Tomcat's 1/48 Eduard Saab J35F Draken

[Garion77]

Indeed ! some curvy masking !! The worst to do but you managed to do a great job with it ! I bought some elastic putty for that but havent tried it yet. Not sure I will like it.
This is great progress. Do you like your circle cutter ? I'm thinking of buying it with their PE bender

[Tomcat64]

That's some epic masking there Sir.

You must have been gasping for a stiff drink after all that!

some incredible curvy masking going on there! The undercart looks very good though!

Paul

Indeed ! some curvy masking !! The worst to do but you managed to do a great job with it ! I bought some elastic putty for that but havent tried it yet. Not sure I will like it.
This is great progress. Do you like your circle cutter ? I'm thinking of buying it with their PE bender

Thanks chaps, yep masking is definitely one of those jobs that needs a decent run up and refreshments afterwards.

@Garion77 I do like my circle cutter - it produces some really clean results, the only slight niggle I have is that sometimes it's hard to work out where the centre of the circle will be. Apparently there's some sort of add on device to allow for more accurate targetting but I've not looked into that as yet.

As for masking I've also used panzer putty in the past but found that it has a tendency to sag/settle/slip if left on for a few days so I only use it if I know I'll be able to mask, paint & remove over a weekend. For this effort I used 1mm Aizu tape for the edges and then filled in with bits of regular tamiya tape as appropriate. I've tried tamiya tape for curves previously and had mixed results as I also found that could slip if there was too much tension on a curve or if it was left on for a couple of days.

[Tomcat64]

Well I've managed to get some more time in during the evenings this week so did some painting...

As mentioned in my previous update I wasn't sure about the dark blue so pulled out my trusty old test sheet of styrene and laid down some Ultimate primer followed by the two camo colours


Deciding it wasn't as bad as I first thought I then applied the blue to the model


I then misted on a lighter shade of blue-grey and left that to settle before pulling off the masking... underneath... the only minor casualty was one of the undercarriage bay doors at the back which can be fixed with a couple of blobs of CA


And deep breath before pulling off the masking on the top


Yup seriously pleased with the way that turned out - there's a couple of minor edges where the paint has pooled a little at the edge of the tape but on the whole very happy with this

We're away for a few days now but when we get back I'll mask and spray the nose & air intake nozzles and then make a start on the decals.

Thanks for looking

[Stokesy44]

Looking good all over. That bare metal underside looks super shiney.

[Twokidsnosleep]

This looks awesome
Really liking both top and especially bottom side paint
You nailed it

[BigWall]

As said, you've hit this one spot on!

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Nice result on your paint!

[Garion77]

amazing results indeed ! the masking paid off.

[digger303]

Very slick paint and camo....

[Tomcat64]

Looking good all over. That bare metal underside looks super shiney.

This looks awesome
Really liking both top and especially bottom side paint
You nailed it

As said, you've hit this one spot on!

Nice result on your paint!

amazing results indeed ! the masking paid off.

Very slick paint and camo....

Thanks chaps looking forward to cracking on with this once we're back from holiday

[Tomcat64]

I've managed to get some more bench time in to potter along with this one again...

First up the main underdanglage was attached to the inner doors


The outer doors did show up where I've not been paying attention as the pegs at the end of the struts are supposed to fit into holes in the gearbay walls... nope... not happening... I obviously just blindly attached the struts to the locating points with the ludicrous assumption that they'd be in the right place... we'll do a bit of surgery here and sort that out...


Onto the fuselage & the nosecone was masked off & given a coat or two of NATO black


Which I think turned out ok


I then decided it was time to make a start on the main decals - these are pretty thick & very shiny and haven't settled into the fine panel lines even with a couple of doses of Daco strong solution


Anyway - one last job was to mask, paint & attach the intakes


Onto the stencils next... I may be some time...

Thanks as always for looking

[digger303]

It's a bit daunting the size of some of these decal sheets for 1/48 jets.

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Some decals are rather stickers than real decals, good job anyway and the decoration is splendid!

[Maxwell]

I have this kit in the stash, I think I really like your build! especially with the add-ons. Also, the story of the plane is an excellent idea! I need to read more about the superyacht and plane builds on this forum I really enjoy the details of each model!

[Tomcat64]

It's a bit daunting the size of some of these decal sheets for 1/48 jets.

Yep there's a whole load of fiddly little decals the size of a gnat's tackle - we'll see how it goes

Some decals are rather stickers than real decals, good job anyway and the decoration is splendid!

Thanks mate - I think I'm going to try again with the solutions and see what happens... otherwise I may just try to score the bigger decals through the panel lines with a cocktail stick if I'm feeling brave...

I have this kit in the stash, I think I really like your build! especially with the add-ons. Also, the story of the plane is an excellent idea!

to the forum & thanks for dropping by

It's been a fairly straightforward build but when you get to it double check the instructions in a couple of places as I'm not convinced they've got all the part numbers labelled correctly... and of course there's my mistake with the undercarriage doors too

Look forward to seeing you post up a build

[Stokesy44]

Amazing how the decals bring it to life. Looking like a proper aircraft now

[BigWall]

Agreed! The decals really brought this one to life

[smokeriderdon]

Give SolvaSet a go. That stuff is wicked strong.

Looking good!

[Tomcat64]

Amazing how the decals bring it to life. Looking like a proper aircraft now

Agreed! The decals really brought this one to life

Thanks guys

Give SolvaSet a go. That stuff is wicked strong.

Looking good!

Solvaset is a good shout - I generally forget I've got some as I live in fear of it dissolving the whole kit

But in this case the decals just laughed at it so I did actually manage to score some of the panel lines gently with a cocktail stick

[Tomcat64]

Just a couple of photos to show but a few decent sessions at the bench yesterday has seen the decalling completed

No real dramas although I did find myself thinking that there is a special kind of sadist who lays out stencil sheets to make the ones you need as inaccessible and hard to find as possible And there is one fewer 105 on the sheet than indicated on the instructions so I replaced that with a 111 for anyone who's going to build this at a later date.

Underneath was by far the busiest


And up top


I'll leave these to bed in and then I have some tide marks to clean up before laying down a light coat of gloss & then picking out the panel lines.

Thanks as always for looking

[Stokesy44]

Very smart looking. I cant wait to see the wash and weathering, especially the light colors on the underside

[Tomcat64]

With the banshee off the bench, this weekend my attention finally turned back to this nelected Draken and it's nearly done

I pin-washed the upper surfaces, but really struggled there as the panel lines were so fine. So as a result I decided not to bother underneath as I really want to get this one done now so all the appropriate surfaces were knocked back with AK Ultra Matte prior to adding the final subassemblies.

Starting with the underside... the nose gear, bay doors & RAT were all installed


The snafu with the main gear doors was sorted with a little careful surgery and then everything installed back here


And the drop tanks & weapons pylons were added - I did panel line the tanks as they're fairly visible


Here's how the complete underside looks - oh the nose probe was painted up & added as well


Up top once the ultra matte had dried I peeled back the masking on the canopy & opened that up to install the seat. There's a little tidying up to do on the sills but otherwise it's all good


And here's how it looks from the top


So aside from a couple of touch ups that's the main build done - I want to add some ordnance so will tackle those today with a bit of luck.

Thanks as always for looking

[Stokesy44]

Its always satisfying to de-mask the canopy. Looks good all over. Looking to see how you load her up

[digger303]

[Garion77]

Amazing paint job as I already said ! so smooth. and beautiful plane that I should try add to my already to big stash

[Tomcat64]

Its always satisfying to de-mask the canopy. Looks good all over. Looking to see how you load her up

Amazing paint job as I already said ! so smooth. and beautiful plane that I should try add to my already to big stash

Thanks chaps

[Tomcat64]

Well things went more or less to plan today and I've got the missiles done...

Here are the instructions and the assembled ordnance... both sets came with an "fin alignment tool" which frankly was more of a pain that it was worth and after the first couple of attempts I ended up lining everything up freehand


A closer look at the missiles... the AIM-9 sidewinders represent the RB-24 in Swedish service (they should be AIM-9Ps but are actually 9Ls if anyone can spot the difference as I couldn't find 9Ps when I was looking a few years back) and the RB-28 is a variant of the AIM-4D Falcon


Here they are painted up in NATO green with white-grey & NATO black details


I think I've got them installed correctly on the pylons


And aside from any last minute fettling I think I'm pretty much done and just need to sort out the reveal photos later in the week


Thanks as always to everyone that stopped by to take a look & offer encouragement - this is a great kit although it would benefit from better decals (especially the national insignia which are really thick

[smokeriderdon]

Very nice! Looks great!

[BigWall]

Absolutely excellent!

[Stokesy44]

Great to get it across the line. Very smart finish Sir

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Very nice result this kit is awesome!

[RangerNeil]

Thats an amazing build - well done sir!!

I can only hope the Viggen in the stash turns out half as well as this.

[digger303]

Pretty sharp masking and paint work

[Tomcat64]

Very nice! Looks great!

Absolutely excellent!

Great to get it across the line. Very smart finish Sir

Very nice result this kit is awesome!

Thats an amazing build - well done sir!!

I can only hope the Viggen in the stash turns out half as well as this.

Pretty sharp masking and paint work

Thanks chaps

The reveal photos are now up here