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Yet another Saab J35F Draken***FINISHED***


PeterB

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My Lansen having gone faster than expected, I am waiting for some paint to arrive so I thought I might make a start on this.

DSC02466-crop

I built it when it first came out in the early 1970's and remember it being a simple kit. The cockpit is non existent, being just a crude seat and pilot, so I will have a go at detailing it a bit, having bought a resin seat.The kit has markings for 2 machines, one from F 13 wing and another from F10 with lots of yellow squares. I have never been certain if they were normal markings - I have read somewhere that similar markings were used on Lansens but only during exercises so wonder if the same applies here?

 

As usual with my builds I like to give a little background history as I know there are one or two out there who know as little about the Draken as I did - I suggest everybody else  skips this bit. As ever all info from Putnam's Saab aircraft so anybody wanting to correct or add to it - please feel free.

 

Saab's first purpose built jet, the J29 Tunnan was entirely conventional except for a rather fat fuselage, and the next warplane they built, the J32 Lansen was perfectly “normal” to look at, but the supersonic J35 Draken (Dragon) was totally unconventional for the time, being given a “double delta” wing like nothing before, and perhaps nothing after as well.

 

The concept was tested on a purpose built machine known as the Saab 210, which had a similar wing to the Draken, but tested various nose and intake layouts – this is one version.

210

At least one other had a longer nose I believe.

 

In April 1952 the Swedish Air Force ordered 3 prototypes of the Saab 1250 project as the Type J35 Draken, and the first flew on October 25th 1955, powered by the same RM 5A licence built RR Avon as fitted to the J32A Lansen. Delivery of the initial production A model began in late 1959, fitted with the more powerful RM 6B variant of the engine. 90 were produced, but from the 66th onwards changes were made to the rear fuselage to incorporate a new afterburner and a retractable tailwheel to allow high drag "nose up"  landings to assist in short field operations apparently. Top speed was Mach 1.5

 

Starting in 1962, 75 of a new version the J35B were delivered with improved armament and radar, followed by 120 improved J35D with more powerful engine and improvements in radar, fuel capacity and a new rocket ejector seat. The C version was a 2 seat trainer and the E was an unarmed recce version, and the ultimate version was the F of which 230 were built entering service in 1965. This was basically a D version with a completely new electronics fit to allow it to fire licence built versions of the Hughes Falcon missile instead of the Sidewinder of the early versions, of which more during the build. Top speed was in excess of Mach 2. A number of F models were later upgrade to the J with changes to electronics and weaponry.

 

The Draken was primarily a fighter but had limited ground attack capability, particularly the ones exported to Denmark, or so I believe, and as such was a replacement for the J29 Tunnan rather more than the J32 Lansen, which was replaced by the Viggen multi role aircraft I think, but may be wrong? Early versions were NMF and very late ones Grey but I will be painting this in the "Blue/Green" camo.

 

So I had better do a bit of research on cockpit colours before I go any further.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

 

 

Edited by PeterB
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Ah, the famous Ö68 squares that Airfix immortalized :)

In 1968 Swedish Air Force held a very large exercise, that almost encompassed all fighting Aircraft!

This meant J35 Draken and J32 Lansen interceptors, S35E Draken and S32C for recon and the A32A as attackers. 

To seperate the teams yellow or orange  Day-glo squares were used depending on if the squadron was part of team Yellow or Red.

The squares increased visibility so they hang around long after the exercise ended.

Here is a new recap of the events (but in Swedish)

https://www.forsvarsmakten.se/sv/information-och-fakta/var-historia/artiklar/o68/

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Hi Col,

 

I am beginning to have my doubts about this - it is a lot cruder than I remembered it. I was expecting having to box in the wheel bays and probably blank off the air intakes, but I wonder just how accurate the front fuselage is? It is so shallow that the ejector seat will be virtually sitting on the fuselage bottom, though I can shorten it a bit and get in a thin floor. An IP and rear bulkhead plus side consoles should be possible though fiddly. I am glad I did not splash out on a resin tub as I suspect it would not fit! What I am not going to be able to fettle much is the nosewheel bay which would stick too far up into the pit. Airfix provide a rectangular hole with either a piece representing closed doors, or a part with a plate in the middle to fit in the hole, and 2 virtually horizontal open doors moulded on. I can fix the doors to hang about right and will just have to live with no actual bay.

 

Oh well, as Enzo said elsewhere GB's should be challenging!

 

Pete

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Hi Guys,

 

I understand that the early model Draken had a cannon in each wing but ther F only had one. Am I right in saying the cannon was in the right wing and was the cannon port on the left wing still there or was it filled in. Can't be sure from the walk rounds I have looked at. Airfix have incorrectly moulded two ports, one in each wing.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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10 hours ago, PeterB said:

Hi Col,

I am beginning to have my doubts about this - it is a lot cruder than I remembered it. I was expecting having to box in the wheel bays and probably blank off the air intakes, but I wonder just how accurate the front fuselage is? It is so shallow that the ejector seat will be virtually sitting on the fuselage bottom, though I can shorten it a bit and get in a thin floor. An IP and rear bulkhead plus side consoles should be possible though fiddly. I am glad I did not splash out on a resin tub as I suspect it would not fit! What I am not going to be able to fettle much is the nosewheel bay which would stick too far up into the pit. Airfix provide a rectangular hole with either a piece representing closed doors, or a part with a plate in the middle to fit in the hole, and 2 virtually horizontal open doors moulded on. I can fix the doors to hang about right and will just have to live with no actual bay.

Oh well, as Enzo said elsewhere GB's should be challenging!

...or you could build it in-flight on a stand and enjoy those clean lines to their maximum advantage ;) 

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I think Col's onto something they're Pete. A wheels up version would solve many problems and really accentuate the beautiful lines of the Draken. Either way, I'm sure you'll lick this oldie into shape. 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Hi Guys,

 

Perhaps, but I will see what I can do first. With luck the only obvious problem will be the nose bay, and that is not going to be that visible with the doors at the correct angle. and a bit of shading to suggest depth. Like my Frog Shackleton the odd challenge can be interesting. After all, 60 years modelling should mean I can do a little better than when I built the ruddy thing the first time.

 

Christer, 

 

Thanks for the info on the yellow squares - I can see that they lingered long enough to impress Roy Cross, but I may leave them off. It does make me wonder it the large dayglo red markings on Heller's Viggen are also exercise ones rather than normal service ones? They claim it is a JA37 of 1 Jakflggdivisionen in 1992 and it has a large red 47 on the wings and a smaller one on the tail. It is in the grey camo scheme.

 

Pete.

Edited by PeterB
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3 hours ago, PeterB said:

Thanks for the info on the yellow squares - I can see that they lingered long enough to impress Roy Cross, but I may leave them off. It does make me wonder it the large dayglo red markings on Heller's Viggen are also exercise ones rather than normal service ones? They claim it is a JA37 of 1 Jakflggdivisionen in 1992 and it has a large red 47 on the wings and a smaller one on the tail. It is in the grey camo scheme.

 

Pete.

Well, both fighter Viggens (the JA37) and Drakens of the 80:s and forward usually had large ID numbers om the wings since it added visibility and reduction of crashes was a large goal. Grey ones had orange/Day-glo Numbers and the camo ones hade white.

Attack Viggen didn't have them, since they usually weren't into Air Combat Manouvers all the time.

 

Edited by Christer A
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Given the combination of my advancing years and the size of my stash I am all in favour of quick builds but there are limits - this was so bad it was a case of either fix it or throw it! This is the result so far-

DSC02471-crop

Because of the way the fuselage is split the floor, seat. side consoles, stick and part of the rear bulkhead are in the bottom half and the IP and the rest of the rear bulkhead are in the top together with 3g of lead.. OK I know it is nothing like the real thing but it is a lot better that what was there before, namely nothing! It actually does not look too bad in real life once the fuselage is closed up.

 

I was debating how to blank off the narrow intakes and thought I would try an experiment. I have some very thin plastic card - the kit is sitting on it in the above pic and it is so thin you can read through it. I have no idea what thinkness it actually is or if you can still get it but I normally use it for boxing in kit wheel wells as it is very flexible, particularly when you apply a coat of liquid cement to it, as you will no doubt see later in the build. Anyway, I have used it to make short lengths of "trunking" and squashed it towards the rear so  the intakes are no longer see through. I think that is a result! Now I can start building the ruddy thing.

 

Sorry - yet another question, this time about landing lights. Heller provide 2 for the Lansen which fit to the inside of the nosewheel doors and that seems to be correct. Airfix don't provide any with this kit (what a surprise) but the walkrounds of the Draken I have looked at seem to show one on each main undercarriage leg and either one or two in the nose bay but it is not clear if it is one on the leg or two on the doors - is that correct for a J35F?

 

Pete

 

 

Edited by PeterB
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Far better than an empty space Pete and an interesting solution to the intake trunking issue :goodjob:

On the Draken there's a light attached to the main undercarriage door very close to the leg just above the scissors link.

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Hi Col, 

 

Yes I have seen the lights you mention in several  walk rounds but there also seem to be lights on the nose wheel doors as well. Incidentally I am confused about the position of those doors - I have seen them horizontal and at an angle of about 30 degrees in different views. Airfix model them horizontal and I thought that was wrong but now I am not sure. I thought this would be easiest of my builds but now is seems likely to be one of the most complicated! It is a good job we can ask for help from our "Nordic" colleagues.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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Hi Rich,

 

Well normally I would put a blanking piece of card in the "trunking" but there is of course no trunking in this kit, and the shape and lack of space were likely to be a problem. I was going to stick some Milliput in and then I remembered the ultra thin card I used to make  something a bit similar on my Frog He162 build - it is very useful stuff at times. I was not optimistic but it turned out way better than I expected.

 

Pete

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I'll have a proper look through my Draken reference selection this evening and let you know what I find Pete but just wondering if the nose door lights were from a different version such as the early A model or a batch number change :hmmm:

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Thanks Christer, 

 

I think the walk round I was looking at was of a Finnish versions so perhaps they added lights in the nose bay? I will leave them off I think. The walkround in your link again shows the nose doors in both a horizontal position and also drooping down quite a bit - as I have seen in other walk rounds. Any idea what would be the normal position when standing on the ground?

 

The kit gives the option of 4 missiles, or 2 and tanks - I suppose it depended on what sort of range was required. I am trying to make my mind up whether to model 2 Rb 27 and tanks, or 2 Rb27 and 2 Rb28. I suppose that in a way the Draken is a bit like the early versions of the Starfighter - you could only carry drop tanks if you gave up some of the missiles.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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48 minutes ago, Christer A said:

I don't recall seeing a nose landing light?

The main gear got two shiny ones like in this classical shot

Drake.jpg

 

Otherwise, have a good look here:

http://plasticfantastique.com/walk_arounds/walkaround-saab-35-draken/

 

Whoa - tail wheel first? Big wing is good airbrake but that must be just a tad too high angle of attack...

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Looking at the possible weapons load outs, it occurs to me that the Draken was designed for a similar purpose as the RAF's Lightning, namely point defense against hostile bombers carrying iron bombs. Both have a very high rate of climb and a high supersonic speed, which would be needed when the radars at the time had relatively short range and it makes sense given how close Sweden is to the then potential enemy - Russia,

 

The downside in both cases was of course relatively short range on afterburner and a modest weapons load. The early Lightning had 2 cannon and either a pair of Firestreak AA missiles or alternatively a pack of unguided rockets. The early Draken had a pair of cannon and depending whether or it was carrying drop tanks, either 2 or 4 AA missiles, initially Rb24 Swedish built AIM 9 Sidewinders. The F which I am building sacrificed the Port cannon for more electronics and could carry  Rb 28 or Rb 27 AA missiles, which were locally build versions of the AIM 4C or AIM 26B Falcon respectively. Later, a small number of Draken were upgraded to J35J standard which gave them an extra pair of pylons for 2 more missiles, or allowing them to still have 4 missiles when carrying drop tanks.

 

I have learnt more about the Draken in the last week than in the past 60 or so years.

 

Pete

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So, after finishing modifying the interior it has reverted to a normal old Airfix "Quick build". I assembled the fuselage, wings and vertical tail, boxed in the wheel wells and fitted various intakes etc. The kit was originally released in 1971 according to Scalemates, and mine (and I think Stu's) is the short lived and rather bright 1989 boxing, which was replaced a year later. Therefore the mould was no more than 19 years old when this was made, but it was already showing its age. There is some irritating flash on the small bits, and the air brakes also had ejector pin marks, which made for a tricky clean up given their size. Anyway it is done, filled and primed.

DSC02481-crop DSC02483-crop

 And no, I am not going to model a Danish one but I am out of grey primer and so I used up some surplus Dark Slate Grey as I do not anticipate building any more WWII RAF Coastal/FAA machines in the near future. I decided I would go with the drop tanks and 2 missile option, so fitted the "cranked" pylons on the fuselage, instead of the "straight" ones used for missiles. I have blanked off the port cannon trough and cut the pitot tube from the tail as I have a set of Master ones to use. Don't fancy fitting their Angle of Attack indicator as it apparently sticks out of the fuselage side in front of the cockpit and is needle sharp.

 

You should just be able to make out the nose wheel doors which Airfix have molded "horizontal".  It is not wrong I believe, but half the walk round pics I have seen are like that and the other half have them hanging down in a more "normal" fashion. I have left the nose cone off so I can insert more ballast later if needed, and that in turn means not fitting the IR sensor under the nose as it would get in the way of any sanding that needs to be done.

 

I may get the blackish blue paint on the upper surface tonight - depends how much spare time I have! Oh, and in fairness to Airfix, they have moulded some crude landing lights on the main wheel legs so that's a bit less work for me!

 

Incidentally, just noticed on Cybermodeller that Hasegawa are recommending GS H304 OD for at least one of their Draken kits - I mentioned earlier I thought that paint might be an option. I also note that Airfix suggest Hu3 Brunswick Green for the missiles, not white - not sure if that is correct?

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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4 hours ago, PeterB said:

...I used up some surplus Dark Slate Grey as I do not anticipate building any more WWII RAF Coastal/FAA machines in the near future...

What!?! What's wrong with you man? :blink2:

Only joking :D I'm thinking the nose wheel doors may drop into a more vertical hang as hydraulic pressure bleeds back after engine shut-down :shrug:

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