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SAAB A21R - Swedish pioneer jet - Special Hobby 1/72


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Hi All,

 

One new jet added into my collection! And this is the one I wanted to add for quite a long time because it's Swedish, it's from early jet age, it has centrifugal engine, and it's a twin-boomer. So win-win-win for me :)

 

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J21R was not super successful or super numerous aircraft. Neither it had a super long career. However this stands among those first generation jets that opened jet age for pilots and engineers in their native countries. I have a soft point to that era of aviation so very glad I now added this jet to the collection. 

 

I had a thread in WIP section on this project so there are some insights on construction. 

In general I did not find construction process too challenging. Even alignment of booms was not complex. Decent Czech short run with only reasonable dry-fitting required, nice perks in the box such as resin wheels, rich PE fret. In fact this can be called an OOB build as only contents from SH box were used except for manually added pitot tube (the kit's one was super-thick) and also an antenna on the starboard wing made with fishing line. 

 

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Paints used for the scheme are Hobby Color H309 for green and H53 for grey. The scheme I used is for F7 Såtenas wing circa 1953-54. As far as I understand this was a fighter-bomber wing and J21Rs of that wing would normally be armed with gun pods or rockets which was making them A21R really. 

 

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J21R is definitely not the most ordinarily looking aircraft. And honestly I was not perceiving this as 'beatuful'... But after putting this on wheels and placing it on the shelf - WOW! It is actually a very appealing bird! Look at these a little more 'artistic' photoes:

 

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And finally there are some group shots. With another Swede in my collection:

 

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...with it's British stablemate

 

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...and full collection of twin-boomers from my cabinet

 

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Hope you liked it!

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

Edited by Dennis_C
couple photoes added
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Great model, Dennis! I agree with you that the photoetch and resin wheels add a good amount of delicate detail on this early jet. Your work on the canopy frames is super-neat and I imagine your skill with clear parts would be excellently demonstrated on the twin-boom Fw-189 "Uhu." 😁

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What a nice suprise to see such a beautiful build of this rather odd bird.

 

Replacing the DB 605 of the J 21A with the dH Goblin was regarded as a rather simple modification, requiring about 20 per cent change of parts.

 

That was at the project stage – in reality, the J 21R contained only about 50 per cent J 21A parts, and it proved better as a low level attack machine than a fighter. However, it was Saab's first step into the jet age and the next one, the J 29, was a success.

 

Your J 29 A (or B?) is a lovely model, too!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

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Thanks everyone for nice words and appreciation!!!

7 hours ago, Doc72 said:

Collecting twin-boomers also is a nice idea.

Yeah, there is something about these beasts. They're surely making a difference in a cabinet. Just make sure you have enough lead in the nose!!!

 

47 minutes ago, Pyradus said:

the photoetch and resin wheels add a good amount of delicate detail on this early jet

Unfortunately those times are over, when MPM was putting a decent fret and a handful of resin casts into each box. Now they put decals for instrument panel and sell resin separately :(

 

And no-no to masking Fw-189 freehand!!! I challenged Vultee Vibrator a while back. Never again!!!

 

45 minutes ago, Spitfire31 said:

in reality, the J 21R contained only about 50 per cent J 21A parts, and it proved better as a low level attack machine than a fighter

Yeah that is true. Conversion was not simple engine replacement. Hopefully there will be a more decent model of Yak-15 - the only other serial production fighter redesigned from piston machine.

 

And Tunnan is a B according to Tarangus instruction :)

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19 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Everything looks exactly right with it, including the very subtle grease and rain streaks from forward to back along the fuselage and wings.

Thank you, Alex.

I find that such streaks look more realistic. And this allows to better highlight moving surfaces than e.g. typical preshading of panel joints.

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1 hour ago, John Masters said:

Nicely done.  I have this kit as well and look forward building it.  I'll peruse your WiP to see how it went.

You're always welcome to the WIP and let me know if you'll have any questions. 

 

In fact I would not say construction was challenging. Dry-fitting is a must of course.

 

Special attention to main wheel bays as they are tricky. There are no pins or guides that help to align interior sections. But making sure those bits are attached symmetrically is crucial to sit your model parallel to the ground. And I also figured reinforcement with plastic pieces from inside the wing and boom is important to ensure those inserts do not detach.

 

Also now I see that a better exhaust is a good idea. The SH provided one is too shallow. Do not look realistic at all which is perhaps the weakest aspect of the whole model. Something should be done there too. 

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

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1 hour ago, Wulfman said:

Three lovely builds, how about a Lightning !

 

Wulfman

Hi Wulfman, 

Yeah - indeed Lightning is the #1 twin-boomer in aviation history! Probably followed by Cessna Skymaster or was the Vampire second?

And in fact I have a Lightning in my trophy list. Nuance is that it was assembled probably 30 years ago from an ex-Frog kit, was not painted (though at some point it had paper red stars and number codes sticked with pva glue!) and survived several air battles over by bedroom :) It still does not look too bad. Maybe I should either restore it or buy a newer and better one...

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