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"Röda Blixten" - The Red FFVS J 22


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I hardly build Spitfires or Messerschmitt Bf 109s anymore. In my old modelling days I see to drift more and more towards the esoteric and strange when it comes to aircraft! I am not sure why, but I love these odd, hardly-built-at-all planes! The FFVS J 22 was built in reasonable numbers, but is still quite unknown to many aviation enthusiasts. But I had to have Planet Models new 1:48 kit of this and when I discovered there was an all red specimen amongst all the standard painted and marked ones, I of course had to make that one! It was called "Röda Blixten" which means "red lighting", quite appropriate, I think! I apologise for the rather bad images, I am certainly no photographer!

 

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Edited by Kjetil Åkra
Wrong factory designation!!
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An excellent choice of subject, beautifully realised!

 

As the saying went, the FFVS J 22 was the world's fastest fighter in 1942 – relative to engine power, that is. It was (under)powered by Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasps of 1,045hp, bought from Nazi Germany (spoils of war from France, in fact).When procuction geared up, the J 22 got Twin Wasps built in Sweden, reverse engineered without a license (and without drawings). It was said that the Swedish STWC-3 engines were better than the P&W originals, rated at 1,200hp with 100 octane fuel.

 

The correct factory apellation is FFVS (not FFSV), since the acronym stands for Flygförvaltningens Flygverkstad i Stockholm.

 

Excellent modelling!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

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Well, it is nice enough but no faster and possibly slightly slower than the 1940 Spitfire and Bf 109E.  I suspect others could be mentioned by 1942.

 

I have seen it written that post war the Swedes went P&W and admitted what they had done, asking for a post-dated licence.  P&W charged them $1.

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Thanks for the comments, guys. Much appreciated. I am a quite mediocre modeller at my best, but this one came out alright, I think. And the kit went together nicely, one of the best resin kits I have built. Highly recommended if you want something a bit different. I added quite a few smaller bits to the undercarriage but apart from that it builds into a very accurate replica.

 

And Joachim, you are of course correct about the designation. My bad. Thanks for pointing it out!

 

Kjetil

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  • Kjetil Åkra changed the title to "Röda Blixten" - The Red FFVS J 22

Antti, the reason it was painted like this was for the air display in connection with the 25th anniversary for the Swedish Air Force. Notice in the photo I published that I was spray painted when the flaps where up and when the flaps are deployed some of the original paint can be seen! This indicates to me to was done rather quickly. I have no idea what colour they used. If memory serves it was kept in this colour and markings for quite some time.

17 hours ago, Antti_K said:

Lovely work! And I'm always delighted to see something different. Can you tell us a little bit about this Red Lightning please? Why was it painted like a racer?

 

Cheers,

Antti

 

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On 04/08/2021 at 11:42, Kjetil Åkra said:

I apologise for the rather bad images, I am certainly no photographer!

Try outside, out of direct sun,  on clear, or slightly hazy day.  

A base can be anything that is fairly natural and neutral. 

I have a what was a green baize topped card table, that folds flat,  that was thrown away as it was beat up and faded/tatty,  and the top is now a faded mottled lumpy browny green.   I have storage box in front of the house, and behind is a park.   The box i abut 1.3 m high, and i just put the table on that, which means the camera can get low. use the close mode, so the background is out of focus.  The images in the link were done like this.   I might have cropped one of two,  and one I made B/W,  but no post production computer tricks.  And my camera is early, basic point and shoot digital, (about 15 years old)  ..considerably more basic than a phone.   

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235073488-spitfire-pr-xix-airfix-72nd-as-i-thought-it-would-be-easy/page/2/#elControls_3698616_menu

 

 

Merely a suggestion, I detailed my "technique"  as it really is very simple, and  basic, and easy!   

 

I mention this as your splendid model would look really benefit from a more sympathetic photo session. It's also good fun playing around with photos like this.... 

when i got my first camera as an adult, an old Nikkormat, a manual SLR,  one my first rolls of film I took some snaps of the only complete model I had, this was in the garden,  and I just went by what i could see in the view finder with the inbuilt light meter,   these are scans of the photos,  no cropping or post processing. I'm just trying to stress that this was done by me with a camera I just bought and was playing around with.

http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2011/11/troy-smiths-tamiya-148th-hayate.html

I'd had a really basic 110 camera when I was 12, which i'd taken a about 3 rolls of film with,  but I'd not had a camera since then, which was about 17 years,  so that's about as a basic a "photographer"  as you could get.       

 

 

I have a J22 stashed as well, the Kora one which is not as good as the Planet Models one apparently, but it's a fascinating subject.

 

On 06/08/2021 at 14:53, Kjetil Åkra said:

I have no idea what colour they used.

the same red as used for the code letters and spinners of the other J 22's in the reference photo would seem to be a reasonable guess,  as it was an available aircraft paint.

 

Hope you have a play with some natural light photos,  "Röda Blixten" deserves them!   

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On 8/8/2021 at 1:32 AM, Troy Smith said:

Merely a suggestion, I detailed my "technique"  as it really is very simple, and  basic, and easy!  

 

Hi Troy and many thanks for your kinhd suggestions. I used a ipad to take these photos which si actually realtively good, but I have no idea of lighting and all that stuff, so thanks for your suggestions. I'll try to make a better series of shots later, I think. Natural light sounds like a good idea! Many thanks for your suggestions!

 

On 8/8/2021 at 1:32 AM, Troy Smith said:

I have a J22 stashed as well, the Kora one which is not as good as the Planet Models one apparently, but it's a fascinating subject.

 

the same red as used for the code letters and spinners of the other J 22's in the reference photo would seem to be a reasonable guess,  as it was an available aircraft paint.

 

Hope you have a play with some natural light photos,  "Röda Blixten" deserves them!   

 Yeah, you are probably right about the colours being used, but on the other hand, I doubt they had that much of a prurely markings coclour available and if they did, some chap responsible for the paint stocks would quite possibly have been furious to see all his red marking paint gone! But your suggestion is certainly the most plausible I've seen so far. I have searched a bit on this but not found any information on Swedish websites.

 

On 8/8/2021 at 1:32 AM, Troy Smith said:

I mention this as your splendid model would look really benefit from a more sympathetic photo session. It's also good fun playing around with photos like this.... 

when i got my first camera as an adult, an old Nikkormat, a manual SLR,  one my first rolls of film I took some snaps of the only complete model I had, this was in the garden,  and I just went by what i could see in the view finder with the inbuilt light meter,   these are scans of the photos,  no cropping or post processing. I'm just trying to stress that this was done by me with a camera I just bought and was playing around with.

http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2011/11/troy-smiths-tamiya-148th-hayate.html

I'd had a really basic 110 camera when I was 12, which i'd taken a about 3 rolls of film with,  but I'd not had a camera since then, which was about 17 years,  so that's about as a basic a "photographer"  as you could get.       

 

 

I have a J22 stashed as well, the Kora one which is not as good as the Planet Models one apparently, but it's a fascinating subject.

 

As far as the J22 is concerned, I believe Marivox had a pretty decent 1/72 kit available, but I don't know about the availabillity of this one. In 1/48, Planet Models is the way to go. I really do recommend it, but just get some good shots of the complex undercarriage, you'll need to do a bit of skratchbuilding of some small bits there which are missing from the kit. I have a Swedish book (this ojne: https://www.scalemates.com/no/books/ffvs-j-22-flyghistorisk-revy-35-bo-widfeldt--100693) on the J 22 which is now generally unavailable, so let me know if you need some shots of the excellent scale drawings in it.

 

Kjetil

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