Saab SH-37 Viggen - Completed

[trickyrich]

that's what I thought. I have been searching and searching for any photo's of 01, but I couldn't find any. If the labels are right for the photo's of SH's then there is a mix between the black and non-black leading edges.

 

i'm now sort f wondering if it was a sort of "Mid-Life" update on them. From the factory they had the silver leading edges and latter in life they were painted??

 

I do think aesthetically she looks much better with the black leading edge, and with no photo's or 01 to show otherwise then that's the way I'll go.

 

Time for more masking! 

[Silenoz]

Splendid work on the camo... tedious job, but well done...

[helios16v]

I can't speak to Swedish aircraft, but USN aircraft utilize a plastic/vinyl tape to protect the leading edges.  Prowlers were notorious in the mid-90s for having a mix of "yellow" & grey leading edges.  The yellow was actually clear LET (leading edge tape) that turned yellow from UV over time.  The original spec was replaced with an updated version which was actually grey in color (and different material).  I wouldn't be at all surprised if the variances/discrepancies in LE colors ended up being due to similar circumstances in a rolling spec change.  We typically just replaced/repaired the LET in the specific areas that were damaged.  Full change out typically only happened if a slat was replaced (they were issues from parts depot w/o LET installed) or if a bird came out of depot level overhaul.

[Christer A]

The midlife update was the mod from SH to AJSH which actually was a quite big change and brought about a whole host of new weapon systems to use, like bomblet dispenser pod BK-90, new antiship missile RBS-15, better mission recording stuff and so on.

Repaints didn't happen that often though, at least not on F7 wing where I was.

 

But go with black, cause it looks cooler!

[Paramedic]

Agreed! i did that on mine, but that was a JA from F13..

 

AJSHs are nice, I like the look of the RB15F but the 04s are pretty manly too!

 

Why did I fart around with so much heavy weight, froze so much and was so fakking tired when i could have admired Viggens instead, Christer??

[trickyrich]

well more time spent touching up and fixing small issue but I think I’m finally done………just one one wee touch up to do!

 

I finished up painting all the small bits…sort of! I had the RH upper airbrake all done, took off the masks and did a test fitting only to find I’d done the pattern back to front!   I had started to just re-paint over top, but I’ll strip it back and redo it from scratch.

 

 

The Robots are nearly finished, the mounts are as well as the drop tank, they’ll be clear coated tomorrow.

 

 

The leading edge and intakes strips have been done, plus I’ve re-painted the intakes. They’ll get a misting of Tamiya Smoke to know back the shine and give then a bit more of a grubby look. Robots fitted to see how they’ll look.

 

 

 

Underside is finished except for another spot of lifted paint!    Did that whilst painting the intakes, least it's an easy fix.

 

 

I should be able to give her a gloss clear coat tomorrow ready for decaling on Saturday. She’s slowly looking better all the time, I think the effort and stress may have paid off.

 

 

Still looking good for having her done by the end of the weekend!

[Mottlemaster]

Your airbrush must be doing overtime to get this far . Its looking absolutly stunning  .

[Paramedic]

Looking great, I especially like the drop tank.

 

I am not as skilled as you but there is my grey F13 JA 37. Working on a recce-Viggen now, not sure which variant or scheme just yet..

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235027793-tarangus-ja37-viggen-37412-148/page/2/&tab=comments#comment-2854103

 

 

 

 

[trickyrich]

7 hours ago, Mottlemaster said:

Your airbrush must be doing overtime to get this far . Its looking absolutly stunning  .

the poor wee beast is hardly getting a break, she hasn't even had a full strip down clean for days. After the initial hesitation to start painting I now just can't quite put it down....may have to start painting the Skyknight while I'm in the painting groove!

3 hours ago, Paramedic said:

Looking great, I especially like the drop tank.

 

I am not as skilled as you but there is my grey F13 JA 37. Working on a recce-Viggen now, not sure which variant or scheme just yet..

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235027793-tarangus-ja37-viggen-37412-148/page/2/&tab=comments#comment-2854103

cheers, I think you did a great job on her, the paint job is fine, looks great. The pre-shading is fine, you matched it's colour well with the main colour, you really don't want too much contrast. Plus what you can do if you want is to after the main colour/s on you can then mist on very light (as in super thin) coats of darker or lighter greys. You can carefully re-trace the panellines with darker or the centres with lighter colour. Using super thin paint allows you to very gradually build up these colours and it can give you some super cool effect. I did that with my F-14D Bombcat.

 

But again you did a great job on her   .......now curse you I want a Draken!!!

 

...and i see you had all the same issues I did with the build, glad to see I wasn't the only one to have them!

[Paramedic]

Thanks. Yeah, on the post-grey or whatever to call it.. I am not good enough right now for that.. I need to practive. But I have more grey Viggens coming so i will have to.

 

Will be using your splinter Viggen here for ideas too. It seems tricky with the pre-shading but maybe that isn´t too necessary, depending on the age of the bird..

 

I like how you have the camera on as well as the RB 044s by the way.

[trickyrich]

yeah I found a photo with that config so I'm now happy was an actual config....even if it was just for the photo! 

 

for the splinter I should have gone a different way with the pre-shading, basically you pre-shade after each layer, it's time consuming but does look awesome. Once it has the final clear flat coat I may play around with some shading and weathering. I noticed that some of them ended up looking quiet patchy.

 

Plus I'm now on a hunt for a Draken, have looking up all the goodies available but think I may an try to track down the Eduard release as it has all the nice bits I'm after plus there's a really cool scheme as well.

[Paramedic]

Yeah it is a decent box! I have built that F10 red-fin one but from the Special Edition hasegawa box, very striking!

It is a kice kit and the aircraft is really cool, I even like the one in my avatar. Nice fit but be a little aware of the gun pane-parts, might need some filler on some kits it seems.

 

Yeah I have seen it to, the SKa 24 (IIRC is the designation for that SH-cam) like that. Could make sense? I am planning Rb 15Fs for mince since it is an AJSH - but those big old ones look brutal! They have actually been "used" in anger once.. The "Whiskey on the Rocks" incident. A flight was laucnhed to fire at two ships if they went over the border.. Turned out to be two Western or Eastern German cargo ships going through the Russian force towards Sweden....

[trickyrich]

yeah the red fin one is hat I'll be building. I was tempted by that F-10 scheme as well (your avatar), but the Eduard boxing worked out cheaper in the long run.

 

I may have an update later today, decaling is nearly done......though I may just hold off and update once she's completed.

[Col.]

Stunning work so far Rich on a splinter camo Viggen with a set of f-off big missiles - what a combination. Can't help but love that!

[trickyrich]

thanks, it was a lot of work and stressful.........am now 98% finished!  

 

will post a couple of sneak peek photo's a bit later     ....she is impressive looking now! 

[Paramedic]

9 hours ago, trickyrich said:

yeah the red fin one is hat I'll be building. I was tempted by that F-10 scheme as well (your avatar), but the Eduard boxing worked out cheaper in the long run.

 

I may have an update later today, decaling is nearly done......though I may just hold off and update once she's completed.

It´s a good boxing with nice decals and a bit hard to get parts, for example the Danish stuff. Pretty sure you get the Danish extra ranks, 1200l (or whatever) ones. Keep them for any Grips you might build.. It´s the same ones.

 

What decals did you use for the Viggen - box ones? Can´t wait to see it, it really makes it pop when the blue and yellow comes in as a nice contrast to the leaf-camo..

 

 

 

 

[trickyrich]

4 hours ago, Paramedic said:

It´s a good boxing with nice decals and a bit hard to get parts, for example the Danish stuff. Pretty sure you get the Danish extra ranks, 1200l (or whatever) ones. Keep them for any Grips you might build.. It´s the same ones.

 

What decals did you use for the Viggen - box ones? Can´t wait to see it, it really makes it pop when the blue and yellow comes in as a nice contrast to the leaf-camo..

Have the horrible Best Choice (Italeri re-box with AM resin) C & D Gripen's (I've only started the D, about 5 years ago, still haven't managed to finshed it), they sound good but the build quality is scary. I'm thinking of trying the Kitty hawk JAS-39C, maybe it better????

 

I used the boxed ones.....not a clever choice at all!

 

ok this is officially the last update for this build!!

 

No build photos, for this one.

 

The decals are on and as I sort of alluded to they are pretty much like the rest of this model, plain horrible! If I had known how bad they were I would have gotten some AM ones, but to be honest I just didn’t check them out until I started to use them. If anyone has this model (poor sods!!) then just chuck’em in the bin and get some decent AM ones. These are just soooo thick and you need lots of softener just to get them to conform and most of these surfaces are flat!!

 

Still had to do a bit of masking……a never ending story with this build. Fixed up the off-painted airbrake, stripped it back and start again.

 

All the decaling has been done and the final flat coat is on….the difference this has made is amazing!!! All the patchiness is gone, the whole paint finish looks smooth, even those horrible decals have sort of been hidden.

 

I did the Matt finish completely different than normal, I used Mr. Paint Super Clear Flat for the main coat, then use SMS Flat Clear (an new Aussie acrylic lacquer paint, for Melbourne) for the upper surfaces and wings. This gives it a bit of a “whiteish” finish/super matt finish to these surfaces, what I’d call an almost sun-bleached finish, not extreme but subtle. It sort of matches some of the photo’s I’ve seen. I’ll buff some of the surfaces as well just to breakup the finish…..unfortunately it’s not something that really shows up in photos, I did the same thing to my F-14D and it just looks amazing in real life.

 

Haha I’ve been teasing so for and still will for now, I’ll post just a couple of sneaky photos of how he looks, she’s so different to what she looked like after the masks were initially removed. I really didn’t like her that much then, but now……. 

 

 

 

 

Will try and finish her tomorrow but am going shopping in the city tomorrow with SHMBO, so can’t promise. Will go to one of the only hobby shops in Sydney (we only have a couple and they’re crap)…….I may have to buy something!

[Hewy]

Looks like the flat coat has stepped it up another level rich, the bit your letting us see looks ace👍

[modelling minion]

The decals may be terrible but I do like  the contrast between the camouflage and the bright Swedish markings.

I look forward to seeing the finished model soon.

And good luck shopping!

[Paramedic]

Yeah they aren´t the best.. Moose Republic has better ones, in colour too! But looks like you managed anyways, great joB!

 

Agreed, the Swedish Air Force roundels look good on that camo.

[trickyrich]

thanks, I'm still deciding on whether to weather her a bit and how much to. A lot of the photos I've sen show them to be in fairly nice condition, though with a bit of paint fading in spots.

[helios16v]

Good to know about the decals.  Quick glance looks like trying to find another set may take some time.  I may do a whiffy w/ one of them.  The Viggen was one of the aircraft chosen for evaluation for purchase to be used for dissimilar aircraft training at the USN's Fighter Weapons School.  Ultimately they went w/ the F-16 in that comparison.....but only what if?!

[Hockeyboy76]

Stunning. 

[trickyrich]

3 hours ago, helios16v said:

Good to know about the decals.  Quick glance looks like trying to find another set may take some time.  I may do a whiffy w/ one of them.  The Viggen was one of the aircraft chosen for evaluation for purchase to be used for dissimilar aircraft training at the USN's Fighter Weapons School.  Ultimately they went w/ the F-16 in that comparison.....but only what if?!

interestingly the Viggen was one of the aircraft up for replacing the Mirage IIIO/D!

 

these were the contenders;

SAAB Viggen

Mirage F1

Mirage 2000

Mirage 4000

*F-14A   (I know unsuitable but god it would have been nice!!!)

*F-15A/B  (this would have been the best choice I think, then we could have gotten the F-15E's to replace the F-111's....if we had to!)

F-16A/B

YF-17

F/A-18L

*Tornado GR.1 (even this would have suited us)

 

.... and even more interestingly, to replace the Sabre (which the Mirage did);

*Saab Draken

*E.E. Lightning  (would have been awesome to see)

F-4    (would have been the best choice, especially if later upgraded to F-4E...which we did have while waiting for the F-111).

*F-104  (they actually had an order in for 30)

CL. 1200 Lancer (updated Starfighter, quite different)

 

...and seeing I'm off in whiffyland....... ....... instead of the F-111;

*TSR.2   (would probably gone into production if we had bought them)

Mirage IVa

A-5C Vigilante

F-4C (RF-4C)

 

God there's a few years worth of Whiffy projects there!!  

 

* - unfortunately now on the wish list of builds!!!  (the Viggen would have been if it wasn't such a horrible model!)

[helios16v]

Glad to be a bad influence.  🙂