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SAAB 91 Safir (was 3x) 1/48 - now only SE-CAD


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The bad thing of building three at once; all boring jobs come times three... The fuselage joints are now ready. A little filler and sanding needed, but all in all it went well. On the C-version I have also filled the fuel cap for the B-version fuselage tank.

 

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After a little adjustment of the forward tip of the canopies they came down nicely in place. I'm very happy with the decision to insert the Evergreen strips in the top fuselage joints to fix the canopy fit issue. Also the nose sections fitted nicely.

 

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I've come back to the Safir's for a while during the weekend. Fitting the wings well required some work. It was necessary to carefully trim away material in several places to obtain a good fit without using force or bending anything, but patience and trial fittings paid off.

 

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In the end the wings were glued without any problems. Soon there can be formation flying.

 

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They all required a little bit of filler, but nothing dramatic. Repeat x3.

 

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The tail planes were soon glued as well.

 

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And here all details around the nose that needs fitting before painting are on. If you are building this and using the photo etch set, note that the air outlet flaps are mirrored and need to go on the correct side for the best fit. The difference is very small, but it is there. I gave them a fine sanding before cutting and bending, to get a better surface for the paint to adhere to.

 

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I have also done some balancing tests at this point and the nose weights thankfully seem to be more than enough.

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After a 60 hour work week from hell I found some modelling time again. Time to fit the canopies on these birds.

 

First the photo etched luggage nets had to be fitted. On the B-versions test fitting showed that the folded piece becomes a few tenths too high when placed on top of the fuel tank part, preventing the canopy from settling down. The best would have been to not glue the fuel tank until now, so its height could have been adjusted. I now separated the net pieces, allowing me to fit the net at the correct height.

 

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The C-version was easier, just needing test fitting in height to allow for the canopy to go down later.

 

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Gluing the photo etched inner handles required CA, so I masked off just to be sure in case any fogging would show up. The top consoles had been glued earlier using ordinary poly glue.

 

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In the C-version I wanted to create the off-white sliding roof curtains sometimes fitted in the Safir in one or more positions. On the two photos I have of SE-CAD they are clearly present in all positions. I first cut six thin steel wires and glued them on the inside at the framing points using Kristal Klear. Then I experimented with strips in various thin paper material placed between the wires and the canopy.

 

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The look I get is this. Not perfect, but perhaps usable? I will have to dwell on that a little. The rear seat curtains will be done in two sections.

 

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In the mean time I went ahead and glued the canopies to the C-versions, as none of the few photos I found on my individuals had any curtains fitted. I'm happy with the fit I got from my adjustments earlier.

 

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I now need to look a little at the C-version, to find out if I see curtains or just pieces of jammed paper after a while...

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You're a braver man than me Jörgen, I don't allow CA anywhere near my clear stuff, I use Formula 560 Canopy glue...even on PE in many cases.

The '91's' are looking very nice by the way.

 

Stuart

Edited by Courageous
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Beautiful and inspirational work indeed. As I have the same kit in my stash your work is really useful to take note of the potential pitfalls.

 

Interesting fact: The designer of the Saab 91, Anders J. Andersson had previously worked for Bücker where he designed the Bü 181 'Bestmann'. If you compare the 3 views of both aircraft one cannot deny the familiy resemblance.

 

Markus

Edited by Shorty84
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Thanks a lot guys, I'm happy you like the work and can draw some inspiration.

On 02/03/2020 at 13:24, Courageous said:

 I use Formula 560 Canopy glue...even on PE in many cases.

Sounds like a glue I will have to find and try out.

 

Work load is very high, and progress here very slow... After another week I thought I might actually see some kind of curtains in the cockpit roof, at a reasonable distance, so I finally glued the last canopy.

 

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For some reason the fit at the rear didn't quite meet the standard I got on the other two, on this one there was a more pronounced step up to the fuselage top. I masked off the glass and sanded down the fuselage to a better fit.

 

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Time to mask off the canopies and engines, and then fit the tail skids, canopy hinges and drill some antenna holes before spraying a first coat of primer.

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Many thanks. They are moving forward, at a slow pace.

 

The canopies where masked today, I'm so glad for good masking sets, especially with three at one go and me not being very fond of masking work... I then calculated a possible 1/48 size of the canopy hinges, and decided not to bother.

 

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Then I sprayed the color I wanted for the inside of the framework. This revealed I could perhaps improve the fit of the canopies a little more at some points, so when the paint is fully dry I will do some more sanding and then touch up the paint again.

 

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Thanks guys. I took a little time out today and reworked a little bit around the canopies.

 

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Some respraying later they look like this. It's certainly better, even if not perfect, and now they are ready for the first coat of primer.

 

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Today I changed my priorities a little, to not only work, and sprayed some paint. First a coat of primer, some minor sanding and touching up.

 

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Then real painting started. First the yellow trainer. The paint went on nice and dried fast. I now have to force myself to wait until tomorrow to mask and spray the green nose area...

 

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A blue-grey underside for the camo version was quickly done.

 

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Then it's the civil version. I have thought a lot about how to paint this one. It's mainly finished in polished aluminum with the fabric covered sections in some aluminum paint, I think. The nose and a cheat line is a burgundy red with a flat light grey anti glare panel in front of the canopy, that also continues into thin lines along the red cheat line. Very attractive and not easy to paint I think.

 

I'm not so keen on masking on top of the polished aluminum, instead I'd like to end with that. So I decided to start with the flat light grey. The plan is then to mask the thin lines and the anti glare panel, cover up the surroundings and spray the red. Then reverse the masking to cover the red, and decide how to do the different aluminum finishes. If this is a good or not so good plan remains to be seen.

 

Flat light grey went on.

 

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2 hours ago, shortCummins said:

looking very nice, what yellow have you used? I've tried Alkan and Tamiya yellows but never get good coverage.

 The paint is MRP. I have never used it before, but heard good about it. The yellow covered well and was easy to work with, however a solid white primer makes it a lot easier of course.

 

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4 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

 The paint is MRP. I have never used it before, but heard good about it. The yellow covered well and was easy to work with, however a solid white primer makes it a lot easier of course.

 

thanks Bengalensis, I've heard lots of good things about MRP, when I get an extractor I'll give them a go.

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

Edited by shortCummins
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Thanks a lot guys, I'm sure I'll need all the luck I can find with the civil one...

 

Some over ambitious masking, better safe than sorry is how I usually think in these cases, of the anti glare panel on the trainer.

 

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And here we are with the green sprayed. This is now ready for a thin gloss coat before detail painting and decals, or perhaps I will also spray the black walkways first. I'll probably paint all three up to the walkways and take them from there.

 

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I decided the flat grey on the civil SE-CAD was too flat and most of all not durable enough for all the work to come. So I gave the grey a thin coat of semi-gloss 2-part clear with some extra matting agent added. This will have to cure until tomorrow.

 

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Then it's out of my comfort zone and into the world of non-sharp colour demarcations of camouflage... I masked off the underside of the camo version.

 

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It's now received an all over coat of the dark blue.

 

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