Dragons are real, and this one is Finnish-ed!

[modelling minion]

Time to throw my hat into the ring with my choice for this GB which I have been looking forward to since the last one finished, as I built a Swedish subject last time I thought I should choose one from one of the other eligible countries. This lead me to choosing a subject from Finland and one that I have wanted to do for a while, a Draken. Unlike a certain Australian member of the forum who posts pictures of kits downloaded from the internet and claims to have them in his stash but never actually builds them I do have one in my stash and enough (for me anyway) goodies to make a half decent Finnish machine.

So we will start with the usual box and un-touched contents pictures;

 

 

You will notice that this boxing is for Swedish machines and as such only came with markings for them, fortunately a couple of years ago another member of the forum who had the Finnish boxing wanted to build a Swedish aircraft so we swapped decal sheets and copies of the painting guides, a win win situation for us both. Hear are the decals and one of the painting guides;

 

 

As you can see these are the earlier large national markings, and the ones that I like the best.

 

The only additional goodies that I will be using on the build are a quickboost ejector seat that come with the belts moulded on (much better than trying to work with etched brass as far as I am concerned) and a set of brass probes by Master;

 

I hope to be able to make a start on this one very soon in between working on  my Hs-126, thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

Edited December 8, 2021 by modelling minion

[helios16v]

Nice!  I'll be watching...and hopefully trailing so I can avoid some pitfalls.  

[modelling minion]

4 minutes ago, helios16v said:

Nice!  I'll be watching...and hopefully trailing so I can avoid some pitfalls.  

Glad to have you aboard Chris.

Hopefully there won't be too many pitfalls to overcome but if there are you can be sure that I will stumble into them head first.😁

[helios16v]

If it's any consolation, my pitfall is going to be kicking off immediately with an Aires resin pit.    Though I did do a quick little mock up the other night and I think it may actually fit w/ minimal hassle.  But we'll see though.

[trickyrich]

well well well........ look who showed up finally and with my Draken I bet!!!!!  

 

Well better late than never or else you would never Finnish it in time!!   (and that's #2 folks! )

 

Well at least you have made a token effort with the AM stuff, or are you planned to sneak some in along the way, I'm sure I could find you some nice resiny bits for her! 

 

Good luck with her, I'm sure she's going to be another Modelling Minion Masterpiece! 

 

hmm at the moment Draken's are slaying Viggen's in builds...... actually are there any Viggen's in this GB yet?

 

 

[Paramedic]

Ah, The Kite! And it is such a nice kit - and nice with a Finnish subject.

The kit is a joy - the onlypitfall you might stumble into, is perhaps the inserts for the cannon ports. Just dry fit them a bit. I have built a few of these and it was usually not a problem. I know others have mentioned this too though. But it is hasegawa, they are good.. ^^

 

 

[modelling minion]

13 hours ago, helios16v said:

If it's any consolation, my pitfall is going to be kicking off immediately with an Aires resin pit.    Though I did do a quick little mock up the other night and I think it may actually fit w/ minimal hassle.  But we'll see though.

Ooh, fitting an Aries cockpit is never something to be taken lightly! The ones used in the Skyhawk GB earlier were far more trouble than they were worth. Fingers crossed that Aries screwed up with this one and accidentally made it fit!😁

13 hours ago, trickyrich said:

well well well........ look who showed up finally and with my Draken I bet!!!!!  

 

Well better late than never or else you would never Finnish it in time!!   (and that's #2 folks! )

 

Well at least you have made a token effort with the AM stuff, or are you planned to sneak some in along the way, I'm sure I could find you some nice resiny bits for her! 

 

Good luck with her, I'm sure she's going to be another Modelling Minion Masterpiece! 

 

hmm at the moment Draken's are slaying Viggen's in builds...... actually are there any Viggen's in this GB yet?

 

 

Oh yeah right "your" kit! At least mine will see some glue.

 

I will be sticking with the pitiful amount of AM stuff I have got, might build her with the lid down this time so that she keeps her graceful lines.

 

Not sure she will be a masterpiece but I will have a go.

 

I don't remember seeing any Viggens in the GB yet, though obviously your behemoth will change that.

 

5 hours ago, Paramedic said:

Ah, The Kite! And it is such a nice kit - and nice with a Finnish subject.

The kit is a joy - the onlypitfall you might stumble into, is perhaps the inserts for the cannon ports. Just dry fit them a bit. I have built a few of these and it was usually not a problem. I know others have mentioned this too though. But it is hasegawa, they are good.. ^^

 

 

Thanks for the heads up, I shall take special care with the inserts. I am looking forward to making a start on this one.

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

3 hours ago, modelling minion said:

I don't remember seeing any Viggens in the GB yet, though obviously your behemoth will change that.

I built some planes when I was a kid and definitely remember building a Viggen, I thought (and still think) they look very cool. 

 

Edit: I may have clicked on a button that said something like "buy this one, come on, you know you want to"

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, JeroenS said:

I built some planes when I was a kid and definitely remember building a Viggen, I thought (and still think) they look very cool. 

 

Edit: I may have clicked on a button that said something like "buy this one, come on, you know you want to"

Oh yes, the Viggen is undoubtedly cool and still very impressive when you see one flying.

 

I have one of those buttons on my computer too, seems to draw my finger towards it with the pull of a black hole!

[Paramedic]

I always regretted buying a Matchbox Sk 37 before they were sold out at one of our toy shops when I was a kid.. But my brother bought one..

 

[trickyrich]

5 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Oh yes, the Viggen is undoubtedly cool and still very impressive when you see one flying.

 

I have one of those buttons on my computer too, seems to draw my finger towards it with the pull of a black hole!

 I have been in therapy of late (for many things!  ) to help me get over that button pressing urge, is sort of working....... but can see it failing soon! 

[Hewy]

Great choice craig, I'm  really interested in getting one of these, i haven't built a draken since i was a  little kid (big kid now according to mrs hewy) looking forward to seeing this build up

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, Hewy said:

Great choice craig, I'm  really interested in getting one of these, i haven't built a draken since i was a  little kid (big kid now according to mrs hewy) looking forward to seeing this build up

Cheers Glynn, it's a very nice looking kit and I wish that they were more readily available as I would like a couple more.

[John Masters]

I have always loved this aircraft Craig.  So iconic.  I'm looking forward to seeing yours built up!

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, John Masters said:

I have always loved this aircraft Craig.  So iconic.  I'm looking forward to seeing yours built up!

Thanks John, always a pleasure to have you along for a build mate, I'm looking forward to getting started on her.

[modelling minion]

As I am waiting for paint to dry on the Hs-126 and with our Rich having seemingly committed to actually build his kit it seemed only right that I make a start on mine. As per usual I have started with the cockpit which with the Draken means finding the right colour for it. I have heard that RLM 02 is to be used but it really isn't right at all, I started with some 02 and added dark green to it until I got a shade that I am happy with and gave the whole cockpit parts a coat of it and then made a start on picking out the details such as the dials and switches and after a while this is what I had;

 

And this is what the instrument panel looks like;

 

I am not using the kit supplied seat (it really isn't particularly good) and have got a replacement from Quickboost with moulded on belts which looks very good and after being painted up, well I like it anyway;

 

 

My one concern with the seat is that the angle of the seat doesn't match the angle in the cockpit, we will see how it fits after the cockpit is fixed in the two fuselage halves.

Thats how things stand at the minute so thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

[desert falcon]

Your work so far looks really good 👍 

[helios16v]

Gonna make me up my seat game eh?  

[modelling minion]

7 hours ago, helios16v said:

Gonna make me up my seat game eh?  

No need for you to up your game Chris.

[Marlin]

WOW.

That's one fine office and seat Craig.

 

/Bosse

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, Marlin said:

WOW.

That's one fine office and seat Craig.

 

/Bosse

Thanks Bosse, very much appreciated.

[Paramedic]

That´s a really nice cockpit and chair!

[trickyrich]

very nice....almost enough to inspire me to do more on mine!!!  🤣

 

I agree though that seat is very seat worthy, well done..... can I send you mine?

[modelling minion]

25 minutes ago, Paramedic said:

That´s a really nice cockpit and chair!

Thanks mate.👍

1 minute ago, trickyrich said:

very nice....almost enough to inspire me to do more on mine!!!  🤣

 

I agree though that seat is very seat worthy, well done..... can I send you mine?

Cheers Rich, you really do need to get on with your build! You can send me your seat if you like though it might take a while for it to do a World round trip to get back to you!

 

Now a question for all you Draken experts out there, one thing sadly lacking in the Hasegawa instructions is the correct info (or even parts) on what to use for whichever aircraft you decide to build. I have decided in my ultimate wisdom that I want to build an aircraft with the large white serial numbers and the Bison squadron marking on the tail fin, not a problem as there are plenty of pics of aircraft in this configuration out there and you get the markings for them on the decal sheet, but (and its quite a big one) these are for BS Drakens which were early ones initially loaned by Sweden and then purchased by Finland. The BS has a completely different fin tip to that provided in the kit, has two cannons (not a problem as the kit provides for this), different air scoops on the fuselage spine (should be able to cobble something together for that) and different framing on the canopy. In fact I am not sure if the canopy is a different shape, if not and its just a matter of some different masking then all well and good but if it is a different shape then I may have to change the version that I want to build so any help here will be very welcome.

 

Craig.

[Paramedic]

Some of the stuff you mention can be found here or elsewhere. Short intakes, maybe the correct fin tip?

 

Off the top of my head the canopy masked differently should be fine..

 

I have the Squadron walk-around and some other Draken books - I´ll see what i can find out! Or maybe someone else pops in, in the meantime!