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Heller 1/72 SAAB Lansen J 32E


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Hello all, here is the latest from the shed.,

It’s the old Heller SAAB Lansen kit with extra cockpit detail, belly fuel tank and airbrakes from Maestro Models. The markings came from Moose Republic sheet 72002 from which I chose to do the J32 E from around 1994.

 I did a little rework on the kit parts before I started in the form of rubbing down the raised detail and then re scribing new panel lines. I also reshaped the gun ports (ish) and cut out the slots where the airbrakes go. Construction was straight forward after that other than bending and gluing the etch airbrakes and making a few blade aerials. It’s finished with Humbrol enamels and Xtracolor varnishes. I used Tamiya powders to try to give the effect of slightly faded paintwork as some of the pictures I have seen of these aircraft showed the paint finish ranging from very faded to pristine.  It was great fun building a Lansen and revisiting much earlier modeling times via the Heller kit, which I did'nt think was too bad at all for an oldie.  Anyway probably not the most accurate Lansen in the world but I’m happy with how it turned out, heres some pics.

Hope you like it

 

spacer.png The etch detail fitted perfectly

 

 

 

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Very fiddley bending these, but well worth the effort I think. Thank goodness I have a bending tool.

 

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I was surprised how much bigger than the Draken it is.

 

Thanks for looking

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A most excellent Lansen! As Bertie remarked, those uberneat airbrakes and the engraved panel joints make it appear to be in a much bigger scale.

 

And ForestFan is right: the Lansen is a hefty machine, while the Draken is quite compact.

 

Two minor points about the painting: the pitot tube on the right wingtip is polished steel and the auxiliary belly tank was usually in different shades of natural aluminium. Never mind… your 'Erik' looks every inch a Lansen!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

 

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Beautiful Lansen- looks more like the Tarangus kit than the Heller one, thanks to your skills! Sure is a BIG jet, but a very handsome one. Possibly the strangest speed brake design ever, but it must have been effective and most likely didn't affect the trim as much as another design!

Mike

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11 hours ago, Spitfire31 said:

A most excellent Lansen! As Bertie remarked, those uberneat airbrakes and the engraved panel joints make it appear to be in a much bigger scale.

 

And ForestFan is right: the Lansen is a hefty machine, while the Draken is quite compact.

 

Two minor points about the painting: the pitot tube on the right wingtip is polished steel and the auxiliary belly tank was usually in different shades of natural aluminium. Never mind… your 'Erik' looks every inch a Lansen!

Thanks Joachim. Yes you're right, I just plain forgot about the pitot. (Ill do it the next time I have the right paint open 😄).

I think the photo I used for the guide to the underside might be of the historic flight aircraft. That appears to have the tank painted wheras photos of earlier in service aircraft have in general a metallic finish to the tanks.  (https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.airliners.net%2Fphoto%2FSweden-Air-Force%2FSaab-J32E-Lansen%2F299201&psig=AOvVaw3zLTAkA1htCKISFiVjcHQ8&ust=1634887282666000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQjRxqFwoTCICD87b82vMCFQAAAAAdAAAAABB8)

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Thanks evryone for the kind comments😀

 

On 20/10/2021 at 23:51, 72modeler said:

Beautiful Lansen- looks more like the Tarangus kit than the Heller one, thanks to your skills! Sure is a BIG jet, but a very handsome one. Possibly the strangest speed brake design ever, but it must have been effective and most likely didn't affect the trim as much as another design!

Thanks Mike. Yes the brakes are pretty unique. The ones on the side look like they would disrupt the airflow over the elevators when deployed! Im assuming all was well with the concept though as the aircraft went on serving for a creditable number of years.

While on the subject of speed brakes, on the VC10 there were 'spoidbrakes' on the wings. These could also be controlled via one of the control yolks left and right movement (when mechanically connected in an emergency) to independently lift the brakes on one wing or the other to provide turning in the event of complete aileron failure!! (unlikely as there were 4 ailerons). Never heard of it being used and I dont know if the idea was incorporated on other large jets. Good design idea though.

 

17 hours ago, Vesa Jussila said:

Really nice work. And perfect paint job and excellent cockpit.

Thanks. Without a doubt the cockpit etch set was the best I've ever used.

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