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WIF: AJ35 Strike Draken


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Ever since I got hold of this book:

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There was one chapter that tickled my brain.

The chapter is named, "planned developments and modifications" and contains all the projects that nevere got anywhere, like the JA35 with larger radar, the AS35X with a GE J79 engine and thinner nose (no radar probably). All very tempting subjects, but what really set me off was the 35 Mod 4 version which is something of a brutish beast.

During the late -70:s there was much confusion about how the next aircraft to replace Viggen should look like.

The B3LA attack/trainer was cancelled ( a wooden mockup of the fuselage still exists) and the Gripen was not officially sanctioned or started.

The AttackViggens (AJ37) were delivered, and production of FighterViggen (JA37) was ramping up, but there were a lot of Drakens still around that was going to be replaced by FighterViggen.

At the same time it was felt that the strike capacity of the Airforce was low, especially anti ship.

What to do then? Off course modify Draken for this!

With new extended span wings, hightened fin, retractable canards and two new weapon stations for the Big Mean RB15.

Maximum Take-off weight was raised to 15tons (the Danish Draken had MTOW 16 tons, so this was not a problem) and maximum landing weight to 11 tons.

Simulation had showed that during landing the clearance between the runway and the fins on RB15 was 44mm...

 

These guys were cutting it close, for sure!

Nice 3-way drawings exists in the book, but also here

http://www.airvectors.net/avj35.html#m4

 

In the end, Gripen was approved and the Mod 4 version was dialled back to Mod 1, which then turned into J35J (seen on the cover of the book)

 

I will do a AJ35 Draken, around the end of Cold War, fully loaded with 2Rb15, two jammer/countermeasure pods, two Sidewinders and two fuel tanks. The kits to use will be these:

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102268-26441-44-1080.jpg

 

I also have a Pavla Resin seat, and Maestro Models KA&KB ECM-pods and RB15.

This should be fun!

 

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I had a picture of almost all the resin goodies too:

24538116667_07964aa109_o.jpg

Somewhere I got a blister with the RB15 missiles to, but for now, lets start with the cockpit:

39499385641_66180e4488_o.jpg

No fancy stuff this time, since I'm aiming for a closed canopy and then kit decals will be sufficient.

Still need to add a HUD and the two tiny braces on the front canopy, but that will be later.

38603688675_e020f62cca_o.jpg

Rear face of the cockpit wall has a quite large gap, but I won't do anything about that for this build.

I'll save that for the next one....

 

Now I can glue the fuselage halves together and start to work on the conversion stuff.

The outer wing will use the Gripen wing, suitable cut off, standard dog tooth removed and a new one carved furter inboard.

The fin will recieve a new ECM fairing, and also an extension at the top, like this.

27626513949_ddd449d5fd_o.jpg

Compared to Drakens standard wing it will extend the span by 7mm on each side which will get me the increase in wingspan by 1m.

39403752181_537db73f34_o.jpg

I also started to build the Canard compartments from plastic.

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These will be sanded to a more wingfoil profile later, and I also need to adjust the sweepback of them.

It's a start atleast.

Then one also needs to have  look of the entire package

27626513529_e68d9dcf75_o.jpg

It sure looks like a different Draken already!

Edited by Christer A
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One feature that all SAAB jets share, atleast the last four fighters, is that the control surfaces always droops when the hydraulic pressure drops.

Bring out the saw!

38603688295_1f182abe8f_o.jpg

Off course, the outer (elevons?) needs to come off too

39499385041_806a3e2cf4_o.jpg

The tail cone has also been attached, so it looks like I really need to dig into filling and sanding now!

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  • 4 weeks later...

After beeing hit with a flu this week I've been at home, but unable to do much in the modelling business. A shame to waste sick days like that, but I was not ble to do more than watching Netflix for a couple of days.

But yesterday I felt the energy returning to me, so naturally I turned to the bench!

I didn't like the canard extensions, the looked far too DIY and not speedy enough, so I added a wedge in front an reshaped the area accordingly.
39363165294_1cce819bed_o.jpg
The canards themselves were carved from the Gripen ones, which was the plan all along.

Also added a little noseweight and fitted the radome.
39363165294_1cce819bed_o.jpg
Dihedral canards are also called for.
39363165134_c210b87038_o.jpg
Trying to drill some lightening holes here, but probably was there still some fever left in me, because this is very far from pretty. Fill and redo I think.
39363165104_d45ba008e0_o.jpg

 

But the whole thing surely looks bonkers!
39363164844_69c581d191_o.jpg

Edited by Christer A
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  • 1 month later...

Hello.

Just to show that there is some progress on this little bugger.

40931783812_b0909d2bd1_o.jpg

First coat of primer is on. Now to start eliminating all blemishes, of which there are lots.

Maybe I should do an attempt to restore and add a few panel lines ? 

Edited by Christer A
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Not my subject but I thought I'd take a look. Very impressive but as you say, looks 'bonkers', looks like it should be space or under the sea...those canards look odd to the rest of the plane. Just weird. :yes:

 

Crack on.

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Those canard foreplanes were just folded out for landing, to help decrease landing speed of which Draken has lots of.

I've filled a bunch of gaps using liquid sprue:

40973205391_f556a0f930_o.jpg
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All filling and sanding will tide me over until the spring arrives, so one can start proper painting again!

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  • 2 months later...

Well, today is Swedens national day, so what better way to honour that than to put some paint on ?

First, a squiggly preshade

41895748414_7e5c9c66dc_o.jpg

 

After that, I went for Blågrå 058 courtesy of MrPaint.

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Smelly stuff, and the only thing that can clean it is Tamiyas Airbrush cleaner or even hotter stuff.

Fortunately, the wife and daughter went to Copenhagen today, so they won't notice!

Now, whis will cure for a while before I start the first round of taping stuff!

 

Edited by Christer A
changed the pictures
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Go right ahead and so crazy things :)

Today I'm off to plastic summercamp!

From friday moon to sunday noon there will be no distractions from family matters just a laserfocus on models, paint and likeminded people! It Will be great!

Hopefully this Draken, a PBJ-1J and a Seafang will be painted, maybe more.

We'll see...

 

Edited by Christer A
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This is a great thread Christer, I don't normally go for "what if" models but this one is something special!

 

Looking forward to seeing the end result!

 

Terry

 

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Yeah he was busy masking and painting the whole weekend! But we want pics! :)

 

Håkan

 

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Right: here are the pics then!


I started with laying down a foundation coat of light green, courtesy of MrPaint.
28843139258_6ae20d2484_o.jpg
A lovvely paint to work with, especially if you have a good air filtration unit, however I'm not too impressed by the actual shade of green. It's not very clear in this picture, but it's almost a pea-green color and that's not really what 322M should look like.

But I decided to carry on anyway. One can always redo it at a later date if it looks too ugly (yeah, right. like that'll happen...)
After a long sitting, I had masked off the light green.
28843141708_3d4afe9d90_o.jpg
Whew! No precut masks here, it's all done by hand like this: 

Place the tape in the right area.

Draw the outline on the tape.

Remove tape and cut along the lines.

Place the finished masked on the model.

Repeat.
VERY time consuming, but I had the larger part of the weekend to solve it, so it was clearly time to get on with it.

Next color was dark green:
28843141668_2c8b4157ce_o.jpg
This shade felt more "correct" but my hands on experience with this type of camouflage is 20 years ago, and those Viggen at that time was rather tatty looking.


Dark green was masked off in the next step, and now I was starting to question my sanity. My tamiya tape supply was consumed at an alarming rate or so it felt like, but I closed my eyes and started to think about England and carried on anyway 😉
MrPaint Tan was chosen for the brown areas
28843138478_305fd83b5f_o.jpg
Looking good!
The last traces of sanity flew out through the windows as I lay down the last mask
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😵
Time to do the black. Tamiya NATO black was chosen istead of a pure black
28843138208_aa5c512bdc_o.jpg
Was I still lucid at this time?

I was almost hyperventilating so I opened up a newly bought box with a deHavilland Hornet F.3 (Classic Airframes) and took a few soothing breaths.

Then I started to pull away some tape.
And more tape.
And a few more pieces.
After a while a fine little ball was formed.
28843138128_904efaa09e_o.jpg
But If you've read this far, your're probably not interested in tape are you?

 

Ok, here's the money shot!
28843141618_6dd6e6794f_o.jpg
What do you think?

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Hello Christer !

Sooo That's the way to do a swedish splinter camo….

All right 🤨 My Draken will be Grey or NMF..... :P

Great job, well Worth the pain and the Tamiya mask !! Congrats !

Sincerely.

CC

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54 minutes ago, John D.C. Masters said:

Excellent tutorial!  Looks great!

Thanks!

30 minutes ago, Roger Newsome said:

That looks great Christer and your timing is impeccable. Me and my modelling comrade on the ship were only discussing Swedish camo schemes the other day and how I should try it. My mind is made up.....no way!!!!!!🤣

Thanks Roger! It's not too hard to do the FOA-camo scheme, especially if you limit yourself to Viggen since there are pre-cut masks available to buy...

 

27 minutes ago, corsaircorp said:

Hello Christer !

Sooo That's the way to do a swedish splinter camo….

All right 🤨 My Draken will be Grey or NMF..... :P

Great job, well Worth the pain and the Tamiya mask !! Congrats !

Sincerely.

CC

Hey CC!

Fortunately, there were only two (and only one that flew) Drakens that were painted in these colors so you can still do Swedish Camo Drakens!

hsgs7342box-lg.jpg

But they weathered like crazy....

Thanks for dropping by CC!

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Impressed with all the work you put in, and that you managed to mask and paint it during a weekend! :)

Looks great! :)

 

Håkan

 

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