Special Hobby SK-37E Stör-Viggen Electronic Warfare Aggressor (SH48150)

[Mike]

SK-37E Stör-Viggen Electronic Warfare Aggressor (SH48150)

1:48 Special Hobby

 

 

The Viggen is a rugged fighter/interceptor that was designed to fulfil a need during the deep Cold War to defend Swedish airspace in the event of an incursion by the Soviet Bloc, and to continue the fight from hidden bases near roadways, which the aircraft could use as makeshift landing strips. It was to replace both the Lansen and Draken, and did so extremely well, endearing itself to aviation enthusiasts as it did so due to its unusual double-delta/canard configuration. It was fitted with a single Volvo license built P&W JT8D with an afterburner to give it the performance needed to propel this large aircraft fast enough to accomplish short take-offs. Short landings were made possible by the inclusion of a set of large thrust reversing petals that dropped into the exhaust trunking and expelled the gases forward from slots in the side of the fuselage.

 

The initial AJ37 variant was declared operational in 1972, and required the addition of a trainer variant, dubbed the SK37, which had an additional cockpit placed high above the original, displacing some fuel tankage in the process. The final JA37 variant was brought into service in 1980 with new computer systems, improved radar and engine, as well as other systems and the strength of the airframe, which already utilised titanium to reduce weight. The SK-37E was developed from a group of 10 airframes that were converted from trainers to Electronic Warfare trainers in the late 1990s, but were phased out after a relatively short service life in 2007.  The last of the operational Viggens (Thunderbolt) were retired in 2005, replaced by the impressive JAS39 Gripen (Griffon). A number of Viggens are on display in museums – notably Newark in the UK, but the Swedes have retained one in flying condition that can sometimes be seen at British airshows along with a Draken, Lansen and even the Tunnan. If only every country was conscientious in preservation of its aviation history.

 

 

The Kit

The main tooling that this kit originated from is the collaborative effort between Special Hobby and Tarangus in 2014, which has been re-issued a few times over the years in single-seat guise, either with new decals or additional parts to represent other variants. This is the first major additional tooling from them, and thanks to their efforts, we now have a genuine 2-seater with no scratch-building involved.  Marvellous!  I do love the Viggen, in case you didn't know.  The new parts include a new fuselage insert that replaces the single-seat part, which is also still on the sprues due to being surrounded by common parts.  Another cockpit tub and instrument panel are also on the sprue, with appropriate glazing parts included on a small clear sprue.  In the box you get nine sprues of grey styrene, two of clear parts, a fret of pre-painted Photo-Etch (PE) brass that has also been nickel-plates, a sheet of decals and a glossy colour printed instruction booklet with integrated colour and markings guide at the rear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original tooling has been picked over ad infinitum in the intervening years, and although it has a few minor issues, they're by no means a deal breaker, and when you consider the alternatives… well there are none in this scale if you want two seats!  With one seat, you have the ancient Airfix ESCI mould that is a blank canvas with some serious shape issues and almost no detail out of the box.  The inclusion of Photo-Etch parts in the box is great news, even though the moulded-in cockpit detail is good, you can always improve on it with resin or PE.  Even removing my rose tinted Viggen love spectacles, I'm still very happy with what's in the box.  Construction begins with the ejection seats, which you build two of (unsurprisingly), and here there are a few small PE parts and a set of painted PE seatbelts for the crew, plus the anti-flail projections from the sides of the seat box.  The two cockpit tubs are identical in terms of detail, but have slightly different shapes due to their location in the fuselage, and build up with either the moulded-in console detail, or the PE replacements, which are also pre-painted, for which you have to scrape and sand off the moulded-in detail.  The same applies to the instrument panels, only they have a substantially different structure, due to the rear seat being the Electronic Warfare equipment, with a large projection at the top of the panel, and a limited set of dials due to a lack of available real-estate.  The control columns and rudder pedals are fitted in both tubs, with PE replacements for the rudder pedals if you remove some of the detail from the originals.  Before the cockpits are installed, the interior of the fuselage insert is painted and sidewall detail is attached to the pilot's (front) station, with a short blast screen fitted to the front of the rear aperture.  The cockpits in their fuselage part are then set to the side while the lower nose is prepared with the nose gear bay, the APU bay installed, and the intake trunks with front engine face is built up from the split trunking that separates horizontally, joining just in front of the engine against a bulkhead, with the engine face buried deep in the fuselage, and probably only just visible.  Whether you hide the seams between the two halves of the trunking is entirely up to you, but after the first kink very little will be seen.  If you're a bit obsessive about that sort of thing, someone has already done a resin replacement set anyway.

 

The trunking is applied to the bottom fuselage half, and the upper fuselage with cockpits is fixed to the top, with a bulkhead inserted at the nose end for structural strength.  Attention turns to the rear fuselage, which must have the substantial exhaust trunk, thrust reversing petals and rear engine face built up and painted first.  The first section is a single part with the engine and burner ring moulded-in, to which you fit another ring that holds the three thrust-reversing petals, the top-most of which is usually seen drooped into the airway on a parked aircraft due to the bleed-away of hydraulic pressure.  They can be posed open or closed, and the instructions mention the droop perhaps a little late in the process.  A scrap diagram shows the correct orientation of the burner in the fuselage, and with the reversers installer the exterior cowling is added at the rear.   This forms the aft section of the fuselage once it is integrated in the rear fuselage, which closes up around it and is then mated to the front section, with the full-width wing lowers also added to the underside after the main gear bays are inserted.  The upper wings are separate parts, as is the tail fin, of which there are quite a number of variants on the sprues, so be sure to choose the correct one.  The nose cone is built from two parts and added, while the intakes are each a single part, which has a strut added to brace them against the fuselage side.  Clear nav lights are fitted outboard of the last sweep change and on the wing tips, and another is added to the spine, with a small insert near the tail glued into place at the same time.  You now have an almost complete airframe, so by now you'll realise that the Viggen was no small aircraft.

 

The landing gear is built up from a number of parts that give a good account of the detail there, with separate oleo-scissors and retraction struts, separate wheels, bay doors and their retraction mechanisms, and those large rough-field ready main gear legs that seem to have struts all over the place.  The main wheels are made from two halves each, and the complete assemblies are added to the bays in great detail on the instructions, shown with the captive main bay door added at this point.  The inner bay doors have their jacks too, and the completed main gear area is shown in another diagram to confirm everything's position in situ.  The inner bay doors can be shown retracted by cutting off the attachment lugs, so check your references and decide which pose you'd prefer.  The small air-brakes on the underside are added closed, but you can leave them open, but you would need to add some extra detail so it's best to leave them closed as they would be that way on the ground for much of the time unless you buy the resin detail set.  You Viggen wouldn't look much like a Christmas tree without the canards up front, and these have separate flaps to the rear like the real thing, which can be posed at an angle, or in line with airflow at your whim.  Whilst you're still looking at the underside, some intakes, centre pylons and additional fuel tanks are added, with little else needed, as this variant wasn't flown as a fighter-bomber.

 

 

On the topside, a number of vents, intakes, more airbrakes and aerials finish off the topside, and the APU is fitted to the open bay, captive to the door.  Unless you are planning on modelling your Viggen in flight, you will want this dangling freely in the breeze, as it would deploy automatically on the ground.  The canopies are the last parts of the saga, and of course there are now three parts; the fixed windscreen and two openers, which can be posed open or closed.  A pair of rear-view mirrors are supplied on the PE sheet for the windscreen, as is a PE HUD frame, which you'll need to add your own acetate to, although you are at least given the sizing in another scrap diagram.  At the bottom of that final page of instructions, you can find a small advert for the resin aftermarket sets available from their CMK brand, which includes M/70 rocket pods, ejection seats, thrust reverser petals, air-brakes and their bays, as well as resin wheels.  They all look VERY tempting.

 

 

Markings

There are four decal options available from the decal sheet, which are split equally between grey and splinter camouflage.  Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.  The profiles on the first page of the decal instructions throw a little confusion on the subject, as the red lightning bolt on the tail of red 73 has been left off.

 

 

 

• SK-37E Viggen 21-73 (37811) 1 Div./Wing F21 Lulea-Kallax 2005
• SK-37E Viggen FC-09 (37809) Försökcentralen (Centre of Experimental Research) Malmen Airbase 2005-7
• SK-37E Viggen 4-70 (37807) TIS/TK Grupp (Type Conversion /Electronic Warfare Group), Wing F4, Östersund 2004
• SK-37E Viggen 4-74 (37811) TIS/TK Grupp Wing F4 Östersund 2000

 

The easy options are the grey ones, but the most impressive are the splinter patterns, which I believe you can obtain masks for from a company somewhere.  I have an old set knocking about, but as they're for a single-seater, I'll be painting this one grey.  There's still lots of opportunity for weathering, as the aircraft were often see needing a good wash, with plenty of patina to whet your appetite for painting and weathering effects.  You might have noticed that option A has a panel on the spine that has clearly been taken from a splinter camouflaged aircraft, and hasn't yet been repainted.

 

Conclusion

The Viggen is a huge, impressive-looking Cold War warrior that has a special place in my heart.  The new 2-seater kit fills my need that has been previously unsatisfied for many years.  Detail is good, the inclusion of a large sheet of PE and excellent decals into the bargain makes this a must-have as far as I'm concerned.  If you like Viggens too, then make sure you get one.

 

Very very highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

 

[stringbag]

That's one great looking aeroplane.

[Mike]

Certainly is Chris.  I'm gonna have to fight the urge to build this straight away

[stringbag]

Don't fight it Mike.  You know you want to.  😆

[Des]

'Electronic Warfare Aggressor' but it seems no Electronic Warfare Pods or do they follow at extra cost?

[Dudikoff]

The company doesn't believe in the concept of providing any stores with their Viggen kits, apparently.

 

No biggie as at least they managed to keep the prices of the kits rather low, plus, as the Viggen uses non-specific weapons, you can just reuse stores from other Western kits. Oh, wait.. 🙄

Edited December 6, 2018 by Dudikoff

[Julien]

The upside is you get a brand new tooled two seat Viggen tho.

[Stephen]

There are masks available from here http://www.advmodprds.com/am48-69.html

 

They are marked  for the AJ-37 so may need some adjustment for other versions..

Edited December 5, 2018 by Stephen

[Mike]

41 minutes ago, Stephen said:

They are marked  for the AJ-37 so may need some adjustment for other versions.

That's exactly why I'm not using them this time around.  Plus - can't do 'em all splinter, or I'd never find them again!

[Des]

8 hours ago, Julien said:

The upside is you get a brand new tooled two seat Viggen tho.

Just not as on the box.

[Julien]

Im seeing it as a glass half full, you maybe as empty. The lack of a couple of pods does not make it a bad kit.

 

Julien

[Des]

21 minutes ago, Julien said:

....... does not make it a bad kit.

I never suggested that it was a bad kit merely that it was an incomplete kit of the very specific variant of the aircraft that it is being marketed as.

 

I have previously made a 1/48 U95 pod for a JA 37DI which was not a particularly challenging task and since then Maestro have produced one in resin but considering Special Hobby prices their not including the pods which contribute to the title claimed on the box seems a bit off.

[Homerlovesbeer]

On 12/6/2018 at 8:22 AM, Des said:

I never suggested that it was a bad kit merely that it was an incomplete kit of the very specific variant of the aircraft that it is being marketed as.

 

ISpecial Hobby prices their not including the pods which contribute to the title claimed on the box seems a bit off.

Hmm I have to agree with you on this. No it doesn't make it a bad kit but the very name of the varient along with the illustration on the box does make one believe you should be getting them in the box. 

 

In some countries this could be taken as false and misleading practices by government bodies who's job is to protect the consumer (ACCC in Australia for example.)

[Geologos]

Mike one question on this kit, does it include all the parts of the single seater? Can one build a single seater one if he buys this kit, with the exception of the decals?

[coneheadff]

5 hours ago, Geologos said:

Mike one question on this kit, does it include all the parts of the single seater? Can one build a single seater one if he buys this kit, with the exception of the decals?

Yes it does. You can download the instructions at their homepage. 

https://www.specialhobby.eu/en/our-own-production/special-hobby/saab-sk-37e-st-r-viggen-electronic-warfare-agressor-1-48.html?cur=1

Edited March 10, 2020 by coneheadff

[Geologos]

Nicee, thank you!

[Paramedic]

Quote

The profiles on the first page of the decal instructions throw a little confusion on the subject, as the red lightning bolt on the tail of red 73 has been left off.

 

That aircraft, there was only one grey Sk 37(E) - received those red lightning "decals" at F21. That´s why.

 

I don´t see it as a biggie that this one doesn´t get any stores. They had chaff-and-flare pods and U95s and could carry rocket pods 8only 2 iirc) but often flew without them. As Sk 37s anyways. A proper Sk 37E needs those pods but those are availble, albeit not cheaply..