I thought that I was done with tiny scale for this time but visiting a show a few weeks ago I stumbled over this:


I saw them built last spring but I had no idea that they were that good, it is like a half-size Hasegawa Draken. There is another boxing around with Austrian decals in. They aren't cheap but there is two in the box...


Parts split points towards more versions in the future, a Danish one is probably a safe bet... With some luck maybe even an early Swedish short-tail version or a PR version would be possible.






Until then, there are four different decal options in this boxing to do. I will go for the two obvious ones, "66" with the red fin with a ghost on and "62" with giant swordfish on the wings. One small disadvantage: the yellow looks a bit pixelated. I doubt it can be seen by anyone with close to normal eye sight but Mr Myopic feels a bit annoyed by it!


I couldn't resist starting one of them. An easy build, getting to this stage took an evening or so. A bit of filler is needed, especially around the cannon inserts. As with the 262s , applying it sparingly and sanding with care is a good advice!

My workshop ("the sty") is moving downstairs while the whole family will be moving upstairs so modelling life is a bit chaotic now. Things will improve though and progress with that!



Magnus

Looking very good there Magnus, please keep us updated.
All the best .
tim

No model update tonight, this one is about the full-scale Draken!

I took a bunch of photos of a Draken at Malmö Tekniska Museum a few weeks ago that will come in handy at the detailing and painting stages.


Cockpit and canopy area.


Air intake. "Fara" simply means "Danger" in Swedish.


Fibreglass intake detail. Note black "lip" and amber coloured rear.


Cannon port. For the F- and J-versions only the right hand Aden cannon remained, the left one had been removed to make room for electronics.


Dorsal intake with some kind of sensor.


Strakes below the outer wings.


Pitot tube striping.


One of the main wheels,


Another view of a main wheel with brakes and tubing,


Main wheel door.


Main landing gear, note the green paint.


Nose gear. I don't know why the fork was painted gold.


Another view of the nose wheel.


Tailwheel.

I promise a modelling update next time!



Magnus

Thanks for those photos Magnus. The Draken is my all time favorite non-American jet. I'm looking forward to seeing your 1/144 scale kits come together.

Oh, the gold forks on the front landing gear............is that something the museum did for looks or is that accurate for all Drakens?

Hermon

Hermon!




Thanks Hermon! I'll return the favour and say that the Starfighter is my favourite non-Swedish jet!




The aircraft looks very "original", I don't think it has been repainted since it was taken out of service. The golden fork might have been a technicians joke or something like that (or maybe this was the best looked-after plane in the squadron or the one with the highest availability?) but I don't know, I am just speculating. All routine maintenance between flights (including arming and refuelling) was done by "kids" (18-20 years of age) doing their military service, supervised by a technician. Even if it was unusual to see any irregular markings, I suppose the urge to "personalize" their aircraft might have come over them every now and then. This is anyway pure guesswork but seeing the rest of the aircraft I see no reason for the museum to repaint the nosewheel fork in gold!

I have a few photos of the last flying specimen (at least in Sweden) of your favourite non-US jet Hermon, taken September 1st 2007 at the SAAB airfield in Linköping:


Take-off, breaking left.


Draken at its best: doing a slow, straight, roll down the flightline!


Aerodynamic braking after touch-down...


...and using the brake parachute (avoided if possible since it had to be dropped on the runway and retrieved manually from there but as an airshow party trick it was appreciated!)


Finally, from August this year: a mixed formation of SAAB aircraft. The only heavy iron missing is the Viggen. There is one left flyable but it was bogged down in paper work for the Gothenburg airshow. Sorry for the messy formation, it looked better both before and after this shot but this photo was the one that best kept the aircraft together!




Magnus

Excellent photos Magnus, I like the group photo of the Family SAAB.
All the best.
tim

Tim! Thanks! Here is one further Saab family portrait. This time with the Viggen but missing the J 29...


Photo from the same occasion as the Draken photos above. A very tidy formation this time!



Magnus

Great photos Magnus, thanks for sharing. Man those SAAB's have beautiful lines !!

I could not agree more! The Draken, as old as she is..............just looks like something from 100 years in the future. Those sexy lines are in my opinion unmatched by any other aircraft in the world. One of the coolest jet videos I've ever seen is of a Draken performing the cobra manouver.


Hermon

The "Cobra" was called a Superstall and was more than a handful for the fifties-standard electromechanical control system of the Draken. I am not really sure about the areodynamic phenomena surrounding it but it was dangerous, uncontrollabe and stable (meaning once there almost no way out of it). It was practised in two-seaters equipped with a spin parachute. If I remember correctly, the short-tailed Draken (about the first 80 or so built and all of the Swedish twoseaters) were less prone to it and easier to get out of the superstall.

Hermon, the video clip you think about is probably this.



Magnus

Thanks for the link Magnus, not seen that before and really enjoyed it. lovely stuff!
All the best.
tim

I asked the "golden-fork-question" at a Swedish forum and got an answer from my friend Andreas. He says it was quite common with gold-painted forks, they could also be unpainted metal or green.


So, a perfectly standard Draken nose wheel!



Magnus

Primed!



Magnus

Looking good Magnus. I'm anxious to see the camo go on in this scale.

Hermon

Lookin for the Draken-look...

I did a plasticard silhouette to test the camouflage on. The Draken camo isn't that easy to get right since colours varied a lot and I find them quite hard to define even when freshly painted. It should be dark blue-grey and green but when faded they had a tendency to turn into overall olive!


This one was much too olive...


...while at least parts of this test turned out reasonably OK. Good enough for starters at least!


The red fin was a lot easier!



Magnus

Magnus, what color is the blue you're using? I'm asking because I want to get it right when I build my 1/48 scale Draken for Delta Wing Campaign later on.
Would it be close to the same blue shade used on Israeli camo patterns of the late 50's and 60's?


Hermon

Sorry Hermon, I've lost track of the recipies already but I know that the blue is based on Gunze 56 (Intermediate blue) 2 (black) and 5 (blue). The green is Gunze 421 (RLM 81) out-of-the-bottle. I think the IAF blue is more a true blue while the Swedish camo blue is more geenish.

I got another recipe today based on Tamiya paints: XF-17 Sea Blue and Tamiya XF-13 (J.A. Green) or XF-67 (Nato Green). I haven't tried myself but I saw two 1/72-Draken at another forum the other day that looked very convincing!

A third description comes from a decal sheet I have:

Green: A bit greyer than FS34064
Blue: A bit lighter than FS35042
Light blue (lower surfaces): A bit darker than FS35237

Generating a colour sample from colorserver.net the FS numbers from above look like this:




Magnus

I have waited for two weeks for someone to come and fix the interiors. It seems that nobody will (I harboured a faint hope that Santa would help me but he and my wife have some kind of no-plastic-agreement that even extends to Christmas presents...) so I suppose I'll have to do it anyway. Here is a bit of reference showing a green cockpit with natural metal ejection seat, the anti-glare-panel below the windscreen is black.





My little girls have of course sat in all kinds of aircraft but they like Draken the best, a fighter for real women! If you want to try for yourself, visit Ängelholms Flygmuseum, the last home of the Draken in Swedish service!



Magnus

Man, I never realized how far back the Draken seats were canted. The pilot must be looking up at the sky when strapped in. Nice link.....now if only I could speak viking.

BTW, beautiful little girls you have Mangus. You must be a proud papa.


Hermon

Hermon! If you get to Sweden, PM me and I'll help you with the translation! I was looking around their website for a list of what they have there but there doesn't seem to one... Anyway: they have managed to cover most of the aircraft that served there. from the 1940s J22 to Gripen! Well worth a visit (at least if one is in the south of Sweden anyway )

And yes, I am proud of my kids! (As most parents are I suspect but those kids are mine making them even more special )

Your'e right about the Draken and the odd seating angle. On the other hand it really doesn't matter since you see very little through the windscreen, it is cluttered with instruments and a large HUD (on earlier versions a gunsight). I've just read a book on the development of the Viggen and two things that are constantly referred to is the restricted view and the very high cockpit workload of the Draken that were remedied in the Viggen.


Two very tiny seats... The green will get a second coat before installation!



Magnus

A second update today!


The dreaded canopies are finally installed. With the bang seats inside!



Magnus

Looking great Magnus ! Great little builds so far.

Pure coincidence, but a friend from my club brought these along to our last club meet, they are 1/72 Airfix kits all in what-if Aussie schemes. Man I would LOVE to see a few of these birds in our great southern skies !!

Sorry for the poor quality of the pics.




Cheers, D

Damian! Give my regards to your modelling friend, they are beautiful! And the fighter version looks well armed, Sparrow/Skyflash?

There were some export efforts towards Australia but I have no details, that ought to have been in the 1960s. When it comes to Draken against the Mirage, Draken won the bid in Denmark but lost in Switzerland and Venezuela.



Magnus

Those are some awsome birds indeed. I especially like the 3 color camo in the last photo.

Magnus, your Drakens look superb. Watching these mini-birds come together is making me wish I could start my 1/48 kit right now.


Hermon

Painting started!


Lower surfaces painted light blue-grey! Probably a bit both on the light and the blue side but rather that than dull and dark


Bare metal bellies painted. According to regulations, these should have been blue like the rest of the lower surfaces but fluid leaks and especially the rather agressive starter fuel (Isopropyl nitrate) for the Avon engine quickly stripped the paint so after a while this part of the aircraft was always left unpainted.

Normally Draken carried huge white numbers on the top surfaces of the wings. On the red finned display machine these were covered using black 3M tape, probably the same materiel used for most of the markings on many aircraft up until the Gripen (Gripen has painted-on markings). That's the reason for me painting the wing tops black, I will mask the rectangles before doing the camouflage.



Magnus