Italeri 1/72 Saab JAS 39A Gripen [FINISHED]

[klr]

As well as this kit, I also had the much newer Revell kit of the Gripen C in the stash. But I'm a glutton for punishment. I bought this kit at an air show in Galway about 20 years ago.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by klr

[klr]

Like the Airfix J30 Mosquito,  this was a kit I started before Christmas, and resumed after. To put it bluntly, it was not a pleasant build.

 

The back of the headrest needed filling in. The front looked better. I painted the seatbelts later.

 

 

The completed cockpit "tub" in place. When I tried to attach the seat to the floor, it just wouldn't stay there. Clearly, the seat wouldn't lie flush against both the floor and the rear bulkhead at the same time. So I ended up attaching it to just the bulkhead,

 

The main airframe assembly was relatively quick, although the upper port wing root to fuselage joined needed considerable cleaning up later.

 

 

The air brakes were a very loose fit, requiring much effort to. You can also see the poor wing root join here.

 

Note the difference in the splitter plates. I should have investigated this further before attaching the intake fairings, but no. Only later did I realise the port side fairing didn't line up. Cue yet more sandpaper and elbow grease.

 

 

The completed airframe, minus the canopy:

 

[klr]

I started to apply the first coat of Hu 145 (FS 35237):

 

Only then did I attach the canopy and windscreen, which I had cemented together beforehand. In my experience, the canopy to windscreen join can be such a problem that I prefer to assemble it first, and only then attach it to the airframe. Naturally, that may lead to problems elsewhere, but they are generally easier to deal with. In this case, the there was considerable overhang on the port side, which took several iterations of sanding and priming to fix.

 

One thing I forgot to mention earlier: In the instructions, the part numbers for the inboard and outboard pylons were mixed up. I didn't realise this until after I'd attached them, and had to backtrack. Some of the attachment points for the stores were quite frankly clunky.

,,,,,,

 

[klr]

The completed kit, again too late for the gallery:

 

 

 

 

 

[stevehnz]

That came up nicely too. (guess who has been looking through some of the Ragnar builds he hadn't seen before. ) I've a Tamiya boxing of this kit& have long wanted to do the early scheme with the black nose cone, proper fighter jets have black noses in my book.   It might have been a slightly awkward build but it has come up well & I'd be more than happy with a job like that.

Steve.