AIR Modeller - Issue 73 (2017 08-09).pdf

MENGAIRMODELLERAUGUST/SEPTEMBER2017 73 RADAR EVADER AUGUST/SEPT 2017 • £6.50 UK $15.99 www.mengafvmodeller.com MENG MODEL’S NEW 1:48 F-35A LIGHTNING II AIR 73 cover.qxp_Layout 1 04/07/2017 14:23 Page 1

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1 Meng AIR Modeller welcomes contributions from interested parties, but cannot accept any responsibility for unsolicited material. The contents of this publication including all articles, drawings and photographs originated by AFV Modeller ltd become the publishers copyright under copyright law. Reproduction in any form requires the written consent of the publisher. Whilst every care is taken to avoid mistakes AFV Modeller ltd. cannot be liable in any way for errors or ommissions. Meng AIR Modeller is published Bimonthly by AFV Modeller ltd Old Stables East Moor Stannington Northumberland NE61 6ES Tel: 01670 823648 Fax: 01670 820274 email: david@mengafvmodeller.com Editor and Designer: David Parker Deputy Editor: Mark Neville Sales Director: Keith Smith ISSN 2059-5964 We are now on Facebook, ‘Like’ us to follow what we are doing and follow our build projects. 2 F-35A Lightning II Mark Neville puts Meng’s new 1:48 F-35A through its paces. 12 SAAB Story Vintage Viggen versus state of the art Viggen. Albert Tureczek puts the two 1:48 kits head to head . 24 SE.5a Eduards new 1:48 Royal Class edition of the WW1 fighter modelled by Paolo Portuesi. 32 A-7E Corsair Grega Krizman builds the Hasegawa/Revell 1:48 kit 44 Air Borne New releases. 56 Super Etendard Modernisé Jean-Louis Maupoint builds the new Kinetic Models 1:48 kit CONTENTS AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 14:57 Page 1

Meng’s new 1:48 F-35 just slipped in under our radar so we get straight into building the new stealth striker. M O D E L L E D BY M A R K N E V I L L E 2 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 10:47 Page 2

F-35ALIGHTNING II 3 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 10:47 Page 3

The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is the World’s largest (and maybe controversial) ongoing fighter project driven by the U.S. with the participation of eight allies looking to replace many fighter and attack aircraft universally. The Lockheed Martin Corporation won the JSF programme with the original design designated X-35 developing three versions simultaneously; F-35A Conventional Take-off and Landing (CTOL), F-35B Short Take-off and Landing (STOVL) and the F-35C Carrier version (CV). Meng have chosen the F-35A for this brand new kit which is the conventional take-off version seeing it’s introduction into several military services already, making it’s science-fiction looks feel more believable as a modelling subject. Not being the first Lightning II in 1:48 to hit the model shops we were keen to see how the designers at Meng would tackle this complex subject. Lifting the lid with it’s striking box art reveals the dark grey sprues which show some seriously delicate detail and a sensible breakdown of parts. A small photoetch fret includes the pilot’s seatbelts and a very nice fan face. The clear parts are beautifully done and come double-wrapped to avoid damage. The decals are by Cartograf and up to their usual standard providing very detailed and comprehensive markings. Meng have provided an excellent selection of ordnance with AIM-120c’s and GBU-53 Small Diameter Bombs which can be slung on wing pylons and in the weapons bay. Now as you’ll already of noticed I’ve chickened- out of displaying any weapons, not some pacifist objection but I really wanted to see how well the weapons-bay doors fit when closed (open is easy as far as fit problems go!) and I feel the sleek, organic side profile of the F-35 is spoilt somewhat if bristling with arms. So there’s the choice to open the weapons bay and of course the usual canopy and landing gears open or closed. Enough waffling-on, let’s cut some plastic… No surprises that we start the build with the cockpit. With it’s state-of-the-art design the F-35 utilises touch-screen technology meaning that buttons and switches are minimal. Meng have made a nice job of the multi-part seat which is complete with photoetched belts. This sits down into a single piece tub with separate pedals, facia and cover. Wheel well assemblies are next with good sound joints for the legs. Detail is nice although some modellers may wan’t to add the usual hose and wiring details to the gear legs. I found the fit of the main gear wheels onto the stub axle a little sloppy, easily solved by a wrap of masking tape providing a tight, push-fit. Tyres are moulded ‘unweighted’ and with a central joint which is easily cleaned-up. The box attached to the rear of the headrest has a joint to fill, a quicker option was some thin plastic card cut to suit. Parts fit perfectly and the detail is sharp. Working from some internet reference images the black- on-black of the cockpit is enhanced by using slightly different shades and types of paint and subltle oil paint highlights and washes. The touch screen is supplied as a decal which I’ve given a transparent green ink wash across to achieve the ‘glow’. In reality I’d imagine this wouldn’t appear illuminated when the aircraft is parked anyway. Greased Lightning 4 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 10:47 Page 4

The fuselage is moulded in two halves with a horizontal split. The lower half has a fair number of sprue attachments (to hold the shape of the part and protect some of the finer sections avoiding any distortion) which take some careful cleaning. The design and fit of the complex shapes is superb and I used no filler at all; what you see here is what you get and the sharp, fine edges of the F-35 are really well captured. Inlet trunking, cockpit, weapon and wheel wells and exhaust are all installed into the lower section with the closure of the two halves proving to be one of those pleasurable modelling moments. I’ve built the kit in the most standard of configurations with all of the control surfaces in a neutral position and the weapons bays closed, again, the fit of these complicated shapes is just excellent. The inlet routes are particularly well designed, with a lot going on inside the lower fuselage I expected some adjustments may have be needed when closing the two halves, but no, this is one of those kits full of pleasant surprises! Meng have made a great job of the delicate surface detail, more on this when we get to the complex masking... A dry fit of the fuselage halves looked promising. All of the bay door openings have a fine moulded lip. Photoetched exhaust details add a nice boost of detail. The internals were painted white as I seen in photographs with the fan face and external surface in Meng’s gunmetal acrylic. Wings are mounted on some very positive large pegs with a very satisfying ‘click’! If displaying ordnance some holes need drilling to mount the pylons. 5 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 10:47 Page 5

Weapons bays are nicely rendered with some wiring moulded-in. They are assembled as full plug-in sections enabling complete painting and finishing before cementing into place. The ordnance is some of the best we’ve seen, as good if not better than resin aftermarket parts. GBU-53 small diameter bombs and AIM-120Cs come with full stenciling decals. The pylons are also comparable with the best of the aftermarket parts out there. The sleek lines of the F-35 are best seen here. In my enthusiasm I fixed the nose landing gear in place, probably best left to fit after painting although I avoided any damage. Wing roots are a tight, flush fit. In reality the upper fuselage and wings appear to be a monocoque construction so losing this line with a little filler would be more accurate. Surfaces were given a polish with fine-grade sanding pads in preparation to the paint. The MRP lacquer based paint is very fine and unforgiving of major surface blemishes. 6 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 10:48 Page 6

I’ve heard the Editor singing the praises of MRP’s range of paint. These colours are ready to spray acrylic lacquers and handle beautifully even through the finest of airbrush nozzles and as if by chance we’d received samples of their two-part HAVE Glass finish. ‘HAVE Glass’ appears to be a code name for a paint system applied to many modern U.S. military aircraft with RAM (Radar Absorbent Material) made of microscopic metal grains that can degrade the radar signature of the aircraft. Coupled with the obvious reflecting shapes and angles designed into the F-35. For modellers this have become somewhat of a challenge as the finish appears different when photographed in different lights or angles from weathered- looking warm greys to darker metallic greys. The F-35 has two distinctive contrasting tones of grey, the lighter of which I laid down as my first coat of colour. A little white (around 20%) was added to MRP’s Camouflage Grey and several thin coats airbrushed. This paint has a great ‘bite’ to the plastic which is an advantage if youre planning on masking and handling the model I was. Another advantage is the near instant drying time and silky smooth finish, within a couple of hours I was happy to start masking. MRP have just released a two part ‘HAVE Glass’ paint. We’re big fans of this range of acrylic lacquer which spays beautifully. Be sure to use a decent face mask and work in a well ventilated area spraying lacquer. Low-vis markings are pretty minimal, I’d have preferred a matt finish to the decals which definitely need a final coat of matt varnish. Meng have captured the sleek, futuristic lines of the Lightning II a treat with other versions sure to follow in future. Radar Evader 7 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 10:48 Page 7

I was very much intent on sharing a miracle, time-friendly masking technique for this model. I can assure you I tried several methods using various materials which would work in theory, but ultimately not in reality! I’m afraid it was down to good old Tamiya masking tape, four number 10A scalpel blades and around six or seven hours hunched over the workbench. As you can see, various widths are required and were cut from wider tape applied to my cutting mat (which ended up in a right old mess!) I racked my brains to come up with an alternative to this; pre-cut masks? decals? I’m not sure either would work and brush painting would probably take longer than masking with poor results. With the masking complete it was time for the darker grey. The MRP Camouflage Grey was laid down as an even coat and then tinted with around 20% black to add some shading and subtle shifts in the tones. If the masking was somewhat tedious the reward is removing all of that tape! Great fun and most satisfying as we all know! Working from photos of the aircraft is tricky, as mentioned, the nature of the reflective finish shows very different tones. I ended up doing what I felt looked right on the model and knew I could make further adjustments with subsequent colour filters and washes. The second part of MRPs Have Glass is a matt varnish which carries tiny metallic coloured particles, very much in scale but almost impossible to photograph! The finish is quite unique and again, sprays superbly. Masked man Added Sparkle 8 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 10:48 Page 8

Satisfying as it was removing the masks and applying the special varnish, everything was looking a little flat as expected and some shading and highlighting were in order. First I needed to apply the decals. The kit decals are by Cartograf and offer two recent USAF markings which are both very similar and low-key. On the sheet the decals are undoubtedly beautifully printed but I would have preferred a matt finish, the gloss is hard to kill under a matt varnish. In hindsight a traditional gloss coat, apply decals, varnish again and finally the Have Glass matt varnish would have been the way to go. We live and learn. I applied some Future (Klear) and more of the matt Have Class after washes and filters. Along with the particular appearance of the paint finish of the F-35 is the distinctive canopy tint. Again, photographs of the aircraft tend to show a variety of colours from blues to brown and orange. Italeri’s recent 1:32 release has the canopy moulded in a tinted clear which matched well with many of the photos I’d viewed on-line. Airbrush ink from the Magic Color range was gently airbrushed on the inside of the canopy to copy the appearance. The canopy is an excellent fit and crystal clear. An option to display this open on the forward hinges is also offered. Orange and Yellow Ochre airbrush ink was used to tint the canopy. An internal frame is an excellent fit to the clear part. I used PVA water-based glue to fix the canopy. The canopy, main landing gear legs, landing gear doors and clear parts were all added as a final stage of the build. I find it hard to build a model void of any weathering but it would be wrong in this case with the aircraft just recently entering service. 9 Washes were simply enamel thinner and oil paints. Straight black was used in some areas with a touch of burnt umber to warm the colour in places. I never really see detail washes as ‘weathering’ but as a means to lift the finer details with an enhanced shadow. Many modellers apply washes over a gloss varnish as it improves the flow but having a satin finish I find dampening the surface with clean thinner first does the job. The F-35 as it appears at present is super clean, as you’d expect, so to give the model some depth and life as well as the detail washes I’ve added some filters. These are commercially available and although I often use them I’ve used thinner and oil colour again to give very subtle colour-shifts between the various panels. AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 10:48 Page 9

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LIGHTNING II This kit is hard to fault in terms of building pleasure, engineering and finesse of detail. The key points, in our opinion, with modelling this aircraft are the unique finishes of the HAVE Glass paint and the tinted canopy. With MRP and also now Mission Models providing out of the bottle solutions for the paint finish, Meng’s F-35 provides an excellent out-of-the-box project. I’d estimate the masking took just as long as the assembly (albeit without ordnance) using nothing more than the most basic of modelling tools. 11 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 10:48 Page 11

For many years, the only choice for the modeller who wished to build a kit of this Cold War warrior was the ancient ESCI kit, later re-issued by Airfix, but it is basically the same kit. I have always had a weak spot for this aircraft but the kits were difficult to find. At last, I tracked down one of the old Airfix kits via e-bay from Australia. So a kit produced in the UK had to be shipped from ‘Down Under’ at a cost which superseded the actual kit price! However, I wanted one and over the years, I had gathered a wealth of aftermarket products to actually turn this kit into a decent Viggen. The price of all this effort combined I wouldn’t dare calculate; too much! I have never thrown that amount of money in aftermarket products at one single model. I had seen the wholehearted efforts of skilled model builders taking on this subject on the web and I knew what awaited me in terms of commitment. While I was slowly gathering the mental strength to begin this project, wham; Tarangus announced it’s completely new Viggen. From now on, it was clear that I was stuck with all my aftermarket accessories, with no hope of ever selling them on, because no one in his right mind would attempt to take on the ancient kit again. After considering the situation, I came up with a rescue plan. I could not decide on which version I wanted to model. The classic ‘splintercamo’ or the air superiority grey/grey. So I decided on building them both simultaneously. One in each paint scheme. This would also be the best way to compare them to each other and really evaluate the new kit, as well as pass marks on the old Airfix kit. 12 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:01 Page 12

First the focus will be upon the Airfix kit, for which I had gathered fourteen relevant updates over the years. Before the arrival of the Tarangus kit, this was the only option for the modeller to build a decent Viggen without resorting to carving one yourself! The AJ 37 was the basic design of the Viggen and it was in service for many years in a multirole capacity, mostly as an attack and fighter plane. My choice for this project was the famous splinter camouflage and I would configure it for the ground attack role. FUSELAGE AND COCKPIT The start of this build is very traditional. There is a right and a left fuselage part and the cockpit is sandwiched in between before joining them together common to most kits of the era. The Airfix cockpit is unusable. I had obtained a Neomega cockpit to replace it, this upgrade is gorgeous and lifted the model into another level right from the start. The fit is decent and did not cause too many problems. This is a full resin part and there are no gimmicks like etched parts or pre-coloured instrumentation, only a careful and simple paint job. Now it was time for me to add the next update, which is the front wheel well from Maestro. This was not a good idea. Used together with the Neomega cockpit, it created a space problem. There is simply not space enough for both upgrades and I had to reduce each by 3- 4mm. In fact, I sanded a hole in the cockpit bottom. My wheel well isn’t´t as deep as it should be and my cockpit floor is patched with sheet styrene. I also had to shorten the ejection seat in order to fit into it’s place. Next up was the insertion of the air duct front fan. THE AIRFIX VINTAGE VIGGEN 13 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:01 Page 13

Airfix Tarangus Tarangus I made only a few choice additions to the Tarangus kit. As for the Airfix one... Tarangus This is also a Maestro resin conversion set. It fitted well and looked great. The Airfix kit comes with a “pregnant” belly and ‘Two Mikes’ have a corrected belly insert in their range. This operation involved the removal of a substantial portion of the fuselage. In addition, here I hit real problems. I would say that the use of the Maestro air duct in combination with the corrected belly insert from Two Mikes is not possible. I used it anyway, but it cost me about 5mm of the lower engine fan and I had to thin the Inserted Belly part to a degree that I was concerned it would break on assembly. It was a messy and unnerving operation! Luckily, the damage cannot be seen through the air intakes on the finished model. Finally, I replaced the nose with the corrected nose cone in resin from Two Mikes. A considerable amount of filling and sanding is needed everywhere on this model, as the fit is simply dreadful. The extensive use of conversion sets and up- date parts does not exactly help. The Windshield and the canopy had the same fitting problem. It was not that bad with the canopy, as I wanted to place it open anyway. The front windshield however was a different matter and took a lot of resin and sanding to convince it into a satisfactory fit. ENGINE INTAKE AND EXHAUST STAGES. The massive air intakes of the Viggen are also a focal point on the model. They are crudely reproduced on the kilt, but I knew that and used the corrected resin intakes from Two Mikes instead. There is no free passage on the model so I had to open them up with a burr on both sides. After that there was a lot of filling and sanding of both inner and outer surfaces. The alignment of the intakes was a time- consuming operation also with a lot of filling and sanding before the result was satisfactory. Now it was time for the next structural change. Maestro offers an extensive conversion kit for the tail and engine exhaust section. I had to separate the kit tail cone from the fuselage and replace it with a resin part. Maestro has reproduced the engine exhaust beautifully. However, I had to finish and paint it before installing it in the model. To create the necessary space for the huge engine exhaust section, I had to cut out more of the kit´s fuselage and my model was warped pretty badly to start with! The mounting of the tail cone was a nightmare with lots of filler and even more sanding, with a great variety of different grades to get to a smooth finish. The decades separating these two kits is obvious; raised panel lines and less than basic wheel wells are thankfully features of the past. The basic lines of the Airfix kit are still pretty good but be prepared for some heavy surgery! Airfix Airfix AirfixTarangus 14 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:01 Page 14

I prepared the tail cone with metal foil and a white base coat to create the base for the paint wear later. WINGS AND WEAPONS I replaced the Main wheel wells with the Maestro resin wells. They are not as deep as they should be but they are better than the kit parts. The wing joint to the fuselage is not perfect to say the least and another filling and sanding session was in store for me. I used red resin for filler and my model slowly turned into a confusion of red lines. The canards again were from the Two Mikes range and it took me quite some time to align and install them. The entire wing surface including the resin canards, the tail fin and the fuselage lack surface details. Where there are raised panel lines, I sanded everything down and re-scribed the surface using the raised panel lines as templates where I could. I also added rivet lines in the process. This Viggen should be in a parked position, which means that the flaps on both main wing and canards drop after hydraulic pressure bleeds off. This created another problem, as it turned out the flap part on the other upper and lower wing don’t have not the same depth. I had to extend the separated Flaps on the upper side. For the external loads I had decided on the mandatory 500L drop tank and a rare configuration of four M 70 rocket pods, each of them containing 6 Bofors 135mm unguided rockets. The Airfix parts are good, but they only contained two of them. I duplicated them and hollowed the launch holes. After that, I made new rocket tips from plastic rod and placed them inside the pods. This added more depth in the arrangement and was certainly worth the effort. 15 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:02 Page 15

LANDING GEAR The landing gear of the Viggen is a very complex design and Airfix has simplified the matter substantially, the kit landing gear had to go! Tarangus has solved this matter perfectly but for the old Airfix kit, there is only the Maestro conversion in cast white metal to fall back on if you rule out scratch building. As I had already decided that this would be a feast of update sets, the Maestro set is what I went for. Combined with the resin wheels this makes for a strong combination. The assembly of these multimedia parts and especially the mounting and aligning on the model, however is a real pain in the neck. The only way to fix it with is with cyano glue. There is no mechanical retention between the kit and landing gear struts. This would leave a very vulnerable joint in a critical position. I had to create a stronger joint by lowering the main struts into the plastic with a burr. After this, I flooded the parts with liquid resin to create a durable installation. The next problem emerged with the resin wheels, which had to be glued on to the white metal parts of the main struts. This had to be done in alignment with six wheels, which was not easy. Also, at this stage everything was painted. Once in place I only had to add the brake lines and some metal rods. I used lenses from MV products for landing lights and created the position and anti-collision lights from coloured clear parts backed with silver foil. In early 1974, the Swedish Air Force introduced the unique splinter camouflage. All Viggens were painted with this standard pattern and even the Army and Navy used this pattern on their helicopters. It is a four colour scheme, which was geometrically applied. It is not random and all aircraft have the same pattern. The degree of wear and tear however is very different on each SAAB, bearing in mind that the following grey/grey scheme was adopted first in 2000. My Airfix kit was a special jubilee version, called Petter Blå. This is why there were no painting instructions on the Splinter Camo in the manual. However, I had obtained the Two Bobs decal sheet and they were all the instructions I needed. I also had a lot of cross reference to lean on. I had the Tarangus manual and the Nordic Air Power books, which were invaluable, especially in terms of weathering. I started with painting the colour that filled the least of the surface area, which was sand brown Humbrol 93. After that, I started with the masking. This is a model where the use of tape is excessive, to say the least! I used Scotch Magic tape as my proven product in combination with Tamiya’s low tac tape. After I finished taping off, I made small notes with a pencil an all covered areas, as it will get increasingly difficult to keep track of the painted areas! The next colour was the Black green Humbrol 241. Many make the mistake of painting this in black; it is actually a very dark green. The masking then continued and the next colour was a middle green, for which I used Testors Medium Green. By now, the model was barely visible under lots of tape and it was time for the last colour, Forest Green Humbrol 105. This colour also occupies the largest area. After that, the unmasking starts which was a really exciting moment because I had been working blind through the past few stages, not knowing what the result would look like and if or how the harmony of the scheme would turn out. It reminded me a lot of the days where I developed black and white photos in the family bathroom, for hours watching the emergence of every single picture. It turned out very reasonably and all was set for the decaling, which was not an important part here. There are not many markings on a splinter Viggen, at least not the one I chose. It was an aircraft from F 6 Västgota Flygflotillj. Maestro landing gear is far superior to the kit parts. Medical syringe needles are a good source of replacement pitot tubes. Neomega’s excellent cockpit. 16 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:02 Page 16

Weathering was a lengthy affair and included both washes and later the use of pastels. It’s not difficult, just very time- consuming. I sanded the paint off the tail cone (as you’ll see I did with the Tarangus Viggen) by using a swab stick and some toothpaste. This is the area where the Viggen’s unique thrust reverse system puts extra strain on the surface of the aircraft. My observation, in terms of weathering is that the lightest colours were the ones that faded most. The Viggen’s leading wing edge on the main wing and on the canards is bare metal. Some aircraft have these painted in matt black. Almost every plane with the black edges show considerable wear and display an almost bare metal surface anyway. To obtain this effect I added metal foil on all leading edges including the tail fin and painted them black. Now I could gently rub the most of the paint of with very fine sanding cloth from the Albion Alloys range of abrasives. I did this until I had a satisfactory wear on my leading edges. As my intention was to display a parked aircraft, I added a ladder to my model. This part also came from the Maestro range as a photoetched assembly. It’s very delicate and adds a nice touch. Finally, I fixed some wheel chocks made from steel rod and painted them in the traditional yellow. The pitots are a combination of Albion aluminium tubes and steel rods from a medical syringe. All navigation lights are cut from coloured Lego, with a metal foil backing. The speed brakes on the underside are a Maestro conversion set also and the actuators were made from Albion ‘slide to fit’ tubes. 17 CONCLUSION The Airfix Viggen is not for the faint hearted, however, it is possible to build a very fine model out of this ancient kit by using what the aftermarket industry has to offer for it. The basic form and dimension of the original kit is surprisingly sound. Time however, has moved on and there is no reason why one should not choose the Tarangus kit. After all, the newer kit brings you already half the way to a very good Viggen replica. I just did not want to throw out all my stuff, which was collected over the years plus a kit posted from the other side of the globe and I do have a tendency to be as stubborn as a mule sometimes, according to my wife that is! AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:02 Page 17

COCKPIT AND NOSE The build starts with the cockpit and let me say, it’s not breathtaking. The seat and the cockpit layout is very basic and lacks many details. For me that did not matter so much because I wanted to fit a pilot from my spares box into the model. Furthermore, I had a cockpit detail set from Maestro available to use. It was intended for the Esci/ Airfix kit so I had to tweak a little but in the end all went together well. One of the new features on the Tarangus kit is the nose section, which contains the whole air intake area right up to the first compressor stage, which also is beautifully recreated. The completed nose part is clicked into the main structure afterwards. Tarangus has very cleverly arranged the breakup of the model. It does not follow the traditional left-right fuselage parts assembly. It is a module system, where the actual joints are concealed. The main parts are the nose section, the main and rear section, and the wings. The nose section connects to the main section with an inserted ring. This ring also stretches the fuselage as it is with the JA Viggen, which features an 8cm longer airframe to accommodate larger RM 8B engine. The spine overlaps the main structure for an even better concealment of this joint. The fit of the parts is good and only the inside joints of the air intakes need some filling and sanding. Two parts make up the nose cone which fitted nicely, I replaced the pitot with Albion Alloy tubes. There is no need to add weight in the nose according to the manual. I added a little weight anyway just to be on the safe side! The canopy parts fit beautifully and they are thin and beautifully clear. REAR AND EXHAUST SECTION A right and left part make up the rear section, containing the engine exhaust. The wings form the bottom part. The last stage of the engine is very detailed and Tarangus has managed to get that right. The unique trust reverse system of the Viggen is beautifully recreated and a real focal point on the model, just as it is on the original. The kit parts are very good but Maestro already offers an update, which is even better. The whole engine exhaust section has to be finished completely before installing into the rear part. It will be very difficult to reach them afterwards. I used metal colours to paint the engine parts and buffed them up with Uschi Van der Rosten metal powder. The rear end of the Viggen shows heavy staining and soot on almost every operational jet. On many Aircraft, the Paint is even burned off on the last stage. There are many challenges for the weathering enthusiasts with the Viggen. I wanted to replicate this and prepared these parts by covering them with lead foil before painting. THE TARANGUS KIT Clamps even help with new kits! Tarangus have incorporated some clever design with the modular construction. The kit assembles well with very little filling required. Note the application of metal foil to be revealed later through the painted layers. 18 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:02 Page 18

WINGS and THINGS The Viggen was the first aircraft to feature canards and the entire main wing area is very large on the aircraft. The wings, which also make up the lower part of the main section of the model fit well and need no special attention. They join nicely with the fuselage and the canards are thin and crisp. The tail plane builds into the rear body with another clever concealed join, so you really can’t see a gap. However, I found the vertical stabilizer to be too thick and replaced it with a Resin part from Two Mikes. This was the corrected vertical stab and rudder set in resin and intended for the Esci/ Airfix kit. This part did of course not fit at all and I had to do a lot of filling and sanding to suit. Of course, Tarangus is not to blame for that, but I ended up with a perfectly thin and razor-sharp tail plane. The complete wing surface had to be re-scribed. That goes for the rest of the model as well. The definition of the panel lines is not wrong, but they are too deep and there is not enough of them. Besides, there is a total lack of riveting. LANDING GEAR AND SPEED BRAKES The landing gear of the Viggen is a very complex matter as already mentioned. The main gear is an in-line configuration rather than a side-by-side arrangement as seen by all other planes. This is due to the fact that the Viggen very often operated from provisional airfields and wood stretches. In winter there would not be any snow clearing and the inline configuration of the big main wheels prevent them clogging up with snow. The Tarangus landing gear is a delight. It is very detailed and consists of many parts, however, here you can also find the biggest flaw of the kit. The mainwheels are excessively thin. That came as a surprise to me as the rest of the model is so good! You really can´t use the kit wheels without modifying them. They are about 1mm too narrow. I had a spare set of resin wheels from maestro, which I used. They have the right dimension and fit well. I only added some lenses for the landing lights and used some metal rod to replace the plastic parts. The alignment of the six wheels however is not easy, especially with the resin wheels, which have to be installed with super glue. I had trouble getting all six wheels with perfect ground contact. I fixed the Speed brakes in an open position both on the upper and lower side. For the actuators I used tubes from the Albion Alloys range. They look cool but I can’t recommend it really as the speed brakes were disregarded on the JA 37 version. WEAPONS AND EXTERNAL LOADS Another weak spot on the Tarangus Viggen. The JA or Jakt version of the Viggen comes with a fixed mount 30mm underbelly cannon, which is featured in the kit and can be built on the model without problems as is the 500L external tank. The fuel consumption of the Viggen was such that you would hardly see any operational aircraft without a drop tank fitted. Tarangus strangely don’t include any weapons; these are modified from the Airfix kit. The main weakness of the Tarangus kit is the wheel proportions. 19 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:02 Page 19

There is one featured in the kit but other than that, there are no weapons at all. That is very unusual as a fighter usually carries an array of air-to-air missiles. A very common configuration on the JA 37 was a pair of RB 24 and a pair of RB 71 Sky flash, equivalent to the AIM 9 Sidewinder and the Sparrow missile. I stole some from the Airfix kit, as I would not be using them there anyway. The missiles are showing their age and cannot be used out of the box. I separated all the fins and only kept the cores. After sanding them into shape, I added new front and rear fins from Metal foil. I also equipped the rockets with new exhausts. I found markings and stencils in my spare decal box, and could now properly arm my JA 37. PAINTING AND DECALLING I had decided on an aircraft from F 17 in Kallinge /Ronneby painted in air superiority grey. The paint scheme of the JA37 is very simple. It consists of a two-tone grey. I used Testors Light grey FS 36492 for the belly and Humbrol 128 ghost grey for the top coat. I created the soft demarcation line with UHU Patafix/Blu Tac. The painting of the aircraft is rather straightforward; the challenge here comes in the weathering. Considering Sweden’s geography, the aircraft is designed to operate under harsh climatic conditions. Operational temperatures of 30 and more degrees below freezing are no big challenge for a Viggen. This of course affects the aircraft and especially the paint. Jan Jørgensen has published some great material on that matter. It is published in Nordic Airpower #5 and in Airdoc 015. Jan is a friend and in my view, the ultimate source on the Viggen. His books features hundreds of excellent colour pictures and were my Inspiration for both builds. Next up was decaling. I did not think too much of the Tarangus decals. I only used the stenciling. The Two Bob decal sheet is excellent, but the dayglow red for the upper side of the wings and the tail plane were unusable. They were too red with no trace of dayglow. Same problem with the Tarangus sheet. Their red will go nicely with a splinter-camouflaged aircraft, the grey/ grey Viggen featured a very prominent dayglow red. Nevertheless, the ancient Airfix decal had the perfect toning and the coding could be linked to an F-17 aircraft. Therefore, the decaling for the aircraft is a mix from these three sheets. Weathering started with a couple of washes. First, I took a blue wash followed by a black ink wash. After that, I used the usual Raw Umber / turpentine mixture. From there I began to highlight panels and tone down recess lines with pastels. From this stage on pastels were my only medium and I did all shadowing and highlighting with these. I had to sand down the burnt areas at the tail where the hot engine outlet had burned off the paint. I achieved this by gently rubbing a swab stick soaked in water and a little toothpaste. This was very worrying as I had never tried the technique before and it would be difficult to repair any overdone areas. I had undercoated this area with white and the idea was to sand through the different layers of paint until there was bare metal in the middle. This worked very well but disaster struck on a completely different area of the model than I expected. Through all the handling of the model I had ruined the already weathered top coat on the upper side of nose, right where the two greys met. The top coat came off and revealed the lighter base colour. I started a delicate rescue mission which involved a 0.2 airbrush nozzle, some very thin paint and some delicate weathering later. 20 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:02 Page 20

CONCLUSION The new Tarangus kit is great and builds into a very nice model out of the box. However, it is not a state of the art model and has it’s shortcomings although the price tag is relatively high. I am sure this kit will find many friends and it fills a hole in the aircraft market. It would be unfair to compare it with the old Esci/ Airfix kit, as they are a world apart. That’s not surprising considering that there are forty years between the two! 21 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:02 Page 21

V I G G E NPhotographs by Albert Tureczek 22 AIR 73 Aug/Sept 2017.qxp_AFV/26 Jan/Feb 06 11/07/2017 11:02 Page 22

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