Another Draken! 1/72 Hasegawa SAAB Draken J35

[Scargsy]

So this is the kit...

It's a 2017 rebox, looking online it seems the Hasegawa moulding seems to go back to 1994, though possibly it predates that as it's quite a sparse kit.

It seems the kit fantasy livery is based on a a Japanese Manga called "Area 88", I won't be using those - instead I have some aftermarket Flying Colours decals and will have my first attempt at using a vacuform canopy (shown here next to the supplied canopy). I'll probably go for the dark blue/dark green scheme.

 

 

[trickyrich]

welcome along with build #2 and how can you go wrong with a Draken!

 

I know this range of Hasegawa models will, the schemes as you say are from Manga series but the boxings are really good. I a couple of cases they're new the only way to get a couple of certain models they earlier released, and in some cases with all the sprue variants as well.

 

This release is still quite a nice model and there are heaps of extras to improve it if you want to go down that path.

 

good luck with this 2nd build, again i look forward to seeing her in the gallery.

[Rabbit Leader]

I've got the Revell boxing of this kit so will watch to see how you get along with this Hasegawa kit. 

The modelling world loves a Draken, so great to see this one on here as well.

 

Cheers and all the best.. Dave 

[Col.]

Not seen this boxing of the Hasegawa kit before but the plastic does make up to a nice replica and there's always room for another Draken in this GB

[Scargsy]

So I started building over the weekend and managed to get it pretty much complete (construction wise)...

 

First the kit calls for some ballast to be added, the instructions in this one say 5g in the nose but previous versions (looking online) say behind the cockpit.

I epoxy'd a ball-bearing in the nose and 3 behind the cockpit, painting them black afterwards so the wouldn't be so obvious if viewed through the air intakes.

Overall the kit went together pretty nicely, not too many pieces though there were some minor fit issues, such as a gap in the tail and a few edge fitment bits needing some attention.

In the end, due to all the small parts underneath (fins, etc.) I decided, for better or worse to attach everything before paint.

So here it is, waiting for some paint - since I've got a few other builds on the go I might pause here so I can do a job-lot of priming.

 

[reini]

Wow, quick work! Never realized how narrow the Draken landing gears are.

 

Cant wait to see some paint on it  

[trickyrich]

wow I'll say that is quick work!!! other than a couple of joins form the photos, it looks like it went to gather fairly trouble free.

[Scargsy]

After a small break for the Stuka GB to catch up, I'm on to paint.

A primer coat of Zero Light Grey, then I painted the underside of the wings, the aftermarket decals suggest Blue Grey 058, of which the only manufacturer I can find is MRP. I didn't have any at hand and was mixing up some paint for the Stuka underside so they're currently the same colour.

Looking at online references though it's a bit light for the Draken (it seems it should be a much more light to mid grey, without much blue) but with oil washes, filters and weathering I'm sure I can darken it up later.

My paint mix was 1:1:2 ratio of AK Real Colors RLM 65 (1938), Mr Hobby Self-Levelling Thinner, Zero Light-Grey Primer.

I'd initially thought that the RLM colour might be a bit on the dark side but checking the colour (after painting, doh) it might have been a better match, though possibly a little too blue.

The paint went down brilliantly but I noticed that my seam line at the back was a bit nasty - so the primer there is sanded back, so in that photo there should be the natural plastic colour, the primer (on the belly) and the blue on the wings - it's all very similar coloured!

[Col.]

Nice progress. Looks as if you've got a smooth layer of paint down.

[Rabbit Leader]

This is looking very good at present and am sure the rest will just add to your great work. Nice job so far! 

Cheers.. Dave 

[trickyrich]

the paint job looks great. I wouldn't get too hung up on the colour as she'll be sitting on her wheels all the time so it'll be in shadow and darken up naturally.

[Scargsy]

So after masking off the underside: hopefully well, it's one of those jobs I hate and you never know how good it is until the big reveal after unmasking (I'll stop before I start sounding like some terrible Saturday night game-show)...

On with the green paint, again I'm using AK's new Real Color laquer paint - this is their RLM 70 (OK 'real colours', 'wrong subject' - but I was painting the Stuka and well, it was in the airbrush!) It was thinned 1:1 with Mr Hobby Self-Levelling thinners.

The lacquer paint goes down beautifully with the airbrush but on drying it didn't seem to have left an even coat of colour:

That was the first coat, it's hard to make out in the image (other than maybe the a patch on the left of the tail fin), it's not that I put down a thin coat either (I felt I'd somewhat overdone it) I left it a few hours and added a second coat, after drying it looked like this...

It's got a bit of a mottled type appearance to it, now I don't totally dislike it, probably better than an entirely uniform coat I'm just a little puzzled as to why so potentially I could make it controllable in future. It's not actually overly visually noticeable - maybe say on the same level as when you rub suede / moleskin fabric in one direction compared to the other, possibly I could roll with it and use it to inform my camo marking scheme, hopefully though after the next camo colour goes on and a few washes it should tone down.

My possible culprits are :

• Uneven primer coat - grey on grey I might not have given it a uniform coat, given how 'hot' lacquer paint/thinners are they could even have somewhat reactivated the thinner layers somewhat
• Micro-texturing in the primer coat
• Insufficiently well mixed paint/thinners - I probably do a complete no-no, I drop the thinners into the airbrush paint cup, then use a fresh pipette for the colour before 'mixing' by simply sucking the contents back up into the pipette and flushing back, rinse and repeat a few times.
• Bad airbrush control, not putting it down evenly enough.
• The paint itself is just quite translucent

Anyhow that's where I've got to, the next issue (other than maybe a third green coat) is what blue colour to put down for the top camo. I'd checked a bunch of previous Hasegawa kit instructions for the Draken and the one I saw suggested Mr Color "Midnight Blue" but that colour is, well I could say - pretty much as described in the name (look up on a moonless night), it's practically black! I might have to mix up something lighter from it and a lighter grey blue colour.

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by Scargsy

[Col.]

The tonal variation of your green doesn't look at all bad, almost as if the paint has faded with age and exposure to the Nordic elements, hopefully one of us can advise you on a suitable blue paint for the next stage now.

[Orso]

Among my Lansens: https://baecklund.eu/scalemodels/72/rfn-32.html there are two in the same camouflage schemes as the Draken.

SE-DCN was painted using MRP colours which give the freshly painted look.

On RFN-45 I tried to get the worn look using Tamiya XF-17 as a start and then mixed it to get it lighter.

[Scargsy]

OK so after a bit of a disaster with my Stuka build, I kind of left modelling alone for a while and various real-world events kind of meant my routine is a bit out of kilter (weird as I usually work from home, just not with the wife and kids in tow).

 

Anyhow I noticed the deadline got extended for a week so I've dusted off the Draken and finished it as best I can in the time, would have liked to do some washes, etc. but I'm fairly happy with the results.

Firstly I didn't have any appropriate dark blue colour so I mixed up something, though it possibly turned out a little more dark grey than blue...

Stupidly I used some standard DIY masking tape for the camo, which managed to peel up some of the paint - annoying but possibly a technique I could use in future for chipping?

I masked up the bottom (using some modelling tape this time) and hit it with some Alclad primer and natural metal, have to say the results look good, so good in fact that I'm looking forward to doing a full NMF aircraft later! It's a little bit bobbly textured, but I think that's due to the previous paint coats not being completely smooth.

I got the aftermarket decals on, though I had a few issues - they're quite thin and go very baggy/wrinkly when hit with Micro-Sol, I managed to rip a small bit of the giant 3 and the tail 34 on one side split into 3 bits when I was attempting to put it on (though I got them to line up thankfully).

A few paint touch-ups (I didn't do the aluminium wing edges) and I gave it a light once over with Mr Hobby TopCoat rattle-can, which was a bit blotchy as it was the end of the can (grrr) before I risked melting the decals with a quick blast of Tamiya rattle can clear, then flat clear. I think the Mr Topcoat stuff is acrylic rather than lacquer so a bit nicer on the decals. Luckily I seemed to get away with the clear coats (usually my nemesis), the canopy I think I didn't correctly mask - should have painted parts of it and the front part detached when I removed the masking (so you might see a few blobs of canopy glue still drying in the images), here are the results...

 

[trickyrich]

Sorry somehow I missed your earlier post in the chaos of the first part of the build. 

 

I actually though the patchiness of the green looked spot on for that slightly weathered look. As to why it went patchy, once you hit that 50:50 mark of paint to thinner/leveller etc, even coat start to become a wee bit harder, I often use 60%+ thinned paints and that sort of finish is normal. If you want nice even colour you'll need to do multiple coats, but honestly unless you need them I'd be super happy with the results you've got! 

 

Both those clears you used are quite good, I've used them a lot in the past without too many dramas on the decals. Though I'd recommend if you can get it, the Mr. Paint range of clears! They're lacquer based, super easy to use, the finish is amazing and are decals friendly.

 

Anyway, the finish product is awesome!!!  Those final clear coats have brought it all together very nicely well done!

 

So well done on finishing her, I do like this one a lot!

 

As mentioned i think the finish is spot on, she looks just right.

 

I done hope you enjoyed the build, was great to have you along and hope you can join us for Pt2?