It could have been much worse. I'm just holding the parts together. The nosewheels are a big disappointment. They lack detail. In fact, they haven't got any detail at all... I'm going to use the resin Maestro wheels seen here to the right. They are not very accurate either but still better. This kit have nice intakes and complete intake channels. Nice! There is something definatly wrong with the canards! The flaps are way off! :-( I'm going to fill in the engraved detail and cut out the flaps since they are always dropped when on the ground. Here I've testfitted the wing and the fuselage together. These parts are only taped together and I haven't even sanded anything. Excellent!!! Yesterday these lovely parts arrived from Rebell Hobby. The Aden gun packs only fits the AJ 37 version and not the JA 37 fighter. But I have a cunning plan! :-) I almost forgot. I've started building the cockpits. Yes I say "cockpits" since there are two of them. One is for the AJ 37 and the other for the JA 37. The detail may look a little basic in this pic but there is more on the insides of the fuselage. I have now decided to build my Viggen as an AJS 37 from the F 10 wing where I served and now work at the museum. Andreas / Rudolf_Filip Edited November 8, 2014 by Rudolf_Filip 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 It's great to watch someone who knows the machine well work through this kit. Shame about the errors but so far nothing that seems too difficult to correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 thanks for the updates and good luck and success with your personal life! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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