Hi!

Just started a new project with the intended outcome of the splinter camouflaged aircraft 'David 67', an SK37, the two-seater training version of the Saab Viggen aircraft.



The 1/48 Airfix kit is (to my knowledge) the only available kit for the Viggen in 1/48. It's quite an old kit so it needs some attention. For this project I will use some references from the book Swedish Viggens and from my source of knowledge Per at the the Jämtland´s Aircraft Museum http://www.flygochlotta.se/index.asp that currently host the airframe from D67.



Progress so far:
-The panel lines has been rescribed and a few detalis has been added to the airframe such as the Ram Air Turbine and some details to the flaps.
-Airframe has been modified to host the backseat and details from the Neomega Resin cockpits has been installed.
-Maestro Models air brakes, landing gear and wheels has been put together with some extra wiring added and the boarding ladder is built.
-One pilot figure from PJ Productions has been slightly modified to fit in the rear seat.
-Modified Eduard Brassin F-16 engine

Cheers

This looks like a really interesting project and a great plane.

How do you find the PJ Productions figures? I've considered them before but the painted examples on their website look pretty bad. I'm hoping its just a poor paint job.

In my opinion the PJ Productions 'RAF fighter pilot seated' is nicely detailed. The moulding is without any bubbles or flaws.

I am still about to paint the pilot so in the pictures looks quite goofy as only primer and some pre-shading black has been added. I think the details of the figure can be seen though. Please note that I have removed some details from the legs and the right arm to make the figure fit properly into the rear cockpit.

First part painted, the engine.

The original Airfix part has no details at all and is supposed to be mounted with the thrust-reverser closed so this is a modified F-16 engine that I have built into the kit part. It is not the correct engine, but I think it is close enough.

I also had my very first go with Alclad 2 and I just loved working with them, great stuff. Now I need to figure out how to mask off the engine parts during the rest of the job. There is quite a few layers of paint still to be added on to this plane.

Some progress painting the cockpit interior and the instructor pilot figure seated in the rear cockpit.






Do you have any hints and tips on how to improve, please comment!

This looks great! Definitly not enough viggens out there I will be following this with great interest.
Jim

Nice build so far, Fredrik. Really nice details you have added.

Looking forward to see more.

Looking good Fredrik, very impressed with the cockpit.
All the best.
tim

Finally some parts from Two Mikes Resin (nose, fin and intakes) have arrived. Ordered the parts in December last year.

Unfortunately they need a proper amount of putty and sanding as the fitting was not the best. The detailing is pretty good but there is lots of bubbles and warped parts

But hey, after all it is a part of the the build that as well. Hopefully I will get it primed this weekend.

Time to get this project going again. Took a few pictures at the real D67 that can be found at Jämtlands Flyg och Lottamuseum http://www.flygochlotta.se/index.asp

There are a few parts that I wanted to check so I took a few pictures with my phone. I hope they are helpful if you want to build your own Viggen. Sorry about the poor picture quality.


And a few pics from a JA37, D62 in this case


And finally the seat from an unknown and the main gear from a AJ37 Viggen.

Happy modelling folks

Finally some progress. Primed and polished, ready for paint




Cheers!

Looks great, Fredrik. Please share each step of the splinter camouflage painting process with us.

Looking forward to see more.

Very nice work.
How is the fit of the conversion set?

Mark

After some additional sanding and a correction I made some black pre-shading. Then I noticed that the brain left the body for a while? The SK37 trainer does not have a dorsal fin, only the SK37E does.

Then I painted the lower grey parts and added the first layer of masking tape - Time to do the first splinter layer. I started with lightest colour, H58.



The first of the green layers are added and some highlights with a 50/50 mix58/H74.



I think I will go for the brown colour next, not decided yet though. Guess I'll have some time to think during masking.

Thanks mate!

There are a few different conversions added to the Airfix kit, some scratch built and some resin parts so I'll just go though them.

The after market resin parts the parts from Neomega and Maestro Models fits like a glove. The Eduard Brassin is not built for this kit, but it is Eduard so no problems there either. The parts from TwoMikes resin was a bit of a disappointment though.

I have not added any picture of them before they went on the kit but the fin, the intakes and the canards are from TwoMikes. They looked really good, were very nicely moulded and detailed so I started putting them on the kit with great enthusiasm. But then - the fit was so poor it actually halted the build for quite a while.

I do not really know if it was due to the kit itself or what it was. The only thing that fitted properly together was the canards and the intakes, but they did not fit the kit. The only kit I have used more putty filler and sand paper on is my Hawk 75.

A upcoming obstacle though is that I have to remove the Vallejo primer from the landing gears. That primer has worked well for me when figure painting, but it is not up to the job here. I will remove it and spray a layer of Aclad2 primer instead. My biggest fear on this bird really is chipping paint, I do not want that to happen.

Brown layer added, 50/50 mixture of H37/310 highlighted with pure H310.

Green, H340.

Black H77 added and masking removed.



Time to do some over-spray clean up and some minor corrections to the camouflage.

Hi Fredrik,

Your Viggen looks great!!! Looking forward to see this fascinating bird finished.

I still don‘t dare to do a scheme like that. You really need to have a reliable plan for the masking sequence.

By the way:
How do the Gunze colours with the new blue label work? Are they different to paint? I‘ve heard, they changed their formula.

Cheers
Matt

You viggin looks awsome can't wait to see it finished

Thanks for the kind comments.

Matt, off course you dare. It is really not that different from any other camo, just a little more fiddling with the masking. All you need is in the book pictured above and some patience.

Regarding the colours I have not noticed any difference, honestly I did not even know that the formula has changed. I normally mix them 50/50 with Isopropyl alcohol, bought in the local Pharmacy, thinning it up to 70% alcohol mix for more transparent layers.

Cheers!

Hi Fredrik,

First, excellent model! I love the Viggen and always wanted to build one in splinter. You are doing a great job.




It is an old kit, issued in the late 1970's by ESCI. Now Airfix owns the molds. There was an issue of Scale modeling or Aircraft Modeling back in 1980 or with a modeler demonstrating the splinter paint on the 1/48 ESCI kit.



I look forward to your next post.

It's nice to see a good building project of the Viggen. To do the SK version is great. I like the work and I really want to see it finished. I have only one thing to add and I think that the black color is to sharp in contrast to the green shades, I think that a lighter shade (Tamiya NATO Black) would have more right.
Perhaps you are going to do some post shade to break up the paints, I don't know. I have saved all your pictures on my HD to use as referents for my own Viggen projects because I like your work


Nicklas Karlén

Hi,

In my modest oppinion, Viggen was one of the best looking airframes ever. Your work on the cammo is a venture to learn from. Thank you for this! I congrat your skill and patience!

Folks, you are all to kind. Anyone could make this build, I have seen so many great builds here on the forum so no problem at all. Hopefully there will be more Viggens as well. I grew up hearing those birds taking off twice a day and I really miss that sound.

Anyhow, time for some more masking for painting the front of the wings and the nose.






You are right, and it is always difficult to find the right colours. Hopefully I can blend them a little later on. I actually had a look at the NATO black but decided to go with the Gunze Tyre Black since I had some of the other Gunze colours already. One thing I have noticed before is that Tamiya dissolves Gunze colours so mixing is not an option.

Well, now I need some advise. The plan is to weather this bird quite heavily as the Viggens were quite worn. My idea is to try to gently sand down the colour layers towards the colour below on various spots. The plan is to do this very gently using 8000 grit. What do you think of that method? I have not tried this before so if anyone has, please give me some advise. Do you think it will work or should I skip it and go for pigments instead? I do not really want to redo the camo

Cheers!