Hasegawa 1/72 SAAB AJ-37 Viggen survivor built 1975 DSC_0082 (1)

            This is after vacuuming over 20 years of dust off the upper surfaces! Hanging over the clothes drier in the basement since we moved in, 1996. Cleaned up pretty well.  Not my greatest build but nearly the oldest I have on hand. I built this one in my dorm room at Sonoma State College, in Rohnert Park. 

This is the Hasegawa 1/72 kit, finished in Archer Hobbies Metalizer buffing Aluminum finish with their sealer. It hides nothing, of course, but buffed and sealed with a very attractive color and texture. I should have sanded up to 2000 grit... Sprayed with the trusty Badger 250 sprayer, using my bicycle tube as an air source. I'd already been reading British modeling magazines and opened the 3 passages ahead of the thrust reverser. The other kit problem was no outer wing pylons or under the engine intake pylons. Two inner wing pylons for RB-04 anti-ship cruise missiles are there, and a centerline pylon for a drop-tank. 

The real prototype #1 had a sheet aluminum nose, not a radome, but I thought it looked better black. The black panel in the middle of the 'spine' at the center of the fuselage might represent plastic with antennae under it, or a heat radiator for avionics. Neither justifies the rubbery texture the paint I brushed there, but it is different from the nose. I left the dive brake petals unpainted, and masked the moving surfaces at the back of the wing. That was enough to contrast with the Metalizer.

I added painted details, instruments and controls, all around the cockpit, after making consoles and ejection seat side panels from styrene bits and stretched sprue. I refined the shape of the kit's seat and used painted making tape for seat belts and webbing for the face-curtain. I based the cockpit on a 2 page story in Aviation Week that I found using the Reader's Guide to Periodic Literature- that's one way the world worked before search engines. I hung paper-painted-red "Remove Before Flight" flags on the landing gear, pylons and ejection seat. Time as removed most of them. No text, just paper painted red. 

I sliced open the canopy and mounted it up, with rear view mirrors, and added a gunsight glass/HUD of clear plastic. 
You can't see the landing gear and my "shortening" the oleo legs left the mains legs too weak. I haven't repeated that experiment. 

This was very high tech and experimental for me, when I built it. I mixed Squadron Green Stuff putty with tube glue, about 1:1, and used that to attach the two halves of each engine air intake, and them and the canard wings to the fuselage. Previous experience with putty hadn't been either pretty or robust, this, at least,didn't fall off. From 5 feet away, it looked pretty good. I used a little where the wings join the fuselage, and sanded that carefully. I also sanded the nose, ahead of the windscreen, less carefully. Sink marks on the wings, above the main gear attachments, were not filled, nor vents opened or nose Pitot protected. I'm certain those are the kit decals and they were oversprated with Metalizer Sealer

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Taken on: May 7, 2019

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Sets appears in: • acm_My Models: scale, small, drawn, made, kits

Groups appears in: • Model building • Plastic Models more » • Scale Models • Model Planes (Plastic Kits) • Aircraft scale models • plastic model kits • ModelBuilding • 1/72 Aviation in Miniature • Plastimodelos • Paint Box Group • Plastic Fantastic Models & Kitsets « less

Camera: Nikon D3200, f/4.0, 1/80 sec, 50mm (=75mm), ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D3200
Lens:	Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) (B005)
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	50mm (35mm equivalent: 75mm)
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Fired, Return detected
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Photos 1.0.1
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