SAAB J32B Lansen Sport, the all-weather fighter in 1/48

[Christer A]

I should probably not start another kit, but where is the fun in abstinence?

This summer I had a visit from @Paramedic that gifted me some parts for a AJSH Viggen that I should work a little more with...that one is an even slower build than usual.

But anyway.

He also brought me a surprise gift in the form of a boxless Lansen!

A few years ago, there was a few bagged variants on sale that just contained the parts and nothing else. @Paramedic managed to get some but I didn't even try. Now he wants me to build it!

The box, if I had one would look like this

 

This is actually one of the Lansens flying today (hence the reason for both Tarangus and Hobbyboss to have that marking option).

It started it's life as a fighter but after being replaced by Draken in that role it soldiered on for many years as a EW platform.

 

Still I don't have the decals for that one, so that goes out of the window,

What I do have is this:

 

 

The kit comes with resin exhaust and ejector seats:

Some references:

The small book (The enemy in the East) is one part out of three detailing how the Swedish Airforce operated during the Cold war. This book focus on the fighters and their use, the other ones are for Attackers and Recons respectively. 

Very interesting stuff!

Who knew that the Venoms that we used as night fighters during the 50:s were deemed very ineffective as interceptor since it couldn't engage with Il-28 due to lack of speed advantage and serious risks from it's rearward gun turret?

The Lansen in the fighter version cam about from the need of having a stop gap all weather interceptor before the arrival of more advanced system (Draken).

Compared to the A32A version it got a new much stronger engine (Avon mk47 instead of mk21) 4x30mm Aden guns, better radar and a few other tweaks here and there.

With three times the engine power compared to J33, the climbing time to 30000feet was reduced to one third. Top speed and range were not that much better than Attack Lansen though, since the aerodynamics didn't allow for more.

118 of these ones were build, and they served for a decade (basically from 1960 to 1970) before being replaced by Draken.

 

Well, Since I didn't have any decals for it, Moose Republic came to the rescue:

 

There are no resin parts for this kit, but I have managed to scrounge a few metal bits instead!

That should keep me busy for a while!

Or will it?

Probably not, since I've been looking a bit on all sorts of walkarounds and finds all sorts of things that needs to be enhanced in some way or another.

Let's fire up the CAD program and start designing bits!

 

[HOUSTON]

I am looking forward to this build.

Great choice for a build Sir.

looks like you are set Christer.

Edited October 18, 2022 by HOUSTON

[Paramedic]

Nice to see. Yet to dare tackling it myself yet.. And i will probably start with an A 32A..  I don´t have any J 32B though, I have some space issues, one reason you got it. But I will get another one later on.. I need to leave the bottom-end of Sweden for the nice west coast again and with a larger apartment..

 

Yeah the J 32B  had 40% more engine power over the A 32A, about as much power without the EBK (afterburner) as the A 32A had with.. A supersonic engine ina  transsonic aircraft.. Those EW Lansens operated and did great job during the Whiskey on the Rocks incident when that "U-17" went aground close to akrlskrona too. The Soviets were not allowed to transmit to their fleet and everytime they tried, those EW-Lansens circling blocked it. Great job guys!

 

And my master-plan was to let you build first so I can see where I need to be careful..

[Christer A]

11 hours ago, Paramedic said:

And my master-plan was to let you build first so I can see where I need to be careful..

I knew you had a sneaky plan!

[Christer A]

Right. Let's inspect the parts a little bit closer...

The main wheels are decent, but no more than that.

The nose wheel a little bit less so:

The shape, except for the flat spot and tire bulging is quite easy to CAD, so maybe I'll do that.

 

Looking from the front and rearwards one can see a few other things that could be improved.

The gun throughs are shallow and lacks guns

 

The lower bleed air duct is just represented by a square, so that needs to be opened up.

 

Since the airbrakes are always open on the ground, those needs to be opened up as well...and there are also a couple of vents in that area too.

 

Two vents on top of the fuselage needs top be opened as well

There is one more vent underneath the left stabilizer that shall be opened, and I think there is one on the other side as well...

Whew!

 

Lots of drilling a cutting needed.

[Paramedic]

Ouch that moulding.. Kinda feel bad now. Not high quality.. Atleast I know you are good! But not the most fun modelling-work one can wish for, cleaning up all those mould-lines..

 

I messed up my J 34´s gun ports* so don´t know how I would deal with those shallow ones here..  Would have been easier if it was an A 32A..?

 

(*I´ll fix that J 34 though!)

[Christer A]

Well, I survived the cleaning up of all parting-lines on the Airfix Tiffy, so this should be manageable since it's a lot fewer parts!

 

A32A with it's closed gun ports are too easy...

I think that if you start to drill at the rear end perpendicular to the trough, then one should get a good wall to drill through in the next step.

At least that's what I hope will work 🥸

[Paramedic]

I trust in you.

 

Yeah the A 32A´s open when you un-safe the guns, right?

[Christer A]

I think that's the case, yes.

[Christer A]

Well, it says Tarangus on the box but it is Sword plastic, just like with another favorite of mine : Classic Airframes!

And as with my previous CA builds, some addons are to be 3D printed:

 

The first batch should be off to the printer very soon, and I hope they'll come out all right.

I focused on the small intakes, vents and scoops that are found on the rear fuselage.

The two rightmost ones are actually for the A32A and S32C versions (attack and recon) but I have one of them in the stash as well, and just maybe this could be popular enough t be turned into a small product?

We'll see.

[Biggles87]

I’ll follow if I may, I do like Swedish Jets.

 

John.  🇺🇦

[Christer A]

The more the merrier John!

[exdraken]

Very nice!

 

[Christer A]

Today marks the 70th anniversary of Lansen's first flight!

This will be celebrated by Swedish Air Force Historic Flight which will fly a pair of Lansen over southern Sweden and hit all it formers roosts. They're not scheduled to pass over me, but I'll keep a track on Flightradar 24 just in case.

Of not is that SWAHF will fly J32:s since they were the ones that flew for the longest time, up until 1997. Not used as fighters but general flight tests, EW and so on.

From the start it was claimed that the attack version would only serve for 7 years before being replaced, it ended up with 21 years in active service before Viggen replaced them all.

 

On to my little build then...

With help from @Rudolf_Filip and his 3D printer, we now have a first glimpse of how the airscoops will look in resin:

The upper scoops will only be used for the A32A/S32C versions since they had a different (weaker) Avon engine.

Most scoops has been tweaked a few times until a suitable size has been found and once I was happy I started to add them to the fuselage.

A few extra intakes were also opened up just to complete the look.

The gun ports were inexpertly drilled out to allow a couple of brass tubes to stand in for the ADEN guns later.

 

While working with the fuselage in real life, I also started the next 3D project after the scoops. Here is a sneak peak.

The number of ribs on the tires are wrong, the shape on the main wheel hub is also far from correct and so on, so this will need some more modelling time before it'll hit the printer.

Time to get cracking!

[Christer A]

Here's a slight update on the wheels.

The main wheel hubs are remade, and the tire pattern has been tweaked a bit.

I have a feeling that the Tarangus wheel dimensions might be a little bit off, so I'll try to use my Google-fu to track down the proper dimensions.

 

While waiting, here is a short clip with a J32 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4654yXp7No

[Christer A]

Hello!

Just a little quickie stating that although this project is not that active, there will be some activities during the weekend!

Hopefully the 3D printed wheels will be scrutinized together with the new rear cockpit

Keeping my fingers crossed!

[AdrianMF]

I've got the Heller Lansen in the build pipeline (with RB04s from the Airfix Viggen) so I'll be following for tips. Nice 3D print enhancements.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Christer A]

Thanks Adrian! The venerable Heller Lansen is a decent kit. Too bad that it's totally lacking in the weapon department, even the belly tank which was fitted most of the time.

[Christer A]

During the weekend I met up with @Rudolf_Filip at F10 Museum in Ängelholm.

Apparently there was a mini model contest/show there but I had only focus on my Lansen and the new 3D parts that @Rudolf_Filip had printed so I can't really say that I enjoyed the show that much.

Anyway, here is a nice tray with the first batch of the wheels and rear cockpit:

Very nice!

Since this was the first test, we did discover a few things, mainly related to the other components in the kit. More on that later.
The main wheels are deemed acceptable as they are, so let's have a close look at them, and compare to Tarangus plastic ones

(this is the plastic one)

Here is the 3D printed one.

Note, I didn't find a good image to use for the Good Year logo and it's probably copyrighted all over the place so the prominent text was replaced with a wheely bad pun instead.

Good Year turned into God Jul (Merry Christmas in Swedish), but since it is a wheel then Jul was transcribed to Hjul instead (wheel in Swedish, but is pronounced the same way as Jul)

Hence, the tires are named God Hjul.

A sad little dad joke, but in Swedish...

Another view of the tires:

 

Regarding the nosewheel it turned out the that very crisp first version was too wide to fit within the mudflap of the landing gear.

A slightly more narrow version was churned out, but then the hub was also narrowed down that that will not lead to a sturdy joint.

It'll be fixed for the next version.

The second print that we did was a little rushed since we didn't have that much time before the end of the show. It shows quite clearly that the second wheel isn't as crisp as the first one.

It took about 5 hours for the print, and then one need to add the cleaning, hardening and so on and some shortcuts were made. After arriving back home again, and shop some grey primer on all of them

Here we have the wide V1 version to the left, Tarangus in center and the almost fitting but sloppy V2 to the right.
The good thing is that it turned out as good as I hoped!

The details on V1 looks really great:

I wonder if it is time to turn this into a product and sell it?

 

There is also the last part to look into: the rear cockpit!
The reason for doing the rear one is due to the fact that the air intake forms a part of the side walls. It's quite prominent on the real thing, but completely missing in plastic.

However, the first print revealed that the bang seat didn't reach the floor any more so I had to widen that a bit.

While doing that, I also enlarged the rivets while I was at it.
Another comparison between a primed plastic tub:

The narrow V1 printed tub

And the more forgiving V2_

The interesting part in this process is the balance between realism, what is possible to print, what can be seen with a naked eye, and what can be used in an easy way!

ResKit, Aires, Eduard and all the others are doing black magic, I'm sure, but thanks to this exercise I can at least understand the trials and tribulations that they have.

 

Oh, there was also a wee bit of "normal" modelling done as well:

The famous ejector pin mark in the main undercarriage bay was filled:

A fitting challenge to sand that smooth and even!

Yes, we've been toying with the idea to 3D scan and print the entire bay...