Hi all!

Last friday I finally got my J-35 Draken kits, three of them!

This kit is one of my most wanted EVER, and I had no hope to see it from any mainstream manufacturer.
I heard some talk about a coming Draken in 1/48 last year, but you can´t believe in loose talk!
When It was displayed at the Nuernberg Toy fair, Then I could believe It really was true!
Now Hasegawa finally have released a new-tool kit of the SAAB J-35J/F Draken!

The box is fairly big, and heavy as it´s quite well filled with parts, and has a lovley boxart by the great S. Kikeo.

The plastic parts are moulded in the usual light grey used by Hase.
Details are fine and crisp and the moulding is perfectly done.
Almost all sprue inlets are in places you can´t see after assembly and parts break down mainly follows panel lines.
There´s also very few of those pesky small stamp-circles, very well done Hasegawa!

The clear parts are supplied in a seperate bag along with the decals, and are very clear and free from scratches.

Decals are well done and as far as I can judge, correctly done.
The blue color of the Swedish markings are almost spot on, and so are the day-glo red/orange color .
All printing are perfectly in register and seems to be of good color density.

There´s three options to choose from;

1) J-35F-2, Div3 F-10 / 06 in Blue Green Camouflage (called "Sea Camouflage) with grey underside.
This option have big white ID numbers (06) on the top wings.

2) J-35J, Div1 F-10 / 52, same as above but without the ID-numbers

3) J-35J, Div2 F-10 / 39, Two tone grey camouflage with big Day-glo red/orange ID numbers on top wings and small day-glo numbers on the fin.

I settled for the option no.1 as i liked the looks of the white ID-numbers.




I couldn´t resist but immideatly cleaned the workbench, ripped up the bags and started cutting plastic!

Not before long I had all major subassemblies done and was ready for paint.



The afterburner section was painted with a mix of Humbrol 53 Gunmetal and H171 Antique Bronze, followed by a heavy black wash.



For the cockpit, Hasegawa suggests a dark green color ( H116), which I consider much too dark.
I have seen many Draken cockpits, and even been sitting in a few, and from my memory it should be a rather pale green.
Based on this, I choose Humbrol 120 Light Green for the cockpit.

I also used the instrument decals on the instrument panel and consoles.

With liberally amounts of Micro-sol, the decals settled down very nicely over the raised details.

To finish the cockpit a heavy black wash was applied.







Now I could glue the cockpit to the lower hull, along with a small 10g fishing weight.
Hasegawa suggests only 3g of weight, but that´s not enough.

I used two more of these weights to keep the nose safley on the ground, approx. 30grams in total!



Before the fuselage is closed up, don´t forget to open up all holes for the wing glove pylons (if used), tanks and the IR-unit in the nose!



This far It have been a very fast and effortless build, as everything fits so good together!
Fit is perfect as you can expect from a Hasegawa kit today!

More pics to follow!

Cheers!

Stefan E

I've been waiting for this one too and hopefully will get one soon at the LHS. Would love to see Hasegawa do a Viggen too. Don't know what it is about Swedish fighter aircraft but they are just so interesting.

Or maybe it's the Swedish Bikini Team that gets me going.


A TA-4J from Hasegawa would be nice too.

Nice one Stefan!

Can I bully you into writing a full Review for us?! Especially as you've got a couple more kits, so you could still shoot some sprue shots... Seriously, this would be a great subject to have on the Frontpage.

All the best

Rowan

Finished looking forward to the early ends, I do not know how kind of portfolio

I too love the Draken, and having built the 1/72 kit years ago it looks the one major difficulty has been addressed with this release. The intakes are molded as part of the two upper and lower fuselage/wing assemblies, thus no nasty step to sand down like the separate part assembly of the 1/72 kit.

Is that correct and what I am seeing from your photos?

Best,

Mike

Bullying usually does not help with the swedish

But begging might do it

So... PLEEEAAAAASSSSSEEE

a nice review would be soooo welcome

PLEEEAAAAASSSSSEEE Stefan.

All the best

Rowan

You nasty one

Watch the rear viewmirror my friend, I´ll comming in from 6 clock







I can be your wingman on this one

Larsa

Hi all!

Rowan and Drabslab;

Of course I will write a feature on the Draken!
I have had It in my thoughts for some time now, and I have already started the writing!
So no need for niether bullying nor begging!

Q; "You can be my wingman anytime!"

Now, today´s update;

After the basic fuselage assembly I added the nosecone and several fillets on the fuselage.



Hasegawa are known to use the same molds for as many different versions as possible, leaving tidying up (and filling) to the modeller.
Tamiya is the one and only manufacturer who can get away with it!
Having the Tamiya F-16 on the bench at the same time shows clearly that Hasegawa is good, but have quite a way to go before they´ll catch up!

The fillets was a quite good fit, but the nose and intakes did not fit as good as the rest.
Sorry, but I have to dissapoint you Mike, there will be some filling and sanding here;









If you want to use the clear parts for the nav-lights, you´ll have to open them up yourself;



Now it was time for masking the canopies, a task I always fear!



Before I could glue the canopies to the fuselage, I wanted to "dress up" the seat a bit.
So I added seatbelts made from a (new and fresh ) coffee filter.

Just cut thin strips and glue with superglue, don´t have to paint as the color is just right!





Very simple, but good enough as the canopy will be closed so no need for superdetailing.

Then I could add the hud and seat to finish the cockpit;







Cockpit is done and closed, the fit here was excellent;



Finally, now I have the very well known and beloved profile on my bench!



Now it´s off to the paint-shop!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Looks great, Stefan. This is definitely a very cool kit with some great marking and camouflage options. I am looking forward to your feature.

Thanks for sharing

Hi all!

I have not had too much time for modelling the last few weeks, but finally I could take my
J-35 to the paint booth.

I had some concerns about the colors, so It took some time to find good matches for the Dark Green and Dark Blue.

I settled for Humbrol116 "US Dark Green", White Ensign "WWII US Navy Dark Sea Blue for the top colors and Humbrol87 "Steel Grey" for the underside.

Those colors are what I consider to be quite close (or in the same ballpark, or whatever...), as there´s no ready -made colors, and I hate mixing paint.

Here´s some pics after painting;





The colors changed a bit after the clear coat;



I took the model outside to get some daylight shots (very harsh sunlight);





This is the best pic (regarding the colors, that is), and closest to reality (whatever THAT is);



I created the camouflage freehand with the airbrush as the pattern are very soft-edged and flowing.
I got a bit carried away and didn´t follow the correct pattern in some places, but I have my "artistic licence" (don´t we all have that???)!

Now It´s time to mask the radome, intakes and all the Natural Metal surfaces.

More pics later!

Cheers!

Stefan E

My only complaint Stefan is that I hoped for some good acrylic paint matches. Apart from that: Very good looking Draken colours!

Regards

Magnus

Hi Stefan,

(I thought I had already praised your Draken but don't see my post, so....) Great job! I, too, consider the Draken as one of my main planes! I will have to get one of these. Until then, here is put bold text here My 1/100 Tamiya Draken



About the colors, Urban Fredriksson wrote,


These are interesting sites, too: Swedish Air Force Dark Green over Blue Grey (34083 36329) , Finding a Perfect Match With FS Color Server , and Federal Standard 595 Color Server

Last but not least, Don Color's Swedish Aircraft Camouflage

Hi all!

Another busy week , but I managed to squeeze in some modelling time too!

@Magnus;

Hi, I´m sorry but I don´t know much about acrylics!
But I hope you have seen Fred´s excellent listing above.
I´m an Enamel guy!

@Fred;

Thanks for that excellent paint-chart, especially for those who use acrylics!


Now to this weeks update;

First I masked and painted the nosecone and intakes black.
Hasegawa suggests a steel color, which is totally wrong!

The intakes were made of glass-fibre (too early for carbon) as were the large antenna fin on the spine.
The intakes were painted black but the paint wore off to show the dirty yellow-bownish color beneath.
The dorsal fin was left unpainted, only the leading edge was painted black (as shown on the instructions).


I started with masking the fuselage for the Alclad Aluminium surfaces;







After painting and masking removed;



I gave the "hot" area an uneven coat of Alclad Pale Burnt Metal.



Another clear coat and then I could do my favourite part. DECALLING!

There´s not very much stencils on a J-35 compared to a F-14 or a F-4!

The decals are very nicley done, printed with excellent vibrant colors and opaque, yet thin enough to "melt down" in panel lines.
I used Micro-set, that was fully enough to settle the decals down.
On some places I used Micro-sol, but this seems to be a bit too strong as the decals easily wrinkles.

I suggest to trim away the carrier film inside the big numbers to prevent silvering.

I had a glossy surface and exprerienced no silvering or any color bleed-through whatsoever.

One thing almost every maufacturer have so hard to get right is the Swedish crown-markings.
Hasegawa have got everything almost perfect, good blue background and vibrant yellow crowns and surround.
These are among the very best I have seen from any kit manufacturer outside Sweden!

I give Hasegawa very high marks for these decals!

I choose option no1, F10-06, with the big white ID-numbers on the wings.
Hasegawa gives you decals for two green/blue aircrafts, but only one yellow serial number, and none for the grey ac!













I hope I can get more work done on my J-35 during the weekend!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Looks great, Stefan!

Looking forward to see more

Hi all!

Today I´ll show the small-assemblies as the landing gears;



I started with assembling all gears as they consists of several parts, and let them dry "in place" on the model overnight before painting.

Then I gave all gears a coat of Alclad Aluminium to get a "metal" surface.
Hasegawa suggests them to be all aluminium, but they were painted a dark green color, I used Humbrol150 for this.



I assembled and painted the nose gear without(!) the wheel in place.
It can be snapped in place when all the painting is done.



The wheels was given a coat of Alclad Aluminium too, tires was painted with a simple mix of H123 Dark Sea Grey with a drop of H33 Matt black added.
A heavy black wash was applied to finish them off and the wheel discs slightly polished.



The afterburner section and tailpipe was assembled and painted (on the inside) with a mix of H53 Gun metal and H171 Antique bronze.
For the tailpipe end I used AlcladII Pale burnt metal followed by some "Jet exhaust" and a heavy black wash.



More to follow soon...

Cheers!

Stefan E

Wow,all I can say is wow !!! Great looking plane,thank-you for such a detailed build log,I have this kit in my stash and after an extended period of armor building,I intend to start this one during the summer,and your details are just what I need to help me along.

again really sharp looking jet !!!

Hi all!

After all the sub-assemblies was done, everything went quite fast.

All the "dangly bits" and pieces was attatched and there It was, right in front of me, a Finished 1/48th scale J-35 Draken!

Here are some pics shot outdoor in the early evening light;























This was a very pleasant build, and I rate this kit very highly indeed!

But I´m not very objective, how could I ever be on this subject?

As soon as I had finished this model, I started planning for the next Draken build and I wanted to get going NOW!

That´s about the best grade a kit can get in my opinion!

Cheers!

Stefan E

dude, that looks bad-a$$!!!

well done for sure.

i wanna go buy one now.

Very nice......

You did a hell of a nice job Bob

Really great build Stefan!!

Though I prefer the grey scheme, your model turned out really nice.

One Question: Is the colour of the intake warning sign correct? It looks as if it is "misprinted" (green) instead of blue ... just curious if I have to get new decals for my Draken?

best wishes

Steffen

Excellent build, Stefan. A great result - you should go for model of the month with this one
It has been fun to follow your progress on this build.

Thanks for sharing

Excellent!!!!

I want one of these babies in my display cabinets soon

well done

Cool beyond belief.

I want, one?, two? a few?