Heller SAAB A 21A-3

[Orso]

I got a Heller SAAB J 21A out from the stash. I decide to try another approach  attaching wings to the fuselage. The wings are three parts, one large bottom and two parts for the top so I started by building them together as I always done before.
But when I got to the fuselage I only glued the part in front of the cockpit and let it set. Then I glued the fuselage to the wing assembly leaving the rear of the fuselage unglued. This way I could press the fuselage out to the wings leaving no gap to be filled. When the glue had set I glued the top of the rear fuselage together.

 

Now I had to add a small wedge of plastic card under the rear fuselage but I find this easier to sand after I add filler to it than to fill and sand a fuselage-wing joint.

 

I have made holes in the front of the booms for landing lights. With the booms still off I can build landing light inserts an mount them from behind. I have also made a hole on the left wing for a new pitot tube. I am building a late version and the tube was moved from the right wing to the left. I managed to break of the gun in the nose an while looking at pictures I noticed that the gun isn't mounted exactly in the centre so I'll fix that when I build a new gun. 

 

I sanded away the structure on the aileron's as I'm building one with ailerons made of metal.

 

A bomb pylon is built using a F-18 pylon as a base and wing tip tanks leftover from the Broplan J 21R conversion set.

 

The air intake on the fuselage side has been drilled out a bit .Guns are replaced with brass tubing. 

 

I had to add some filler to the boom/wing joint but the big problem with this kit is to build the canopy trying to fit the parts together. 
I have added some rocket mounts that was leftover from a Special Hobby J 21R. 

I found an easy way to fill the landing light holes to get something to glue the lights to. My first thought was to add some plastic card but to get it in the right shape and size would be tricky and then to get it in place. Instead I inserted a ball of Magic Sculp (two component clay) from behind. Then I sanded a piece of sprue to a square shape that fits the hole and pressed the clay back so I get some space and a flat surface for the light. I also found some left over seat belts from a Lansen build that I used. Not correct but hardly visible.