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Swedish duo - A21R + J32B - 1/72 - BOTH COMPLETE!


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Haven't posted for a while here so need to refresh thread with a new report. Over New Year holidays I managed quite a lot of painting of interiors of both airplanes. Lansen is still not done yet, but his uglier bro is more advanced!

 

All interior parts are done:

20210117_013308

 

As well as the wheels:

20210126_150129

 

Paint used for interior is mostly lightened FS34079 - same as will be applied for the exterior top side and aluminium for rear side. Also I painted seat belts in tan, some instruments black. Wheels are FS34079 directly from the can and obviously tire black. 

 

Cockpit went on through further construction: 

20210126_150057 20210126_150112 20210126_150247

 

Cockpit fit is good, no trimming, no large gaps. Canopy looks like sitting all right. Next step would be to figure out how much lead it needs (presumably a lot!!!) at the nose and close the fuselage sides. 

 

Cheers,

Dennis

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  • 4 weeks later...

Some update for my J-21R.

1) Added plastic sheets to remove see through effect. Painted them black on the outer side.

20210221_234404 20210221_234430

This is of course nothing close to actual intake channel, but still looks neat and dark as you glance from outside:

20210221_234519

 

2) added some weight into nose. Three lead sinkers were enough. The airplane seems to be a heavy tail sitter but looks like in reality it is not as bad. Nothing like OV-10 at least. 

 

3) Lastly I closed up the fuselage sides today:

20210222_004235 20210222_004255

 

Wing is not glued, but I sat fuselage on the wing to make sure alignment is ok. Fuselage sides are very flexy, so wanted to make sure it stays straight. 

 

Wrrrr....

Look what a weird beast!!!

20210222_005913

 

Best regards,

Dennis

 

Edited by Dennis_C
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi!

 

An hour with ruler and cutting mat and I managed to do this!!!

20210308_182810 20210308_182827

 

Looks pretty much straight and parallel!!!

That is not the easiest step. The booms attachment system is not the easiest one. Protruding undercarriage interiors add strength but make alignment more challenging.

 

Well next is my favourite - putty and sanding!!! Plus tip tanks and canopy to be added. Looks like my J-21 makes it on final run to paint shop. 

 

Cheers, 

Dennis

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  • 1 month later...

Getting back with updates on my WIPs. I'll do an update for J-21R a bit later when it's fully ready for paint job. Now there is a little update with Lansen.

 

Assembled and installed cockpit tub into fuselage:

20210427_130354

It's a combo of kit parts and PE from Maestro Models. Front panel is from the kit as Maestro option is for J-32E without gun sight and with different layout of instruments. Side panels look ok for J-32B.

Some lead+plasticine load is added. Not super heavy as the plane does not look to be a heavy tail sitter. 

 

Pulled together bang seats

20210427_130155

Again a mixture of kit parts, maestro PE and home built release handle.

 

Next is the scratched interior for the airbrakes niches. 

20210427_121831

There were resin parts supplied with the PE set, but they did not want to get in place really well, were just representing blank walls, and ultimately fell apart as I attempted closing fuselage for the first time. I broke one of them in anger🤯 and then decided to produce a bit better version from scratch. Result is not 100% realistic but more or less resembles what one would see in that area. 

 

Okay. Ultimately fuselage is closed today

20210427_152102

Next step is addition of main gear bay that would require quite a bit of scratch detail. And then adding wing, tail, etc. 

 

All the best,

Dennis

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Everyone,

Took a week-long holiday out of country in May so not much updates yet. 

 

Still my J-21 is ready for paint job. 

 

20210522_190225 20210522_190000 20210522_190019

 

Quite a bit of putty, sanding and rescribing. Nothing critical but still not too fast. 

 

Canopy fit is not excellent. I started with right-upper side, then added left side and then front screen. That minimised gaps at least but still the shapes of front screen and other parts are not perfectly identical so there is a small step. Also some trimming was needed to let better fit of rear windows on the sides. 

 

Some extra parts to be painted:

20210522_190158

 

Nacelle with guns was not an easy fit but looks fine ultimately. Not sure that struts are exactly as on the real thing, but looks reasonably fine to me.

To make sure main gear sits firmly I added brass shafts and drilled holes in the gear bays. 

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

Edited by Dennis_C
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  • 2 months later...

Not updated for a while. Now I'm ready to report that J-21 is fully painted. Needs a coat of gloss finish yet.

 

20210725_193719

 

Paints used are Hobby Color H53 for neutral grey and H309 for green as suggested by the instruction in fact. 

Blue is a mix to match blue of the letter codes. Aluminium is used in gear bays, blacked intakes, gun metal for exhaust. 

 

Thanks for looking!

Dennis

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14 hours ago, Christer A said:

That looks ace!

You really nailed that tricky boom installation of the J21R. It's anything but easy.

 

Thanks! That was quite a bit of time with rulers to align everything including ensuring same boom length not only angles! And then decent amount of filler in every joint. These booms definitely do not align themselves.

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The J-21 is coming along very nicely. I started my own Tarangus J-32 recently, as a background job between my main builds. I've managed to dremel out the release pins in the wheel bays, but may yet decide to build new bays!

 

Terry

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Okay, now it's time to update on Lansen.

 

20210731_114853

A lot is done. Mainframe fully assembled, minor parts added like wing fences, landing lights. Mainly it's only canopy yet to be installed. 

 

Major job is done on the undercarriage niches. This is what you get OOB. Note some details restoration after I dremelled protruding ejector pins.

 

20210731_115407

 

However in real aircraft these bays were full of pipes, tubes, wires and what not. I definitely was not able to reproduce all that beauty with full accuracy, however did try to reproduce largest elements and threw in some wire to make the look busier. 

 

20210731_115126

 

Left and right bays had different content which I tried to reflect. Hope that all would look okay after painting.

 

Some more details: 

 

20210731_115054

 

Cabin turned out quite fancy IMO. The operator's windshield is overly thick. Maybe someone will produce a vacform replacement... Tarangus molded it with sharp straight corners, while real thing is a smoothly curved single piece of plastic. I filed the sharp corners and polished the thing so that it looks closer to the original. 

 

Additionally I scratchbuilt navigation lights from transparent sprue, drilled opening in the afterburner (?) intake. 

 

Armament and pylons are ready for painting too. Exhaust is assembled and painted. 

 

20210731_114659

 

Sidewinders are from Hasegawa set and were painted before for a Starfighter however painting was not successful that time so these were left unfinished. I stripped them of excessive paint and will try to reuse for Lansen. 

Kit supplied Sidewinders are poor with strong sink marks. So did not even attempt to use them. 

 

Hope you like this progress.

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

Edited by Dennis_C
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey there,

 

Now Lansen is fully prepared for landing. Painting.

20210814_120814

The final changes that I made are on the bottom photo above. I drilled through gun openings in the gun ports. Also I figured that the area around front gear is not looking fine enough. I think Tarangus (Sword :)) used a small insert in the molds to be able to reproduce complex curved shape in the area. Which left quite visible seam with a step. In several sessions of putty and sanding I smoothed the area. 

 

When everything was done, canopy sealed with tape I took the decals sheet in my hands the first time in probably several months.....

And......

20210814_121017

Oh sh....!!!

And there is nothing in the instructions. Nowhere... 

20210814_124845

Well. Ejection seats were so nice but now I know they are not perfect anymore... Fixing canopy in place and sanding around was an effort too. Moreover not sure if I will avoid ejecting seats to be able to apply those decals.... So it is what it is. I'll start painting today. 

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

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Sorry, @Dennis_C, I was late getting back to your build- I had some ideas on how to improve the main wheel bay on your Lansen, but see I am too late! Maybe for others, including myself contemplating making this kit,  I was thinking about pressing foil down over the corrugated part of the wheel bay or some other item that had the same  corrugations (Plastruct?) to make an impression. Then you could remove all the corrugations, ejector pin marks, etc. to make the walls and roof smooth; you could then add any of the details you desired, using those excellent photos you posted,- no way to get them all  done in 1/72, but you could certainly 'busy' up the wheel bay, each according to his eyesight/anal retentiveness! (As Gordon Jackson [MacDonald] said in The Great Escape, "That's as far as my thinking takes me!") I think I would also try to find better wheels- those mainwheels look strangely familiar in size and spoke pattern- have to look at the ones in my unbuilt kit to see if it jogs the  old Mk 1a memory banks!. Keep it up, you're doing a great job so far! As for the J-21...meh! (I like the prop version so much better, but that's just me!)

Mike

Edited by 72modeler
corrected spelling
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Priming is complete.

20210815_193301

My favourite stage when nothing distracts from seeing the shape of the aircraft. 

 

Next are aluminium for niches, leading edges of all the surfaces, bare metal for lower rear fuselage, black for radio-transparent areas and then overall FS34079. 

 

Dennis

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Hi @72modeler 

On 14/08/2021 at 17:56, 72modeler said:

those mainwheels look strangely familiar in size and spoke pattern- have to look at the ones in my unbuilt kit to see if it jogs the  old Mk 1a memory banks!

Here what it looks like when painted. 

20210815_194148

These definitely lack tyre treads however wheel rims look pretty okay as real ones are pretty simplistic too. 

Reverse side is poor (no one should see that!!!), but it is largely covered with wheel brakes and such so won't be much seen.

 

And after priming my internal perfectionist is more then satisfied with the look of main undercarriage bays :) My eyes and fingers aren't probably producing anything better.

 

All the best,

Dennis

Edited by Dennis_C
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Hi folks, 

 

As I'm approaching final painting stages for my Lansen I actually got one question. Those bright green missiles that are typically seen on Lansens - are they training missiles or those with actual warheads? And if these are exercise options - how were combat missiles painted in Flygvapnet?

 

Thanks for sharing any insights!

Dennis

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Hi Dennis!

You did great work in those Lansen wheel wells. Looks a lot better than was was there before.

As for bright green missiles/weapons : that was inert rounds (Blind in Swedish, often stenciled on it)

Most of the time, that was what they flew with, unless going to a shooting range.

For a live Sidewinder (that's Rb24) of this period it would've been white with a yellow band.

The rocket pods though...

J32B_F21_2_1000p.jpg

 

I'm guessing here but a pod with liver rockets would've been unpainted aluminium.

 

Bright orange markings, either exercise-markings or just bright spots to improve visibility.

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Rocketpod m/70 that was used on Viggen didn't have any bands at all, so I'm guessing that would still be the case for the m/57.

The bands were probably painted on the rockets themselves though, but that would not be visible on any loaded pod.

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On 8/18/2021 at 7:51 AM, Christer A said:

Hi Dennis!

You did great work in those Lansen wheel wells. Looks a lot better than was was there before.

As for bright green missiles/weapons : that was inert rounds (Blind in Swedish, often stenciled on it)

Most of the time, that was what they flew with, unless going to a shooting range.

For a live Sidewinder (that's Rb24) of this period it would've been white with a yellow band.

The rocket pods though...

J32B_F21_2_1000p.jpg

 

I'm guessing here but a pod with liver rockets would've been unpainted aluminium.

 

Bright orange markings, either exercise-markings or just bright spots to improve visibility.

Is that a camera under the wing?

 

Gondor

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Actually not a camera, but a part of the gun sight system:

Sikte-6A, especially developed for J32B.

It has two systems, the day and night version, so you have a HUD with two glasses.

 

That "camera" is part of the IR/night vision system.

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