Saab JAS 39C Gripen - 1:72 Revell

[Paul A H]

Saab JAS 39C Gripen

1:72 Revell

The Saab Gripen is the latest in a line of indigenous fighter jets from Sweden, standing on the shoulders of giants such as the Draken and Viggen. Just like its predecessors, the Gripen is a multi-role platform, capable of air-to-air, air-to-ground and reconnaissance missions. Although development studies began as early as 1979, problems with the fly-by-wire system and the loss of a couple of prototypes caused an extended gestation, with the aircraft not entering service until 1997. With operating costs identified as important to the success of the project, Saab worked hard to keep these low, using a system health monitor to feed into a continuous improvement. Longevity of parts and simplicity of maintenance were prioritised from the outset.

Despite its small size and lightweight design ethos, the Gripen can carry a significant quantity of ordnance, including ubiquitous NATO weapons such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-120 AMRAAM and AGM-65 Maverick, as well as the Swedish RBS-15 anti-ship missle and the new Meteor air-to-air missile and Taurus cruise missile. Next generation Gripens are under development and promise tp offer more fuel, power and enhanced avionics including an Active Electronically Scanned Array radar. The Gripen has been exported to the Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa and Thailand, while Brazil has also signed on the dotted line for the Gripen E/F. The exports have been dogged by controversy, however, with allegations of bribery involving Saab and production/development partner BAE Systems.

Revell's Saab Gripen was announced well over a year ago, so it's good to see it finally arrive on the shelves of model shops. In doing so, it takes its place in a less-than crowded marketplace. In fact the new kit's only real competition is from the relatively elderly (and fairly mediocre) Italeri kit in all its various re-boxings. Inside the compact blue box are four sprues of pale grey plastic, a single sprue of clear parts and the usual decal sheet and instructions. The parts are crisply moulded with very fine, engraved panel lines and plenty of detail. As with other recent kits from Revell, there is a small amount of mould flash present here and there. It is obvious from the breakdown of parts that the kit has been designed to allow the two-seater Gripen D offered in the future, so if trainers are your thing, watch out for this.

Things get off to a pretty promising start with the cockpit. Eight parts make up this sub-assembly, including three for the Martin Baker ejection seat. This is a pretty fair representation of the real thing, although you'll want to add some harnesses if you decide to use it. The raised detail on parts such as the side consoles and instrument panel is exquisite, while the control column and the area behind the pilot is also nicely represented. A set of decals is provided to represent the instrument panel and side console detail, but given the quality of moulded detail, I'll probably elect to omit these when I build my kit. The heat exchanger exhaust duct behind the cockpit is present and correct, which is a nice plus point.

Once the cockpit is finished, it can be fitted inside the fuselage. It sits flush with the top of the nose gear bay, so this part must be fitted first. Although moulded in one piece, it is very nicely detailed indeed. At this point, Revell would have you glue the left and right hand sides of the front fuselage together. I suggest that you try fitting the front and rear sections (so you have left and right fuselage halves running from nose to tail) first, in order to achieve the best possible join aft of the engine air intakes. I've dry-fitted my kit together to test this method of construction, and it doesn't look as though it will cause any serious problems. On the subject of air intakes, it looks as though you will be able to peer through these parts into the empty fuselage as no attempt has been made to recreate the intake trunking. You may therefore wish to blank the intakes off before fitting the fuselage to the wing.

The wing is moulded in a single lower span with separate parts for the port and starboard upper surfaces. The join is at the leading edge flap on the upper surface of the wing, so a little filler may be needed to ensure this join doesn't become too prominent. The main gear bays must also be fitted to the inside of the lower wing before it can be glued to the fuselage. The overall breakdown of the wing and fuselage is quite complex, some care will have to be taken to ensure everything lines up nicely and there arent any unsightly gaps or smudges of glue to spoil things. This is the price that has to be paid for squeezing two variants out of one set of moulds. While this is a bit of a pain, if you want accuracy and detail then it becomes more difficult to keep the part count low and the breakdown of parts simple. I've test fitted the parts together, however, and there doesn't seem to be anything to be too alarming laying in wait to catch out unsuspecting modellers.

The elevons are moulded separately to the wings, but can only be fixed in one position. The tail is moulded separately to the fuselage, with the rudder also moulded in place. There are options when it comes to the airbrakes and engine exhaust, however. The airbrake bays feature reasonable structural detail and the variable area exhaust nozzle comes in wide open or narrow options. With the bulk of the airframe assembled, attention turns to some of the smaller details. The landing gear is pretty good, with nice, crisp details on the wheels themselves. Finishing touches include the in-flight refuelling probe (which can be fitted in deployed or stowed position), the Mauser cannon and various antennas.

The canards can be finished in pretty much any position, while the cockpit canopy can be fitted in either open or closed positions. The transparent parts are fairly thin but not brilliantly clear thanks to a slightly rough texture on the plastic. I've seen a lot worse in this scale, but I've also seen a lot better. There is also a seam down the middle which will need to be polished out. Things take a turn for the better when it comes to ordnance. In the box, you get:
2 x AIM-9 Sidewinder
2 x IRIS-T AAMs
2 x AIM-120 AMRAMs
2 x Saab RBS-15 Anti-Ship Missiles
2 x underwing drop tanks
1 x Saab modular reconnaissance pod
You also get the fuselage pylon for the LITENING pod, but not the pod itself. Overall this is a pretty comprehensive suite of ordnance, with Maverick missiles and an extra pair of AIM-120s being the only (admittedly minor) omissions.

Marking options are included for two aircraft:
Saab JAS-39C Gripen, 211 Squadron, Czech Air Force "Tigermeet 2014"; and
Saab JAS-39C Gripen 39255, F17 Swedish Air Force, Nellis Air Force Base, Red Flag 2013.

The decals themselves have been produced to a high standard. They appear to be perfectly in register, detail is very sharp and they look nice and thin on the sheet. A set of stencils is included too. Unfortunately I snagged my decals on the piece of sellotape used to seal one of the poly bags and lifted part of one of the intake warning signs from the sheet. I'll have to hope that no-one notices when I build it!

Conclusion

Without much in the way of competition, it's relatively easy to recommend this kit. If you're after a Gripen and 1:72 is your scale then this is the one to buy. That said, construction of the airframe is quite complex and there are one or two weak spots such as the transparent parts and see through intakes. On the other hand, the kit looks accurate in outline, is nicely moulded, well detailed and comes with a neat selection of ordnance. On that basis it can be recommended to all fans of modern military aircraft

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

[Rich G]

Just bought this kit, I had initially thought that it was just a reboxing of the italeri kit but was glad to see it's an entirely new kit.

Thanks for the review.

Rich

[Bjorn]

Thanks for the review! Just a small remark: The seam in the canopy is actually correct. The canopy has a thin frame that allows it to be split into two halves. You can see it on this picture of the two-seater, but it is the same on the one-seater.

[Antoine]

Thanks Paul,

Looks like a nice little kit.

[Paramedic]

Quote

Overall this is a pretty comprehensive suite of ordnance, with Maverick missiles and an extra pair of AIM-120s being the only (admittedly minor) omissions.

 

Off the top of my head I do not think the Mavericks were integrated with the C-model. I could be remembering wrong and it is on the E though..

More Rb99/ AMRAAMs would have been welcome however.