best 1/72 SAB Gripen?

[Robertone139]

Which one is the best 1/72 model of the Gripen?

 

Thanks

[Paul J]

Theres only the Italeri/Revell ones that I know off to 1/72nd. Quite good, though not top notch. But the only ones in town.

[dad's lad]

The Italeri (also boxed by Airfix) is quite crude and not the best fitting but not unbuildable.

The Revell by contrast is a more recent release on a par with their Tornado/Typhoon quality and also available as a 2-seater.

If your budget allows, I would recommend the Revell every time.

 

Clive. 

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello

I threw Italeri kit together for a quick OOB build review back in 2000 and recycled it immediately afterwards.

IIRC fit is not the best, but it is not the worst either. Cockpit interior is very basic, and the same goes for interior of undercarriage wells and exhaust. Stores are limited to air-to-air missiles and drop tanks. Decals options were for Sweden only, although this was hardly Italeri's fault as no other country used Gripens at the time.

I cannot recall any fundamental flaws, though. If I would build it again I would put in a decent resin ejection seat and a pilot figure, find or scratch-build a proper HUD, correct shapes and add some wires to boxes behind ejection seat (quite a prominent feature, visible through the hood), buy AM Pitot tube, hang a pair of Mavericks under the wings or Iris-T missiles on the wingtips, close everything else down, print some colourful decals (I fancy SA, although Thailand's shark on a vertical tail is not bad either) and put the model on a stand (not included in the box). Of course, with additional AM sets and a lot of scratch-building sky is the limit. Cheers

Jure

[tempestfan]

11 hours ago, Paul J said:

Theres only the Italeri/Revell ones that I know off to 1/72nd. Quite good, though not top notch. But the only ones in town.

In fact, Revell boxed three different kits over the years:

- The first one was released ca. 1988 or 89. Revell did a kit based on the prototypes/FSD in 1/32, 1/72 and 1/144. A review in SMI ca. 1989 tore the biggest one to pieces - essentially, you'd end up with something approximately Gripen-shaped, but not a scale model. I assume all three kits are based on the same information, so the 1/72 kit would likely share the same issues. Kit # was 4374.

- Next the rebox of the Italeri - there may have been more than one, the # was 4611.

- Finally, their own new tool released in 2014, first as a C (#4999, review here) and then D in a black box (#3956).

[Paul J]

I wasn't aware that Revell did a new tooling of it 😕

[Eric B.]

Hello, 

 

If I remember correctly the Italeri original moulding is for an A version whereas the later Revell moulding is a C.

 

Eric B.

[Hoops]

The Italeri kits (and Revell reboxings in the early 2000s) were of the -39A/B. Additionally the Revell boxings had a slight different sprue arrangement, trading out an insert to provide primarily air to air armament in the form of a few poorly done AMRAAMs.

 

The kits are typical 90s Italeri work, soft details, deep, soft panel lines, mediocre fit and accuracy.

 

The recently released Revell kits are by far the best in 1/72 scale, and they represent the -39C/D versions. I have a C kit that I've started backdating to an "A" but haven't gotten very far on it. I can very strongly recommend it.

 

Cheers,

Hoops

[Phantome]

On 11/20/2018 at 10:00 PM, dad's lad said:

The Italeri (also boxed by Airfix) is quite crude and not the best fitting but not unbuildable.

The Revell by contrast is a more recent release on a par with their Tornado/Typhoon quality and also available as a 2-seater.

If your budget allows, I would recommend the Revell every time.

 

Clive. 

 

Surface and interior detail is nowhere near as good at their old Tornado. In fact, it's pretty terrible: deep panel lines, blocky cockpit interior, no rivets, etc.

 

I found it to be quite a disappointment and yet for some reason few of the reviews seemed to be critical of it (I guess that's what happens when reviewers get free samples...)

 

It's only claim to being the best is that the Italeri is even more appalling. But we really need a nice new modern Gripen from a company that has more consistency in its quality control than Revell which seems equally capable of producing a winner and a stinker back to back.

 

http://www.themodellingnews.com/2015/06/grappling-with-gripen-building-revells.html

 

 

[Filbert_Wang]

I'm currently building the Revell kit (not sure which version, one with the Czech/Tigersmeet art on the cover - don't think it's bad at all. Have had to do a bit of fine grade sanding to get a smooth run between the joins - going for that oh-so-smooth look the aircraft seems to have. But it seems to go together well enough so far, and I think is available at a quite reasonable price point.